Monster A Dark Arranged Marriage Romance - Vanessa Waltz Page 0,81
played strikeball. R&B beats pounded from a speaker wedged in the ground. People clinked beer bottles, laughed, and enjoyed themselves, and I floated among them like a joyless ghost.
I hated the beach.
I didn’t always. I used to love sunbathing and swimming through the waves, but that required taking off my shirt, which would lead to shocked gasps and staring. It meant being assaulted by vivid flashbacks. Bodies in the water. Floating hair.
I scanned beachgoers until my gaze fell on a man’s olive-skinned back. Vinn sat on a towel, soaking in the sunlight like a bronzed statue. His wife, Liana, lounged on a chair with their six-month-old, Christopher. Joshua, their firstborn, wore a sun bonnet. He tipped a plastic bucket of sand over Vinn’s shorts. An unfazed Vinn refilled it.
I marveled at this domestic side of him. I wasn’t lying when I said I still saw him as an innocent kid—the reason I couldn’t bring myself to kill him.
“Hey, Vinny.”
I parked my ass on his towel and stretched out my legs. Then I smiled and waved at his wife.
Vinn bristled, but Liana perked up.
“Anthony! It’s good to see you. Vinny didn’t mention you were coming.”
“That’s ’cause I didn’t tell him. I apologize for dropping in. It’s just so hard to get ahold of Vinny these days.” I grinned at the pint-sized version of Vinn, who offered me the shovel. “Cute kid.”
Vinn scooped up his baby and signaled his guards, two sunbathing soldiers who’d let me approach Vinn. They stomped over, spraying me with sand.
Liana shot him a disapproving glare. “Is that necessary?”
“Yeah, Vinny. We’re supposed to be a family. I thought we could avoid an ugly scene in front of the missus and the children. Or I could scream about Costa business to the whole crowd. I’ve done worse.”
Vinn sighed. “I stop taking your calls, so you ambush me?”
“It’s called strategy.”
“It’ll get your head caved in.”
“Unless you want your kids’ first memory to be my corpse, I wouldn’t.”
“I’m giving you ten seconds to fuck off,” he thundered, pointing down the beach. “I figured you’d relapse and do something stupid, but bribing my men to shoot up a bar?”
I shrugged. “You should be more worried that they’re so easily swayed.”
He seized my shirt collar and jerked me forward. “You undermine me again, I’ll kill you.”
I fought a juvenile urge to throw sand at him. “You made me marry her. You said she was my responsibility. Well, guess what? She was trafficked. Those biker assholes you want me to sing kumbaya with did that to her. You can judge me for retaliating, but you would’ve done the same if it were your wife.”
I yanked his hand from my throat.
His marble-like features hardened. His mouth thinned as he turned away from Liana, whispering. “Tell me about the three bikers in Chelsea.”
“They were holding out on me. I did what I had to.” I didn’t like the way he looked at me. “What, you’re going to lecture me?”
“Anthony, you’re with her because I wanted you distracted. I know you’re troubled. It was a matter of time before you did something insane and got yourself killed. I figured the girl would keep you busy until I handled things.” Vinn ripped off his sunglasses and massaged his temples. “And then you did it anyway.”
“What do you mean handled things?”
Hesitation narrowed his hawklike eyes. “You’re not the only one who’s suffered at the hands of Legion. I wanted to pay the bastards back for what they did to us, and I needed you occupied.”
A pounding grew in my ears.
“For what?”
“To take them down,” he said, stunning me. “The national president isn’t happy with the Boston chapter. Jett isn’t the brightest bulb. He mismanaged the club’s money, and he’s desperate for cash. I convinced him we’d help with distribution. He’d been giving me unfettered access to everything until you screwed it up.”
My vision clouded as I stared at Vinn, wondering if the bikers were savants for naming him Goliath.
Big, dumb idiot.
“You forced me to marry some chick for an alliance you never intended on keeping?” I leaned forward, gaping at him. “And it didn’t cross your thick skull to tell me any of this?”
“You’re not reliable, Anthony.”
Once a junkie, always a junkie.
That raked coals over my face. “I can’t believe I married her based on your whim.”
“I was sick of you lording your power over me. Worst case, you settle down. If you divorce the girl, I get control of the Family’s assets. Either way, I win.”