Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 59804 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 299(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59804 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 299(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
Someone, Dom I think, came running into the room, blood flowing freely down his arm. It looked like he’d gotten in a fight giving him a black eye and cut lip. “Seventeen, they sent seventeen bastards after you guys. We got most of them but didn’t realize they’d sent in another crew to finish up the job just in case.”
“Body count,” Tex barked.
“Twenty-five dead.”
“Family crest?” he ground out.
The room fell silent. Dom’s eyes met Santino’s before he answered. “Sinacore, we think it’s the brother.”
Santino’s brother?
It had to be.
Santino nodded his head and threw his gun onto the table. “Guess my marriage is off now since I can’t go home.”
“They sent a hit on you too,” Tex said.
“They’ll cleanse us all until they have everything.” Andrei sighed and looked over to Santino. “So now, do you truly understand why you’re here?”
Santino leaned over the table, and that was when I noticed he was bleeding. His white shirt was stained with red by his stomach, and he was clenching his teeth in pain.
“You’re hurt.” I crawled to my knees and winced at the sting in my knee when some of the glass pierced my skin.
“He’s fine.” Andrei kept staring at Santino. “You do realize that if something happens to me, the Family doesn’t go to my wife. It doesn’t revert to you. It goes to my blood.”
I frowned at that.
And then every eye in that room turned toward me.
I almost fell again when my brother said, “Women can be bosses too.”
“I know.” Santino bit down on his lower lip.
“Train her well,” Andrei snapped before looking over at Tex. “Find her a Family to marry into immediately.”
“WHAT?!” I shrieked.
“Not now,” Santino said under his breath.
His trying to silence me made me even more furious. I wasn’t someone to be passed around! I wasn’t even sure I’d feel safe with someone I loved, let alone a complete stranger! The only reason it worked with Santino was because I knew he’d die for me—I knew his loyalty was for me and my Family. I knew it was just sex, it was nothing more but a trade in training. Nothing.
It was nothing.
And now I was going to marry some random person from Italy who may or may not have at one point wanted my brother dead? Me?
Hell. No.
Andrei’s glare was so intense toward me that it was like not looking at my brother anymore. “You need protection.”
“I can protect myself!” I yelled.
“No. You can’t. Only blood protects. A name protects.” He looked around the room. “Find one from Italy, show them we’re willing to do our part, to bring peace before they continue in this ridiculous all-out war. Before we all die.”
“But—”
Santino grabbed my hand and squeezed it, then let it go suddenly, causing my arm to drop at my side, lifeless. In less than three minutes my brother had crushed me without realizing it. Maybe it would have been better had one of those bullets hit me.
“Have the men clean this shit up,” Nixon said. “We’ll meet in an hour. Try not to bleed on the floors, everyone.”
This wasn’t normal.
None of it.
I was still as a statue until Santino grabbed my hand and gently pulled me out of the kitchen and up the stairs into my room.
We didn’t talk much. All I did was think, think, and think some more while he changed and got ready for the meeting. I was numb and pissed that some man in my life who barely knew me felt like he could just marry me off as if we lived in Regency London.
How archaic! It didn’t matter if that was how alignments were made. I’d suffered enough!
“Does it matter?” I asked before Santino left the room.
He paused at the door and looked over his head. “Does what?”
“Virginity, for the Families, does it matter?”
He frowned. “I don’t think so. Maybe for some of the older ones. Why?”
“Just curious since I’m used goods.” I forced a smile. “I’ll just be up here reading and knitting.”
He rolled his eyes and left.
But I wasn’t far behind.
I waited for all of the men to sit in the living room.
And then I marched right into the middle of it and announced, “He took my virginity.” I pointed directly at Santino. “If I’m marrying anyone… It’s him.”
“Oh, fuck.” Santino hung his head in his hands while my brother pulled out a revolver and pointed it at Santino’s head.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“There is no rule of law until the mafia needs lawyers.” —Stephen Holmes
Santino
“Andrei…” I held up my hands. “Calm down, just calm down for one damn second!”
Tex busted out laughing and relaxed against the smooth leather couch, propping his feet, yet again, up on the coffee table. He’d changed into a navy blue suit and had no shirt underneath, just tattoos and a gun in his lap. “This might turn out to be the best night of my life.”