Why did I think I could make it all better? I’m nobody. The typical mafia princess who is used in another way by her family. Marriage. To another family—a worse family than my own because the Romanos are way more to deal with than the Moretti’s. Four times more fear, four times more pain and four times more of a problem and he is one of them.
I don’t unpack. The kind maid showed me to a very pretty room decorated in yellow. It is welcoming and the sunlight that bathes the room lights up any shadows and brings warmth to a cold prison. But I’m not staying—how can I? I will not be delivered to the enemy as a willing guest. I need to make a stand and show that I’m not going to play by their rules—but how can I without leaving the same way my brother did when he was returned home to us?
A gentle knock distracts me and my heart starts beating fast—it begins.
I watch the handle turn with a morbid curiosity. Who will they send?
As the door inches open, I look away as I see Maverick enter the room and look at me with a tortured expression.
I don’t want to know.
I feel him approach the bed where I sit on the edge, straight backed and unfeeling, and feel it sag as he sits beside me and takes my hand in his. Quickly, I snatch it away and move to the window, turning my back on him and trying to blank him from my mind—he has other ideas.
Moving behind me, he crowds my personal space and grips my waist, drawing me back into his body and it strikes me how well we fit. But then again, I know we are the perfect fit, or at least I thought we were.
Leaning down, he whispers, “I told you to trust me, you must hold that thought above all others. I warned you what to expect and by the end of this, you will hate me and rightly so.”
Spinning around, I make to slap him hard across the face and he catches my hand and his eyes glitter with a danger he keeps well hidden.
I hiss, “Trust you, how can I? I don’t know you.”
“You do know me, Sophia. You have always known me. I was always coming for you; we both know that and now we are in an impossible situation. War between our families unless you agree to unite us by marriage. It should be so easy, but it is the cruellest of choices.”
“Why?”
I stare at him with hurt in my eyes and he groans, pulling me roughly to him and holding me with a possession that makes my head reel and my heart pant. “Because if I do the right thing by you, I lose myself. Do you think it was easy for me to walk away from this - my family? Do you think they made it easy on me because you know how valued family is? My decision was one that took a lot of thought and a lot of guts. I never wanted this; you should know more than most what that involves because your own brother has also made that decision. I have three other brothers who are willing to step into my shoes. They thrive on this life and so business never suffered. If anything, I handed the reins to a brutal successor who loves nothing more than ruling this kingdom with no mercy and no shit. Now I’m back because of you and we have a decision to make. Stop a war by marriage, or start something that will not end well on both sides.”
I push him away and say angrily, “Then leave, go back to the Reapers and carry on with your day. You’ve brought me here and your job is done. You can hurry back to the place you hide in and forget about the world you have delivered me to. But I’ll tell you one thing for free, I would rather die than marry one of those men and if that’s what it takes, I hope it’s quick because what sort of life would I have if I agreed to the deal? Married to an unfeeling bastard as a business arrangement. Well, newsflash, I don’t care about living because what does that mean, anyway? This life isn’t living, it’s a slow painful death that tortures your soul before delivering you to an afterlife where it happens all over