“Kiara—”
“I’m nineteen, not nine. I want to see him, Giulia. I need to.” If I was faced with this monster the first time on our wedding night, I’d bolt. I needed to see what he was capable of, even if a cage fight wouldn’t even begin to cover it.
“Give me a sec. I need to ask Cassio for the info again.” I heard rustling followed by silence on the other end for a while until I heard muffled voices. After what felt like forever, Giulia spoke again. “Do you have somewhere to write it down? It’s long and complicated. The Darknet uses several steps to keep people out.”
I grabbed the pen and paper that I always kept close by when I read a book; I liked writing down my favorite quotes. “I’m ready.”
After jotting everything down, I listened to another one of Giulia’s warnings before we ended the call. Clutching the paper in my sweaty palm, I walked to my room to grab my laptop. My fingers shook as I logged into the forum. There was a list of fights from the last few years. I entered Nino’s name in the search engine, and several fights popped up immediately. I clicked on the latest from only a few weeks ago.
The camera was trained on a massive cage. A broad man stood inside of it, but he was in his thirties and didn’t have any hair. He was too old to be Nino Falcone. A hush went through the crowd and another man stepped into the cage, taller than the first, and I froze. For several moments, my breath stuck in my throat. If a mere video already summoned that kind of horror, what would real life Nino do?
Nino was tall and muscled, and every inch of his torso and arms was covered in tattoos. Flames and knives and screaming faces, and more images and words I couldn’t make out. The flames traveled down his arms to his wrists. They also snaked into his fighting shorts, ending on his muscled thighs.
His expression was focused but completely emotionless.
My fear turned into pure terror when the fight began. Nino was a fighting machine. Every single one of his hits was precision, but what was worse was his analytic expression. He didn’t look like he was fighting in a cage. When his opponent landed a hit, Nino’s face hardly reflected any sign of pain. He kicked and punched hard and fast, without mercy, even as his opponent fell to his knees. Nino was on top of him in a heartbeat, ramming his knee into the man’s back so he sprawled out on the bloody floor. Even that wasn’t enough. Nino wrapped his forearm around the man’s throat and cut off his air. His opponent thrust his elbow into Nino’s side, but he didn’t even wince, only tightened his hold further and eventually the man passed out. Nino released him then and stood. His gaze flitted over the crowd until it focused on the camera. It was as if he was looking straight at me, and the cold, hard look in his eyes awakened the horrors I couldn’t shake off.
I couldn’t believe this was the man I was supposed to marry.
I didn’t sleep more than two hours. Every night, Uncle Durant’s face haunted my dreams as he hovered over me and broke me, but this night it was a different face that had hovered above me, a beautifully cold face.
When our bodyguard drove us to Philadelphia to pick Giulia up, my aunt tried to involve me in a conversation about dresses, but I was too upset to engage in any kind of interaction. I was glad when Giulia joined us in the backseat. After one glance at me, she quickly distracted her mother by talking about her summer plans with the kids.
I sent her a grateful look before I trained my gaze on the window, watching as the landscape rushed past me.
Unlike many women, I didn’t have a dream dress. I never looked at wedding dresses unless I was at a wedding.
Aria waited with her bodyguard inside the store because it was hailing. The moment we stepped inside, a vendor rushed over to us. “Who’s the happy bride?”
Giulia, Aria, and Aunt Egidia looked at me, and the vendor touched my arm. “Exciting, isn’t it? You’re going to be a breathtaking bride. I can tell.”
I gave her a small smile and followed her toward the display of dresses. “Why don’t you browse the dresses and show me the ones you’d choose for me?” I asked, sinking down into one of the plush armchairs.
That garnered a look from the vendor, but at this point I didn’t care anymore.
Aria and Giulia nodded immediately and set out to look for dresses, but Aunt Egidia’s expression made it clear that she disapproved. However, after a moment she began looking for suitable dresses as well.