by Sam Crescent
“Bella … don’t cry, please.”
“I’m not going to cry. I just need some time alone. You know they won’t give me what I need.” She took a deep breath. “I’m going to the gym. I’ll be there if you need me.”
“If you don’t pick a husband, they’ll try to take all of this from you,” Randy said. “Your father warned you.”
She stopped and he watched as she took a deep breath and shook her head. “I will pick a husband when I’m good and ready. No one is taking this from me, and if they think just because I’m a woman, they can, let them try. I’ll show them who they’re really dealing with.”
His cock hardened.
She was a fierce warrior.
Her spine ramrod straight, she made her way down the long hall, going toward the gym. This time, he stepped out of the darkness.
Randy went for his gun and stopped. “It’s you.”
“You need to take more care in protecting her.”
“I do what I can. Why are you still here?”
“You know why.”
“Does this mean you’ve accepted Drago’s offer?”
“I accepted his offer but I wonder if his daughter will agree.”
“Be careful, she’s … she’s hurting and when that happens, she tends to deal more in pain,” Randy said.
“You’re not going to take care of it?”
Randy shook his head. “I’ve caused that woman enough pain in the past ten years. Not tonight.”
Damon watched as Randy left.
Alone in Drago’s house, he could go hunting for all the necessary blackmail material he could use to put the Romano name on top and to keep Isabella down. Instead, he went in search of the woman.
He shouldn’t care what she was getting up to, or who she was hurting, but he wanted to.
Keeping to the shadows, he watched as she attacked a punching bag. She’d removed her dress and was now in a long pair of tight shorts and a sports bra.
He needed to get himself under control.
As he watched her, he saw her power. There was too much space between them, and he wanted to get closer.
She yelled, attacking the bag again, screaming her agony. He reached out to touch her and she spun around, landing a kick to his stomach and sending him back.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“I came to admire your technique,” he said, getting to his feet.
She stood, hands clenched into fists, panting. Perspiration dotted her brow and her eyes were red, but there was no sign of tears. Isabella was the epitome of control.
“You don’t belong here. This is my house.”
“You see, your father believed you needed someone like me to help you out.”
“I don’t need you. I don’t need any man.”
He removed his jacket, rolling up his sleeves.
“What the hell are you doing?” she asked.
“I’m getting ready. It’s fine hitting a punching bag, but how about someone who will fight back?”
“I’m not fighting you.” She turned her back on him and resumed hitting the bag.
He rolled his eyes and this time, she didn’t fight him as he wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her up. He pressed her to the ground, grabbed her hands, and locked them above her head.
“But I want to fight you.”
“Get off me.”
He tutted. “Your father told me he taught you better than that.”
“You don’t know the first thing about my father. Get off me.”
“No.” He kept her trapped with one hand. With the other, he stroked a finger down her cheek. “I’m a little disappointed.”
She somehow managed to wriggle her legs out, and she slammed her foot against his thigh. It was enough to get her free. This time, she wrapped her fingers around his neck, pushing him to the mat, straddling his waist.
He had no problem with her pussy being directly over his dick. Grabbing her hips, he held her still.
“Stop it.”
“No. Be careful with the men you play with, Isabella.” He pushed against her so she’d know exactly what she was doing to him.
She slapped him around the face and pulled away. He let her go.
“Why are you here?” she asked.
“Tomorrow morning, meet me at a café.” He gave her the name of a private place.
“And why would I come to see you?”
“So we can talk about our wedding and dealing with everything that has been handed to you today.”
“I’m not marrying you.” She put her hands on her hips and stared at him, almost defiantly.
“You think they’re going to let you run things? Even if you were to take a place at the meetings, you’re a woman. I imagine they’d plot your death within a matter of days.”
“I can do this,” she said. “It’s what I’ve been trained to do.”
“I know everything, Isabella, you can trust me.”
“I trust no man.”
“Yet, you trust your bastard outcast bodyguard upstairs and he let me come down here. I’m not the enemy. Don’t treat me like one or you’re going to get yourself killed. A lot of people will want you dead.”
“You really expect me to believe you’re not like the other men? You don’t want me out of the way?”
Damon smiled. “In case you didn’t notice, I’m not like other men. Meet me, Isabella. You won’t regret it.”
Chapter Two
The café was a quaint shop, one that was clearly not owned by any of the Family. She didn’t know how that was possible without her help.
“We should leave,” Isabella said.
“Your father told me that Damon would come. He’d help. He told me to trust him,” Randy said.
“Then why wasn’t I told!” She couldn’t help the spike of hurt that shot through her entire body. “If my father really didn’t think I could handle this, why did he make my last ten years with him nothing but pain and misery?”
“I cannot answer those questions for you, honey. They’re for your father and you to deal with. Give Damon some … time.”
She looked toward her only friend. “Fine.”
“Don’t kill him.”
“I will if he thinks he can walk all over me.” Climbing out of the car, she tucked her hair behind her ear and walked across the street. Still in mourning, she wore a simple dress with flared-out sleeves. She hated the color black and much preferred to have something floral, but she had to show respect.
Entering the café, she couldn’t help but smile, it was so … normal. To her, it meant she’d entered a foreign land.
Attending her father’s business and all the shops and establishments aligned with the Family, she was used to an element of fear and respect facing her. Here, there was nothing. It reminded her of her own little establishment she’d set up, with her father’s blessing, but also in secret.
Damon was already sitting in the corner.
He stood up and she ignored him as she slid into the seat opposite him. “You know it’s not proper, me meeting you alone.”
“It’s not proper for a girl to have a kill record, so I think we can let this slide as well.”
She nodded her head.
The waitress came over, and she ordered a tea and a cream biscuit. She hadn’t eaten much in the past week. Food didn’t hold any appeal. All she wanted to do was lie in bed and cry. Each day she got up and worked was a small victory. The main file her father had left her scared the shit out of her. Businessmen, politicians, family men, and even some of the capos, all of them her father had dirt on.
With dirt came a lot of risks. There would be men, close men who’d want her dead if they knew she was aware of their … betrayals.
“How did you sleep last night?” Damon asked.
“You brought me here to talk about sleep?”
“I know what it’s like to suffer after you lose someone.”
She thought about his potential wives. Drop
ping her gaze to the table, she shook her head. “No, I didn’t sleep well.”
“One day, you will.”
“Is that what happened to you?” she asked.
“You learn not to care.”
“I’ve had my mother, brother, and now my father die on me. I’m sure I can handle it.” She didn’t want to appear weak.
Damon smiled. “As I’m sure you know, I’ve had cousins, family, and even potential wives die, some at their own hand. I’m more experienced with this.”
“I know what you’ve been through. It’s why I’m curious why you would ever want to spend any time with me,” she said.
Damon sat back. He lifted up his coffee cup and took a sip.
She hated waiting.
“Your father, what he did, it goes against every single Family code. You know that. Training a woman to take a man’s job. Your brother should be sitting here right now, negotiating your marriage. I see the look in your eye. It’s one that means you know things you really didn’t want to know.”
“Look, I don’t know what it is you want from me—”
“I want everything, Isabella. You’re not a fool. An alliance between the two of us will make us unbreakable. I can protect you.”
“I don’t need protecting.”
“No? Then tell me why I know for a fact that there’s a meeting right now between the capos and the Boss to see you married?” he asked.
“I would know that. There’s no way they’re organizing a marriage or who should take me.”
“You’re nothing but a woman. They don’t need to ask for your permission. You’re the property of them. Nothing more. I’m a man. I know what they want.”
Rage filled her.
“Get angry,” he said. “It’s good.”
“What do you want?” she asked.
“Your father knows I’m not like other men. I’ve had my share of losses and I need an heir.” He locked his fingers together. “I know about your training. You’re strong. A fighter. I don’t want a submissive woman who’s terrified of me. I’ve been near them my whole life and as you can see, it never ends well for me.”
She didn’t know why he was telling her all of these things. “What do you want?”
“Your hand in marriage. That’s all I want. In return, I won’t stop your involvement with the business. You’ll be by my side in every single decision and when the time is right, we’ll have a child together.”
She looked away.
Once her father had made her watch one of his soldiers and a whore have sex. She had to keep her virginity intact but she also had to see what would be expected of her. It was one of the single most embarrassing moments of her life. That and getting her first menstrual cycle.
If she hadn’t been training and hurting, she really believed she’d be scarred for life. There was just a lot of crap to take in.
“And so you’re proposing a marriage even though I can own and run my family’s business on my own, without your help.”
“You clearly don’t understand what they’re going to do to you, do you?” Damon asked. “You’re a woman. You mean nothing to them. You’re a pawn to be sold off and that’s exactly what they will do to you.”
“And you think this is going to help your cause?” she asked. Damn it, she wanted to hit him.
How dare he!
Her father had taught her many things in life, and it wasn’t to be told how worthless she was.
“If you want me to color this up in rainbows and flowers, it’s not going to happen. You’ve got to understand, in our world, you’re nothing.”
“I don’t have to listen to this.”
“You’re right, you don’t, but you don’t think they’re already working out who’s going to tame you?”
“You really think you’re the answer to my prayers?”
“Sweetheart, I’m the only answer to your prayers.”
She shook her head, wanting to get up and leave. “I don’t care what you say. I refuse. You can’t make me listen.”
Damon reached out and grabbed her arm. “Let me be real here with you.”
“Get your hand off me.”
“Don’t cause a scene. You think the Family won’t know of a secret meeting if we fight?”
She gritted her teeth, wanting nothing more than to storm out. Lowering back into her seat, she waited.
“The men in our lives don’t accept a woman taking charge. Any person you marry will put you in your place. You think the men are not above beating you, breaking you?”
She glared at him. “I’m very much aware of what our men are capable of.” She’d seen firsthand what they all could do. The pain they caused.
“Then you know that if you marry the wrong man, your skills will be brought into control.”
“Do you really think I’ll be easily controlled?” She was insulted by the mere insinuation that she couldn’t take care of herself.
“If you can’t be controlled, then they’d kill you. A woman who is trouble is easily taken care of.”
She stared at him. “That would be a betrayal of the highest order.”
“Betrayal or not, are you that naïve to even think all the men in our lives play by the rules? Look at your father. He never remarried and he trained his daughter to take over from him. To a lot of men, he should have been stripped of his title.”
“What are you trying to tell me?” she asked. This conversation was too much. She wanted out of it.
“As my wife, I won’t allow any pain to come to you. I’ll expect you to be by my side and only in social settings in front of the Family will you even begin to look submissive, but you will be part of every single decision.”
“You expect me to believe you?”
“I don’t want a tame slave who will do as she’s told, Isabella. I want a woman who can give as good as she gets. No one else will offer you this.”
****
Later that night, Damon poured himself a large brandy. He was more of a whiskey drinker but seeing as he was staying in his father’s house, which was closer to Isabella’s, he would do with the substandard liquor on offer.
He sniffed the amber liquid and scrunched up his nose as he swallowed it down in one gulp. Disgusting.
“You don’t have good taste, my son,” his father, Damon Romano Sr., said. All the men gave their sons their name. It was a family tradition, one he didn’t wish to share with his own son.
“You no longer have the stomach for good stuff,” he said, turning to his father. “Am I to assume the meeting went well today?”
His father was one of the men within the Family who believed firmly in tradition. A woman’s place was by his side, in his bed, spitting out babies. They were entertainment and not capable of thinking for themselves.
Damon didn’t hold the same views. Rather shocking considering he was close to his father, but he also got to see a great deal of the men and women who worked for them. He’d watched the families who were close, the love and respect some of the men had for their wives.
Adele, their cook, her husband had been their groundskeeper, and the man had been completely besotted with his wife. There had been no mistresses in their lives. His father had two of them, one of which lived in the house.
“Went well? You could say that. It has been decided the only course with the Drago woman is to marry her. Three other men have been chosen. They will all come forward with a deal for the Boss. Only he will decide who gets her hand in marriage, unless of course Philip’s final wishes are discovered.”
Damon stared at his father. “Am I to assume you considered me for this offer?”
“I did consider it, yes, but I wonder what your intentions are. Would you like to marry the Drago girl? She’s cold and well, you don’t exactly have the best reputation for keeping a woman alive.”
“I’m surprised they didn’t give her to me to begin with.”
“Ah, your little curse that follows you around. Look, son, if the Family wanted her
dead, they’d see to it. You know that.” His father smiled at him. “I’ve got business to attend to. What was so important you missed today’s meeting?”
“The usual.”
“Ah, I see. You and your mysteries. Well, I know you can take care of yourself.” His father slapped him on the back. There was no pain. His father had punished him many times growing up. Every single hit, punch, or break had turned him into this man. The monster.
He watched as the old man looked a little shaken. Damon didn’t move. It took a great deal to hurt him. He was a force to be reckoned with.
Once he was alone, he felt his cell phone buzz. Pulling it out of his pocket, he saw it was a call from Randy.
“What is it?”
“I wanted you to know she’s here, and she’s safe.”
“Good.”
“I don’t like this. I don’t like talking to you about her behind her back.”
Damon smiled. “She has your loyalty.”
“I agreed with her father to help her when she needs it. I feel you’re her best ally right now.”
“But you don’t like me?”
“You know I don’t.”
“Not a lot you can do about it. You know I’m your only hope at keeping her alive, and they’re going to do all they can to try to kill her or marry her off.”
Randy grumbled. “She hasn’t said anything about your meeting today. I don’t know if she’s going to agree with you.”
Damon sighed. “If she knew what was good for her, she’d do it.”
“Isabella is a strong woman. She’s been through a lot and she’s fought a lot of people to get where she is.”
“Did she have to fight you?” He hadn’t thought of Randy fighting her. Philip had been open and honest with him. All of his soldiers had fought her at some point. She was a lot stronger than she appeared, and he got that, appreciated it, and had no doubt there was a fighter inside her threatening to get out.
“Do you really want to know the answer to that question?”
“I need to know if you’re loyal to her,” he said.
“You know I am and to her father.”
“How far does that loyalty go?” Randy was a good-looking man, even if he was the bastard of a soldier.
“What are you trying to say?”