So the rumors are true, he’s a sociopathic demon.
“Fly blew Marco in that bathroom,” Luca says nonchalantly.
Marco drops his hands on the table, glaring at Luca. Fly grabs one and kisses it, whispering something in his ear that makes him half-smile.
I turn my head toward Luca, sitting on my right. “Don’t even try to propose in my office at the club…wait, I didn’t blow you there. You just fucked my brains out.”
“How about having the marriage here? In the garden. That’s where the Leones do it, we could have a double wedding,” Seb interjects from the head seat.
I look out of the window. The garden is really pretty. In a month, it will be the end of June. A perfect time to do it—if we stop the bird revolution.
Fly is looking at me with puppy eyes. I know, getting married with my bestie would be fucking amazing. “How can I say no to that?”
“Yeaaaaah, I want that!” He starts bouncing up and down on the chair, and it’s too infectious, I have to do it too.
“Still waiting for a proposal,” I sing-song at Luca, tilting my head back and toward him.
His chair abruptly slides back, making a horrible sound over the floor that silences everybody and makes me freeze. He stands up, pulling on the lapels of his jacket, before sliding a knee on his chair and bending down to grab my face.
Eye to eye. Heart to heart.
“Ti amo, sole mio, sposami,” he rasps.
I really didn’t expect him to do it. I was just riling him up, as usual. We tried so hard to hate each other, before we tried to loveeach other. It was within that space, that undulated gap between hate and love that we fought so desperately, until we both yielded to it and embraced it together. And now we will remain in that space forever. I feel light and warmth enveloping me all at once as tears fill my eyes. Fuck, I’m turning into an emotional disaster.
“Oh my god.” Fly’s low murmur reminds me I have to answer.
“Didn’t get one word, but fuck, Italian is hot,” Akira comments next.
I nod. “Sí. I’ll marry you, Luca Nero.” Tears stream down and mix with the taste of him as we kiss.
I was trying to escape from my family’s rotten prison when Luca took me into another cage, and there I found the freedom I’ve always dreamed of. I found love and happiness and a man I can call mine.
“Maria, champagne, per favore,” Sebastiano calls the maid.
“Do you expect us to come to your wedding when you dared to miss ours?” Akira sniffs at Luca as I push my face into his warm chest.
“Marco summarized it for me,” he counters dismissively.
“Oh, so vividly,” Marco soaks every word with sarcasm.
“It’s Fly’s wedding, too,” River reminds his husband.
“Fuck, okay,” Akira yields quickly.
They keep talking, but I just can’t pay attention anymore. If I’ll truly become part of his family I need to be honest with them. All of them. I grab Luca’s hand and stand up, feeling this irrepressible urge to say what has been on my mind since Imoved in with Luca. That sliver of suspicion that I can’t keep in anymore.
“There’s something you should know.” I look at Luca—into those deep green morning forest eyes—then at Marco, Fly, and finally I turn to Sebastiano. “There’s a possibility that my father…might have killed yours.”
“Don Massimo had a heart attack,” Marco states.
Sebastiano is staring at me with narrowed eyes.
“Why do you think that?” Luca asks me, tightening the comforting grip on my hand. That gives me the courage to continue.
“I-I heard a conversation, a month after Don Massimo had died. Jack Enzino was laughing, saying how he killed three bosses under their families’ gullible eyes. He talked about a poison and how he tricked everybody.”
“Three bosses?” Akira asks.