“Where’d you go?” I asked. Alex hadn’t said anything about Marco. When I’d come downstairs, he’d been pacing back and forth nervously. I thought it was because he was worried about someone trying to kill me, but now, I wondered if it was because he was grappling with the fact that he was about to offer to spirit me away.
Marco looked at Alex from the corner of his eye. “Thanks for staying,” he said. “But you can go back to your wife now.” There was a hardness in Marco’s voice that caused me to raise a brow. He sounded jealous, which was ridiculous. Not only was Alex married, but Marco and I weren’t really much of anything.
“Call me if you need anything.” Alex nodded in my direction before walking towards the door. Marco and I both remained quiet until we heard the door click closed.
When it did, I turned to look at my fiancé noting how frazzled he looked. “Are you alright?” I asked. Marco’s was normally completely put together, but his hair was all over the place, and he was wearing a wrinkled t-shirt and jeans.
“I went to go see Dom,” he told me, not answering my original question.
I let it go. Marco was clearly frazzled by what happened at the restaurant. “What did he say?”
“That we need to get married as soon as possible.”
I felt my eyes widen at the urgency of his words. I wasn’t surprised that we needed to get married sooner rather than later, but I thought that we may have enough time to get to know one another a little better.
“Okay,” I said. “When?”
Marco’s eyes widened. He was surprised by the fact that I agreed readily. I didn’t know why. I’d agreed to marry him weeks ago. I’d even bought a dress. There wasn’t much to do but actually get married, and I was all for it if it kept people from shooting at me.
“Tomorrow,” he said.
My chest tightened. “Wow,” I breathed out. “So soon.”
Marco nodded. “Dom thinks that the Russians were behind the hit. Now that Adrian’s body has been found, they suspect that I’ve got something to do with his death.”
“Why would they target me?” I asked. “No offense, but you are the one who killed him.” The Russian’s didn’t know that, but I was starting to learn that things like sense didn’t really operate in this world. It was a little more of an eye for an eye type situation.
Marco ran a hand through his hair. “He doesn’t have the proof he needs to go after me. Doing so would start a war.”
“So, he’s going to go after me?” That all felt wholly stupdid and unfair.
“He thinks that you are really my fiancé,” Marco told me. “Adrian was his nephew. My guess is that he thinks that killing you would hurt me.”
“But it wouldn’t,” I said. “Hell, you tried to kill me not too long ago.”
Marco’s facial expression didn’t change. He still looked upset, more than I would expect him to considering that my death would make things much easier for him. The Russians might not realize it, but if they killed me, they were doing him a favor. I was the only witness to the crime.
“Something isn’t adding up,” I muttered.
“What?” Marco asked.
I shook my head. This all seemed odd to me. “You said so before, the Russians wouldn’t want me dead. Killing me would work in your favor.”
I couldn’t believe that Marco couldn’t see that. It made me realize that what happened at the restaurant affected him a great deal, maybe even more than it did me. Marco told me a little bit about his family. I knew that he’d lost his mother, father, and eldest brother to the Russians. I wondered if the idea of laos losing me to them worried him. It seemed silly to consider. We weren’t in love. He wasn’t my real fiancé.
Even if his concern was starting to feel real. “The Russian’s don’t follow logic,” he said, with a shake of his head. “They’d kill you just to prove to us that they could.”
“No.” I shook my head once more. “You aren’t thinking clearly.” I was sure of it. “I’m more valuable to the Russians alive. Killing me doesn’t make much sense.”
I walked closer to Marco. His dark eyes were clouded as my words started to sink in past his anger and mistrust. Deep down, whether he wanted to believe it or not, he knew that I was right.
“Dom assured me that he had nothing to do with what happened.”
This time I nodded. “I don’t know your brother, but I know what it’s like to have a brother, and I can guarantee you that he wouldn’t have shot the place up like that with you in there.”
For a moment, Marco didn’t look like he believed me. Before I could ask him more about it, the look faded. I wondered what the story was between Dom and Marco. They seemed so close, but as I looked closer, I was starting to see some cracks in the façade of their brotherhood.
“Whoever tried to kill me,” I said, “they were someone new. Or maybe someone old, but they had nothing to do with Adrian’s murder. I’m sure of that.” And I was. It had taken me some time to clear my head, but I knew that I was right. There was a new player on the board, and they wanted me dead.
“Someone wants you dead because of me,” Marco said.
My heart beat heavy against my chest. Though I wanted to be brave, my knees were weak with fear. The longer I was around Marco, the more danger I was in. But I wasn’t going to let fear control my life any longer. Whoever wanted me dead was going to have a hell of a time making sure I ended up that way because I had no plans of dying any time soon.