Matteo rolled his eyes. “My God, I was trying to lighten the mood.”
“You failed,” Luca said coldly. “Now put your knives away. Both of you.”
I sheathed my knife and Matteo did the same. I exhaled. “I shouldn’t have punched you,” I said eventually.
Matteo nodded. “I should keep my mouth shut now and then.”
We shook hands and I leaned against the wall again. My legs felt heavy. I peered down at my phone. I needed to call Lily, to tell her I wouldn’t give her up.
“But she’s not pregnant, is she?” Luca asked after a moment.
I shook my head. We’d always been careful.
“Then maybe we’ll get out of this unscathed. Brasci might not notice, and there are ways to fake blood stains on the sheets.”
“She won’t marry that man,” I said.
Luca raised his eyebrows. “Oh, isn’t she? Are you thinking about stopping Scuderi? Maybe kidnap Lily and marry her?”
I didn’t say anything. I wanted to punch Luca too, but that would definitely have been the nail in my coffin.
“Luca, please. Can’t you talk to my father?”
“Talk to him and tell him what?” Luca growled. “That my best soldier screwed his daughter and wants her for himself? That I broke my oath to protect Liliana and now she’s lost her fucking honor? That will go over fucking well.”
“No, but you could tell him that Gianna and I want our sister in New York with us and if he wouldn’t maybe consider marrying her to someone from the Famiglia. You wouldn’t have to tell him who right away. It would give us time to figure something out.”
“I can’t get involved. It’s none of my business. And if your father has already promised Liliana to Brasci, he won’t change his mind. It would make him look bad and offend Brasci.”
“But we have to do something!” Aria exclaimed.
“I won’t go into war over this!” Luca hissed.
I understood him. He had to consider only the Famiglia. But I didn’t have to.
* * *
Liliana
I was woken by the ringing of a phone. Slowly my conversation with my father and then Romero replayed in my mind. My eyes darted toward my travel bag in the walk-in closet, thinking and hoping it was Romero again before I remembered that it was on mute. Disappointment crashed down on me once more. I sat up, disoriented and exhausted from crying. The clock on the nightstand told me it was only 10 p.m. I walked toward my desk where the landline phone was and picked it up. It was Aria. She must have heard already. Had Father called her to tell her the good news?
I picked up. “Hi, Aria,” I rasped. There was no hiding that I’d been crying. Aria knew that voice.
“Oh, Lily. I just heard. I’m so sorry. I can’t believe it.”
“We’re not going to let Father get away with it. We’ll figure something out,” Gianna shouted in the background. They were together, they had husbands they loved, and I’d be stuck here with an old man I would never be able to love. How could things have gone so horribly wrong?
“Did Father call you?” I asked, my voice regaining some of the emotionlessness I preferred.
“No, he didn’t. We found out through Romero.”
“He told you.”
“Yes, he did,” Aria said slowly. “He attacked one of the other soldiers who said something to him, so Luca had a word with him, and figured it out.”
“Why did he attack that man?”
“What do you think? Because he doesn’t want you to marry Brasci,” Aria said softly. “He’s been trying to call you for the last hour but you didn’t pick up. He almost went crazy over here. He wants to talk to you.”
“He’s there with you?”
“Yes. I’ll hand him the phone now, okay?”
Fear corded up my throat. “Okay.”
“Lily,” Romero murmured into the phone. His voice was anything but detached now. I released a harsh breath and felt tears run down my face.
“Lily?”
I swallowed hard. “I thought you didn’t want anything to do with me now that I’m promised to someone else.”
“No, never. I know I didn’t react the way I should have. I…I was so angry when you told me your fucking father wants to sell you off to that old bastard. I wanted to fly over there and kill him. I didn’t want to let out my anger on you so I tried to push it back.”
“Okay,” I whispered.
“Do you still want to run away?”
Yes, more than anything else. “It would mean war. You said it yourself.”
“I don’t care. I would risk war for you.”
“Is Luca there to hear you say that?”
“No, he isn’t.”
“He would kill you if he could hear you.”
“Your sisters would risk war over you as well.”
I didn’t doubt it. Gianna, in particular, but even Aria who was the more reasonable would do anything to protect me, and that was what scared me so much. Fabi would soon be in the midst of mob business. The war with the Russians had gotten worse in recent years, and I probably didn’t even know half of it. If New York and Chicago started fighting each other again, this could cost the lives of many people I cared about.
“I have to meet him tomorrow.”
“I don’t want you alone with him, Lily.”
“But what if he asks me and Father says ‘yes’? You know I can’t refuse him.”
“You can refuse him. You are an honorable Italian girl, play that card. If I have to worry that you’ll be alone with him I’ll book the next flight and be there tomorrow. Fuck. I want to do just that and kill him.”
I smiled slightly, wishing he could. I wanted nothing more than to have him with me, to feel his arms around me. “I’m not an honorable girl anymore. Maybe if I tell my father I can get out of this marriage.”
“He might kill you. Your father has been very volatile since that thing with Gianna.”
“Maybe that would be better than marrying that guy.”
“Don’t say something like that. We’ll figure something out.”
I nodded, even if he couldn’t see it. I wanted to believe him. “I know,” I said quietly.
“Aria is going to call your father tomorrow morning to get a feel for his resolve.”
“I don’t think she’ll be able to talk him out of it. Does Luca know everything about us?”
“Yes, at least everything he needs to know to assess the situation.”
My cheeks flamed, but Romero was right. We needed to tell Luca the truth if we wanted him to be able to do something. “Was he very angry?”
Romero was silent for a moment. “He wasn’t happy. I punched Matteo, that didn’t really help matters.”
“You hit Matteo? Why? I thought Aria said you’d attacked another soldier.”
“I did both,” Romero admitted. “I just really lost it.”
“Please don’t get in trouble because of me. I don’t want you to get hurt, promise me.” There was another moment of silence, before he said, “I promise.”
But I had a feeling it was a promise he wasn’t sure he could keep. If he’d already attacked Matteo, the Famiglia’s Consigliere, that wasn’t a good sign.