It should creep me out because he's not supposed to know me, and I'm not supposed to know him. I still know almost nothing about him or the reason he has chosen me, and yet, for reasons I cannot quite explain, I am calm.
Well, I don't particularly trust him; I certainly don't believe that he has the kind of ill intentions for me that many of those people at the auction did. I don't know what is to come of tonight or if he's even going to ask for anything to come in tonight see him trying to force that either after what I've been through. In fact, when I bring it up, it seems to anger him that that was done to me. And I am luckily unharmed and as over it as I can be. Mostly, I feel lucky that I am not someone who got it worse or had to stay there for so many weeks like the women I had met. And maybe one day I can use his knowledge to help get some of those women out of that situation.
In the back row, I do pass Sky, Heather, and Paulo who sits with the guy from the bar that I recognize. It makes me happy to know that it turned out to be more than just a one-night stand. Paulo reaches out to me with his hand is mine for a moment on the way by, but I get a strange vibe from Heather, that stink eye I’ve gotten from her lately stronger than ever. I just keep going and ignore it; my choice or not, this is my wedding day, and I'm going to make it memorable.
As I pass the front row, my parents are there, and I smile just a little bit wider as I know that they are gaping at me. Probably looking for any sign that either I am in distress or that this is a joke. I don't know that I ever would have done anything so extreme as a joke, but it is funny that they think that's possible.
The vows are traditional, and I am thankful for the fact that the priest is sweet and to the point. The ring is gorgeous as I knew it would be; a ruby surrounded by several perfectly clear diamonds. I wouldn't be surprised if he has some team in Africa getting diamonds just for him since his lavishness knows no bounds.
"And now you may kiss the bride." I almost don't catch the words because I am in my head this whole time thinking about that kiss. We haven't kissed yet – I haven’t wanted to kiss him yet, but if this is going to be real, I have to kiss him in front of all these people. No way am I going for a full-on make-out here, but no one is going to buy that I'm going to give my new husband a little peck. And so, when Stefan leans in, I go for it, my lips parting just a little as he nips at my bottom lip. I can't say that I don't enjoy that part because I do, but I certainly am not all for leaping into bed with him and consummating this thing right away either.
I am literally ripped away from my thoughts, though, as the crowd begins to scream, and I find myself staring down the barrel of a gun pointed right at me. From the time that the priest told us to kiss to the time the screaming happened, Heather managed to make her way around and up to the front and pull a gun on me. I have clearly been misreading her hatred towards me this whole time as growing apart.
I guess she wants me dead.
Chapter 16
Stefan
"What the fuck! " I roar, not caring that the entire room full of wedding guests can hear me curse. Thank fuck that there are so many bodyguards here; not just my men but also Mariana and Ion’s as well as Marcel's and Anton's. There was no way that they were going to let this bitch that had claimed to be my new wife's friend kill her before we even got to consummate the marriage. I immediately order those who have tackled her to the ground to get her into my office. I have a wife possibly going into shock and an entire house full of wedding guests to deal with before I can handle the psychopath that came to ruin this wedding.
Anton comes up to me as Mariana and Ion disappear following their men as well as mine into my office with the harlot in question. I feel the anger boiling up in me to the point that I'm not going to be able to control it.
"Dalca, you didn't say there was going to be entertainment," Anton jokes, but his face is serious as he continues. "Why don't you let me handle getting all these people out of here safely. Marcel and I can work together. You go worry about your wife." I turn around to her, and she looks like a million different emotions right now.
"My friend just tried to fucking kill me on my wedding day." She doesn't even look me in the eyes when she says it, still staring at the spot where that Heather chick had the gun pointed at her head before. I know she's used to glitz and glam and drama, but not my level of drama, so I don't know how she will handle all this.
"Let my men get everyone out of here, and why don't we go get you in the suite to relax?" But that's when she turns to me, flames flashing through her eyes, and I know that this is going to go way different than I expected.
"No way in hell are you going to hold my friend hostage after she just tried to kill me, putting a gun to my head, and me not be a part of it. I want to know what the hell is going on.
I sigh. I didn't want her to have to get such as the close look at my lifestyle this soon. I wanted a chance for her to get used to me as a person first, but that is not the way this is going to go. I don't have the power to fight her right now either because I am so ready just to blow heads off. And I don't need that to be directed at her right now considering it was her that almost died. Seriously what the fuck is going on in this circus?
As we try to pass through the crowd of people, one of her other friends stops her and grabs onto her. I leap in between them and hold my gun at his chest, but she shoves we away, hard.
"Oh my God, are you like, okay?" her friend asks - a man who looks like he might be from around here. Paulo, I remember her calling him. "I seriously thought she was just going to get up and leave, she was so sour this whole time. I had no idea she had a gun and definitely not that she would use it on you." The man that is with him, his boyfriend, I assume, keeps stroking him to calm him down.
My bride leans over and gives him a quick kiss on the cheek even though it was her that almost died. Yes, this is the strength that I have been looking for in a woman. I wouldn't get this with anyone else "You go back to your family for now, and I'll get a hold of you. It's going to be fine."
Then, she lets me lead her away to my office.
It is crowded in here now that we're in here along with Mariana, two of her men, Silva, and this woman named Heather who looks worse for the wear now that she has been manhandled by her henchmen. I don't exactly feel bad, in fact, I'm ready to rip her head right off her shoulders.
I go up to her and pull at her hair, ripping her head back so that her neck is stretched to the brink, ripping from her skull. This could easily be a sexual moment if this were my wife, but I would never harm her. I mean to harm this woman. I wish I could rip her guts out with my knife and show what she’s made of.
She grits her teeth and grunts through them trying not to show pain, but I know she is in much. She's already been roughed up by Mariana herself.
"What the fuck is going on, and who the fuck do you work for, you little bitch?"
It’s Mariana who speaks up first, apparently already getting her to talk. "For someone who has the balls to point a gun at a wife of a Clan member, she is awfully forthcoming and weak,” the queen scoffs. "She tells me that she was hired by some man who wants to get back at you, Stefan. I can't imagine how someone like you could possibly piss someone off bad enough to want you to watch your bride die in front of you on your wedding day."
I growl but then look up at Mariana and embarrassment ,catching her sarcasm. We have a history that I am not so proud of, and I pay for it in guilt every single day. The Petrans’ opinions of me are not very good after the way that I treated Mariana like she was property back before she decided to marry Ion.
"Don't get so testy,” she tells me," I am just fucking with you. It's in the past. Clearly this is the better woman for you than me, and I am with a better man. But what we need to figure out is who the hell you pissed off so badly, Stefan."
In this moment, I keep replaying over and over in my head watching a bleeding Lajos be shoved into the ocean with betrayal written all over his face. One of his men could have easily figured o
ut that I did it, that I didn't pay, and come after me How they got such inside information I couldn't know. Of course, it probably has to do with this bitch.
I pull out my knife and put it against this chick’s throat. “Tell me who sent you,” I order her, sure to draw first blood, so she knows I am serious.
Recovering from the shock of it all, Presley speaks up. "Wait a minute, what the hell is going on, and what did she mean about the wife of a Clan member. What's a Clan? I mean, I figured a guy like you might be in some dirty dealings, but I don't understand would come after me and kill me. You purchased me fair and square."
"I don't want you to be between me and my rage right now, Presley, so I'm going to need you to shut the fuck up for a moment. We can talk about this later."
Instead of fighting with me, she looks at her friend. "Answer him, Heather. Answer him, or I'll make sure that he kills you. Because I am not understanding it at all how we went from growing up together to you pointing a gun at me at my wedding."
I press the knife in a little harder as she groans and nods her head. I take a bit of the pressure off so that she can talk. "I don't know his name,” she snaps. "He came to me while I was here with her in Brazil and told me to get my friends out of here for now. He told me that there would be some kind of wedding. He paid me a lot of money, but I didn't really need it or want it. I just wanted her out of the picture.” She pauses and looks at Presley in the eyes as she says the next part, and it takes everything in me not to rip her throat out like a fucking animal. I knew that Presley had some fucked up people in her life, but this has to take the cake. "You're like this crazy, spoiled, wild child, and yet, you get all of the attention. You get everything, and when you walk into a room people look at you. I have done everything to perfection, and here I am, still lesser than you. I am sick of spending my entire life in second place to you.”
I slap the cunt on the face then look at Mariana. "So, what are we going to do with her? She has no information for us. I don't know the name of the person responsible, but I can guess what they're pissed about. I'd rather not discuss this on my wedding day. I have a honeymoon to enjoy. Even you got that."
"No one is making any decisions here until I'm told what is going on. Why do you have so many enemies to worry about, and what does this woman have to do with everything?" Presley points to Mariana. I just want to take her out of here and away from all of this and start over, but the look on her face tells me that I'm not getting away with this tonight.
As if she knows I don't want to answer, it's Mariana who it does answer her. "I'm his boss, but this isn't a traditional job, if you catch what I mean. I think you can handle it; he really should have told you."
"This is some criminal shit, isn’t it?" Presley scoffs and throws her hands in the air. Unable to deal with this right now, I turn back to Mariana as we continue to discuss what we want to do with Heather. We could try to torture her more, but I don't think she's lying even though she is slimy little slug. But I don't know if we should kill her either, considering she was my bride's friend at some point. We already have enough animosity between us, and I don't want to add any more if she's going to learn to live in my house by my rules. There's a difference between being a fun kind of defiant and never being a wife to me because she despises me.
But while my hands are tied up, I don't even notice, and nobody tries to stop her, as Presley comes up to me and pulls my gun out of my holster.
"She knows too much. She clearly knows more than I do about who you are, where I live, and the fact that this marriage isn't exactly something that I was planning on. And if I know her at all, she is not going to stop until she gets what she wants. She has to go." And then my new wife pulls the trigger, pegging Heather right between the eyes. She brings the gun back down and wipes sweat from her brow. "Now, I think that my husband and I need some alone time to work out some things that he seems to have a left out about himself." wWthout another word, she walks out of the room and heads towards the master suite. Mariana stops me for a moment as I go to follow. "I don't know where you found her, but tell your wife I said welcome to the mafia."
It is only when I walk into the still dark room that I had my maids prepare for our wedding night during the wedding that I remember she still had that gun in her hand when she left the room. As soon as the door shuts behind me, I have no time for my eyes to adjust to the darkness because she has that same gun pressed to my left shoulder.
“If you are trying to hit my heart, you are way off.”
“I am not trying to kill you, Stefan; just make you fear the threat of pain. A blown shoulder will hurt like hell,” she grits out, and I feel myself getting hard. I shouldn’t be. I should be going after her with my knife and reminding her who she is married to since she just got a little preview of that. But this is what I signed up for in so many ways. I didn’t know that Presley Richards would fit into the Clans so well, only that she would fit into my plan to not have some boring virginal Romanian woman at my side for eternity. But she proved tonight beyond a doubt she can handle this life, even if she hates me for lying to her about it. “Now, why don’t you tell me about all the things you omitted before forcing me to become your wife like whatever crazy shit you are into that has led me to shoot my friend to death.”
“A gun to my shoulder isn’t exactly motivation, pumpkin. I suggest you back off with that before things gets much nastier than I wanted for our first night as a married couple,” I say darkly, pressing the coolness of the knife against her stomach. I don’t dig in or harm her but let her know I am not as afraid of her threat as she wishes me to be.
“Then, promise me,” she says.
“This is the one and only time I will do so, but yes, I will tell you who I am if you put the gun down.” The pressure is removed form my shoulder, and I hear her shuffling in the dark, cursing as she trips over something. The lamp on my nightstand comes on and casts an ugly, yellow glow where she sets the gun down and leans awkwardly on that side of the bed; one leg up on the bed and the other dangling off. Her arms are crossed over her chest as she swings that free leg impatiently.
I loosen my tie and walk over slowly, my eyes never leaving hers. She doesn’t even flinch, and I find I haven’t even given her enough credit yet. She is not like any woman I have ever known. Hell, she seems to have bigger balls than most of the men I know.
I set my knife down next to the gun and remain standing, my hands sliding across the fake rose petals on her dress. “I do hope despite everything there was something you enjoyed about today. The dress, maybe, or the kiss?” I arch my brow at her, and she rolls her eyes. I reach out and grab the sides of her mouth, pinching them together so it is painful, and she won’t be able to talk. “I asked you a question, and you will answer. I am going to tell you what I do, but that doesn’t excuse you from having to reveal anything to me. It is our wedding night, no matter how it came about.”
I let go, and she hisses at me like an angry snake. “The dress is perfect,” she finally says before resuming that swing in her leg. I leave my hand to rest on the material again, an intimacy without actually touching her body, as I reveal to her the monster she married.
“As you know, my name is Stefan Dalca. I am the soon to be head of Clan Dalca here in Brazil, but my father technically holds that title now. Though, I am pretty much submerged in the family business already.”
“What is the Clan, and what is the family business?” she presses with no patience.
“Mafia families, Presley. That is what the Clans are. We are mafia families assigned to certain territories around the world, many of us ruling the area for generations. Though, some are new. Brazil is mine.”
She starts laughing, and I look at her with unamused curiosity. “This is a joke, right like I am being punkd? No way did a marry into the mafia.”
“Sorry to disappoint you, pumpkin, bit this is very real, which means you are very much in danger.”
“You told me I was lucky!” she yells
. “You told me I was lucky to be coming home with you, you convince me to marry you, and then I almost die at our wedding because you are part of the mafia and failed to tell me. The least you could have done is warned me that my safety was on the line. Maybe I should have just cried fowl to my parents today and let them take me home. My Daddy has …”
I stop her there, leaping on top of her, pressing my body against hers so that she cannot move. My thumb is hard against her chin, smacking her teeth together and closing her mouth so she can’t say anything more. “You and I both know that you hated the life your Daddy wanted you to live. I saved you from that and from that damn boat full of cages and crazies. You will not disrespect me by threatening me. If I had told you, you would have just given me a harder time. And need I remind you that it was your friend wielding the gun, not one of mine?”
It isn’t lost on me that we are closer than we have ever been. Even the kiss at the end of the wedding, though a little passionate, was not the kind that had us pressing our bodies against each other. My anger had led me to be on top of her, but my eyes are glazing over as I realize how warm she is, her bare stomach against my thin button down. I don’t want to push her, but I am turned on by the anger in her eyes; anger instead of the fear I am sure other women would hold there at this moment.
I do take advantage of her closed lips and place mine on hers hard, just testing her before pulling away and letting her chin go, but a hard tug at my loosened tie has me falling back down to her, her lips parted for me as I nip at them once more with more urgency. She doesn’t have to show me twice she is interested, and I don’t care in the least that this is happening because we can’t stand each other right now.
Defiant (The Clans Book 6) Page 9