There was enough coverage from the wind that I could shove my tangled hair from my face for an unobstructed view of the man who unknowingly held my future in his hands.
When he settled into the chair opposite me, I released my firm grip on the gun but kept it on the chair cushion next to me. I took my hand off it and then flattened my palms on my thighs. It would have been better to approach him without putting him on the defensive, but pulling a gun was the only way I felt safe enough even to get to that point.
I didn’t know Nico, not really. But I did know of his reputation. And I was well aware of how a beautiful exterior could hide all degrees of inner ugliness. I did not doubt that he, too, was a monster. All I hoped was that I could reach the protective side that I’d heard all the brothers in the La Rosa family had for their sister and extended to the women of the Mafia family.
“We’re here. You’ve got my attention.” His whiskey-colored eyes narrowed, and power crackled in the air from his predatory presence, making the fine hairs on the back of my neck rise. “What do you want, Mia?”
“Protection. Marriage.” The words spilled from my lips before I could censor myself and ease into what I needed from him.
His bark of laughter set my nerves further on edge.
I blamed my lack of finesse on exhaustion and the ticking clock I felt deep in my bones. It wouldn’t be long before Ricco or Guido found me and dragged me back to hell.
“Why the hell would I do that?” He reined in the harshness of his reaction by pressing his lips together, his eyes flashing with something I couldn’t decipher. A moment passed with neither of us saying anything. “We can work something else out without marriage.”
I shook my head, fighting the panic rising from his rejection. I had to tell him everything. It was the only way I could get him to agree to my plan. “I’m not safe.”
He rose one brow almost mockingly, and I wanted to leap from my chair and land a right hook across that angular jaw. This was not the man I’d fantasized about, the one whose picture I had secreted away in my room.
“None of us are safe. It’s the way of our world.” He tilted his head to one side, and I felt his penetrating scrutiny—it was as if he could see inside me, and I wasn’t sure I liked it. “Each day in this life is a gift. You know that. I can’t imagine that the Mafia in New York is much different.”
I shook my head, conflicted by his words. “No. I mean yes. It’s impossible not to understand that, growing up in our world. But what I’m talking about is much worse.”
My fingers dug into the sides of the chair as I told him about Ricco and how he vied for control of our family, how he saw me as an obstacle. I knew I was my father’s pawn—he would use me to gain power, marrying me off to who he deemed would benefit him the most, despite how I felt about it or what that meant for my safety. Finally, I painted the picture of my last hours and what I’d overheard my father and Ricco talking about, omitting the part about being drugged and locked up, the flower etching in the room, or what my mom had left me in a train station locker. “I need protection from my family and from the Amatos. No one but you can give that to me.”
Silence stretched between us until he broke it with a low growl. I hurried to finish what I had to say, needing him to understand the gravity of my situation and what would fix it. “I won’t be safe until I’m fully under the protection of the Five Families. And you damn well know that nothing aside from marrying one of you will give me that.”
“Marry Tony. He’s single.”
I snorted. “I’ve done my research. He’s not as connected.”
“He is. Tony is Max’s brother.”
Max was the boss of the Caruso family. “But not an underboss like you, so no. He wouldn’t have enough power to stop them from coming for me.” I held his gaze, my soul bared. “It has to be you.”
CHAPTER FOUR
NICO
Thunder boomed after Mia’s mic-drop statement, and the sky opened fully, dumping sheets of rain that obscured our view beyond the patio’s overhanging shelter. I sat across from her, digesting everything she’d told me, weighing the possibility of her involvement in the bomb in Chicago and the logic of her proposal against my anger at the way her family had treated her.
It wasn’t uncommon for a Mafia boss to use his daughter as a pawn for power. Hell, it’d happened often enough within the Five Families. If we were to marry, she was correct that she would be protected. But why would I take that plunge? No woman before her had tempted me to do so. I didn’t think I had the right makeup to have feelings that lasted after the first time I slept with a woman, despite how much I wished that were different.
I wasn’t a boss, but my family was powerful, as was my position. I studied her body language, the tension in her shoulders, and how her fingers were white at the tips from their tight grip on the chair. Dark half-moons hung beneath her otherworldly eyes. I couldn’t deny that she’d intrigued me since I learned she’d tipped Summer off to danger.
“This favor. It wipes the slate clean from you warning Summer.”
Her heavily lidded eyes widened. “Yes. Do we have a deal?”
I hesitated. “Divorce isn’t an option.”
“I’m aware.”
“The only way to leave is through death.”
“Marriage, Mafia… both have the same terms.” Her features remained devoid of emotion, steady and penetrating.
I scanned the length of her body, from her midnight hair to the chipped copper polish on her bare toes. A fine sheen of mist from the rain pounding the patio coated us where we faced away from the house. She had to have been cold, but sheer determination held her immobile.