by Bethany-Kris
What changed?
Why did he force her back to a place where he should know she didn’t want to be?
“Will you talk to me, now?” her brother asked. “You’ve ignored me for the last two weeks.”
For good reason.
If Lily didn’t ignore Dino, she’d try to rip his throat out with her fingernails.
“I was staying out of trouble, Dino,” Lily said, trying to keep the heat out of her tone. “I checked in like you wanted me to.”
“We had an agreement, Lily. And really, I let you go over that by two years.”
Lily frowned, knowing his statement was true. After she graduated, Dino agreed Lily could backpack across Europe for a year before starting college. Preferably, a college in the states. But she loved traveling, meeting new people, and learning about the world around her. One year turned into two, and then to three. He never once asked her home.
Lily was appreciative her brother let her do what she wanted for as long as he did. He was essentially her guardian until she became an adult. Dino seemed to think he still made all the calls for her. The distance between them had grown over the years. Sure, the eleven-year age difference probably didn’t help, but the more immersed Dino became in the mafia, the less Lily cared. Instead of being angry with the people who hurt them when they were just kids, Dino surrounded himself with them.
“You’re angry with me,” Dino murmured, keeping his gaze locked on the man standing at the altar.
“Very.”
“You needed to come home,” her brother said, completely unaffected. “It was time. You’re a grown woman, Lily. It’s time to accept what that means to la famiglia.”
Lily barely held back from scoffing.
The priest surely wouldn’t appreciate that.
“La famiglia, Dino? What has the family ever done for me?”
“Raised you.”
“Raised me?”
The question came out as a sharp whisper. Dino winced in response. Lily took a little bit of satisfaction in that.
“Us,” Dino corrected quickly.
“No, la famiglia turned us into orphans. And since when is my life of any importance to the Outfit, Dino?”
“It just is, little one.”
Lily’s teeth grinded at his casual use of that pet name.
Again.
“It doesn’t matter,” Dino said softly. “Whatever you think I’m doing is unimportant. What I am doing is for your best benefit, Lily. Trust me.”
“I don’t know anything about what you’re doing, Dino.”
“Well, you’re probably not going to like it either way. Nonetheless, I’m trying to save you a lot of trouble and heartache if you would just give me the chance to do so.”
Nothing her brother said made sense.
Lily was over the runaround.
“I’m a grown—”
“You’re a mafia child,” Dino interjected swiftly. “You’re a born and bred DeLuca. You’re a woman, sure, but you also know what that means. You don’t get to make the choices here, Lily. Follow the rules and everything will be fine.”
Rules.
She shuddered in the pew, disgusted at the thought of what her brother’s vague words could possibly mean.
“I’ve let you run away long enough,” Dino said, his mouth tugging down into a frown. “It’s time for you to come back to the family and do what we need you to do, now.”
Lily’s heart stopped as she looked her stoic brother over. “What does that even mean?”
“I’ve let you run away long enough,” he repeated simply.
Lily didn’t want to be immersed in their world. As a child, she hadn’t been given a choice. As an adult, it should be only hers. She was not some pretty Mafioso principessa for her brothers to show off and dangle in front of others’ eyes.
She was her.
It was her life.
“Dino—”
Lily’s words were drowned out by the sound of the congregation standing.
“Please,” Lily heard Father Garner say from the altar as she also stood, “… join me in a Mea Culpa to cleanse our souls and minds for the beginning of this Mass.”
Dino smirked. “Funny how that works. It’s automatically assumed we’ve sinned—that we’re all sinners in need of repenting. We’re not even given the option to be saints.”
“We are sinners,” Lily muttered.
Their whole family was full of them.
Dino shrugged. “We are.”
“Confíteor Deo omnipoténti, et vobis, fratres, quia peccávi nimis …”
“I confess to almighty God, and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned …” The words echoed through the church from two-hundred or more voices. It was almost melodic in effect, healing to some, she knew. A way of asking for forgiveness alongside everyone else so you didn’t have to do it alone.
For some, it was the confession they would never give otherwise.
“Cogitatióne, verbo, ópere et omissióne,” Dino murmured in perfect Latin.
“In my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do,” Lily said along with the congregation to follow the priest’s words in English.
Something in the corner of her eye caught Lily’s attention. Subtly, so it still seemed as if she were staring at the front, Lily turned her head and glanced to the side. Across the aisle stood a man she hadn’t noticed earlier. With his head slightly bowed and his lips moving along with the prayer, it looked as though he was fully engrossed in the confession.
Except he was staring at her, too.
“Mea culpa,” rang out from the crowd of worshippers.
The next would come louder, Lily knew.
She was still stuck staring at the man. His eyes were a steel-blue. Dark hair fell over his gaze as he blinked and tilted his chin upward in Lily’s direction. The action surprised her though she didn’t know why. With chiseled features, a jaw wrought tight, an expression born from indifference, and a stance that spoke of an uncaring confidence, he reminded her of stone. Hard and cold. Beautiful ice, maybe.
There was something else about him, too. Something familiar. Like she maybe knew this man. It wouldn’t be such a shock, considering the people who gathered at this church had been going for years. As did her family.
Who was he?
“Mea culpa.”
The man flashed a quick smile and Lily turned away.
“Mea máxima culpa,” she whispered.
It was only when the prayer turned to English for the verse did she realize that she could distinguish the man’s voice in the people around her. She focused on the deep tenor in the pew across from hers just three feet away.
She shot him another look, not even caring if her brother noticed her staring or sudden distraction. The man was still watching her, too.
“Through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault,” he said.
Who are you, Lily wondered.
“My bad,” the man mouthed.
Mea Culpa.
“Lily DeLuca, look at you,” Terrance Trentini said with a smile that was far too wide for Lily’s liking. She stayed still as he hugged her, held her cheeks in both his palms, and kissed her forehead. “You’ve grown up into a beautiful young woman, mia bella.”
“Thank you,” Lily said quietly.
She didn’t like this man.
In fact, she didn’t like any of the men or most of the women gathering in the foyer to welcome Lily and Dino into the large Trentini mansion. She knew better than to think that way—Lily didn’t know most of them enough to say whether or not she liked them. What she did know about them, some of them, bothered her.
Lily wished Dino would have warned her about the lunch after church.
“You should be proud of this girl, DeLuca,” Terrance said to a silent Dino.
Dino only smiled in response, but it didn’t feel true.
“Oh, we’re proud,” came a voice from behin
d Terrance.
Lily couldn’t help but grin at Theo as he came to stand beside Terrance. She hadn’t seen him since arriving back to Chicago. Theo and Dino didn’t get along well. Despite her misgivings about her brothers at times, Lily did miss them.
Especially Theo. At twenty-seven-years-old, he was closer to Lily’s age than Dino.
“Welcome home,” Theo said.
“Thanks,” Lily replied.
“Don’t let the crowd bother you,” Terrance said. “It’s larger than normal; Ben wanted to properly welcome his niece back.”
Lily beat back the scowl threatening to form at her uncle’s name. Terrance hadn’t lied. Guessing by the number of voices coming from the connecting room, there were a lot of people. She knew some of the faces from spending her summers and holidays in Chicago during her years at private school. They weren’t strangers to her, but she didn’t feel entirely comfortable around them, either.
She quickly glanced over some of the faces, taking them in so she knew who was there. Joel Trentini’s sisters, Abriella and Alessa, stood off in the corner, talking quietly to one another. Their parents, Sara and Peter, weren’t very far away. The DeLuca siblings grew up calling them their aunt and uncle, although there was no real relation.
Lily also recognized the face of Tommas Rossi as he tossed a wink in Abriella Trentini’s direction before acting like it hadn’t even happened. She suspected if Tommas was there, the rest of his family was somewhere in the home, too.
One of the faces Lily knew and found instantly was Evelina Conti. The girl had gone to the same private schools Lily attended. As teens, they were mostly inseparable. But where Lily had been allowed to go on and do her own thing, the Conti family didn’t let Evelina or the girl’s younger brother, Adriano, do anything that wasn’t to the Outfit’s benefit.
“Lily!”
Evelina pushed past the men blocking her way, including Theo. Lily almost missed the way Theo tried to avoid staring at Evelina.
Almost.
She figured it wasn’t important at that moment.
Lily accepted the embrace from her friend, hiding her grin in Evelina’s hair. “God, I missed you.”
“We just talked a couple of days before you came home,” Evelina said, laughing.
“So?”
“Yeah, I know. I missed you, too.” Evelina pulled back from Lily just enough to showcase that knowing smile of hers before whispering, “I know you’re pissed, but I’m glad to have you back. It’s fucking terrible here without you. You make it fun.”
Lily made a face. “Later?”
“Later,” her friend agreed.
“How was Europe?” Joel Trentini asked as he took Lily’s cardigan and Dino’s suit jacket.
“Beautiful,” Lily said honestly. “I would have preferred to stay another year.”
“Ah, but you have business here, my dear,” Terrance said with another one of his wide smiles.
Dino gave Lily a look that silenced her before she could even say a thing. “She does. We’re getting to that.”
Ben DeLuca emerged from the entryway that led into the common room and dining area. “Is everyone here?”
“Not yet,” Terrance replied.
“Who’s missing?” Ben asked.
“Damian.”
Who?
“He’s on his way,” Dino assured. “He was right beside us in church. Quiet, as usual.”
Oh.
Steel-blue eyes. Dark hair. Sly smile.
Lily’s pulse picked up.
“They’ll make a good pair,” Terrance said to Dino. “And he needs a wife. She’s a good match.”
Wait, what?
Lily felt like she was part of some cosmic joke that nobody had let her in on until now. And it was a really shitty time for her to be finally figuring it out.
When Terrance turned to speak with his grandson Joel, Lily spun on her heel to face Dino. She was sure her older brother could see the rage swimming in her gaze. Disbelief, heartache, and sickness rolled like one giant ball of hateful poison in her gut, flooding into her veins.
“Dino—”
“Not now.” Dino jerked his head to the side and with a quick apology to the family and friends, he led Lily down the hall and away from the eyes of others. When they were alone, Dino let out a loud sigh, loaded with tension. “Take a second to think about it all before you say anything, Lily.”
Take a second?
Her brother was about to sell her off like fucking cattle at the meat market. He wanted her to take a second and consider it? Like what, it might be a good thing?
Lily barely held back her scream of frustration. “You fu—”
Dino grabbed Lily’s hand she raised to strike him. She wasn’t the hitting kind of girl. She didn’t like violence all that much. Funny, considering her entire life had been drowned in some kind of violence. All the mafia knew was violence.
“Stop,” her brother hissed.
Lily tried to yank her arm back, but Dino held firm. “You bastard.”
“You don’t know a thing, so stop it right now.” Dino squeezed Lily’s hand just enough to make it hurt and to quiet her. “This is not the time or the place for any kind of bullshit, Lily. And you know damn well you’re not the first to have something like this happen to them. Really, you’re lucky you lasted as long as you did. If it were up to Ben, he would have married you off the day after you turned eighteen. Stop acting like a brat.”
Lily’s heart hurt and her lungs ached.
She couldn’t breathe.
“What I need you to do is go back in there, greet Damian when he gets here, smile for those people, and make nice during dinner. It will be two hours—tops. Play your part like the good little DeLuca you are, like I know you can be.”
“Why would you do this to me?” Lily asked.
Betrayal stung the back of her tongue as bile spilled into her throat.
Dino tricked her. He said nothing about marriage or anything of the sort when he told her it was time to go home.
Of course, he didn’t, her mind taunted. You would have run.
She still could.
Dino seemed to pick up on her inner dilemma. “Your accounts have been frozen. You will not receive another penny of your shares or inheritance until you are married to Damian Rossi.”
“A Rossi.”
“He’s a good man,” Dino said. “And if I didn’t pick you a husband, Lily, Ben was going to. I’m on a one-way train to prison for the unforeseeable future very soon. Theo will have little to no control at his age, especially where you are concerned. That would mean your welfare and choices are left to Ben. Is that what you want? Because if you think for one minute he would consider anything that you wanted, you are sorely fucking mistaken. Ben wouldn’t care—he’d use you for his gain and nothing more. Even if that meant marrying you off to an abusive prick or a man twice your age.”
“I’m a human being. I am a free woman, Dino,” Lily snapped back. “I can make my own decisions about my life without anyone’s input. I will marry who I want, not who you deem appropriate for me.”
“You know that’s not true. You might have liked pretending for the better part of your life like you’re not involved in la famiglia, Lily, but we both know better. Please understand why I did this.”
She couldn’t.
“Lily—”
“Go to hell.”
Dino barked out a bitter laugh. “I’ve already got one foot in the door, Lily. I’m just biding my fucking time while I wait.”
Lily spun fast on her heel and pushed past Dino, needing to get away from him. She only took two steps before coming to an abrupt stop against the form of a familiar but still strange man.
Lily’s hands splayed across the man’s chest as she squeaked in surprise, not even realizing he had intruded on her moment with her brother. She felt her cheeks heat up because not only had he heard a very private conversation, but she was touching him, too.
He didn’t seem to m
ind.
The same steel-blue gaze that had regarded her earlier at the church looked Lily over once again. She swallowed hard, feeling the bands of his muscles roping across his pectorals under her fingertips jump. His lips pulled into a smirk that looked entirely too wicked for Lily’s liking.
Getting a close up look at this man was bad for Lily’s insides. He was fit with a body built like a boxer’s. The black suit he wore hugged his over six-foot frame perfectly and it only seemed to add to the confident, cool air he sported. A strange disinterest colored his features, but in his eyes, it seemed like he was looking straight through her.
She glanced down between their bodies, noting he stood relaxed and seemingly unbothered by the situation they were in. Even his hands were tossed into his pockets as if he were waiting for something and not like Lily was touching him.
His nonchalant attitude only added to his dark, mysterious demeanor.
Lily still didn’t know how he managed to slip down the hallway without her or Dino noticing or why he was as quiet and still as he was now. What game was he playing?
Who in the hell was this man?
Lily’s heart beat a little harder in her chest, remembering the name Dino uttered earlier.
Damian Rossi.
“Hello.”
Lily blinked.
His voice was a dark tenor dripping with richness. The one word slipped from his mouth without his lips even needing to move. She had the pleasure of hearing many accents in her travels, but his was something else entirely.
“Damian,” Dino said, bringing Lily out of her stupor. “Good to see you finally arrived.”
“Ran over a nail in the church parking lot and came out to a flat tire.”
“Ah, I see.”
Lily stepped back from Damian. His gaze didn’t move from her for a second, not even when he talked to her older brother like they were old friends.
Were they?
“Hello,” Damian said again. “Lily.”