Chapter 5 - Ari

I had learned from an early age to appreciate every win, big or small.

In our business, you never knew when the next one would come, so it was best to take it all in while you could.

With everything said and done, I was feeling good about it all.

I humiliated Edoardo in his own home, making him look like a spineless fool in front of his family, and his only daughter was officially my wife.

Everything should've been perfect, because every detail went according to plan. The job went swimmingly, and I had exactly what I wanted.

Except the deer-in-headlights look Vivian previously sported had worn off, and she apparently came to her senses after we reached the house. I didn't want to lock her in the guest bedroom, but I had no choice. Not after she found her courage and started fighting me.

Sitting in the living room with a glass of whiskey in my hand, I tried to soak in my victory and savor the look of defeat on Edoardo's face after everything was complete.

But her incessant screaming and shouting was ruining my immersion.

Regardless of how big the house was and the fact nobody would be able to hear her outside of these walls, she did it anyway, yelling at me to let her go, along with all the creative obscenities she could think of.

Even if I grew tired enough of listening to that noise to let her go, I couldn't do that. It was done, and there was no backtracking now.

Legally, she was my wife, and even if it was mostly a rash decision, we both had to deal with it.

Sitting in the living room by myself while she shouted herself into exhaustion wasn't the wedding night I had in mind for myself. In all honesty, I never really pictured myself tying the knot, regardless of wanting it deep down.

Something had always appealed to me about finding the right person and settling down with them, making as many heirs as we could. But with my line of work and how brutal it forced me to be, I wasn't so sure it would be possible.

I couldn't envision any sane woman wanting to marry me, so I never went out of my way to try to make it happen before.

But with De Luca causing trouble, it was the one way I could really get a one-up on him and get into his head to the point of making him throw in the towel.

It wasn't by any means an ideal union, but I couldn't complain.

Having a more agreeable wife would likely be a better circumstance, but that wasn't an option anymore.

After my first glance at her, I assumed Vivian would remain as passive as she seemed in the house, too afraid to fully look at me. I thought she would fawn like all the other innocent women swept into the mafia world for the sake of convenient marriages and making babies.

But it seemed she was hell-bent on proving otherwise.

Letting some of the whiskey burn its way down my throat, I sighed and wondered how I managed to get myself in this position, anyway. Or how I convinced myself that getting married would solve my De Luca problem, when in reality, it seemed to create a whole new one.

As annoying as her tantrum was, I had been taken with her. Ever since I started digging into Edoardo and his family, I couldn't deny how the young woman had caught my attention. I learned as much about her as I could, and while I didn't have much to work with, it was enough to let me build an entire identity for her in my mind.

From what I knew, she had been a private school brat like most of them were. Beyond her good grades, she didn't accomplish much academically. She certainly could've had her dad grease some palms to get her into whatever prestigious school she wanted, but that obviously never happened.

As far as I could tell, she had been a stay-at-home daughter, with no further education under her belt and no career as a result. But, of course, that made sense.

Edoardo would've never wasted that kind of money on getting her a higher education when she would inevitably be sold to the highest bidder.

Something about that thought irritated me, knowing he had other plans for her when I was curious about her.

At first, I was simply intrigued by her photo and wondered what she was all about. But the more I dug into the family, the more attracted I became.

It may have seemed like I married Vivian only because of wanting to humiliate her father, but truthfully, I had my eye on her long enough to want her for myself. There was something so interesting about the mafia princess, and I needed to get to the bottom of it myself.

All of that determination landed me exactly here: sitting in the living room alone, sipping whiskey, and forced to listen to her never-ending protests.

Really, it had been a flawless plan, except for the fact I didn't consider that part. I never stopped to think about what would happen once I got her home and had to face what I had done.

It was hard to say if the trade-off was worth it just yet.

As irrational as the move had been, all things considered, I didn't want it all to be for nothing. I really did want to have a genuine connection with her, even if it took time to get there.

We were certainly very far from making that happen, but I wanted to be optimistic. I wanted to believe I didn't make an excruciating mistake all for the sake of revenge.

As the whiskey pooled in my gut and made my system feel more sluggish than it had before, something in the back of my mind manifested like an annoying sound that I couldn't shake. It pulsed, growing louder and louder until it seemed to fall into step with Vivian's shouting from upstairs.

That little voice in my head was nagging me, letting me know I'd gotten myself into a bigger mess than anticipated.

The lengths I would have to go through just to prove to Vivian I wasn't only a cruel man who stole her away from her family suddenly felt too monumental to ignore. It was a more daunting task than I planned for, and it made my stomach churn to think about.

Staring into the electric fireplace in front of me as my mood dropped more with every passing minute—and every curse and scream Vivian could hurl at me—the tantrum started to grate against my head to the point of making my blood boil.

My cell ringing shattered my clouded thoughts, making me jolt from my seat.

Glancing down, I caught Ben's name as it lit up my screen. Easily enough, I grabbed it and answered the call.

"How are things over there?" I asked, noting how defeated I sounded despite my victory.

"According to plan. We left De Luca to regret ever striking the warehouse, that's for sure. We're on the way back now," Benedikt replied, sounding chipper about getting to go home. "More importantly, how's your creature doing?"

I scoffed. "She went from fawn to bobcat."

"Really? I wouldn't expect someone like her to put up much of a fight."

Holding the phone away from my ear, I let it pick up her distant screaming. Putting it back again, I murmured, "You'd be surprised."

Ben chuckled from the other end. "Good luck with that one. Once we get back to the warehouse, we're going to head out for the night. Let us know if you need anything else."

"Will do," I said with a sigh as I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Tell Luk to keep an eye out for any kind of retaliation. Edoardo is likely beaten down for now, but we won't know how he might react after the fact. I don't want him assuming the ball is in his court now."

"You've got it."

After we said our goodbyes and I ended the call, I forced out another breath.

My heart seemed to synchronize with Vivian's heavy steps upstairs, along with her never-ending howling. As I focused on it, my pulse quickened to the point of making my skin crawl.

Unable to take it any longer, I tossed the phone to the side and forced myself out of my chair.

Even if I understood why she was causing such a fuss, I didn't want to listen to it anymore. I wanted to bask in my triumph, but her noise was keeping that from happening.

I refused to sit there while she disturbed my peace.

Put on edge with the booze in my gut, I went upstairs, hoping it wouldn't take much to put her back in her place.

Regardless of how angry I was, I didn't want to be too forceful. She would likely doubt that, but it wasn't fun for me.

I had no issue yelling at my men or brothers when they screwed up, but women were a completely different matter.

Making my way down the hall until I reached the spare bedroom, I pushed the door open to find Vivian standing there with a vase in her hand, looking at me in surprise. Her screaming stopped.

The anger slowly dissolved from her face, turning into slight sheepishness as I took her in, and her cheeks filled with color.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I demanded of her, approaching with tense shoulders.

Vivian heaved in a big breath as if scrounging up her courage, and she held my gaze despite my initial impressions of her. "You can't keep me here!"

"I can and I will," I muttered.

She wound her arm back with the vase still in her grasp, flashing a look of defiance at me, to my surprise.

"Don't you dare," I snapped, cutting the space between us. Before she could throw it to the ground, I snatched it from her hand, forcing her to let go. "No matter how loud you are or how many things you break in this room, nobody is going to hear you."

Vivian blinked back at me in astonishment, startled by the proximity. "This isn't fair, and you know it."

If she hadn't been so defiant and arrogant, I would've been interested in how close we were then as I towered over her, noticing just how small she was in comparison. But I was at my wit's end, and I wanted her to be quiet.

"You're wasting your breath," I added, gritting my teeth. "It's already done, and you might as well get comfortable. Like it or not, this is your home now, and it would do you some good to respect your surroundings."

Vivian's brows furrowed at the statement, letting those words sink in. She studied me closely before taking a step back to put more space between our bodies. Shaking her head absently, there was no mistaking the anger and disbelief on her features.

"You're a monster," she muttered, holding back tears and the rage she previously had shown for me. "You're sick, and I hate you."

Not that I would say it to her, but I was ashamed to admit those words had enough bite in them to sting.

I knew I shouldn't care about what she thought or said, especially not so soon after bringing her home, but of all people, I'd never wanted my future wife to think that of me.

I was big and imposing, and I could certainly make any man cower, but that wasn't all there was to me. Of course, she couldn't see that—not yet, anyway.

Still, it didn't numb just how venomously she said it, or how much she meant it.

Forcing myself to keep it in, I straightened my back and looked her square in the face.

"Call me whatever you'd like, but the sooner you accept this new arrangement, the sooner you'll get to roam the house," I told her with a slight edge of warning in my tone. "Get used to it, wife. You'll be here for a while."

As fury gathered in her once again, I chose to ignore it, and I made my way back toward the door.

Closing it again behind me, I paused just outside. At once, she started at it again, screaming and cussing at me to let her go.

With a sigh, I knew it was no use, and I just had to wait until she inevitably tired herself out.

Hopefully, it wouldn't take too many more glasses of whiskey to make my brain cancel out the sound of her tantrum.

As irritating as it was, I didn't want Vivian to think I was a complete brute. But at the same time, I knew I couldn't sway her opinion from nothing.