Almost.
As I thought about the hell she put me through as a child, any sympathy I felt for her disappeared. Years of locked rooms and closets. My screams for help. Eighteen long years of torture until my grandfather had finally rescued us from her home.
Lorenzo wrapped his hands around my mother’s throat. A sick part of me enjoyed it. I liked seeing her weak and completely at the mercy of a monster.
My eyes flicked over to my men, where guards surrounded them. On the opposite side of the room, I found Drake, Sonny, and his brothers accompanied by a few Knights I hadn’t seen before.
I turned to face Lorenzo, who closed his fingers over my mother’s throat so hard she gasped for air. He tossed her at a guard like she was a piece of trash. The man pointed a gun at her head, and she begged him to let her go.
Laughter filled the silence in the room. Everyone in the crowd watched as the scene played out before them like a really fucked up movie.
Lorenzo took his place beside the priest.
The priest looked at my brother and said, “Who gives this woman to be married to this man?”
Aiden swallowed hard as he looked at me. Biting the inside of my cheek, I nodded.
He had to do this.
We were out-manned, outgunned, and at a complete disadvantage on the island. The wedding didn’t mean shit. It probably wasn’t even legal. Lorenzo could force my hand, but he would never have me.
“I do,” Aiden bit out.
Icouldn’t breathe as I looked at her. Dressed in a white wedding gown that fit her curves perfectly, Alex looked like a fucking goddess.
Like a queen.
Our girl was perfection in every way. The one good thing all four of us had in our lives. Without her, we wouldn’t survive. She had her hooks in all of us, holding our black hearts in her hand with the power to crush them.
Losing her would kill us.
She stood beside Lorenzo in front of the priest, shifting her weight nervously from one foot to the other. Her eyes drifted over her shoulder at us. I could tell she was waiting for us to step in and save the day.
But none of us could move.
Not even an inch.
Several men surrounded us on each side, armed and with their hands rested on their guns. We knew going into this situation we likely wouldn’t have access to a weapon. Despite our obvious disadvantages on the island, we weren’t completely out of options. Lorenzo and his men didn’t know we had Alpha Command working quietly outside these walls to disarm the guards.
Lorenzo tugged on Alex’s hand, snapping her attention back to the priest. They went through the motions of a normal wedding. Lorenzo was Catholic and wanted a proper wedding spoken in Italian. This bought us some time.
I turned my head to look at Marcello, who signaled Alpha Command would arrive in five minutes. With that, my racing heart slowed to a more normal rate.
A sudden calm washed over me.
My father had shown all of us from an early age that weaknesses would get us killed. That our enemies would sniff them out and use them against us. Back then, I never thought a woman could be a weakness. I hadn’t known that falling in love with a woman could destroy me.
I.
Fucking.
Loved.
Her.
She had begged for my love and affection. But it wasn’t until she learned the truth about our families that I felt the burden lift off my shoulders. Over the course of the past few months, Alex had shown me that love was more than words. It was actions, devotion, this sickening feeling I felt in my stomach every time I thought about someone hurting her.
Marcello tapped my arm with his elbow. I glanced over at him, and he nodded to signal we had one minute to go. We needed to prepare Aiden, if possible. He was on Alex’s left side, his eyes moving between Alex and us.