7. Gio

7

GIO

THE PAST

I 'd made a deal with the devil and was marrying off my youngest sister, Claudia.

My father had done the same to my sister Amara.

Shit had come full circle. I was officially no better than dear old Dad.

Claudia stared at me with her mouth hanging open. Her expression was one of pure shock and hot, unadulterated anger.

Good. I could deal with her rage and hatred. I was familiar with it.

I noticed how she curled her little hands into fists and pinched her lips tightly together.

She wanted to say a whole lot but kept her thoughts to herself and just glared at me .

So I glared right back.

But the truth was, no matter how pissed I was, no matter how much I kept that wall of indifference up, I felt… regret. My apathy hid a lot of shit, but I knew Claudia could see the truth in my eyes.

"I won't do it."

Her defiance created an instant reaction in me.

A muscle in my jaw ticked as I ground my back molars. I leaned back, the leather of the chair making a soft sound from the shift of my weight and position. With my hands on the arms of the chair, my fingers drumming on the surface, I said nothing and just stared at her.

She shook her head and said again, "I won't do it, Gio. You can't make me. I'm almost twenty years old." I could have chuckled from the way she said that, as if her chest was puffed up from her inner strength. "I'm an adult. You aren't my parent or legal guardian. You are not Father." The last part was a whispered plea.

I knew what she was doing now. She wanted me to remember how it had been. Didn't she know I'd never forget? The memory of my father was etched into my skin. Literally.

I closed my eyes and rubbed them. I had promised my sisters I'd never be like our father. I told them I'd never treat them the way he treated us. I'd never use them as pawns for my or the Cosa Nostra's gain .

When I exhaled roughly, I felt my expression falter. Claudia sighed in return and sat down in the chair across from me.

"Please, fratellone . You cannot force me to marry somebody I don't love, somebody I don't want to."

I kept quiet, thinking about this entire situation, which only had Claudia's face turning red with her anger. But she was strong, my baby sister, and didn't let her tears fall. She tipped her chin up and pulled her shoulders back, glaring at me with so much animosity that I felt it.

I smirked. "So stubborn and strong," I murmured and rubbed my eyes again. "Just like Amara." I exhaled, feeling the weight of… everything on my shoulders. "I don't want to, sorellina , but I'm being pressured from the higher-ups. They want another alliance. They want security." I rested my head on the back of the chair and stared at the ceiling. The sound of the fire crackling should have been relaxing. Instead, it irritated the fuck out of me.

I looked at Claudia to see her shaking her head at her lap. "Let them pawn off one of their daughters. "

"Claudia." I kept my tone soft. "Look at me."

It was a second before she looked up at me, but when she did, I sure as fuck felt her wrath like bullets shooting from her blue eyes.

"I'm not Father. And I never fucking will be." I let those words hang in the air between us for a moment. "I would never arrange for you to marry a bastard, someone who'd lay hands on you, or would treat you like shit. I'd put a bullet in his head before I allowed that to happen."

She said nothing, but her throat worked as she swallowed.

"You'll get a final say on who it is. If you don't like him, he's fucking out. But you know this has to be done. It's the world we live in, Claudia. It'll offer you protection too. Things are becoming increasingly volatile between the Irish and the Triad. If something were to happen to me…" I cut those words off as I clenched my teeth again and glanced away. "We know the men in our world have short lifespans."

I stared at her again. I had my wall erected around me—like I always did—but I could see Claudia was trying to work through it. My body was beaten and tired, but all I did was sit there, the weight of the world suffocating me.

Fuck, I knew how I looked right now. My hair was a wreck after running my fingers through it constantly. I'd just gotten into a brawl hours before and hadn't bothered changing out of my white button-down shirt that was wrinkled as fuck and stained with blood from the other man.

I noticed Claudia looking at my hands as I drummed my fingers on the desktop. I stared down at the old scabs littering my knuckles and the fresh wounds from tonight.

And when she exhaled and that rage slowly dissipated, I knew she'd listen.

"I have some men who I've handpicked. Although I don't know them personally, they are the best choices of available bachelors."

She grimaced.

I chuckled softly, knowing exactly what she was thinking. "And no, they're not decrepit. Older than you, yes, but reasonably aged."

"I already told you I don't want to do this."

I didn't respond, just kept thrumming my fingers, and stared at her.

"I could just leave, Gio. I could take my inheritance and go."

"You know you don't have access to that until you're twenty-one."

She clenched her teeth but was smart enough to keep her mouth shut. I was so not in the fucking mood right now.

But then she caved to her desire to argue. "Father set it up. He's been dead for five years. You're in charge now. You can release those funds to me. Let me leave. I can change my name and move to a new city."

I stared at her, feeling a prickling at the back of my neck. There was more going on than what was on the surface.

But I didn't pick that apart right now and focused on the task at hand.

"Claudia, even if I had the power to release your funds—which I don't because they're locked in legally—where would you go? You would have to change every aspect of the life you once knew. You would have to pretend to be someone else for the rest of your life."

I could see on her face that she was mulling over my words.

"You'd never be able to see us again. Never be able to talk to me or Amara. You could never come home." I leaned forward and rested my elbows on the desk, a fierce expression on my face because I wanted to drill this home.

I needed her to understand my words .

"Let that sink in. Picture it. You would be utterly alone with no protection."

For a split second, my wall came down as my own words echoed in my head. I felt a flash of fear at the thought of her going underground—or, more accurately, aboveground—and never seeing or hearing from her again.

The tears I knew she tried so hard to keep from falling finally spilled over. Claudia sniffed and wiped them away quickly, then glanced out the window.

"I just want you to be safe," I murmured. "And although it scares the fuck out of me, you leaving and me never seeing you again…." I shook my head. "I want you happy, sorellina . So… I'll take whatever repercussions that come about from your decisions because I love you."

She didn't speak for long moments, just stared out the window of my office. I gave her as much time as she needed.

My father had pawned Amara off on Nikolai Petrov, and although I'd done my due diligence and found out everything I could on the psychotic Russian before the nuptials, the truth was, Amara could have been tied to a real piece of shit.

But strangely enough, Nikolai wasn't like that with my sister. I watched the way he was with her and was pleased to find he treated her like his queen. He loved her, and she him, and in this world, that's all anyone could ask for.

For a split second, I thought about betrothing Claudia to the older Petrov brother—Dmitry. But I pushed that fucking thought out before it had time to fester.

The fucker was in prison, for God's sake, and the last thing I needed was another one of my siblings tied to that Russian family.

"When is the first meeting?" she finally asked, and I held in my surprise that she wasn't still fighting me on this.

But she knew how this world of ours worked.

I was silent as I thought about her words and my next play. Because the truth was… she wasn't going to like my answer.

"Tomorrow night."

Her eyes widened, and her mouth dropped open. Immediate regret filled me when she covered her mouth with her dainty hand. God, she was going to cry, and it was all my fault. I held my hands up in surrender. "It wasn't my call. Carmine told me personally."

As much as I hated taking orders from anyone, someone in the Cosa Nostra sure as fuck didn't ignore an order from the higher-ups.

"I don't…." She closed her eyes and took a very audible, steadying breath. "Who is Carmine?"

"Carmine Lucchesi. Head of Italy," I said without hesitation but couldn't mask the tightness in my voice.

She said nothing, but then again, there wasn't anything to be said. After a second, she gave a sharp nod, stood up, and left my office without a backward glance or another word.

I sat there for a long time, feeling my anger rise.

Then, I stood and walked out and continued through the front doors.

I didn't have any clear idea where I was going. All I knew was I needed to kick someone's ass—and get good and whipped myself—so I could sleep later.

Because, right now, I was running on fumes and liable to kill the first person who looked at me wrong.