It was hard for the last words to come out, but they all knew who Drago was, the man their father had almost killed. Since Drago’s fall and Chloe’s capture, the Lucianos came under new order by her oldest brother, Dominic, after Lucca killed her father, Lucifer. Her marrying a Caruso would insure the Lucianos’ loyalty forever. And not only that, but it would break apart the very family Drago despised with all his being.
She had seen that look in a man’s eyes before as they’d looked at her, one of pure hatred. It never burned or hurt any less than the hundreds of times before. It was something only one of her brothers understood, and that brother wasn’t here.
Dropping his hands from her shoulders, he stood up straight, commanding not only her attention but his brothers’ with a tone so fierce it could only be matched by a god. “Katarina, you are a Luciano, and a Luciano never rolls over to die. We fucking fight like hell.”
* * *
Looking out the house window, she saw the big black Cadillac Escalade pull up.
“It’s time,” Matthias told her with sadness in his voice.
Taking a deep breath, she headed for the door
“Kat....”
Turning, she looked at the half of the twin set who remained in the Luciano household.
“If you see him, you tell him we haven’t forgotten about him and that here,”—he pointed to the old creaky floor beneath his feet—“this is his home.”
She nodded her head seeing the toll being separated from his other half had taken on him since Angel had been taken away from them. Matthias and Angel had been inseparable since inception, two perfectly identical twins who even marred their bodies identically. Tattooing images on their bodies from head to toe that were as identical as them. The only difference were the sides they marked, becoming perfect mirror images of each other. However, that was the outside; what they were on the inside couldn’t be more opposite than the sun and the moon.
As she went out the door, Dominic was waiting on the other side watching a man exit the dark-tinted Escalade and opening the back door for her to enter. She took a step not wanting to drag out the day any longer, but her brother, the new boss of the Luciano family, wouldn’t let her leave without a final request.
“Give him hell.”
She felt sorry for him, for Matthias, and for Cassius. They had false hope, hope that would come crashing down on him the day she would have to walk down that aisle.
Sliding into the car, with it being so dark inside, she had missed him at first. It wasn’t until the door closed and the darkness encapsulated them that she saw him sitting in the seat on the other side.
“Angel!” She jumped halfway out of her seat to hug the twin brother she hadn’t seen in what seemed like forever. “You have to go inside real quick. Matthias would love—”
Angel sat there shaking his head while the other Caruso got back into the car.
“But….” When the driver started the car and began to leave the lot, the confusion quickly went away and pain struck her heart. She supposed he wasn’t allowed that privilege by the Carusos, but that wasn’t what hurt. It was the disappointment that wasn’t there on his face from not being able to go in and see his family. The scary thing was, Angel could see that she knew it too.
This made the car ride solemnly quiet, especially with the presence of the Caruso men in the car, and it wasn’t until they pulled up to the most beautiful home she had ever seen that the silence disappeared.
“I need a minute with my sister.”
Surprised when the men left the car and closed them into privacy, she looked over at her brother.
“How are you feeling?” he asked with deeply hidden worry in his voice.
She hadn’t even realized how she had been holding in her breath since they pulled up. Finally, she let the air out. “Like I’m going to throw up.”
“You’re going to be fine.” He took her shaking hand, griping it hard.
“Yeah, well, if I throw up, I’ll just aim for him. That’s what Dom says to do, anyway. He wants me to be a pain in his ass.”
“Kat, I need you to listen to me.”
Suddenly, the grip on her hand became harder.
“That’s not going to scare him away from choosing you. That’s only going to solidify his choice.”
Her head fell. “I know.” She knew Angel would be the only one to understand when someone looked at you with pure hatred, and how that person seeing you in not only sadness but anger gave them exactly what they wanted.
He squeezed her hand a little tighter, the worry in his voice now turned to deep sadness, “You have to get him to fall in love with you, Katarina.”