Page 10 of The Mafia’s Fiancee

The door closed, and I grew more and more defensive. I was chained to the bed but standing beside it. His stare, though, was another threat, another unbreakable tether I couldn’t escape.

“But you won’t belong here for long,” he added. Walking from side to side in the room. He kept his hands behind his back as he apprised me, like I was livestock to purchase, an item to buy and discard.

“I won’t be with you,” I declared.

I’d never protested to his face. Not like this. It was a joke to think that I could tell him how it was. I had no power. I never had.

“Yes, you will,” he stated, smiling more and more as he studied me. “You will belong with me. You will be where you belong at the Marchese estate. For me to do with as I please.”

Stopping in the middle of the room, he stared at me intensely. It seemed like he’d locked onto the sight of my bruising cheek, where my father had backhanded me.

“It looks like I’ll need to revise your education.” He grinned. “I’ll take great pleasure in beating sense into you. Of fucking your independence out of you.”

“You won’t.” I crossed my arms, needing to feel more defensive. I stood my ground. I wouldn’t cower or back down. My posture seemed weird, though, because folding my arms over my chest wasn’t so easy or natural to do with the weight of the chain weighing my left arm down.

It required a lot of strength, gumption, and bravery to talk back to him like this, but this chain was my protection too. If he approached, if he tried to touch me, I wouldn’t hesitate to wrap it around his neck and squeeze his life out.

I wasn’t violent. I’d been born into a life of violence and mayhem. I was near killers and the tortured. But I hadn’t ever embraced a darkness like that—until now.

After having a taste of bliss and happiness with Luke, though, I was fully prepared to fight for it.

“I will never choose you.”

“You weren’t asked,” he retorted.

“I will never go along with your plans.”

He pursed his lips, then smirked. “Is that what you think?”

“That’s what I know,” I replied. The ruby cut into my palm, and I drew on the reminder of Luke’s ring to stay strong.

“You’d rather settle for flirting with some pathetic hotel worker?” He huffed a bitter laugh.

Flirting? I wasn’t sure what he’d heard, but I’d done a lot more than flirt with Luke. I’d made love with him. I’d fallen for him. And I’d accepted his proposal.

“I’ll choose him over you every time.”

He tilted his head to the side, starting up his most annoying quirk.

“Even if it’s the last thing I’d ever do.”

Luke or death. It seemed so Romeo and Juliet of me, but I wasn’t bluffing. Just seeing this despicable man made me realize how dire this was.

“We’ll see about that.” He cocked his head in the other direction as he checked his watch. “But first, you’ll have to forgive me for making this visit so short. I’ve got a fight to watch.”

I didn’t react, but at the mention of a fight, I thought of Luke. He wouldn’t be there, would he? I imagined he had to be going as crazy as I was, separated against our will so soon after we vowed to be together in marriage one day.

“Some new kid on the block,” he said. “A rookie fighter who thinks he can rise up in the ranks.”

My heart beat faster. I held my breath as adrenaline hit me hard.

Luke. He had to be talking about him. He never would speak about fighters or business with me in any other circumstances. His teasing, smug tone suggested he was discussing this specific fight to get a rise out of me.

“We’ll see how he stands up against my man.” Chuckling, he shoved his hands in his pockets, at ease as I felt all the blood drain from my face. “We’ll have to see if he stands at all.”

Turning toward the door, he snickered some more before tossing out the cruelest statement of all. “We’ll have to see if you’ll still choose him—a dead man—over me, Emmalina.”

I cringed at his stupid emphasis on my name. At the slam of the door shutting after him, I flinched and dropped to the ground, struggling anew to get this cuff off my ankle.

Hearing a thinly veiled death threat against the man I loved was all I needed to resist this captivity again.

Please, Luke. Please stay safe until I can come back to you.