Every muscle in my body tenses. The band around my chest snaps, and a piercing pain cuts through me.
"Jeanne, wait." I leap toward her, but she raises her hand without turning around.
"If you have one iota of decency left in you, Luca, you’ll let me go."
60
Luca
I let her go. I watch as she walks past the fallen bodies of the men my brothers and I shot down, past the crumpled figure of the man who attempted to take her life, twice. Her footsteps echo around the church as she heads down the aisle and away from me. She slips through the doorway of the church, and leaves without a backward glance.
The door clangs shut. The sound reverberates around the space, and echoes in my head. Somehow, it feels like the door to my coffin slamming shut. I spin around and kick the empty coffin I’d occupied just a few seconds ago. It’s so heavy that it takes a second kick, and a third, to dislodge it. It slides to the ground and rolls over.
"Fuck, fuck. FUCK," I yell.
I raise my joined hands and bring them down toward the marble platform that the coffin rested upon. I’d have hurt myself, probably broken a few bones in my palm, too, if it weren’t for Massimo grabbing my shoulder and pulling me back.
"Get yourself under control,fratello. Hurting yourself is not going to help anything."
"Oh, and you’re an expert on relationships, are you?" I wrench my shoulder from his grasp and turn on him. "Thestronzowho couldn’t get the woman he fell for to marry him."
His shoulders bunch. The tendons of his throat pop. "Take that back, youpezza di merda."
"Or what?"
He bares his teeth. "Or I’ll smash your face in."
I pull my fist back to do just that, when I’m caught from behind, and so is Massimo. We’re pulled apart. Me by Adrian, and Massimo by Seb and Axel. Thetesta di cazzois so fucking big, it takes two of them to restrain him.
We stare at each other, our breaths coming in puffs, chests heaving. Sweat beaded across our foreheads. Then Massimo shakes them off. He straightens his cuff and turns to Michael, who walks over to join us.
"The answer is yes."
"Eh?" Michael’s forehead furrows.
"I’ll marry theCamorraprincess."
He steps over Freddie’s body, then walks around the other fallen men. "I’ll send people to clean this up."
He stalks up the aisle and out of the church, leaving the six of us alone.
"Fuck." I pull out of Adrian’s grasp.
"I warned you," Michael says in a hard voice. "I told you this would hurt you."
"And if I hadn’t done it, he would have hurt her." I glare at the fallen Freddie. "He’s dead. We can all move on now. He’s never coming back to hurt any of us or our families. And with Massimo ready to marry theCamorraprincess, the feud with them will also be settled."
"You didn’t have to take it on yourself to settle this single handedly. You are not responsible for all of our futures," Seb chides as he leans forward on the balls of his feet.
"I am theCapo." I bend and pick up my gun from where I let it drop after I shot Freddie. "It was up to me to ensure our safety."
"And I am the Don." Michael scans my features. "You’ve always tried so hard to prove yourself, Luca. You can rest assured that we owe you for this. What you did was difficult and gutsy. You put the welfare of the clan before your own happiness. You went above and beyond your calling." He grips my shoulders. "I’m proud of you, little brother." He pulls me into a hug.
My eyes burn. There is a ball of emotion stuck in my throat, where it has no business being. My chest hurts, and my limbs feel like they belong to someone else. I allow Michael to pat me on the back before he steps back.
"What are you waiting for?" he asks.
"Huh?" I shake my head. "What do you mean?"