Marrying Her Mafioso

by Terri Anne Browning

  “Is Ciro going with you?” Papa asked, catching my hand before I could walk past him.

  “No,” I told him honestly. “I’ve got a few things that need my attention downtown, and he’s busy with a dozen other things.”

  Papa jerked to his feet, tossing his napkin onto the table. “I’ll come with you, then.”

  I beamed at him and linked my arm through his. “Really? I would really like that Papa.”

  Outside, Paco and Desi already had my car waiting. Papa opened the back door for me and waited until I was inside before climbing in beside me. Desi, behind the wheel, drove us toward the city.

  “I’ve actually got an ultrasound this morning, Papa. Do you want to come in and see the twins?” I asked hopefully.

  His eyes widened. “And Ciro didn’t want to come for this?”

  I shrugged. “He wanted to come, but he’s really busy today.”

  “Then I would very much like to see my grandbabies on the ultrasound,” he said with a tight smile.

  “Great. I was hoping you would.” I took his hand, holding on to it as Desi drove onward.

  The rest of the drive was accomplished in silence. The two men in the front seats were keeping their eyes on their mirrors, and I could tell by the tension in their shoulders that so far everything was going according to plan. Someone was following us, but I didn’t try to look behind us to see who it could be.

  There was too much traffic to differentiate which car it might be, and I didn’t want to alert Papa to what was going on. Not yet.

  My doctor’s office was pretty busy for a Friday morning, but that was what I was expecting. My OB-GYN was one of the best in the state, so of course, this was how busy his office was every day of the week. I didn’t know how the man had time to eat, let alone deliver so many babies each week, but Ciro and I both liked him.

  Today, however, I wasn’t seeing the doctor, only getting my bi-monthly ultrasound to make sure the twins were growing and thriving. At first, when the doctor told me how often he wanted to do an ultrasound, I’d been concerned. Why would he need to check on them so often unless something was wrong? But it was only in case anything did happen, we could catch it right away instead of waiting until I had symptoms of something going wrong. Now that I was confident in how my pregnancy was proceeding, I looked forward to these ultrasounds. I loved seeing the twins squirm around on the screen of the ultrasound and had over two dozen pictures already in their baby books.

  Ciro usually came with me for these, but that wouldn’t have worked with the plan. If whoever was following me around saw Ciro, they would back off. They were right to be terrified of my husband. He would pull their spines out through their throats if they tried to touch me with him right beside me.

  Papa, however, was still lost in his own world and grief over Cristiano and Dante. He was starting to come back to us, but he still had a long way to go before he would be able to take over his business dealings again.

  As the lights dimmed in the ultrasound room and I lay back on the pillows with my skirt pulled down to expose my belly and to allow the tech to do her job, Papa stood to my left, watching every move the woman made. I reached for his hand as she found one heartbeat, and the room filled with the stunning sound.

  “What’s that?” Papa asked with awe as he focused on the screen.

  “This is baby girl’s heartbeat,” the tech informed him with a tender smile. “She’s got a faster heart rate than her brother, but that’s normal.”

  “This is all new to me,” Papa muttered as he continued to watch the tech take picture after picture of his granddaughter. “Your mother didn’t get many of these things when she was pregnant with you girls and…your brother.” His face filled with sadness all over again, and I wanted to weep at the heartbreak filling his eyes. But he quickly blinked the tears away and smiled down at me. “Thank you for letting me come today, passerotta.”

  Twenty minutes later, once I had plenty of pictures of both my daughter and son, we left the doctor’s office, both of us smiling.

  But as soon as I hit the call button for the elevator, my smile slipped. Tension filled my shoulders as I caught sight of the man coming out of the men’s room down the corridor. Feeling my tension, Papa followed my gaze. His hand touched the small of my back, and he put himself between the man and me.

  As the guy drew closer, I saw he was perhaps the ugliest man I had ever seen in my entire life. His nose was hooked, having been not just broken but shattered at one point in his life. There were scars along his entire face, going down and around his neck. Some scars were old and faded, but others were newer, red and angry welts. Whoever had stitched him back together had done a hack job of it, because they were jagged and uneven.

  His face was the thing of nightmares, but his body was huge. I put him at just a few inches shorter than Ciro, but he was wider than my husband in the shoulders and hips. He wore old, dirty jeans and a T-shirt that looked like it hadn’t been washed in weeks. There were old and fresh stains on it, with so many holes in the shirt, the thing wouldn’t have been useful even if turned into a cleaning rag. His boots, however, were the most expensive thing he wore, and by the looks of it, he kept them in impeccable condition. The leather looked well maintained, if older.

  “Stay close to me,” Papa commanded as the elevator door opened. He guided me inside and hit the close button, but just as the doors began to shut, the scar-faced man stuck his arm between them, opening them once more.

  I held myself completely still as he lunged for Papa, yelping when the big man took him down with a single punch to the head.

  “Papa!” I screamed and started to crouch down to check on him when the man turned his attention on me. Gulping, I backed up until I felt the closed elevator doors hit my back. “Don’t hurt me,” I whispered. I didn’t have to pretend to be scared, because in all honesty, I was terrified. “I’m pregnant. If you harm me, Ciro Donati will make your death long and painful.”

  He shrugged. “Not scared of that pussy. But don’t worry. I won’t hurt you, girl. I don’t get off on that shit.” He pulled a gun from behind him, and I realized it must have been tucked into the waistband of his jeans. Putting the gun in my face, he grinned, and I had to control my facial muscles to keep from grimacing at how nasty his teeth were. “Just do as I say, and you ain’t gonna get hurt.”

  I wanted to roll my eyes, because we both knew whoever he was working for was going to hurt me. It was the only possible end game, and he knew it.

  Now I had to trust Ciro to save me before that happened.

  Chapter 20

  Dante

  Allegra moaned beside me as she shifted in her sleep. Her head thrashed on the pillow, her moans turning into frightened little whimpers. I pulled her closer, stroking my hand down her side soothingly while trying not to hurt her sore ribs.

  “Allegra baby, wake up.” Her fingers tangled in the comforter that covered the both of us, her whimpers turning into a sudden, blood-chilling scream.

  Her eyes shot open, and she gulped in as deep a breath as she could. Sweat was beaded across her brow, and her heart was racing so hard it vibrated my own chest. I combed my fingers through her hair and kissed her brow. “It’s okay. I’ve got you. You’re safe.”

  “Dario’s eyes,” she whispered. “I’ll never forget the look in his eyes as he died.”

  Fuck. I wasn’t sure just how much she saw the night before, but if she’d seen Dario dying at Anya’s hand, I could easily imagine why she would have nightmares. Pressing another kiss to her brow, I sat up and pulled her head down onto my lap as I stroked my fingers across her back.

  “She didn’t have a choice. I’m thankful she saved me. But there was real fear in his eyes as he gasped for air that wasn’t going to come.” She shuddered, then groaned as the movement jostled her battered body.

  “I’m sorry you had to see that, sweetheart. If I could change it, I would.”

  She sighed tir
edly. “You can’t protect me from the darkness of the world, Dante. I’ve seen a lot of it already, but you can’t treat me with kid gloves the rest of our lives. I’m not a little girl. If we’re going to be together, I need you to treat me like your equal and not someone you have to tiptoe around with the bad things.”

  “I can’t promise that,” I told her honestly. “But we are going to spend the rest of our lives together, that much I can and will promise you. Give me a few more days, and we’re getting married.”

  Slowly, she lifted her head. “You mean that? You still want to marry me?”

  “I’ve wanted to marry you since you turned eighteen. I would have put my ring on your finger then and there, but Gio wouldn’t have allowed that. If Vito hadn’t wanted this marriage to happen, I wouldn’t have been able to marry you now.” I took her left hand and brought her ringed finger to my lips. “At least, not until Gio was dead.”

  She lowered her lashes, blocking out everything she was thinking. “You’re going to kill Papa, aren’t you?”

  “You know I am. There’s no other choice.” I stroked my thumb over her knuckles. “You and even Jenny won’t be safe until he is taken care of. If I don’t eliminate him now, we will always be looking over our shoulders. And while I wouldn’t care about that if it were just me, I refuse to let you and Jenny live like that.”

  After a long moment, she finally nodded. “Yes, I understand. I get it.”

  “You won’t hate me for it, will you?”

  Her lashes flickered. “Would it change your mind if I did?”

  My heart clenched painfully, but I wasn’t about to lie to her. “No, Allegra. Hate me or not, it won’t change my mind.”

  She nodded. “I didn’t think it would. And my answer is no, I won’t hate you for it. Papa has a lot to answer for. I want him dead just as much as you do.”

  Catching the back of her head, I pulled her in for a kiss, being careful not to hurt her mouth. I was starving for her, my body aching for the feel of her pressed against me. She gasped softly, kissing me back even more hungrily. Her hands touched my bare chest, her nails biting into my abs.

  I started to pull back, not wanting to get carried away when she was in no shape to do what my cock was begging for.

  Allegra climbed onto my lap, straddling my waist as she thrust her tongue boldly into my mouth. I could feel the heat scalding through her sleep pants, seeping into my jeans and making my cock weep with need for her. Her nails raked through my hair and tangled at the back of my neck, holding me in place as if she were afraid I would end the kiss too soon.

  A pounding fist on the bedroom door had her head snapping up, just as Cristiano called from the other side, “I need you to get up and meet me in the kitchen. Something’s happened.”

  Groaning, I pressed my face into Allegra’s chest, holding her down on my aching cock for a moment. Whatever it was could wait another hour or two. At least until I’d eaten Allegra’s pussy for a little while. Maybe I couldn’t fuck her like I wanted, but I could at least get her off half a dozen times. I wanted to give her so much pleasure she would never think about running away from me again, no matter what happened further down the road. I needed to taste her sweetness again after being without her for the past week.

  “Someone took Scarlett!” Cristiano bellowed from the other side of the door. “Get the fuck up.”

  “Scarlett!” Allegra cried and jumped up quickly, seeming to ignore the pain in her body as she readjusted her clothes and practically ran to the door.

  Cristiano was still standing there, rage rolling off him the likes of which I hadn’t seen in a hell of a long time. Like this, he was mindless. His sisters were the one thing no one ever joked about with him. He would kill anyone—friend or foe, even women and children—if it meant protecting Scarlett and Victoria.

  And now one of them had been taken?

  I was right behind Allegra, and I pulled her back behind me, not trusting Cristiano even with her safety right then. “What happened?” I asked, keeping my voice calm in the face of his wild eyes.

  “Kitchen. Now.”

  I grabbed a shirt. Keeping Allegra behind me but linking our fingers together, I followed him into the kitchen with her. Anya was leaning against the sink with her phone pressed to her ear. “I understand. Yes. Yes… I said yes, goddamn it! I will meet you in thirty.”

  Her eyes lifted to us as we entered the room, and she hung up. Sliding the phone into her pocket, she clenched her hands together. “Scarlett and Vito were taken while coming out of her doctor’s appointment an hour ago. Adrian says they have eyes on the sonofabitch who took them, but it’s a fucking fortress.”

  “Gio?” Cristiano snarled his uncle’s name.

  “Some house just outside the city,” she continued to explain, ignoring his interruption. “Long story short, Scarlett has been taking on Vito’s business handlings since he has been out of commission with grief. Gio tried to do it, but Scarlett wouldn’t let him.”

  “He had them taken so he could take over Zio Vito’s business,” Allegra said with a twist of her lips. “I saw it coming the day of the wedding. I just didn’t expect him to actually try to take Scarlett. He knows Ciro would kill anyone who hurt her.”

  “I think they were planning on this,” Anya told her. “Adrian just let me in on it.” Her gaze went to me, then to Cristiano. “They know you’re not dead. Ciro says he needs you.”

  “Where?” he demanded, already checking the clip in his gun.

  “Adrian said you would know where Ciro wanted to meet.” She lifted her brows at me when Cristiano seemed too lost in his head to notice her. “You know where that is?”

  “We know,” I affirmed. “When?”

  “As soon as possible. Ciro was bellowing in the background, so I’m fairly sure wherever they are right now won’t be on a map in about two seconds. He’s about to tear the place apart.”

  “Right. We’re going now.” I turned to Allegra and kissed her carefully on the lips. “Stay here. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  “Wait, I’m coming with you.”

  “No. I need you to stay here where it’s safe.” She opened her mouth to argue, but I kissed her again. “Don’t. I need to keep a clear head, and I won’t be able to concentrate if you’re there.”

  “Dante.” Tears filled her eyes. “He’s unstable. You don’t know what all he’s capable of.”

  “Which is why I need you as far away from him as humanly possible.” I brushed a few locks of her hair back from her beautiful face. “I love you. Stay here where I know you’re safe. Please.”

  Lips trembling, she gave me a small nod. “Okay. Just be careful.”

  “I swear to you, I will.” I took my phone from my jeans pocket and pressed it into her hands. “Keep this. I’ll call you when everything is over.” I dropped a quick kiss on her lips and stepped back. “Don’t run away on me again.”

  “I’ll be right here,” she promised with a weak smile. “You just come back to me in one piece.”

  Cristiano was already headed out the door into the garage. Anya gave Allegra a nod and followed him. “I’m driving,” I called after them as I stepped out of the house. If he drove, I didn’t think we would make it there without a few casualties along the way.

  He tossed me the keys once I was behind the wheel. “You drive like an old lady, and I’m putting a bullet in your ass to make you go faster.”

  Snorting because I knew he would do it, I started the car and backed out of the garage. Looking back, I saw Allegra standing in the doorway, watching us go. I lifted a hand, waving one last time as the garage door began to lower.

  “You know where you’re going?” Cristiano growled when I turned left out of the driveway.

  “Relax, fratello,” I told him calmly. “I’ll get you there.”

  He muttered something low and savage, but I ignored him. A glance at Anya in the back seat showed she wasn’t even fazed by him li
ke this. She looked bored as she used a small knife to clean something from beneath her nails. These two were perfect for each other. The madman and the sociopath.

  The drive took nearly an hour. It had been years since I’d been there, but I knew where I was going. Ciro, Cristiano, and I had our own place only the three of us knew of. Our fathers hadn’t even known about it when we were kids. It was where we would go and practice throwing knives or shooting at targets. It was where we tussled and would beat the living hell out of each other at times. Later on, it became more about business meetings than fucking around. We kept our own business dealings here, our secret stashes that Vito didn’t know existed.

  No sooner had I pulled around to the back of the old warehouse on the docks and Cristiano was jumping out of the car. I followed after him at a slower pace, waiting for Anya to make sure she didn’t wander off and get into trouble. As I walked behind her, we entered through a side door to the sound of heavy hands slapping backs as Ciro and Cristiano embraced.

  “She knew you weren’t dead,” Ciro was telling his brother-in-law as he pulled back. He shot his gaze to me. “She got your note.”

  “Well, she should have fucking shared that little detail with Victoria,” Adrian groused, his face a storm cloud as he glared from Ciro to Cristiano. “There would have been no need for all the tears this past week if she had been let in on the secret.”

  “Scarlett didn’t want to get her hopes up if it turned out Cristiano was really dead,” Ciro explained with excessive patience. He must have calmed down since Anya had talked to her brother on the phone, because he wasn’t trying to pull the building down on top of us. “Victoria will get over it when she sees her brother.”

  “She won’t get over it if her twin ends up dead,” the Russian shot back.

  Ciro’s blue eyes turned arctic, his big fists clenching, ready to destroy Adrian’s face. He wasn’t nearly as calm as I’d assumed he had been just a moment before. Explosive Ciro was just under the surface, and the least little spark was going to ignite him.