Chapter 16

16

Massimo

I lift the barbell with the weights into the air, then bend my arms and lower it toward my chest. And again. I loaded on the weights, going higher than I normally would, in the hope it'd force me to focus my thoughts away from the woman who turned me down. That was a week ago, and I still haven't been able to get her out of my mind.

To a certain extent, it helped that I'd been busy helping Luca with his plan to lure Freddie—our father's one-time rival who kidnapped Luca and Jeanne—out into the open. Luca had faked his own death to do that. Jeanne had been devastated.

When she'd finally discovered he was still alive, she'd been livid, and rightly so. It didn't make sense, why he hadn't involved her in his plan. His excuse? He was trying to keep her safe. And I get why he'd want to do anything to protect her, but wouldn't it have been easier for all concerned if he'd simply shared his plan with her? Maybe then, she wouldn't have played the part of the grieving widow so convincingly. So he said. She'd been pissed with him, and he'd had to grovel to her and apologize before she came around.

Now, the two of them are back together. Another one of my brothers has found his soulmate. We're dropping like flies. I love my brothers, don't begrudge them their happiness, but if I were being honest, seeing how happy they are makes my chest hurt. Not out of jealousy—okay, there's a tinge of that—but because I thought I found my soulmate. Only, she didn't feel the same way.

How could I have not known she was in love with someone else?

I push the barbell and hold it above my chest.

My instincts are normally so bang-on when it comes to business. How had they failed me in the most important decision of my life? How could I have been attracted to her when she belongs to someone else?

Clearly, I'm losing my touch. I'd hoped to marry her and fulfill my promise to Nonna of finding a bride within a month of her passing, but obviously, that's out of the question. A part of me wanted to keep the PI on her case, to find out who she's in love with. But she doesn't want me. And nothing I say or do can change that.

Suffice to say, I don't take rejection very well. In fact, I can't recall the last time something was denied to me. I want something; I take it. It comes with the territory of belonging to the most powerful Mafia family on the continent. No one ever turned me down, until she came along. And I haven't been able to stop thinking about her. I've spent nights imagining how it would feel to be buried inside her again. All of which has to stop. She's gone. She doesn't need me. I have to let her go. It's time to move on.

My biceps tremble. The barbell slips from my palms. Before I can react, another pair of arms reaches over me, grabs the barbell and steadies it.

My youngest step-brother, Adrian's face appears above mine.

"Easy, fratello . If you get yourself killed by your own weights, then what will we say to your bride-to-be at the engagement?"

"I'd have straightened it myself. I don't need your help," I grumble.

"It's not weakness to accept assistance when you need it." He helps me lower the barbell onto its stand behind me, then steps back. I sit up, reach for my towel and mop my face with it.

"If you've come here to talk me out of the arranged marriage I agreed to, then you can fuck right off, fratello ."

He raises his hands. "Except for the fact that I do think it's a really bad idea?—"

"Zip it," I growl.

He comes around the bench and hands me my bottle of water. "You have to admit, it's too early for you to be considering a relationship of any kind, let alone, an arranged marriage."

"It's exactly the time I should be considering an arranged marriage." I tilt the bottle of water to my lips and drain it, then wipe the back of my hand across my mouth.

"I thought you said you met someone you want to marry?"

"I thought so, too." I squeeze the empty plastic bottle between my fingers, and it crumples. "But turns out, I'm not the person she wants. She loves someone else." I hurl the bottle across the floor. "And I'll deliver on the promise to Nonna."

"By opting for the arranged marriage with the Camorra princess?" His tone is dubious.

"It's the only way to bring peace between our clans. Also, I'm the only one in the position to do so."

"I'd have offered myself as the potential bridegroom, except?—"

"Cass." I rise to my feet and begin to stretch. He's referring to Michael and Karma's housekeeper on whom he's had a crush on like forever.

"Cass." He blows out a breath. "Woman's disappeared off the face of the earth. I've had people looking for her, but they can't find her.

"Maybe you're not looking hard enough?" I offer as I stretch out my arms, then bend to the side.

"Neither are you—looking for your woman, I mean," he murmurs.

"The difference is, I don't care about her anymore," I retort.

"Keep telling yourself that."

"What did you say?" I scowl at him.

He covers his mouth and pretends to cough. "Me? Nothing."

"It's over before it even started. Whatever we had was a lie. She was in love with someone else when she slept with me. Clearly, I was too overcome by lust to notice it."

I kick out my leg, and lean my weight into my hamstrings. The muscles give and the tension slowly drains out of my limb.

"You can't blame yourself, Massimo. Haven't you heard the saying?"

I turn to him. "Which one?"

"Love is blind."

"In my case, it was also hard of hearing." Which is why I didn't listen to the clues in what she was trying to tell me—that she would never be mine.