night.
“Alcina! Alcina!”
It took me a minute to open my eyes. Anna shook me again, my name on her lips, making me sit up too fast. We knocked heads and then both groaned as we rubbed the spots.
“Mamma mia! Anna!”
“Listen to me,” she hissed, rubbing the spot even faster. “Elmo—Eraldo is here! He came to meet you!”
“What?” I jumped out of bed, wrapping my naked body in a sheet. Corrado had slept over. He was not in the bed. Where did he go?
“Get dressed!” She waved her hands around wildly. “Put on a nice dress and fix your hair!” She narrowed her eyes at me and then plucked a leaf from the snarled strands. “You will explain later.”
I was moving too slow for her. She waved her hands at me, telling me to sbrigati. Hurry. I could not. My body ached from a long night full of hard sex.
I jumped in the shower, quickly drying my hair after, and then put on a pretty black dress. What about the ring on my finger? I took it off, feeling uncomfortable about doing so, but then thought it was best.
What were we going to do about this—situation?
I stopped in my tracks when I stepped out of the bathroom and into my room. Corrado stood with his back against the dresser, a cup of coffee in his hand, only his pants on. His black hair was slicked back. His dark amber eyes were intense on mine.
My sister sat on the bed, one eyebrow lifted at me. I did not miss the appreciative glances she kept giving his chest though. He was built.
“Alcina,” he said, his voice poised. He nodded to my hand. “Your ring.”
I nodded and went and got it. My sister looked between the two of us when she saw it.
He took a sip of his coffee. “He wants to see her,” he spoke to Anna.
“To meet her.” She nodded. “To walk with her. Maybe get to know her.”
“I should—” I turned my eyes to the door, ready to go.
“Alcina.” He took another drink. “He looks at you the wrong way, his eyes are mine. He touches you, I will separate his wrist from his hand with a rusty, dull saw. He falls in love with you, his heart is mine. He’ll be a dead man by the end of the day—one without eyes and hands before his heart stops beating.”
A quiet groan left my mouth. If I didn't meet with Eraldo, his family might use my family as leverage. If I even walked with him, I might lose Corrado after he killed him. His family would want vengeance no matter what the cost.
“What should she do?” my sister asked the question that had slipped my mind.
“Have Nicodemo tell them Alcina left for Forza d’Agrò.” He looked at me. “Finish getting ready, angel eyes, and then we're leaving.”
14
Corrado
I wore a button-down shirt and a vest to meet with her father again. It wasn’t as pretentious as a suit, but the clothes still showed respect.
I had worn the same when I first came to ask for his daughter’s hand in marriage, sliding the ring I was to give her in front of him.
“No,” he had said straightaway and then stood from the same seat he had been sitting in when he had entertained the Balistreris.
“Sit,” I had told him, nodding to the chair. “Either way, your daughter will be my wife. So you have two choices. Work with me or against me. If you work against me—” I shrugged. “You will have to work with the Balistreris. Apparently they are not in agreement with one of your terms. Sit and we will discuss.”
Alcina Maria Parisi was my wife, no matter if a piece of paper confirmed it or not. Officially she would be soon. That sacred blood she'd saved for me confirmed all I needed to know. She cut off a man's balls so she could choose me. I'd cut off a man's head because I chose her. I'd earn the name Mercenary in her honor.
Angela had squeezed her husband’s shoulder, staring at me with a look on her face I couldn’t place. I knew this was difficult for him. He felt that he was trading one devil for another to marry his daughter to.
With his back to me, he had said one word, “Why?”
“I love her,” I had said in Sicilian and then nodded to the seat again.
I heard the breath leave Angela’s mouth, and then she went into the kitchen. She returned