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I think I’ll have made mynonnoproud as well. I wish he’d been here, but one day he’ll give me away at a real ceremony. Not just an empty ballroom with a short Italian Catholic priest spitting at me in rapid fire Italian as he does a rush job wedding, but a true ceremony that involves all of my guys—all four of them.
I zone out a bit and stare at my newly wedded husband as the priest says his Catholic prayers and recites theNuptial Blessingin stilted English.
“... Look now with favor on these, your servants, joined together in Marriage, who ask to be strengthened by your blessing. Send down on them the grace of the Holy Spirit and pour your love into their hearts, that they may remain faithful in the Marriage covenant…”
“... May they be blessed with children, and prove themselves virtuous parents, who live to see their children’s children…”
“... Amen.”
We don’t have rings to exchange, but that’s better for us for now anyway.
When the priest tells Ren he can kiss me, hisbride—God that’s weird—he doesn’t hesitate to meet my lips with his own, both of us getting lost in each other and completely forgetting about anyone else in the room as his tongue meets mine. He picks me up off the ground with his hands at my waist and I bring my arms up around his neck to hold on for dear life, melting into the kiss with each stroke of his tongue against mine. I bring my feet up behind me so it’s easier to clench my thighs together, hoping to relieve some of the tension coiling between my legs as I feel heat rushing through my body and heading straight for my core.
My panties dampen and I feel his hard length against me so I know he’s just as affected as I am. I don’t know what tonight will bring, but it will be hot, whatever happens. We desperately need to talk first though.
“That’s enough. Ren, you’ll have to let your new bride go for the time being. We have business to discuss.” Raffaele gruffly interrupts us, causing us to slowly separate from one another, neither of us entirely willing to let go. Before he fully moves away, Ren rests his forehead on mine
“I’ll see you in our room when I’m finished. I’ll do my best to be quick. I know we have a lot to talk about, but I need to say this right now before you walk away from me. I know you don’t love me the way that you love them. I understand that you’ve agreed to this more out of obligation and a potentially misguided need to protect me, but I do love you with every fiber of my being. You own my heart and soul and I have never cared for another the way that I do you, nor will I. You are it for memi amore,” he whispers to me and then places a fragile last kiss to my swollen mouth before walking away from me and toward the evil incarnate that is his grandfather.
Two
Matteo
Present Day…
It’s getting harder and harder to look in the mirror these days. I know that I made the best decision I could in the situation we were in. I know that I did what needed to be done to protect what was left of the wreckage of our hearts. My brothers, my true brothers, didn’t deserve the hurt that she caused. If it hadn’t been for me doing what I always do, and making the final call, I know they’d still be at her side. I can see it in the way they look for her in everyone we come across. They see her in places we know she isn’t. They call out for her in their sleep. I know they’d accept her marriage to my twin brother in a heartbeat to have her in their arms, but really, where would that leave them?
I know what kind of deals are made when you marry the two biggest mafia families in the United States. Any hope we had to unite all of our families like originally planned became null and void when Alessandra made those decisions without us… again. We had a plan. I had a fucking plan that she knew about—that we’d worked out together—and then this fucking guy, Ren Gavino, stalks her, scares her, and then god damn kidnaps her, and yet he gets the girl? My fucking girl? It’s all bullshit of my own fucking making and I hate it. I let him take what was mine from right under my nose.
If it were any other girl, I wouldn’t care. The truth of the matter is, I don’t really care about the logistics of it all anyway. The real problem is that I’m jealous and I’m letting those feelings cloud my judgement. I’m letting my insecurities take over because he got her first. He was the true heir to have been given a rightful place at our queen's side. He got the loving mother and a powerful title and rank within an established family business—a shady underworld mob family, but that’s irrelevant. He was handed over everything I’ve ever wanted. I got a small taste of heaven when Alessandra showed up and yet he’s the one who gets to claim her publicly. I’m jealous and pathetic and it’s taking over my every thought.
I’m the guy that everyone always depends on. I’m the face of our pack. I’m the decision maker—the indestructible force that keeps us moving forward and the backbone that keeps us strong. It’s not easy being the guy that can neverfeel, but I make it work. Life taught me early on that it’s better to hide even the smallest hint of any type of reaction to any fucking thing. It’s better that way, and to this day that remains true. People can’t hurt you if they don’t know what you’re thinking or how you’re feeling.
Noah can’t help himself, he’s the most aggressive with his feelings. He’s good at hiding behind his carefully constructed playboy facade when needed though. Cohen can mask any feeling with the best of them, but deep down he’s probably the kindest of us all. He’s hyper sensitive to our girl’s feelings and always knows the best way to handle her. He’s also the one that always sees beyond the bullshit. I can’t even say I’m not jealous of that. He’s the one who discovered the secrets buried under the surface of the whole dilemma we’re currently facing. I know if there was a way out of this, he’d have found it—or he will find it and if that day ever comes, Alessandra had better be ready because we’ll be coming for her.
Raffaele scowls as he lifts his gun and aims it at Noah, directly behind me as he slits the throat of the guard holding me in place. I watch everything after that moment as if it’s happening in slow motion, but in reality it couldn't be more than the blink of an eye. I see Alessandra rush at him, unwilling to let him hurt me. She doesn’t realize that the guys are here yet, but her stubborn ass would only have tried to move faster if she knew any one of the three of us are currently in jeopardy.
“These boys just blindly follow you, huh? Would they still if they knew you were married to Ren?! Would they settle for never being anything other than second best?!” He screams, spittle flying from his mouth as he rages at the love of my life. He snarls as he lets a bullet loose into the chest of the woman who’s changed my life in every way—the one I love deeper than anything imaginable and can’t ever lose. I just can’t.
I hear the bang of another gun sounding at my ear and turn to see Cohen with a steady hand aiming the just fired pistol at the old man’s head. Turning back, I see Raffaele’s brain matter everywhere and breathe out painfully at his dying words. I stand frozen to the spot for a moment too long, pissed off and devastated next to my brothers. Unable to shake the hurt caused by a woman who can’t seem to stop keeping secrets.
It’s only when her eyes shutter closed that I wake up from the shock of seeing my beautiful girl shot and move into action. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. How could I freeze up at a time like this?
“We’d called in a team when you alerted us, which means there’s already paramedics on the way. They should be here in just another minute or so.” I hear Cohen’s panicked voice reach my ears, as he rushes to Alessandra’s side to provide first aid and staunch the bleeding. Though I don't know if he’s trying to find relief in that himself or to assure me that things might just be okay because help is on the way.
There’s so much blood. It’s seeping from her head and her chest so I rip my jacket off and apply pressure to her head wound while Cohen works on her chest.
“Stay with me Q! Don’t you fucking die on me! You don’t get to give up on us like this. Fucking please.” Cohen barely contains a sob as he tries to stay calm and handle the situation with care. My heart feels like it’s been ripped from my chest and I know somewhere in the recesses of my heart that if she dies, we’ll all die. Our souls are too intertwined to go on without the others. We won’t survive this if anything happens to her.
I look up and see Noah cutting through the bindings holding my twin to the chair he’s strapped to. He’s clearly been drugged because nothing is waking him up as Noah jostles him around, clearly beyond caring if Ren gets hurt in the process.
I get it. I’m pissed too, but really it doesn’t change a whole lot, and honestly, I never thought I’d be the one to say that. I can own that I was jealous of my brother at first. I didn’t understand their innate connection that seemed deeper than anything I’d ever have with her. She showed me how crazy that was. Her love for me reaches well beyond my insecurities or worry that I’ll never measure up to il diavolo, the heir to the Gavino Famiglia—the guy who got our mom and our girl. Well, it looks like I can have them too, so I will.
Our clean-up crew and team of paramedics show up and immediately take over, and I vaguely hear Cohen talking them through the events. I’m not worried about what he tells them since these guys are on our payroll. The guys wouldn’t have called anyone else.
They get Alessandra and Ren loaded onto stretchers and we all go to follow them out so we can meet them at the hospital when my phone vibrates. I look at it, realizing it’s my father and hit the ignore button. Now is not the time to deal with that fuckface. When it goes off a second and third time, my spine tingles with awareness so I answer.
“What?!” I demand.
