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“WHAT?!” I shrieked.
“Not now,” Santino said under his breath.
His trying to silence me made me even more furious. I wasn’t someone to be passed around! I wasn’t even sure I’d feel safe with someone I loved, let alone a complete stranger! The only reason it worked with Santino was because I knew he’d die for me—I knew his loyalty was for meandmy Family. I knew it was just sex, it was nothing more but a trade in training. Nothing.
It was nothing.
And now I was going to marry some random person from Italy who may or may not have at one point wanted my brother dead? Me?
Hell. No.
Andrei’s glare was so intense toward me that it was like not looking at my brother anymore. “You need protection.”
“I can protect myself!” I yelled.
“No. You can’t. Only blood protects. A name protects.” He looked around the room. “Find one from Italy, show them we’re willing to do our part, to bring peace before they continue in this ridiculous all-out war. Before we all die.”
“But—”
Santino grabbed my hand and squeezed it, then let it go suddenly, causing my arm to drop at my side, lifeless. In less than three minutes my brother had crushed me without realizing it. Maybe it would have been better had one of those bullets hit me.
“Have the men clean this shit up,” Nixon said. “We’ll meet in an hour. Try not to bleed on the floors, everyone.”
This wasn’t normal.
None of it.
I was still as a statue until Santino grabbed my hand and gently pulled me out of the kitchen and up the stairs into my room.
We didn’t talk much. All I did was think, think, and think some more while he changed and got ready for the meeting. I was numb and pissed that some man in my life who barely knew me felt like he could just marry me off as if we lived in Regency London.
How archaic! It didn’t matter if that was how alignments were made. I’d suffered enough!
“Does it matter?” I asked before Santino left the room.
He paused at the door and looked over his head. “Does what?”
“Virginity, for the Families, does it matter?”
He frowned. “I don’t think so. Maybe for some of the older ones. Why?”
“Just curious since I’m used goods.” I forced a smile. “I’ll just be up here reading and knitting.”
He rolled his eyes and left.
But I wasn’t far behind.
I waited for all of the men to sit in the living room.
And then I marched right into the middle of it and announced, “He took my virginity.” I pointed directly at Santino. “If I’m marrying anyone… It’s him.”
“Oh, fuck.” Santino hung his head in his hands while my brother pulled out a revolver and pointed it at Santino’s head.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“There is no rule of law until the mafia needs lawyers.” —Stephen Holmes
Santino
