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“They did for years in the old country. That is until you are needed to fulfill your duty,” I spat.
Enzo wanted me to sell this union, and this wasmyway. With my voice loud and clear. To a man like Lucca, he would see my spirit as a challenge. He will say yes, if only to banish it.
I was baiting him, and as he chuckled darkly, I knew I had.
“Does your boss know about this?” he asked Enzo without releasing his gaze from mine.
Lucca was toying with him as he pushed lines no other man dared to cross. Even with one question, he had reminded Enzo he wasn’t the Boss of New York. Our father was, making him unable to make such agreements without permission.
Without looking at my eldest brother, I knew he envisioned every way he could gut the man before him. After all, that was what our family did best. Cut, carve, and butcher. But unlike Lucca, Enzo was born into this world and tailored to the role. It was only a matter of time before New York would answer to him.
“My orders are to fix the problem and solidify the family. I am only following orders. I don’t make themyet.”
I’ve been around made-men all my life. I was aprincipessa. But this…this was different. My future was hanging at the hands of a ruthless bastard. A killer with a brutal reputation.
Even then, I was here to get the answer I needed.
As I stood across his desk, my eyes traveled over Lucca’s jaw. The shadow of his beard didn’t let a reaction slip by, but I kept looking for the tells. My gaze slid down his neck. Portions of his tanned skin were covered in tattoos, piquing my interest in their meaning, if they had any at all. By the amount of ink on his neck, I knew there was more underneath his crisp suit. My eyes were distracted by them, so I looked for his hands instead. I hunted for a twitch, a habit. Instead, his large, inked hands rested on his desk without a single movement.
I could feel his eyes on me while he raised his left hand to his jaw. Lucca ran his hand along his raspy beard, getting what he wanted when my eyes halted on his lips.
Damn him. I’d done it unconsciously.
Indeed, thiswasa dangerous game.
I didn’t hide when our eyes met again. Once they locked, he gave me the answer I was looking for.
An ominous smile spread across his face as he said it.
“Deal.”
IV
KATIA
New York
“Deal.”
My eyes tore open, snapping me away from the vivid dream of Lucca’s piercing dark eyes on me as his one word sealed a vow.
Laying still underneath the covers of my bed, I felt the racing pace of my heartbeat. The rise and fall of my chest as I looked into the dark room. I clenched my fists to release the prickling sensation in my fingertips and tried shaking away the vision ofhim.
It was useless.
I couldn’t even call it a nightmare. It was a memory filled with mistrust and uncertainty that kept me on edge.
Frustrated, I left my bed and stepped toward the large windows and slid the black-out curtains open. As I looked out to the manicured lawn I’d roamed aimlessly as a child, I was surprised to see Enzo’s car parked on the drive.
I’d called him for three days, asking him to please get me out of my father's home. To forget about masochist traditions and mafia etiquette and just drop me off at a hotel. There were no answers to each call or text message.
But he was here now, and I couldn’t stay cooped up in this room anymore.
This home reminded me of the scared child I’d once been, and the longer I stayed here, the more my mind reacted to old memories and fears.
Quickly, I rushed away from the window and past the four-post bed my father replaced the day after my mother’s death.
He had removed any details she had left behind.
