Chapter 5

ARIA

Enraged, Dad releases me, and I cough when my airways open.

I stagger backward, dazed and confused, looking from Lucca to my father. At this moment, I don’t know who is more cruel.

My father, or this monster I’m supposed to marry.

The gruesome sight of my father’s guard on the ground with his body still convulsing should give me my answer, but when I look at my father, the darkness I see emanating from him refutes that.

“Look at you full of power,” Dad taunts. “I remember you being scum until the Pakhan took favor on you.”

“You can leave now, Raphael,” Lucca replies. “And if you touch her like that again, I’ll kill you. Rest assured, I will end you.”

Dad gives him a narrowed look, and his lips thin with displeasure. He gives me one last glance before he walks away, leaving me.

I watch him get into his car and the guards in theirs, and they leave.

It’s only when the cars drive away, and I can’t see them anymore, that I force myself to meet Lucca’s cold gray eyes that are already looking at me.

I didn’t want him to see me crying, but that is the least of my worries.

“Clean that up,” he orders his guards and cocks his head to the dead body on the ground in front of me. The two closest guards to him obey. He then puts his gun away and straightens with his gaze trained on me. “Come here to me.”

Those words. If not for the hard look on his face, I’d think I was still dreaming, still in that state of sleep and awake where he seemed like something else to me.

Not this monster. Yet it’s him. As I look into those soulless eyes, I know that he was something else to me—something I placed outside of everything and everyone.

I just can’t remember, but I feel it.

“Aria, did you hear me?”

I can hear him talking just fine, but I can’t move or speak.

I don’t know if it’s fear or shock that has me rooted to the ground, but I can’t move, and I’m trembling.

He comes closer, so close I can smell that musky cologne again, but unlike last night it makes me feel sick, and I’m numb from what just happened.

I don’t even protest when he scoops me up like I’m weightless.

All I do is avoid those eyes.

He carries me back upstairs and sets me on the bed. When he reaches out to touch my face, probably at the bruise I can feel on my cheek, I turn my face away.

Some sense of awareness comes back to me, and I don’t want him touching me. I don’t want him near me.

“There’s a bruise on your cheek.”

“Don’t touch me, ever,” I admonish.

“Looks like you’ve gotten over the shock.” He straightens up and regards me evenly.

“You bastard,” I rasp, and his expression shifts back to that of menace.

“Yes, that’s the first thing you’ll learn about me.” His lips arch, and he runs a hand over his beard.

“I don’t want to learn anything more about you.”

“I think it’s best we catch up later, Printsessa.”

“Don’t call me that,” I snap.

He chuckles. “Fiery and feisty. You haven’t changed one bit. I always liked it.”

The infuriation that courses through me at his taunting words only exacerbates my rage.

“Fuck you,” I cry.

“Oh, I will most definitely be fucking you.” Desire lights up his eyes, and I hate the flush of arousal that heats my core when I think of him taking me in such a way.

“You will not touch me.”

“We’ll see about that, Printsessa.” It sounds like a promise. “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure you enjoy it.”

Victory lights up his eyes at my silent acknowledgment of my loss. I swallow hard and try to steady my breathing so that I can hold it together.

“There’s a bathroom in the corner; go wash the blood off your face. I’ll send someone up with an ice pack for the bruise.”

I’m grateful when he turns and leaves. The guards close the door, closing me in.

The tears come in full force seconds later, and I sink to the floor on my knees.

I’m scared. I’m so damn scared. I won’t even bother to pretend I’m not. But I am, and I don’t know what to do.

Lucca was right about what he said last night. No one can save me from him.

I already thought I was in hell under my father’s rule, but that was just the beginning.

I should have run away when I had the chance.

Now I don’t know what will become of me.

***

LUCCA

I stand by the door and listen to her cry.

The last sound of defeat.

It is the sound of my conquest and triumph in this war.

I shouldn’t feel anything, but the fucking ghosts must be doing a number on me.

It’s not just that, though.

If it were, I could deal with it.

I always knew something like this was going to happen. It was only a matter of time.

What’s fucking with me is not what I’m doing to her now, but what I did before.

I knew as I did it, I should have left well enough alone.

But I didn’t.

That fascination I’d always had with her came back to haunt me, and it made

me drop my guard and forget who she was. I shouldn’t have allowed that to happen.

No matter what, I should have had my goal within my sight, regardless of the cost.

My errors in showing mercy might have worked immensely in our favor, but

that was a fluke of luck.

That same fascination, however, is back in full force, but I won’t allow it to

overpower me this time.

Aria’s just a pretty face with a body that makes my cock hard. That’s all she is.

Women like that are a dime a dozen, and I’ve never lacked for a woman on my arm or underneath me in my bed.

Maybe my fascination is fueled by the obvious fact that I know I fascinate her too.

Knowing that is fanning the flames of arousal that neither one of us can control.

She wants me as much as she fears me. I could see it all over her, even in her angered state. Her cheeks flushed, and need sparked in her eyes at the mention of fucking.

By the time I sink my cock into her tight little cunt I’ll get my fill and forget the fascination. My mind will be back on business, as it should be.

I move away from the door, glancing at my guards. They both nod to me, and I proceed down the corridor. They know what to do.

I won’t lock Aria in her room unless I have to. But the guards are needed to keep her in line until I can control her.

“All good?” Damien asks when I walk back into the living room. “I saw what

happened.”

“Yes. All is good.”

He sighs with pent-up frustration. “Good. I’d say that went as well as we could expect.”

I plant myself down in my chair, and he comes over to sit on the edge of the

desk.

“It did,” I agree. Things went exactly as I preempted, and Raphael behaved precisely as I thought he would.

Motherfucker.

It’s easy to guess what a desperate man will do when you have him figured out. Easier when you know that desperate man is clutching at every straw he can get his hands on to stay afloat.

I knew Raphael would agree to whatever terms I laid out from the moment he saw the evidence I have.

There was nothing to argue, and he should have been thanking his lucky stars I didn’t fuck him over by spreading it to the media.

“Was the girl compliant?”

“No, but she will be. She just needs a bit of persuasion. Don’t worry, I have the time to persuade her. I’ll control her so she won’t be a problem.”

“I’m sure you will.”

Control is what I need over her. Unfortunately, by doing so, I have to control myself too. That includes the rage coursing within me at what I just witnessed Raphael do to her. Even she looked shocked, but then again, maybe that was the first he’d shown of his true colors since she woke from her coma.

“Don’t think Raphael won’t try to find some way of stopping us,” I warn, thinking of his words to his daughter. He told her he’d fix this if he could.

He wouldn’t have said that if there wasn’t a chance that he might be able to. I have to make sure that doesn’t happen.

“I’m certain he will.”

“We have to be vigilant now more than ever, especially around those loyal to him.”

“I know. But fucking hell, Lucca, let’s just take a moment to acknowledge that we’ve just got that bastard right where we want him. This is no mere triumph. We have Cervantes.”

Damien has wanted the business since we started plotting for revenge.

“You have Cervantes.” I correct him, and he smiles the first genuine smile I’ve seen in a long time.

“Thanks to you. The company has been bringing in wealth to that bastard for years. Right from when he married Teresa, if not before.”

“Let me secure it first before we celebrate.” Nothing is mine until Aria turns twenty-five.

Then and only then will the terms of the trust loosen and allow me some leeway.

No one can do shit until then, not even me. The only advantage I have is knowing that Raphael has his hands tied behind his back until then too.

But that won’t stop him from trying to infiltrate. It’s only as her husband that I’ll be able to do anything.

“That wedding needs to be soon.” Damien nods.

“One month is fine. People will ask fewer questions then.” Arranged marriages are common in our world. But for the same reasons they’re common, they also draw attention. “We don’t want to alert anybody to what’s really going on.”

It could be dangerous on all fronts if we do.

“Okay, I’ll leave that to you. I guess I’m just eager.”

“The last thing we want to do is mess this up. We’ve got a good thing going. Now we just have to figure out the rest.” I draw in a ragged breath. There’s something that’s been bothering me right from the night Timothy died. The same thing wracks my brain now. “Damien, I’m going to find out why Raphael killed the State’s Attorney.”

He narrows his eyes. “What are you thinking?”

“There’s something missing from the big picture that I can’t put my finger on. It might be the same thing. Why would Raphael want the State’s Attorney dead? And how did he get him to the docks? We watched the footage. There were no guards anywhere. It’s unusual. It was the same for Timothy. How the fuck did Raphael get close enough?”

Damien’s shoulders tense, and he shakes his head. “I don’t know, moy syn. But, if it’s something you think will help us in our pursuit to destroy Raphael, look into it. Leave no stone unturned.”

“I won’t. This might be it, Damien.”

I’ve been looking into everything, and I have my spies positioned where I need them to be.

I suspect we have a rat in our circle, or Raphael De Marchi is working with someone outside the Bratva.

Whichever it is, I’ll find out. If I can prove the latter, I don’t think it will be anyone the Pakhan would align with.

My hands are just itching to end him.

It’s a shame Aria is caught in this web of secrets and lies.

Such is the art of war, however. She’s dirty by association, and innocence won’t exonerate her.

That’s life.