Bound By Love: Chapter 12

LUCA

In late October, Aria and I had been invited to dinner at Dante’s home two days before Liliana was supposed to marry Brasci. So far nobody suspected anything, and I could only hope that it would remain that way in their wedding night.

It became obvious the moment we set foot into his home that Dante wasn’t all that happy about having me in his house, and I got it. His wife was pregnant and vulnerable, and somewhere in the house slept his defenseless child. Even if there was peace between us, that didn’t mean we trusted each other. Things hadn’t exactly improved since the beginning of the truce. Except for not attacking each other, we’d hardly worked together in the last few years, and if Liliana didn’t manage to convince Brasci she was a virgin, war would be the result.

Aria and I stepped into the lobby of the Cavallaro villa, and my eyes did a quick scan of our surroundings. Valentina was heavily pregnant. She hugged Aria then turned to me with a more restrained smile. She was a very controlled woman, not as controlled as Dante, of course, but no one was. Despite her restraint, she couldn’t hide her unease around me. I kissed her hand, sparing her the decision if she should hug me. The way that small kiss already made Dante tense, it was for the best that I hadn’t embraced her.

My eyes slanted to Aria. If she were pregnant, I wouldn’t have Dante anywhere near her, but Aria wasn’t and I was glad. Life was too dangerous at the moment, and I wasn’t really cut out to be a father.

“It’s a pleasure to have you over for dinner,” Valentina said with a small smile. Dante inclined his head but his eyes sent a very different message. My grip on Aria’s hand tightened as we followed them into the dining room and settled around the set table. Dante and I sat across from each other, and my muscles tightened because of his expression.

“Your sister will be a gorgeous bride,” Valentina said, trying to break the tense silence.

“Maybe it will distract from the fact that she was given to an old man like a piece of meat,” Aria said with a sharp look toward Dante.

I squeezed her hand in warning, but she didn’t look away from Dante. I didn’t either because I wanted to make sure I knew when I’d have to pull my gun.

“Your father wants the best for…”

“Himself,” Aria interrupted Dante, and I tightened my hold. She winced but still didn’t stop. “After all, he got a child-bride in return for selling off my sister.”

“Aria, that’s enough.” My voice was sharp like a whip.

Her eyes finally found me. If we’d been alone she might have stood up to me, but we were in a room with Dante and she knew I had to show strength in front of him. Reluctantly she lowered her eyes, swallowing hard. After a moment, she turned to Dante. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean any disrespect.”

Dante gave a terse nod. The maids showed up with the food not a second too late. We managed to go through the rest of dinner without any further incidents, and Val and Aria soon engaged in a relaxed conversation about the south of Italy, which Dante and I could join without any risks of more conflicts.

My mobile vibrated in my pocket and I took it out, risking a glance down. It was Matteo. I held up my phone. “I have to take this,” I said as I rose from my chair and walked out of the dining room and into the entrance hall. Dante’s eyes followed me. He obviously didn’t like the idea of me walking through his house alone, but he had no reason to worry. If I had something devious in mind, I wouldn’t have left Aria alone at a table with him.

“Matteo? What is it?”

“I’m worried about Romero. He looks like he’s going to lose his shit. I’m not sure it was a good idea to take him to Chicago with us.”

I sighed. “I know. Make sure he doesn’t do something stupid.”

“I’m not sure I’m the right man for the job.”

“I don’t give a fuck,” I muttered in a low voice. “I’m busy over here.”

I hung up, wanting to return to Aria. Her being alone with Dante and Val didn’t sit well with me.

Movement up on the stairs made me tense and turn to face the source, my body going into high alert. I paused with my hand on the gun, then slowly lowered it when I saw a tiny girl on the second to last step. Dante’s daughter, Anna.

“Where are Mommy and Daddy?” she whispered.

“In the dining room,” I said, not moving. Her green eyes scanned me from head to toe, and I hoped she wouldn’t start crying. I didn’t think Dante would wait for an explanation before he tried to shoot me, and I really wasn’t looking forward to killing him in front of his kid.

“Who are you?” she said accusingly, and I had to stifle a laugh.

“I’m your godmother Aria’s husband.”

A grin spread on the girl’s face and she stumbled forward. I moved without thinking and stopped her fall by circling her body with my arm and lifting her up. She didn’t cry as I’d expected. Instead she wrapped her arms around my neck. “Is Aria with Mommy and Daddy?”

I nodded as I tried to set her back down, but she clung to me. “No!” she protested. “Take me to Aria!”

I glanced down at the girl. “Is that an order?”

She gave a sharp nod.

Sighing, I held her against me with one arm as I made my way back to the dining room. Dante wouldn’t like this, but if she started wailing because I didn’t do what she wanted, things would get even uglier.

The moment I stepped into the dining room with the girl, Dante rose and his eyes would have sent most people running. “She came down the stairs and wanted me to take her to Aria,” I said firmly. I got that Dante was protective. Fuck, I probably would have put a bullet in his head if our positions were reversed.

Aria stood, probably to go to me, but Dante gave a shake of his head and she froze.

Fury shot through me and I had a fucking hard time controlling it. I unfastened Anna’s arms and put her down. “Thanks,” she said with a huge grin before she started running toward Aria, unaware of the tension in the room. Valentina gripped Dante’s arm and tugged until he finally sank back down on his chair. Anna jumped onto Aria, who hugged the girl to her chest and kissed her cheek. Aria looked fucking ecstatic with the kid in her arm.

I approached the table slowly, still wary of Dante, and his eyes told me that he shared the sentiment. Aria gave me a meaningful look.

“Dante, perhaps now would be a good time to talk in private,” I said in a civil tone.

Dante gave a sharp nod and stood.

Val touched his forearm briefly, and I caught the warning in her gaze. Aria, too, was pleading me with her eyes to keep it together.

Dante and I walked out of the room and he led me out into the garden. The cold helped to clear my mind. “I am well aware that you don’t like me around your wife and child,” I said. “And I don’t like you around Aria either.”

Dante inclined his head. “We are at peace, but in the past that hasn’t always prevented accidents.”

He was probably referring to the truce between the Famiglia, the Camorra and the Outfit that had been broken by the Camorra by murdering the wife of the Boss of the Outfit. That had happened sixty years ago, but some things were remembered.

“We are both men of honor, Dante. You don’t like me and I don’t like you, but I can assure you that your wife and children are safe from me. I don’t prey on the weak.”

Dante gave me a closed-lipped smile. “Will that still be the case if truce was ever broken between us?”

“I could ask you the same—would Aria be safe if there was war between us?”

Dante didn’t say anything because we both knew that war was an unpredictable beast. “She’d be safe from certain things in my territory even in times of war. No woman, enemy or not, will ever have to fear rape in my territory.”

“That’s something I can guarantee as well.”

Neither of us said any more because there really wasn’t anything else to say. I knew that the voices in the Outfit that wanted to cancel the truce had grown louder, as they had in the Famiglia. It was old hatred that had only been buried, but not forgotten.

I’d attended countless weddings from a young age. They had all been tense to some degree, as was to be expected with arranged marriages, but Scuderi’s wedding to the Brasci girl topped it all. The girl was younger than Aria, and Aria’s father was over fifty. That was sick even by our standards. But that on its own wouldn’t have made me tense. No, that was all thanks to Romero and Lily. They had both been gone after the ceremony. It didn’t take a genius to guess what they were doing. To hell with them. She was supposed to marry Brasci tomorrow!

“I don’t get it. She’s younger than two of his daughters,” I said with a nod toward Scuderi and his too young wife. He was grinning all over his face. No wonder. He’d get to pop a girl’s cherry thirty years his junior.

“Some traditions are harder to change than others,” Dante said, but I caught the hint of disapproval for his Consigliere’s choice. We’d returned to being civil, at least in front of our gathered men. It wouldn’t do to send them the wrong message. Brasci and Scuderi had made the arrangement and as I knew very well, the influence of a Capo regarding family matters was very limited.

“I’m glad that Valentina is close to my age. It makes it easier to find topics to discuss,” Dante said.

I nodded. He had married a woman who had been married before. That had broken with tradition, but it was his choice. He couldn’t force the same choice on others. If it were my choice alone, I’d have stopped the tradition of bloody sheets long ago, but I had a family I needed to appease. Capo or not, I needed their support. Ruling over the East Coast wasn’t a one-man show.

His attention shifted past me toward a young girl, perhaps twelve or thirteen, with the same blonde hair as Dante. I’d often wondered why the Outfit had so many blondes. Perhaps it was because many of the families were originally from Genoa and Bologna in the north of Italy. The girl approached us. She held herself with surprising pride for someone that young, but she didn’t meet my gaze, only curtsied briefly before she turned to Dante.

“Mom told me to find you for a dance,” she said in a lilting voice. Her eyes darted up to me, cheeks flushing. This must have been one of her first social events. It was obvious that she was unaccustomed to males that didn’t belong to her family. And I knew why she had been sent over, Dante’s sister had probably picked up on the underlying tension between her brother and me.

Dante put a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “This is my niece, Serafina,” he introduced her. His voice held obvious protectiveness. She squared her shoulders and met my gaze. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir.”

I shook my head. “I’m not that old.”

Dante narrowed his eyes, and I had to stop a smirk. His family was a stickler for proper behavior, but that proper exterior was a façade and we both knew it. Dante harbored the same demons I did. “If you’ll excuse us.” He didn’t wait for my reply; instead he led the girl away and set out to dance with her.

I turned my back to them, and spotted Romero making his way toward Lily. Hadn’t he done enough? If they both disappeared from the wedding twice together, things would look really fucking bad. That was an encounter I couldn’t let happen, not in front of the gathered Outfit. I pushed forward and reached Lily first.

“Dance with me,” I ordered. It wasn’t how I usually asked a woman to dance, but I was already losing my fucking patience again. Her eyes widened but she took my hand. I led her to a less crowded part of the dance floor before I pulled her against me, closer than was proper, but I didn’t want people to overhear our conversation.

She was tense in my hold, and a faint blush covered her cheeks. Was she embarrassed because I knew what she’d done? I wouldn’t have cared that she’d fucked around before her wedding if it wasn’t one of my soldiers she’d chosen to dishonor her. That was a fucking problem, my fucking problem. “You are still going through with this marriage? You and Romero were gone for a while.”

“Yes. I will marry Benito, don’t worry,” she said quietly, but her body became stiff in my hold. She was scared. Her face resembled Aria’s in some aspect, and they both worried their lower lip the same way when they were anxious. Damn it.

“You don’t have to stay married to him forever,” I said because I knew Aria wouldn’t stop worrying for one second as long as Lily was married to Brasci.

Lily gave a small shake of her head, her eyes meeting mine. “Father would never agree to a divorce.”

She was right. Scuderi had never given a shit about his daughters’ happiness. For him they were something he could bargain with, an asset to use to his advantage. If he were a decent father, he would have never agreed to marry Aria off to me. My reputation preceded me and couldn’t have given him any doubt that I’d break his daughter.

“There are other ways out of a marriage than divorce. Sometimes people die,” I said, but Lily’s reply made it clear that she didn’t catch my drift.

“He’s not that old.”

I cocked an eyebrow. “Sometimes people die anyway.”

She faltered in her steps but I moved her along. She had to work on her poker face. “Why can’t he die before my wedding?” she asked, her eyes begging me, but even for Aria I couldn’t make that happen. If I let Romero kill Brasci, which he’d gladly do, as became apparent from the death glares he sent the old fucker whenever he felt unobserved, there would be war.

“That would look suspicious. Wait a few months. The time will pass quickly, trust me.”

She shuddered against me. “Romero won’t want me anymore then.”

I couldn’t argue with that. I wasn’t sure if Romero would want Lily after Brasci had fucked her for months. It was a hard thing to stomach. If he loved her, he might be able to ignore it, but I didn’t know the extent of his feelings. I doubted he would have taken Lily’s virginity if he didn’t harbor feelings for her. Romero was too honorable for that, but sometimes feelings changed. “There are good men in the Outfit too. You’ll find new happiness. You’re doing the right thing by marrying Benito. You’re preventing war and you’re protecting Romero from himself. That’s a brave thing to do,” I told her.

It wasn’t any kind of consolation for her, and I knew that, but I was Capo of the Famiglia, and Lily wasn’t mine to protect, even if the thought didn’t sit well with me. She didn’t deserve that fate, but in our life we were often dealt shitty cards.

I returned her to her table. Aria caught my eyes from where she stood against the wall, deep in conversation with Valentina.

Something in my expression must have showed Aria that I hadn’t changed my mind about her sister and Romero. I couldn’t risk everything for their feelings.

Romero had gone against my direct orders by pursuing Lily. That I hadn’t punished him harshly was already more than others would have received from me in return. Aria’s face filled with resignation and disappointment. She wouldn’t try to argue with me again, but I knew she didn’t like my decision. After her first apology for keeping everything from me, she’d tried to convince me to help her sister, but when I’d refused she’d retreated. She was drawn back, and I hadn’t made a move to smooth things between us. I was the one who had reason to be angry, after all.

“You and Aria have been married for longer than Dante and Valentina, and yet they are onto their second child and Aria isn’t even pregnant yet,” Scuderi said sharply as he walked up to me. We had been married for more than four years, and I knew people in the Famiglia were wondering when Aria would finally get pregnant, but I had no intention of becoming a father anytime soon. I enjoyed having Aria to myself, and she was still young, only twenty-two. We had plenty of time.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “That’s none of your business. You should worry about your new wife now.”

“She will be pregnant before Aria, I can guarantee you that,” Scuderi said with a disgusting leer at his wife, who stood amidst girls her age.

Soldiers from the Outfit I didn’t know joined us, and I used the excuse to leave. I would have cut Scuderi’s tongue out if I’d talked to him a moment longer. It was none of his or anyone’s business when, and if, Aria and I decided it was time to start a family. My father had been a fucking nightmare, and I wasn’t sure that he hadn’t rubbed off on me. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to subject children to that kind of thing. Eventually, I might need to produce an heir, but definitely not anytime soon.

ARIA

Lily was a sight to behold in her wedding dress, a sight that broke my heart to pieces because she wasn’t allowed to marry the man she loved. “You look beautiful,” I told her as I arranged her veil over her shoulders. Her face reflected misery as she met my gaze in the mirror. I’d felt the same way on my wedding day, had been terrified and hopeless, but unlike Lily I didn’t have someone I wanted to marry instead. Lily’s marriage wouldn’t turn out to be a blessing in disguise like my marriage to Luca had. There were no consoling words I could offer my sister that wouldn’t have sounded false.

“This is crap,” Gianna muttered. She touched Lily’s shoulder. “Lily, get the hell away from here. Let us help you. What’s the use of being married to the Capo and the Consigliere of the Famiglia if we can’t force them to start a war for our little sister? You’re going to be miserable.”

Gianna knew I had tried everything I could to convince Luca, and she hadn’t stopped bugging Matteo about it either, but to no avail. I couldn’t go behind Luca’s back again, not when he was still hurt because I’d kept Lily’s relationship with Romero a secret. It was so very difficult to take care of my family like I wanted and not go against Luca.

“Luca said I could get rid of Benito in a few months when it won’t look suspicious anymore,” Lily whispered. A few months? The mere idea of having to bear Brasci’s touch sent shivers of disgust down my back, and I knew Lily felt the same way.

Gianna snorted. “Oh sure, and what until then? My God, could Luca be any more of a jerk?”

Luca was Capo. He was willing to put me before the Famiglia, but that was all. He wouldn’t help Lily, no matter how much I begged.

“Are you and Luca still fighting?” Lily asked.

“I wouldn’t call it fighting. We’re basically ignoring each other. He’s angry at me for keeping you and Romero a secret from him, and I’m mad at him for making you marry Brasci.” Though ignoring wasn’t quite right either. We talked and we slept with each other but there was a barrier between us, an invisible wall of disappointment and hurt.

“He isn’t making me, Aria. Father is. Luca’s acting like a Capo should. I’m not his responsibility, but the Famiglia is.”

I knew she was right but I didn’t like it. I didn’t like that we women always had to pay the price so the men could stay in power.

“Good God, Romero has really rubbed off on you. Please tell me you don’t really believe what you just said,” Gianna said.

“I won’t have you all risk everything for me.”

Gianna smacked her forehead in exasperation. “We want to risk it for you. But you have to let us.”

I wasn’t sure what to do if Lily said yes. I had to tell Luca about it if we helped Lily escape. I was too scared to lose him completely.

Someone knocked and a moment later, Maria, the girl my father had married, poked her head in. “You need to come out now.”

She disappeared without another word. I shuddered when I thought of Father being married to a girl Lily’s age. It was wrong.

“I can’t believe Father is married to her,” Gianna said, echoing my thoughts. “I don’t like her but I still feel sorry for her. Father is a bastard.”

Lily lowered her veil over her face. “We should go now.”

“Lily,” I began, not even sure what I wanted to tell her, how to make this situation better; but before I could utter another word, she straightened her spine, blinked, and headed for the door. Outside our father was already waiting to lead her down the aisle. I sent him a glower. The days when I’d felt respect or even fear toward him were gone. He was the root of our misery, and for that I’d never forgive him.