Too soon, we reached the threshold to the study. Instinct made me want to draw in a deep breath to fortify myself, but I didn’t dare. I arranged my face in a careful, pleasant mask and lifted my chin as I stepped inside.
Father sat behind his enormous, imposing mahogany desk, flanked by Giorgio, his most vicious bodyguard. My father was still fearsome and ruthless, but age stooped his shoulders, and the beginnings of arthritis curled his fingers. He wasn’t physically capable of doling out the violence he’d once been renowned for. There was a reason he’d earned his place as consigliere of the Vitale crime family, Tommaso Vitale’s right-hand man.
Tommaso, the boss of the organization, was in even poorer health than my father, on his deathbed if the rumors were to be believed. Heart disease didn’t discriminate. It would take down the terrifying crime boss more cruelly than any bullet he’d dodged over the years.
I ignored the sharp glint in my father’s hazel eyes and went to join my sister, Giana. Her olive toned features were nearly identical to mine, but her trepidation made her appear slighter than me, younger despite the fact that she’d been born eighteen months earlier. The glimmers of golden strands shone through her brown hair, making her appear like a delicate, ethereal nymph in the low lighting of the opulent study.
Wood paneled walls surrounded us, closing in tighter with each of my carefully measured breaths. I wanted to take Giana’s hand in mine and give it a reassuring squeeze, but I knew Giorgio’s black eyes would immediately take note of the small show of weakness. Giana was fragile enough as it was, almosttrembling in the burly guard’s shadow; she didn’t need any sign of comfort from me to signal further vulnerability.
“Dante, thank you for coming,” Father greeted as the impossibly handsome, disconcerting man entered the study behind me. I felt his heat at my back, still a little too close for polite company.
I released a small breath when he strolled past me, and the sense that I was being watched like prey finally eased. His focus was on my father now, and I nearly sagged with relief; I hadn’t realized how his attention had put all my survival instincts on high alert, and now that his intense gaze shifted, I felt almost lightheaded at the release.
Dante tipped his head in an almost imperceptible nod, the barest show of submission. “I’m always happy to accept an invitation from you, Giuseppe.”
My father leaned forward on his elbows, his sharp gaze skewering the younger man. Dante didn’t so much as flinch. He met Father’s bone-quaking stare head on.
“Tommaso is dying,” Father said bluntly, cutting right to the chase with his usual battering ram approach to negotiations. “As you know, he expects his son, Luca, to take his place at the head of our family.”
The barest hint of a shadow flickered across Dante’s stubble-shaded jaw, so fast I might have imagined it.
“You know why you’re here,” Father continued. “Luca isn’t strong enough to hold off the Russians when they come circling in the wake of Tommaso’s death.”
“Agreed,” Dante replied coolly, dark brows lowering slightly over his keen eyes.
“And that little shit will get rid of me as soon as he can manage to stick a knife in my back.”
I jolted at that revelation. I was mostly kept apart from family politics. I knew my father was as close as a brother to Tommaso,but I’d had no idea that Tommaso’s son would turn on him at the first opportunity. What had Father done to incite Luca’s ire?
“You want an alliance,” Dante said it like it was a foregone conclusion, a fact that had been established before we’d stepped into this meeting.
Father tipped his head in acknowledgement, but the direction of his gaze flicked to Giana and me. I stiffened, unease coiling in the pit of my stomach. Why were we here? There was no reason for my sister and me to silently witness this meeting; we certainly hadn’t been called here to offer our opinions or input.
“I’m backing you,” Father announced, his attention spearing Dante once again. “I will keep my position. I will be your consigliere, and you will take control of the organization. I’m too old to be the boss. My health is already failing. You’re strong enough to push back the Bratva and even take more territory from them. You have the instincts and temperament for the job. You came up from nothing, and you’re our most powerful capo now. I choose you to be Tommaso’s successor, even if he thinks his son should come to power after his death.” His eyes lifted in a brief prayer, as though asking for forgiveness for betraying his closest friend’s wishes.
I continued to watch the exchange in tense silence, my mind racing. Giana and I shouldn’t be here. We shouldn’t know about Father’s planned coup. It put us in danger, and for all my father’s cruelty, he’d always protected us from the worst aspects of his criminal lifestyle. The violence we suffered at home was nothing compared to his vicious capabilities when it came to his enemies.
Or, it seemed, his supposed allies. He was prepared to turn on Luca and upend the organization’s power structure in order to cling to his position as consigliere.
Dante’s vibrant eyes cut into me before flicking back to my father. “And how do you propose we seal this alliance?” Again,that almost bored tone, as though he’d known exactly how this conversation would go before he’d even arrived at my house.
Father’s edict dropped like a stone between us: “You will marry my eldest daughter, Giana.”
My sister’s sharp gasp spiked through my heart, her fear lancing me with rage. My fingers curled at my sides, and my spine stiffened. She might be the eldest, but I’d always been her protector. She trembled at my side, wilting at the prospect of my father’s command.
I stepped in front of her, shielding her from him and from Dante’s arrogant gaze. How dare they treat my sister like an object to be traded? She was kind and gentle, and she deserved to be loved, not used like a pawn in a mobster’s power play.
“I won’t let you do this,” I seethed, my defiant stare clashing with Dante’s intense green eyes. They flared slightly, darkening with some emotion I didn’t fully understand.
I ignored the strange look and took a step toward him, getting in his personal space as though I could physically intimidate the mountain of a man. “I won’t let you anywhere near my sister.”
The capo was a monster with a fearsome reputation. He would be cold and possibly abusive to Giana, and she was far too frail to withstand that kind of cruelty. She would wither and waste away if I allowed them to cage her in an arranged marriage with a heartless bastard.
Dante had unnerved me during our brief exchange in the foyer; Giana would crumble if he turned that intense attention on her.
I dared to take my eyes off the threat so that I could glare at my father. “You can’t sell Giana like this. I won’t allow it. If Mom were here—”
“Don’t talk to me about your mother!” Father boomed. “I won’t tolerate this disrespect.”