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“I’m what?” The tone in her voice hits me in the gut, my mood slipping with the shock dripping from each syllable.
“Capo Famigliaand your father have agreed to move you in with me.” I can feel her eyes on my face, but I don’t look, merging in traffic.
“What do you mean, they have agreed? You asked them?”
My jaw works at her increasingly bitter tone, fingers pinching around the steering wheel. “I thought you’d be happy to know you’d be living with me,” my eyes find hers briefly, “your future husband.”
“And did you not think to ask me,your future wife?” She scoffs mockingly, pulling against her seat belt to get more comfortable in her seat.
Before I can even attempt to answer her, she’s continuing her angry rant, white knuckling the skirt of her dress. Her voice is deep, hiding tears.
“Does nobody care what I think about anything? I have no say?” Her face turns away from me, looking out the window, presumably to hide the tears she couldn’t keep back. “First it was Remy and now it’s you, but at least with Remy, he cares what I had to say.”
Remy.
Even when he shouldn’t be involved, my half brother always wedged himself where he shouldn’t be—I was sick of it. The sound of his name leaving her mouth sent a wave of nausea in my gut, heart racing with angry. Whipping the car to the side of the road, the sound of horns blare as cars race past, Beverly jerking forward in her seat at the abrupt stop.
“What the—”
My hand whips out, body leaning over the center console to grab onto her chin. Her eyes go wide, her hand reaching up to grip my wrist, my skin pinching beneath her fingers. “I’m only going to say this once, Beverly, so it’d be in your best interest to listen.” Her lips purse below my gaze, eyes slightly narrowing, but she remains quiet. “You will move in with me and you’ll start acting how a wife should act.” My fingers pinch tighter and she tugs lightly on my grip, but I don’t release her. Warm tears slip from her lashes, to glide along my skin. “I don’t want to hear you speak of Remy ever again. He’s nothing to you. Do you understand me?”
I wait until she nods to let her go, her body recoiling from me as she sits back in her seat and angrily wipes the tears from her cheek. My gut tightens watching her, but I don’t regret what I did. It’s time she got over Remy and accepted this marriage. Eying the hard set of her jaw, I continue the previous conversation. “I’m bringing you to my place. The movers will bring your things over. I think it’s best we get you set up immediately.”
“And what about Dylan?” I frown, but she answers my unasked question, still not facing me, “my dog?”
“You have a dog?”
“Yes.” Her eyes finally flick to me, her lips tight. “And I won’t goanywherewithout him.”
Releasing this isn’t a fight I want to partake in, I sigh, putting my blinker on to pull back onto the road. “Fine. I’ll let them know to grab your dog as well.”
“Great.”
Chapter Fifteen
REMY
I’m not sure why two men are currently fighting for their lives trying to catch Dylan out in the parking lot, or why there are movers in Beverly’s apartment packing up her things, but I watch from the side of my SUV. My lungs sting as I suck in smoke, slowly letting it out through my nose. I haven’t been around as much as I’d like the last few weeks. To avoid having to be home with Viva and fulfill the order from my father to get her pregnant, I’ve been taking jobs that require me to travel or stay out. And now, during the only few free hours I have, I find Bev’s stuff being taken from her place.
Julian pulls up as I’m snubbing my smoke, the look on his face telling me he isn’t as surprised to find the movers here as I was, but he is surprised to see me here.
“Where’s Bev?” The question is simple enough, but I know he reads all the things I want to ask along with it. Like why the hell there are movers to begin with?
“At the park last I heard.” His hands go to his pockets. “She’s, uh, going to be living with Gavino.Capo Famigliaand dad agreed to let her move in early.” He eyes me as I hum. “What areyoudoing here?”
My tongue picks at my teeth, eyes flicking from him to the men still struggling with Dylan. “You should help them. Bev will lose it if that dog gets hurt.”
“Shit.” Julian says, almost like he just realized they were all out there.
Opening my SUV door, I get inside as he runs off toward them, chest burning with what Julian just told me. How fucking dare Gavino ask for such a thing.And for my father to agree to it?I’m getting pretty fucking sick of living under his thumb.
I find her at the pond on the edge of the park.
She’s sitting in the grass, her knees drawn up to her chest. Silky, long dark strands of her hair fall in soft waves down her side as her cheek rests against the top of her knee. I know she hears me coming because she shifts in place, her head rising as her gaze stays on the water. I don’t say anything, just move down beside her, my arm pressed against the soft cotton of her sleeve as my eyes flick along every freckle I can see in her profile.
Maybe I’ve been away too long, but there’s something different about her, a slightly softer curve to her cheek. When her hazel eyes turn to me, mossy green in the dying sunlight, she nearly takes my breath away.She grows more beautiful every time I look at her.A small smile ticks at her lips, one the doesn’t reach her eyes as she looks back out at the pond. I feel her sink into our small amount of contact, her shoulder resting against my arm, the soft strands of her hair tickling my skin as she shifts marginally closer.
“I’m moving in with Gavino.” She says, breaking the comfortable silence we’d been sitting in. My fingers reach for hers where they rest in the cold grass, pulling them into mine. Her fingers are warm despite the chill in the air, the soft smell of lavender riding the breeze.
