Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 125243 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125243 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Elio winces when Nico says, “That might be my fault.”
He hesitates, which is rare enough to make me look up. Guilt hardens his features, and something akin to fear clouds his eyes.
“What the fuck did you do?”
“It wasn’t just him.” Elio steps forward, standing shoulder to shoulder with the man he’s refusing to send to hell alone. He isn’t as tall as his brothers, and nowhere near as vicious, but he can hold his own, so his petrified expression is new.
My blood runs cold. “Tell me.”
“She overheard us talking about you,” Elio admits.
As I stand to my feet, I clench my hands into fists. “What did she hear?”
Nico rubs the back of his neck, forcing my eyes back to him. “We were discussing how it seemed like you were preparing to send her back to Antonio sooner rather than later.”
A growl rips out of me involuntarily, and Giovanni and Dante move just as fast. They place themselves between Nico, Elio, and me, aware that we usually solve matters like this with our fists.
Elio leaps into a piss-poor defense. “The self-defense gym is across the road from where Antonio gets his girly drink every day. What were we meant to expect?”
“That I was teaching her how to hold me back if I couldn’t take no for an answer,” I snap out, my words shouted.
The room stills. The only person who moves is Dante. He angles his head and scrunches his brow.
“You taught her self-defense… to hold you back.”
There’s no use acting coy now. I’ve shown my hand, so I lift my chin. “Yeah.”
I have no clue what the fuck he sees on my face, but it’ll take more than a handful of blinks to see clearly again when he slams his fist into my gut, folding me in two. Then, smirking, he exits the man cave like I’m not in the fight of my life.
“What the fu—”
“He told you he’d step back and watch you fall without a bit of advice on how to get back up undusted if you didn’t shut the fuck up about him being in love with Lucia,” Giovanni says. “He’s a man of his word.”
I cough, my balls gargling in my throat. “He thinks I’m in love? I’m not in love. I’m… I…”
I’ve got nothing.
Is that why I’m going insane, and why I can’t look at another woman? Is that why everything hurts? Am I in love with Azra?
My chest tightens as rage flares. I’m not angry at her for knocking me on my ass with only a sideways glance. I’m pissed that Nico and Elio might have stolen any chance I had of making her mine.
Giovanni throws his hand in my face, stalling my charge for the second time this morning. “You can beat the shit out of them later. You don’t have time to fuck around. If you love her, you need to act now.”
“Especially with how fast Antonio’s first marriage ended,” Elio mutters, jaw tight.
We all stare at him, confused as fuck.
“Antonio has been married before?”
Elio blinks before shifting his eyes to me, his interrogator. “You didn’t know? Today’s event isn’t the first wedding Vivienne has organized for Antonio.”
“Vivienne?” I echo, shrugging.
“The wedding planner,” Giovanni supplies, his mind ticking over so fast I hear each cog turning. “I don’t know of a single Cosa Nostra wedding she hasn’t planned in the last seven years.”
Elio nods, agreeing with him. “Vivy planned his first marriage four years ago.”
“Vivy?” Nico asks, brow arched.
Ignoring his drilling gaze, Elio opens a folder from his briefcase and pulls out a photograph. It’s a staged wedding portrait of a smiling blonde woman and Antonio. She is happy and radiant, nothing compared to the blonde in the next photo. In this photo, she’s wearing a white nightgown. The nightgown is scuffed, dirty, and torn, and tears streak her face. She looks wholly broken.
“That’s the night his wife committed suicide,” Elio says quietly. “One week after they wed.”
“A week?” I whisper, horrified.
Elio nods, and that’s all it takes for me to bolt.
I don’t think, breathe, or look back.
Azra is marrying a monster, and I’m done pretending I am fine with that.
Chapter 35
Azra
The chapel doors are shut, but I hear the murmur of the crowd inside. They sound like a hive of bees, ready to burst out and swarm me the second I step over the threshold. My palms sweat, and my throat feels tight. I flatten my hand against my chest, sure that my heart is close to bursting out of my chest.
This is it. The moment I’ve been preparing for. The plan I’ve been crawling toward for four years. I’m so close to greatness I can taste it.
One step at a time, I tell myself. Then you’ll be one step closer to ending this nightmare.
My chant is confident, but my legs feel like stone.