“I never knew you were so romantic,” she teased as she smelled the flowers. “She’s going to love these, Dante.”
My gaze went up to Allegra’s bedroom, but the curtains were drawn. “How is she?”
She followed my gaze, her brow puckering as she answered. “Oddly enough, she’s pretty calm. I thought she would be a nervous wreck. She’s definitely ready to marry you.”
“But she’s okay? She’s not…” I broke off, not sure how to ask the question that was scalding my throat, desperate to be set free. I trusted Scarlett more than anyone else, including Vito. But what trust I had in her didn’t extend to trusting her to keep Allegra safe.
She was blind to the fact that anything was wrong with the relationship between her cousin and her uncle. I couldn’t blame Scarlett for that, not when Allegra had never spoken up. But it didn’t stop me from wanting to grab my friend and shake her for not realizing what was happening right under her nose for so many years.
“She’s perfectly fine,” Scarlett assured me, squeezing my arm. “Now you better head to the church. I’ll get your bride there on time.”
The need to take Allegra with me was just as intense as it had been the night before, but I knew I would have her safe in just a few more hours. I could be patient for that long… Maybe…
Cristiano was still texting Anya when I climbed back into the limo with him, but his wrinkled brow looked harsher now. “Problems?” I asked with a bored arch of my brows.
“Women are the devil,” he groused and pocketed his phone. “I’m starting to remember why I didn’t commit to just one.”
“Is that where we’re going?” The driver passed the church where the wedding was to take place without braking as we headed straight back to the city. My hands clenched into fists. Soon, I promised myself. Soon, she would be mine.
“Yeah, but this shouldn’t take too long. She said she needed to talk before the wedding and to bring you with me.”
“She didn’t say what it was about?” I wasn’t in the mood to talk to Anya. I only wanted to get the wedding over with and get Allegra as far away as I could as quickly as possible. Once she was in Chicago with me, I could ensure her safety from every possible danger. Including the biggest one of all.
Gio.
“Have you met Anya?” Cristiano said with a snort, his dark eyes dancing with a mixture of annoyance and desire. “She’ll tell me when she’s good and ready—and not a second sooner. One has to have the patience of a saint to deal with il diavolo.”
I clenched my jaw, not saying anything. Anya Volkov was mysterious. She had an aura of power around her that had always made me wonder if perhaps the rumors about her were true. Having known her brother for years, I could easily see her as the assassin everyone whispered she was.
Twenty minutes later, we were stepping off the elevator and into Anya’s apartment. Her brother owned the building and had gutted the entire floor, making it one huge living space just for her. I knew Adrian had the top floor, and until recently, his son had lived on the floor between the two with his mother. Now, Adrian was divorced from his son’s mother, and the two lived with Victoria in their own compound.
“It’s about fucking time,” Anya barked as she came out of what I assumed was the kitchen.
She wasn’t dressed for the wedding as I had expected her to be. Instead, she was wearing jeans and a plain black T-shirt with combat boots. Her hair was tied back in a simple ponytail, but it had been curled and her makeup was flawless. Her ruby-red lips pursed in annoyance as she marched toward us purposefully.
“You’ve left me with very little time to get this sorted, Cristiano,” she complained.
“What’s wrong, Annie?” he tried to soothe and bent to kiss her cheek. “You said it was urgent.”
“I said it was urgent two hours ago, you ass. Now it’s reached Defcon 1.” She slapped his hand away when he started to wrap his arm around her waist, his fingers skimming over her ass. “We need to move, and we need to move now.”
Cristiano sighed resignedly and glanced at me. I caught his gaze, my brows lifting. I didn’t know what was going on, but she was setting me on edge, and the urge to get back to Allegra was making my skin itch. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m getting married. There’s no time to fucking play around.”
“Just tell us what’s going on,” Cristiano insisted.
Her blue eyes turned cold, emotionless. “If you had gotten here when I first asked you to, I could have told you everything. Now there’s no time.” She moved quickly and opened the stairwell door. “You either trust me, or you don’t,” she called over her shoulder as she walked out.
“Merda!” Cristiano exploded, his hands raking through his hair and down over his face as he followed after her. “You will be the death of me, woman!”
As soon as I was in the stairwell, I could hear Cristiano bellowing after Anya several floors below and jogged to keep up.
“What the fuck is going on?” he demanded.
“Be quiet, you idiot,” she snapped. “Do you want the entire building to hear you?”
“Right now, I don’t give a fuck who hears me. You’re acting crazy. Just tell me what’s going on. Dante is getting married in less than an hour.”
“Which is why you have to hurry, dumbass!” she raged back as she continued to stomp down the many stairs.
I reached them just as the door to the basement began to slam shut. Anya was already pulling open another door, one that led into a darkened room. She turned on a light just as we entered behind her.
“What the fuck! Is that a dead body?” Cristiano exclaimed.
I looked to where he was staring in openmouthed amazement at a man lying flat on his back with what looked like a bullet hole through the front of his skull. The dead man was about the same size as my friend, but considerably older. I put the man in his late forties. He was a complete stranger to me, but there was a look on his face that told me his last moments in this world ended long before he thought they would.
“Of course it is.” Her face was blank in the face of the dead person before her, and I knew then and there she was the one who’d killed him.
“Why does he look like me?” Cristiano’s voice was oddly calmer now, his eyes still skimming over the dead body. “Is that one of my suits?”
“Right again,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “Now, give me your ring.”
“No fucking way.” When she reached for his hand, he jerked away from her, hiding his hand in his pants pocket. “Do you have any idea how important this ring is? It tells people who I am.”
“Exactly. Which is why I need it now.” Her cold blue eyes drilled into his for a long moment. “Cristiano!”
“No. This is going too far, Anya. Tell me what the hell you’ve gotten yourself into so I can fix it, and we can get Dante to the church on time. Who was this poor sonofabitch?”
She dropped her hands to her sides. I could picture her stamping her foot in a tantrum and was surprised when she didn’t. Instead, she sucked in a deep breath and opened her mouth.
“I was approached with a contract.” Those blue eyes lifted and caught my gaze. “For you.”
My face remained impassive at her confession, while my brain quickly started going through the usual list of people who wanted me dead. I didn’t need to ask her what kind of contract. There had been plenty of attempted hits on me over the years. I was one of Vito Vitucci’s most valuable men, which meant I had plenty of enemies. But I knew who had come to her.
“Gio,” I spat out the name.
Her lips twisted with distaste. “Because of my relationship with Cristiano, I turned him down. He wasn’t pleased when I said no. Then he upped the payment by several million, but I still told him to go fuck himself.”
“Should I say thank you?” I ground out.
“Not yet,” she said with a small smirk. “I’ll take it in a minute.”
“That doesn’t expla
in the dead fucking body, Anya!” Cristiano exploded.
“I’m getting to that,” she snapped. “I didn’t trust him, so I’ve been following Gio for the last few days. I expected him to find someone else who would take the contract, but I’d put out word to some of my people not to take it or they would have to deal with me.”
“How considerate of you,” I muttered.
Her eyes flashed white-hot fire at me. “You should be thankful I did. Some of those people would have enjoyed killing you, De Stefano.”
“Anya,” Cristiano bit out.
“Everyone he talked to turned him down,” she assured him. “But three days ago, he met up with someone who isn’t in my line of expertise.”
“Who?” Cristiano and I both demanded at the same time.
“Enzo Fontana.”
“No way,” Cristiano denied, walking away from us. “Gio would never do something like that. Fontana is the enemy. He wouldn’t go against my father and work with him. Not even to end Dante.”
I remained quiet, not wanting to tell him just how wrong he really was. Gio Vitucci’s hatred of me and my entire family was stronger than his family loyalty. To him, there was no bigger enemy than me.
“What do you need me to do?” I asked of her.
Her smile was almost warm when she looked at me this time. “Ever blown up a car before?”
Chapter 2
Allegra
The smell of rain was in the air, but I couldn’t have cared less if it rained today or not. Nothing could dampen the excitement I was feeling. This giddy, ecstatic feeling that had been bubbling inside of me from the moment I finally told Dante I would marry him.
It took me longer to say yes than to plan the wedding. Like my cousin Scarlett’s wedding, it only took a few short weeks to get this day organized. Just a matter of days to plan the first day of the rest of my life.
“You look so beautiful,” Nona said with a watery smile as she straightened my veil that was already perfect.
“Thank you, Nona,” I whispered, afraid my voice would crack if I spoke any louder.
“Are you sure about this?” she asked, a frown wrinkling her brow as she watched my face in the mirror.
It wasn’t the first time I had been asked that question over the last few days. Zio Vito asked it as soon as I gave him my final answer, then again three days ago after my father’s latest blowup nearly took the roof off my uncle’s mansion. The answer didn’t change no matter how many times I was asked.
“Yes, Nona. I’m surer of this than anything else in my entire life.” The answer came from the very bottom of my soul.
Dante was the man I had loved from the time I could understand what love really meant. But in all honesty, that wasn’t the reason I had finally agreed to marry him. He had made me the one promise I’d been praying for someone to make. He had seen below the surface to the truth, something everyone else in my life either had been blind to or simply had turned their back on. He was going to protect me from the one man I never should have had to be protected against.
My father.
Which, in the end, was all that mattered to me.
There was a tap on the door, and Nona quickly moved to answer it. As she stepped back, allowing Scarlett and Victoria into the room, I released a small, relieved sigh that it wasn’t my father. Just a little while longer. I had to be strong. Within the hour, I was going to become Mrs. Dante De Stefano, and I could say goodbye to Gio Vitucci forever. I could let go of the fear and the anxiety. I wouldn’t have to worry about locking my bedroom door every night for fear of his coming into my room in a drunken rage. I wouldn’t have to worry about the hidden meanings in every word he spoke.
Tonight, I would get to fall asleep in Dante’s arms, and maybe, for once, the nightmares wouldn’t come.
I could hope, at least.
“Almost time,” Victoria said with a grin. “You ready for this?”
I nodded, afraid I would give too much away if I spoke the affirmative aloud. For three years, my two cousins had lived under the same roof with me, and for those three years, they had never suspected what was going on behind closed doors. Three years and I hadn’t once told them how scared I really was. They were completely oblivious to my nightly ordeal. Not that I could blame them, and I didn’t. Gio Vitucci knew exactly where to hit so that any bruises wouldn’t be seen. He had become a pro at it with my mother, after all.
Thinking of my mother had my heart filling with sadness. If I could have had one wish in the entire world, it would have been that she could see me get married. That I could share this day with her. But that was impossible. Papa had made sure of that. He was responsible for ending her life, had taken her away from me just as I was becoming old enough to need a mother’s gentle guidance.
And I needed to get as far away from the man before he took my life next.
Scarlett, her stomach already slightly rounded from the twins who grew under her heart, offered me the bouquet of beautiful white roses and a small jewelry box. “Both from your besotted groom,” she said with a wink. “He wants you to wear these today.”
With trembling fingers, I took the small velvet box and opened it carefully. Inside were a pair of earrings that instantly brought tears to my eyes. They were nothing overly expensive or dazzling. Just a pair of simple studs. But they were identical to the pair my mother had always worn. I only had a few pictures of her that I miraculously managed to hide away from Papa so he couldn’t destroy them. In every single one of those pictures, she was wearing studs just like these diamonds in a gold setting.
I couldn’t remember showing those pictures to Dante, but maybe I had told him about them. There was no other explanation, but it didn’t really matter. He had given me a part of my mother without even realizing it, at a time I felt like I needed her the most.
“Hey, hey.” Scarlett rushed to soothe me, her arms enfolding me in a warm hug. “I didn’t mean to make you cry. Please don’t cry. Dante will kill someone if he sees your tears.”
“S-sorry,” I said, only for my chin to tremble. Shaking my head, I stepped back and quickly pulled out the hoops my father had given me the day before. His peace offering, he’d said, because he was finally giving up and letting Dante have me. His calmness had unnerved me, but as soon as he handed over the earrings, he had quickly left me.
With the diamond and gold studs now in my ears, I felt oddly grounded. The anxiety faded, and it was almost as if my mother were actually standing beside me, lending me the strength I was afraid had effectively been beaten out of me over the years. I chanced a glance at myself in the mirror again.
The dress I wore was off the rack from one of New York’s most exclusive bridal shops. I had walked in with my cousins and Anya Volkov and tried on three different dresses before I finally stepped into the one I was now wearing. It was so much like my mother’s in the wedding photo I had of her and my father that hid at the bottom of my underwear drawer back in Sicily that I knew it was the one.
It was a vintage, long-sleeved, high-necked ivory dress with lace for days and a simple yet beautiful jeweled belt. My dress looked plain compared to the one Scarlett had worn for her own wedding, but this was the perfect dress in my eyes. I didn’t know what Dante was going to think of it when he saw me, but he had taught me something vital over the last few months that he had been trying to win me over.
Not to care about what anyone else thought. To say “fuck the world” to anything but the things—and people—who meant something to me.
Another tap on the door nearly had my heart stopping, but I clenched my hands into small fists and pasted a smile on my face as Victoria opened the door to my father. His face was set in lines I knew all too well, but he quickly masked his inner rage to face his mother and nieces.
Without moving from the door, he scanned me from head to toe with his eyes, stopping for a moment on my face. “Where are the earrings I gave you?” he demanded in that even tone t
hat had always unnerved me. That calmness had told me the real monster was just below the surface, and I feared it more than if he were cursing me.
“Dante sent her the studs,” Scarlett told him with a smile.
“How considerate of him,” Papa said with just the slightest hint of a sneer. “Put in the hoops I gave you.”
“No.”
His eyes widened at my show of defiance, but I straightened my shoulders, refusing to back down. While inside, I was quaking with fear.
“I think it’s time to go,” Nona announced, stopping her son’s tirade that even she could see was starting to boil. He hid what he did to me easily, but his hate for Dante and anyone with the last name De Stefano was too intense. It consumed him every second of the day. And if it weren’t for my uncle wanting to unite the Vitucci and De Stefano families, I never would have been given the chance to marry Dante. As it was, I was sure my father would have killed me before allowing the man he hated to the marrow of his bones to put his ring on my finger. “The ceremony will be starting soon, and we still need to get to the church.”
Nona would never know how powerful those words were to me. Knowing I was just minutes away from walking down the aisle and into a brand-new life where I didn’t have to fear going to bed at night invigorated me like nothing else could. Even in the face of my father’s wrathfulness over this marriage, I felt myself smile as I took the flowers Scarlett still held and followed my cousins out to the waiting limo.
Within minutes, the long, sleek black car pulled up in front of the same church where Scarlett had married Ciro Donati. The beast of a man was already standing on the steps with Adrian Volkov. He opened the door and helped his wife out just as Adrian did the same for Victoria. The Russian wolf pulled the younger twin close for a deep kiss that made my cheeks fill with pink and had Nona murmuring a scandalized “Oh my,” as she fanned her cheeks.
Papa said something insulting under his breath, but Nona didn’t pay him an ounce of attention as she accepted Zio Vito’s hand and let her eldest son help her out of the back of the limo, leaving me all alone with my father. Papa’s dislike for his nieces was showing today, when he normally hid it well. He knew he couldn’t control either Scarlett or Victoria. He could not do to them what he did to me to get them to do what he wanted, when he wanted. For one, I was sure either of the twins would have taken care of him themselves. For another, and the most important reason, because he was terrified of his brother.
Marrying Her Mafioso Page 2