Page 58 of Revenge on the Mafia

It was already bad enough that other men had felt the softness of those ridiculously tight springing curls. He had to do it in front of me.

“So, when’s the wedding?” he asked casually.

Interesting noises came out of Ludano. He tried again to keep his head up, but he was losing the battle. I didn’t have to knock it down anymore. It rolled down on its own. “One hundred and thirty-six hours.” After a beat, I added, “Sooner. If she pisses me off.”

My brother chuckled. “So what? I need a suit in forty-eight?”

I leveled my gaze at him. He was wearing a suit. “She’s not going to piss me off.”

I said it half-heartedly. He didn’t believe me. I didn’t either. Besides, I hoped she would. Eleven fucking years. Finally, she would be mine. If only for seven hundred and thirty hours.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

ANNA

7th August

No puedo admitirlo ni siquiera ante mí misma, y mucho menos decírselo a ellos. He vuelto a encerrarme en mí misma. Es más seguro así. Encontraré una salida.

I can't admit it to myself, let alone tell them. I am back inside my shell. It's safer this way. I’ll find a way out of this.

I had thought to play with fate and lost.

Idiota.

Unease settled on my spine. A storm was brewing from the doorway, and as each vertebra crackled underneath the tension, I knew I was going to bear the brunt of his wrath. My hand curled around the pin. The pressure flattened the dough to the thickness of paper. Fear crawled into my rib cage. Steeling myself, I turned around and showed him my front and regretted it instantly.

He’d gone unnoticed by Magda and Isidora. Probably because he shared characteristics with the marble running across the kitchen counter. Solid. Cold. His pattern unique, unlike any man I’d met before him. But his veins of ice had collected an undercurrent of irritation. So strong that it zipped to me like electricity.

He was going to end all hope. I knew it in my gut.

‘No,’ I mouthed. One word that couldn’t be misunderstood no matter which language I spoke.

He gave me an unimpressed stare and then turned his head to the side. I followed it to the round clock that ticked like a time bomb.

¡Joder! It was like he had an internal clock on him. It was forty-eight hours to the dot.

I should have known better. I’d thought ignoring it would make it go away while I figured out a way to get out of this. That somehow, he might have forgotten that he’d forced a marriage onto me. I had avoided Magda and Isidora for two days with the petty spark of that hope in my chest. I’d thought we could go back to how we were and no one would have to know. Or that I’d find a way out. I was wrong. He doused that tiny flicker of hope with his indifferent words.

“My wife won’t be working here anymore.”

The words hit the room like a brick through glass.

Everything stopped. Magda stopped stirring. Isidora stopped cutting. She must have cut herself because she sucked her index finger into her mouth before spinning toward me. Desolation crawled in my heart. I wanted to throw the rolling pin at his head and be done with him.

My gaze caught on Magda’s. I couldn’t fathom what was in it. I avoided Isidora’s because I knew what I would find. Disappointment. Betrayal. The silence hummed like an angry beast in the room. After a beat, Magda spoke. Her voice was filled with uncertainty in the unbearable tension. “Mi dispiace, signore. I think I misheard.”

‘Please,’ I begged him.

His lip curled. So slight that it was almost unnoticeable. But I’d fixated on his gaze and caught the triumphant flash. “Anna is going to be my wife.”

The tension cracked. Magda was oddly quiet, but Isidora gasped. A hand flew to her mouth. Guilt soured my stomach. I felt the heat of my body flushing red. The back of my throat burned with shame. Even though I stared straight at him, it was hard not to catch the shocked reaction in my peripheral vision. As if it were even necessary, he added, “She’ll have other things to do than cook and clean.”

His gaze on me was full of amusement. Then it dropped to my side, where my fist clenched on the pin. When he pulled it up to meet my eyes again, his were filled with a challenge. I took a step toward him. Curled my fist tighter around my weapon. Another two steps. It was heavy in my hands. Then I stopped. I was a fool. Something cracked inside me. The pin fell to the floor with a thud.

“Leave us.” His tone was a cold command.

Magda bustled out immediately. Isidora hesitated. I didn’t deserve her friendship. Her glance switched between me and him. Stay. She didn’t get to make the choice. Magda rushed to her and pulled her out of the room.