were all stunningly handsome men.
Christ, I was losing my mind to think these men were anything other than deadly.
Nico finally spoke. “May I ask what all this is about?”
Ciro circled us until Luca and Phoenix were at his back, and I saw the move for what it was. They were all united on whatever this was. If we objected to…well, anything, we’d be going up against all three of them.
“Michael came to us yesterday and told us you’ve moved up your pursuit of Mia,” Ciro answered. “We understand there were extenuating circumstances that caused you to reveal yourself and, in doing so, you decided to come clean about everything.”
Nico nodded. “That’s correct.”
“Understandably, Michael is her brother, and you would think the final say belonged to him, however, it doesn’t,” Luca Benetti said, finally speaking. “Michael entrusted Mia to us the day he got caught stealing from me twelve years ago. We have the final say in what transpires in Mia’s life.”
My hand tightened in Nico’s. They couldn’t be saying what I thought they were saying, could they?
“Mia won’t be handed to just anyone, Nico,” Phoenix added. “She’ll be given away only once, and it has to be someone worthy of her.”
I felt Nico stiffen next to me, but I kept my mouth shut. I knew better than to get in between whatever this was. This was a test or a challenge, and it wouldn’t help Nico’s case to have a woman come to his defense, even if that woman were me.
Then Nico said the words that he couldn’t take back and would cost him his life. “Mia’s mine,” he said savagely. “She’s mine, and no one will take her from me.”
Ciro raised a brow. “No one?”
“No!” I cried out.
Nico let go of my hand and moved to stand in front of me. “No one,” he repeated, the conviction in his voice vibrating throughout the room. “You will have to kill me first.”
“That can be arranged,” Luca commented casually, no infliction in his voice whatsoever.
“Do you know how many men have stood before us and lived after defying us?” Phoenix asked and answered before Nico could. “None.”
I grabbed onto the back of Nico’s suit jacket. This morning he had joked that he was glad to get out of the college fashion hell he’d been forced to live in for the past two years and wear a suit again. “Nico,” I whispered, begging for I don’t know what.
He ignored me. He stared down the three most dangerous men in the state and practically begged them to kill him. “Mia stays with me,” Nico insisted. “No other man will have her as long as I’m alive.”
“Mia, come here,” Ciro instructed.
I was terrified, but I couldn’t let them kill Nico. I stepped around him, but Nico grabbed my wrist and yanked me back. “No,” he snapped.
“You’re pushing your luck, son,” Luca warned. “Let go of her arm, now.”
I looked up at Nico. “It’s okay,” I promise. “It’ll be fine.”
His grey eyes searched mine, and I knew he was silently telling me he was sorry that he was putting me though this. I was terrified, but he looked remorseful. I couldn’t understand why he wasn’t scared, but then this was his life. He was used to this.
I stepped forward, this time with Nico at my back. “Y…yes?” My voice was shaky, but I couldn’t help that. But as I stared into Ciro Mancini’s golden eyes, I was transported back to a time when I felt safe and peace had settled in my soul when this big man had rescued me. Tears started to form, but not from fear.
“Mia, we’re not going to hurt you,” he quickly assured me.
“I’m…I’m not worried about that,” I told him honestly. “I…I was just remembering the first time I saw you, and…it’s an emotional memory.”
His face softened again as he stepped towards me. Ciro took my hands in his and his next words proved my undoing. “Mia, I know you don’t know this, but that night I took you from your house, I didn’t just save you from a monster. In my heart, I adopted a little girl who stole my heart when she asked me if there was going to be any stranger-danger anymore.” The tears fell. “I swore that night that I would never let anything bad happen to you ever again. You became mine to protect and provide for. And that includes deciding if the man you choose is worthy of you. I can only approve of