Total pages in book: 38
Estimated words: 34295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 171(@200wpm)___ 137(@250wpm)___ 114(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 34295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 171(@200wpm)___ 137(@250wpm)___ 114(@300wpm)
"Watch out!" Rafe shouts to me, making the same connection.
I don't think about it.
I don't even hesitate.
I raise the gun in my hand and pull the trigger, my field of vision red with rage.
Emilio bellows in pain, but I'm already running, racing as fast as I can to go.
No one is taking Callandria from me. No one.
Chapter Eleven
Callandria
"Marcello," I whisper, pleading with him for the thousandth time since he brought me back to my father's house. I don't know where my mother is, but she isn't here. I think they sent her away. They're preparing for war. "You have to listen to me. We can pay whatever debt he owes to the Maceo family, but you can't let him go through with this! You have to convince him to let me go. Luca will kill everyone if you don't."
"And that's the kind of man you want to spend your life with, Callie? One willing to destroy your family?" Marcello asks, watching me from a leather wingback chair across the room, a gun on his lap.
"You mean one trying to protect me from the people determined to hurt me?" I ask, pacing in circles around the living room. It's odd. I spent my whole life in this house, but it's never felt as much like home to me as Luca's does after a matter of days. Every piece of furniture in it is worth a small fortune, but it's all cold and unwelcoming, especially now. I want to be back at Luca's in his arms so badly. There's warmth there, and laughter.
Please, survive. Please, don't let this be the end, I pray, fighting the hopelessness beating in my chest. I can't give up. Luca wouldn't. He'd fight until the end. He'd fight for me.
"Cristo, Callie," Marcello says, staring at me likes he's never seen me before. "What happened to you?"
"What happened to me?" I laugh abruptly, a sharp, abrasive sound I hardly recognize. "I grew up in this house, Marcello! At thirteen, I told my father I wanted to go to college someday. He laughed in my face and told me that I'd never do that. That I was marrying Andrea Maceo on my twenty-first birthday and I didn't have a choice. That it was what was required of me as a principessa. When I pleaded, he sent me to my room for a week! Princesses smile and serve the family with pride. They don't act like selfish brats, he said. I've spent every day since dreading my twenty-first birthday! That's what happened to me!"
"Dio," Marcello mutters.
"And then I finally find a way out. I'm finally free. I find a way to protect our family and forge an alliance while snatching a little bit of happiness for myself, and you drag me right back to my own personal hell," I cry. "You act like Luca is a monster, but he's the only person who has ever cared what I want."
"Callie, that's not true."
"Yes, it is," I sob. "He could have forced me to his bed, Marcello. He could have taken what he wanted. He didn't. He's been nothing but good to me. He's treated me like family. And he's done everything possible to make sure no one else pays for what our grandfather did. He doesn't want a war. He doesn't want the Genovese territory. He just wants me! It's my own family who want to use me, even when they know that doing it is killing me."
My brother is silent for a moment and then he shoves a hand through his dark hair, ruffling it. "You really believe that, don't you?"
"I don't believe it," I whisper, wiping my eyes. "I know it. I think about marrying Andrea Maceo, and I would rather die. If that's what the future holds for me, just end it now, Marcello. Don't drag out my death. Kill me now."
I don't love Andrea Maceo. I don't even like him. My skin crawls when I think about him touching me or sharing my bed. He's a monster just like his father. He takes and takes and takes until there's nothing left.
"Luca loves me, Marcello. So much he'll risk everything to set me free, even his own life. That's the future I choose. That's the man I choose." I swallow, trembling. "And if you love me at all, you'll let me go. Please."
If Luca's alive right now, he's on his way here. He'll kill everyone to get to me or die trying. Marcello has to let me go before that happens.
"Fuck," Marcello mutters, striding across the room toward me. He snatches me into his arms, pulling me into a fierce hug. "You better not be wrong about him, sorella. If he hurts you, I'll tear their empire down with my bare hands."
I sob, my knees threatening to buckle as relief crashes through me. He's letting me go. Dio Santo, he's letting me—