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I clear my throat, suddenly nervous.
“Well, first and foremost, I’ve fucked her. She’s mine.”
One eyebrow rises. “And…”
“You were saving her for Simon, but I’m worth ten times what he is on a good day. This will make the alliance with the Lupu clan even more significant. It will show the Bratva how united we are.”
“I could have you marry Roxie as arranged, have Star marry Simon, and still get enough of what I want. Now I’ll have to contend with an offended Popescu family that has serious clout. I’ll have to appease her father. I’ll have to rearrange things to get her married to another important made man. It’s a headache really…”
“You can marry her to Dinu. He’s the second most powerful after me and he’s always had a hard-on for her, if for no other reason than that she was mine. Her father wouldn’t dare argue with his rank and you can put it on the Lupu boss. Say Alex insisted I marry Star. That he made it worth your time. He already has a reputation for being a pain in the ass. Let the hatred fall on him.”
“Devious…I like it,” he concedes.
“And Star is at a high risk right now. If the Bratva are spying on me, they already know we’re together. If they didn’t consider her a valuable target before, they sure as hell do now.”
“Simon can protect her.”
A surge of violent emotion swells inside me. My hands curl into balls at my sides. I look off into the distance, focusing on the lines of the jagged red strokes in the huge paintings hanging on his wall until I get hold of my temper.
“Like hell he will,” I reply roughly. “She’s mine to protect and I protect what’s mine. No one touches her but me. Ever.”
“Hmm…touchy.” murmurs Cristo. He eyes me knowingly. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you love her.”
I stiffen beside him. My heart is pounding a mile a minute.
“Of course, I fucking love her,” I admit.
My head jerks back. Fuck, did I just say that?
But Idolove her. I’ve fallen in love with Star. I love everything about her. I love the way she gushes over books and gets angry at me for hauling her out of a gallery before she’s gotten a chance to check out the exhibition. I love the taste of her pussy. I love the way her eyes follow me in a room, anointing me like a fucking god. But most of all, I just love her. I always have, but I wasn’t ready to admit it. Now I am and, by God, she’d better be ready for me, ’cause I’m coming for her.
Cristo shrugs his shoulders. “Far be it from me to get in between a couple that loves each other,” he says with an almost wistful tone.
He sure as hell did everything in his power to keep his sister Cat away from Luca. Hell, he tried to get him killed. Fuck me, but if I didn’t know Cristo was a coldhearted, brutal man, I’d venture to say that he loved someone.
I shake my head slightly.Nah.
“So does that mean I have your support?”
Cristo gives me a chin lift. “Yeah, runt. You’ve convinced me. Now you’re gonna need a helluva lot of luck to convince that fucker, Alex.”
My heart sinks, but I blow out an exhale and rally my determination. I’ve convinced Cristo. I can face Alex. Hell, I just won now and no one’s a harder adversary than Cristo.
* * *
“No,”replies Alex tightly on the video chat.
Exasperation fills my chest. I run my hands through my hair and lean forward on the couch to give Alex a hard stare through the computer placed on the table of Cristo’s living room.
This is not going well.
“She could be carrying my son as we speak,” I shout, throwing my hands up.
Goddamn, but he’s a stubborn old bastard. I expected the Lupu boss to explode at my bombshell, but then to acknowledge that he has no other choice but to agree.
Instead, there’s a long pause.
He finally responds with a drawl, “Couldis the optimal word here.”
