I hold in a breath, covering my mouth at the realization of Benny’s words. He’s right. Vinny won’t let me go with a simple gunshot. No, he’ll make me suffer before killing me. He will make me regret leaving him and going to Cristian.
“Do you think I give a fuck about technicalities?” Cristian snarls.
“I do,” Benny says. “And so will Gigi.”
“She’ll get over it,” Cristian snaps. “I can buy her a new friend.”
Benny shakes his head. “Gigi will never speak to you again.”
Cristian grabs the newspaper and opens it, as if he’s over the conversation. “Gigi will never know.”
“Uh, yes, I will.”
Cristian lowers the newspaper, and our attention darts to Benny. He holds up his phone, so it’s facing us.
Gigi is on FaceTime, and she speaks in the sweetest voice I’ve ever heard from her. “You know Natalia is my best friend. I’d be heartbroken if I lost her. Let Benny marry her, and I promise, I’ll marry anyone you choose for me.”
“Are you fucking out of your mind?” Cristian’s nostrils flare. “If Benny marries her, we’ll lose the deal with the Cavallaros.” He smacks his palm against his forehead. “And here I thought I raised intelligent children. Neither one of you will succeed me. I’ll hand it over to the first goddamn man I find in the subway before either of you receives it.”
“Then, you marry her,” Gigi says with no humor in her voice. “You don’t have a deal to marry anyone.”
“What?” I shriek.
“Hang up the fucking phone,” Cristian tells Benny.
“What—”
He snatches the phone from him and hangs up on Gigi. “Benny, I’ll deal with your ass later. Natalia, eat your fucking food.”
CHAPTER 6
CRISTIAN
When I woke up this morning, I didn’t expect the first person I’d want to use my gun on today would be my goddamn son.
Benny knew everything would change if he involved Gigi, so that’s precisely what he did. Now, I either have to terminate his engagement with Cavallaro—an arrangement years in the making—or marry Natalia off to someone.
Marrying her off to someone else it is.
No one said who she needed to marry, just someone within the family. I could give her to Gigi’s pet hamster for all I care.
“Natalia marrying someone in the family is the only way she’ll be fully protected,” my idiot son says when we’re alone in my office. “Rival families know wives and children are off-limits unless they want a fucking war.”
“Fine.” I stand from my chair, done with this time-wasting discussion, and wave for him to leave my office. “Go collect Natalia.”
I’ll solve this issue and proceed to more pressing matters than who Natalia can say I do to.
Benny is silent for a moment, stunned at my caving in, and rises to his feet. “All right.” He leaves my office.
I snap my fingers and yell, “Dario, get your ass in here.”
Dario was recently promoted to a high-ranking soldier after successfully blowing up Foreplay Gentlemen’s Club last night. We had been kind enough to ensure all the dancers were out of the building, giving them five hundred dollars each before they left. Dario and Benny tied the owners—the Peterson twins—to chairs inside their office and then ignited the low-budget club. I had grown tired of them promising money and not delivering.
Their deaths were a terrific investment on my part. I got rid of the brothers, profited twenty-five thousand from their biggest competitor, and increased said competitor’s monthly rate for their new strip club monopoly in the area.
Dario doesn’t bat an eye at murder and jumps when I bark, but I wouldn’t consider him competent enough to rank anything higher than a soldier. Sure, it’s easy to kill a man. But planning the perfect murder that’s clean and doesn’t trail back to us takes brains.
Dario hustles into my office. “Yeah, boss?”
I hold up a finger, leaning against my desk, and wait until Benny returns with Natalia before breaking the news.
“Congrats,” I say.
Dario straightens his stance, as if preparing for another promotion.
I jerk my chin toward a confused Natalia. “You’re marrying her.”
“What?” Natalia’s face floods with horror.
Dario’s gaze moves from me to Natalia, and a smile builds along his lips as he feasts his eyes on her. “Really?”
Eagerness swims in Dario’s eyes—to be expected. What’s not expected is that my trigger finger suddenly itches to blow his brains out at the way he’s staring at her.
“Whoa,” Benny hisses. “Dario is a soldier. He can’t protect her.”
I sneer at my son. “You wanted her married in the family so bad.” I throw an arm out in Dario’s direction. “Dario is a soldier in this family. Problem solved.”
“I’m not marrying him,” Natalia says like a stubborn fucking teenager. “He used to fuck my cousin.”
I look at my watch, bored with this nonsense. “I don’t care if he’s fucked your entire family.”
Natalia shakes her head violently. “No, I won’t do it.”
“Don’t be ungrateful,” I tell her. “Marry him, or as Benny said, you won’t be protected.”
Natalia is still shaking her head. “I won’t do it.”
I cock my head to the side. “There’s nothing else I can do for you then.”
“Dad—” Benny starts, but I interrupt him.
“Natalia, pack your shit. Dario will take you home.” I motion toward the doorway. “Now, all of you, get the fuck out of my office.” I cast my eyes to Natalia. “Beg Vinny for a quick death when he gets his hands on you.”
I did what they’d asked and found someone for her to marry.
Not my problem she declined my very generous offer.
I could’ve tried to hand her over to Malfoy—my man who eats a piece of skin from every one of his victims.
I thought I could use sweet Natalia to my advantage, but she’s become a problem.
And what do I do with problems?
I squash and bury them.
CHAPTER 7
NATALIA
I will die at the hands of a man.
Which man those hands belong to has yet to be determined, but my money is on one of these goddamn New York terrorists who find murder their favorite pastime.
Marrying Dario isn’t happening. The maniac once stabbed a guy in the school cafeteria for taking the last basket of fries, and my cousin said he enjoys role-playing murder scenarios during sex. Hard pass on that.
When Cristian makes it clear that he can’t help me unless I become Dario’s wifey, I leave his office, return to the guest room to gather my few belongings, and walk downstairs.
I hear a loud conversation from Cristian’s office, and Dario is waiting for me at the front door. Without a word, he leads me outside to a black sedan, and I slide into the passenger seat.
“You know,” Dario says as he drives through the estate gates, “I’d be a decent husband if we got married.” His eyes stray to my chest for a moment, and he licks his lips before returning his gaze to the road.