Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

Gio

"Another wedding! How exciting." Aunt Serena beamed at Clara, who looked far more disheveled than usual since she was wearing clothes that didn't quite fit her. She was a good bit shorter than Hailey and quite a bit curvier, which meant Hailey's clothes were simultaneously too big and too small for her. She looked absolutely miserable, and not just because of the abuse her bottom had taken last night.

I couldn't help but grin and wink at her when she glanced at me, causing her to glare. It seemed like just punishment for stealing from us and putting me in such an awkward position. Strangely, the more annoyed she was about having to marry me, the more I relaxed into the idea.

"I am not marrying him."

Clara shot me another lethal look.

Aunt Serena's smile took on a harder glint.

"Of course you are, dear. Otherwise, you're a liability. A thieving one." Aunt Serena took a delicate sip of her coffee. "You do not want to be a liability who stole from the Familias. "

My aunt might come off soft and sweet, but that covered up a spine of steel and a ruthless streak that showed up at inopportune times.

"Don't worry, Aunt Serena," I said. "I'll keep her in line."

"That's exactly what I'm talking about." Clara glared at me again. "I'm not a liability. I would never do anything that would endanger Hailey."

"You'd just steal from me," Hailey muttered.

I couldn't help but be amused at how personally she was taking Clara's thieving—personally, I thought it was the fact that she hadn't known about Clara's evening activities that bothered her the most. If Clara had confided in her, she might have cheered her on. Being excluded was making her bitter.

Or who knew? Maybe she was becoming more and more like my Aunt Serena and did see it as stealing from her.

Clara said something low, which I couldn't hear, and I didn't think Aunt Serena or Jack could either. He and I had both been silent during the entire conversation, letting Aunt Serena take the lead. My uncle had already left to go do some work, giving me a look before he went. It was my job to help Clara reconcile herself to her fate.

I almost hoped she would act up again and give me another excuse to punish her.

She and Hailey were now muttering back and forth with each other. I turned my attention to my aunt.

"How fast can we be wed?"

"This afternoon," she said easily. "Lorenzo is handling the license. He spoke with your father first thing, and he's acquiring a priest."

"City Hall is good enough."

Aunt Serena gave me a look. I shrugged. It was more important to me that it was legal than it being done in the church. Since we had to wait for the license anyway, it wouldn't matter. At least I wouldn't have to wait the full amount of time, unlike most people.

In New York City, if a DiNardo wanted something, they got it.

And in the DiNardo family, if Aunt Serena wanted something, she got it. I doubted my father would care, but my mother would likely agree with Aunt Serena. I was also probably going to get an earful about not introducing Clara to them first thing.

"What?" Hailey's voice cut through the room, making both Jack and I jump.

Clara was already attempting to shush her, but to no avail. Hailey shook her head, brushing her friend's hand off, looking across the table at Jack and me. Her face was dead white against her reddish hair, eyes wider than I'd ever seen them. She looked even paler than she had on her wedding day. Jack was already halfway to his feet, a deadly frown on his face, when she told him what Clara had told her.

"She said Leonardo has a note from my grandfather, directing him to kill my parents. That's how he became my grandfather's heir."

Jack was beside her in a flash, crouching down next to her chair, brushing her hair back from her face as he murmured something in a reassuring tone. Aunt Serena and I looked at Clara, whose face heated.

"I found a note in his things last night. Before…" She cleared her throat, raising her eyebrow at him. "That's why I was so distracted."

She was strongly hinting that if she hadn't been so distracted, I wouldn't have caught her. As much as I wanted to scoff at the idea that she could have escaped me, I could admit to myself—at least privately—that she nearly had done so.

That she had been rifling through the Bianco heir's room right before coming to steal from us made me want to bang my head against the hard table in front of me. She truly was reckless. What she needed was a firm hand to help guide that recklessness along safer paths.

Preferably ones that benefited my family.

"I'll need to tell my father." Jack looked over at me, his hand on Hailey's back. Her hair was a curtain in front of her face, keeping me from being able to see her expression, but I got the feeling she was crying. Rage, grief—probably some mix of both.

What a don did within his own family was his business… but Hailey was part of our family now.

Her head lifted, and I could see the hot fury blazing in her eyes, even as tears slid down her cheeks.

"I want them dead. Both of them." Her voice rasped.

Clara's expression morphed into utter concern for her friend. She leaned in against Hailey from the other side, and despite Hailey's earlier annoyance with her, she turned to accept Clara's comfort. The two women clung to each other.

I met Jack's gaze with my own and nodded.

If that's what his wife wanted, that's what she would get. But we'd need to question Leonardo first. And get the note Clara found. I wondered whether it would hurt or help my relationship to take her with me to break into Leonardo's hotel room tomorrow. Not exactly the normal activity for the first evening after a wedding, but somehow, it felt like it would fit Clara and me.

* * *

Clara

Escape was impossible. Especially since Hailey had no intention of helping me. I couldn't even blame her. There was a reason I hadn't tried to drag her away from her own wedding but waited to see what she wanted to do, and it was only partly to respect her decision. Getting her away would have been hard enough with her cooperation and likely impossible without it.

My own position was closer to the impossible end of things. Gio and Tomas had both seen what I was capable of, and they were watching me like hawks. It hadn't escaped my notice that Tomas was my chosen guard.

I could barely look at him, much less look him in the eye. Not with the memory of how his cock tasted still haunting me. There was no way I was going to risk anything other than the absolute certainty of escape. His presence felt like a threat from Gio—try to run… if Tomas catches you, he'll get another reward .

I shuddered at the thought of him forcing that massive cock into my ass.

Would Gio share me like that?

I didn't know.

What scared me even more was that part of me didn't completely hate the idea. Part of me kept thinking about how it had felt to be pinned between them, so full yet so empty as my pussy throbbed. I shivered as I glanced in the mirror at Hailey as she slid a sparkling pin into my curls.

"Are you cold?" she asked, frowning down at me. It was a warm day, so I shouldn't be.

"No." I certainly wasn't going to admit to her what I'd been thinking about. I peeked at Tomas' huge form standing by the door before averting my gaze again. I couldn't see him without thinking about Gio and last night. My bottom was feeling much better except when I forgot and sat down too quickly, but even a glimpse of Tomas was enough to make my sore muscles clench. "I'm afraid."

Hailey sighed.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I am mad at you for stealing from us, but I would get you out of this if I could. I just don't think I can… at least, not alive. Jack's dad has been furious about the thefts. If you were a man, you'd already be dead. If Gio hadn't claimed you…" Her voice trailed off, but the implication was there.

Even though I was a woman, I'd already be dead.

I stared at myself in the mirror.

Marrying Gio wasn't a fate worse than death, right? He'd said himself that once I was his wife, no other man would be able to touch me. Not even Tomas.

And the truth was, Gio was the only man I wanted touching me. Even though there had been a certain thrill to having him ‘share' me last night, Tomas could have been interchangeable with any other man. What had excited me was that it was Gio commanding the situation.

Gio touching me.

Gio filling me.

Gio watching me.

I shivered again.

Hailey mistook my shiver for something else.

"Good. I'm glad you understand the severity of the situation." She shook her head. "I still can't believe you were stealing from the Familias . I never thought anyone would be that stupid or that reckless, but to find out it was you…" She shook her head again.

All I could do was shrug. I didn't have an explanation. Part of it had been the challenge. The thrill. Although stealing from the wealthy and redistributing their wealth was satisfying, there was an extra dollop of excitement that came from stealing from the most dangerous wealthy families. Plus, when it came to the DiNardos, I'd had an additional reason.

"They shouldn't have forced you to marry Jack. You should have been allowed to choose," I muttered.

Hailey paused, and when I looked at her in the mirror, I could see the sudden sadness in her expression. Sadness I hadn't meant to put there.

"And now you don't have a choice, either. I'm sorry, Clara. I really didn't want this life for you." Real regret filled her voice.

Unable to see her blaming herself for my bad decisions, I reached up to take her hand, holding it against my shoulder.

"Hey… I made my own bed, remember?" I gave her a wan smile. "I was playing with fire, and I knew it, but that didn't stop me. And you're not responsible for my choices, and it was my own choices that led me on the path to this place."

For a moment, we shared a heartfelt sympathy that only two women who were being forced to marry into the mafia would understand.

A loud knock at the door made both of us jump, my heart leaping up into my throat as the door flew open. Tomas was already standing in front of it, but he was no match for the woman who came marching through, followed by Hailey's mother-in-law.

"There you are!" She was all of five feet tall, even shorter than me, with dark eyes and hair that glinted with streaks of silver through the curls. " Bella ! My new daughter!"

It wasn't until she was walking toward me, her hands outstretched in front of her, that I realized she was talking about me.

Oh my God.

There was only one person she could be.

Gio's mother.

With her hands in front of her, she cupped my face as she reached me, only able to look down at me thanks to the fact I was sitting in a chair. Hailey had stepped back, amusement dancing in her eyes, as little help against Gio's mother as she was against the man himself.

Thankfully, I'd been around the Italians long enough to know that she was calling me beautiful, so I didn't try to correct her on my name. She kissed each of my cheeks, beaming at me.

"My son, he moves so quickly. So. Now. We must get to know each other immediately." After patting my cheeks, she released them, to my relief. I wasn't sure how to react to all of this. Despite the way she beamed at me, something inside me quailed as her eyebrows rose up in question. She reminded me of Hailey's mother-in-law—all smooth sweetness on the outside with a hidden facet that was terrifying. "Now, you are a thief? And you work for the police? Tell me, how does this work." It wasn't a question; it was a demand.

"Um…"

Here, I'd thought Gio was the scary one, but I'd take him over his mother any day of the week.