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The image had my stomach rolling unpleasantly. I pushed my dinner away; there was no way I could finish it now. My choices were clear: join the vipers in the snake pit, or be ripped apart by them. Both were unappealing, but only one gave me the chance of surviving.
Lili was studying me, I could tell, and I looked up to meet her eyes. “Adapt to survive, right?” I asked her, and she agreed. I stood. “Let’s get a look at this dress then.”
“Good choice,” she said to me softly, more gently than before. I wanted to scream that it wasn’t a choice at all, but my mother would never forgive me if I gave up.
Lili unzipped the garment bag to reveal a white cocktail dress that had some lacework and a fitted waist. “I know I’ll have to take it in,” she said as she handed it to me, “but I want to check the length.”
I held the dress; if the Gucci label on it didn’t clue me in, the fabricfeltexpensive in my hands. Cheap lace was harsh against the skin, but this felt like butterfly wings. It was too pretty for a wedding that neither the bride nor the groom wanted in the first place, and it cost more than six months of my rent…and Lili was going to alter it by herself.How rich do you have to be to not care about destroying something like this?I glanced at her. “Is this yours?”
She nodded. “I haven’t worn it in years.”
“I couldn’t —” But when I tried to hand it back, she pressed it into my hands.
“Seriously, my brother asked if I had something ‘appropriate’ for you. He wouldn’t care if you wore a sack, but I do.”
I gripped the dress in my hands. The material bunched and would need to be steamed. “Why?” I asked her.
Lili considered her words. “My father and my brothers see the world in a certain way,” she said carefully. “I used to see it that way as well, but…there are things that I want for myself that I am going to accomplish. I figure that even if you’re being forced to take on this role, marry my brother, then you should get to do it on your terms.”
She didn’t explain any further, even when I pushed. Instead, she told me to change and watched as I stripped off the borrowed clothes. Then, she helped me step into the dress. The waist was a little too big, but it wasn’t dramatically large. If I had tried it on in a store, I would have said it fit and bought it as-is. “I think it’s good,” I said as I looked in the mirror hanging on the wall.
Lili wasn’t as impressed. “The length is fine,” she decided, “but I’ll pull the waist in.” She grabbed the looser fabric at my waist and pulled it taut, and I got to see what the dress was meant to look like. “Beautiful,” she said, and I felt her put a pin on both sides so that she could alter it. “I’ll come tomorrow and help you with your hair and makeup.” She glanced at my wrists. “Maybe some jewelry to go over those?”
I agreed. “Thank you, Lili.” It was the most normal interaction that I’d had in three days, so I was grateful for it. I changed back into my clothes and handed her the dress so that she could leave. “I promise to behave tomorrow.”
Lili’s face hardened as she hung the dress back on the hanger and placed it back in the garment bag. “You’ve misunderstood me,” she said after a moment. “I don’t want you to behave.”
“Then what do you want?” My face still stung with her lesson about sarcasm. What was the point of all this?
“You’re as stuck in your role now as I am in mine,” she said. “There’s nothing that either of us can do about it, but it doesn’t mean that you roll over and take it either.” She put her hand on my shoulder and squeezed. “Make my brother work for you, okay? Show him your backbone.”
My backbone?I looked into Lili’s eyes, and I drew my shoulders back, drawing myself up to my full height. I gave her a brief nod to tell her that I would do my best. I had no choice.
CHAPTER5
Angel
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Omar asked for the hundredth time as he adjusted my tie. If he asked again, I was going to put my fist through his face.
I wrenched away and looked into the entryway mirror. Lara had forced me into my best suit this morning and picked out a lighter, dove gray tie because “weddings were too joyous for a black tie,mijo,” and for all intents and purposes, I was the very picture of a groom on his wedding day. Except for the frown slashing its way across my face. I tried on a smile, forcing the corners of my mouth upward, but that made me look even more demented. I let my face relax back into its original expression. “What would you have me do, Omar?” I asked, looking at my brother through the mirror. “Defy Padre?” I sucked my teeth, making atsk-ing sound. “Do you want to be the heir that badly?”
Omar grinned at me, all sharp teeth and asshole smile. “I would rather introduce my dick to a cheese grater.” He put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed; his expression flattened into something more serious. I got his message without words:I will stand by you, brother.
I shrugged him off. “It will be fine.”
Omar nodded once and reached out to squeeze my shoulder again. “Maybe you could stop glaring, then? You’ll frighten your pretty, little fiancée when she comes downstairs.”
My hands curled into fists. The need to punch my brother in the jaw returned full force. “I don’tcarehow she feels.”
Omar snickered. “What a charmer.”
“Vete a la verga,” I hissed at him, which only made him laugh. I sank my fist into his stomach, hard. Omar’s eyes went wide for a split-second before he doubled over, groaning. I shook my hand and tried to ignore the throb in my knuckles.
Omar straightened back up; his good mood all but wiped from his face.Good, I thought savagely. This wasn’t a day for fucking smiles. “I could break your nose,” Omar said, “but Lili would kill me if I bloodied you up on your wedding day.”
“You could try it,” I spat back.
“Boys!” We turned, and Lili stood at the bottom of the main stairwell, glaring. Though beautiful, Lili was tougher than most men that I knew; she had been training alongside us at the gun range since she was eight years old. I had seen that same look on her face cause powerful men to cower. “No fighting today.”
