Page 25 of The Runaway Bride

After having lunch, I’m holdingmy hand on Elli’s lower back as we walk into the basement, seeing no sign ofnervousness. She must have seen far more than I imagined from her father whenhe was my Underboss. Although Alex has told me he protected Elli as much as hecould.

Tia, however, is looking far moreworried, and I can see she has a tremor in her hands as she clutches themtogether in front of herself. Bruno is close behind her, guiding her and makingsure she is okay. I know he’ll remove her from the situation if somethinguntoward happens.

Entering the room, the two womenare sitting on the chairs in the center of the room, not tied down but with asoldier on each side of them. Intimidation is the intention.

Elli takes a deep breath andwaves the soldiers away from the women. The men look to me first and I nodslightly for them to comply.

“Your lives are in my hands.Whether you live or die rests solely on the answers you give me.” One of thewomen looks around Elli to see what I have to say about that, but I ignore hercompletely. “Why are you looking at the Don? Do you not understand what I justsaid? He does not need to waste his time with such as you any longer. You womenare now my concern, and as such, you will answer to me.”

Seeing a sneer form on thewoman’s face, Elli holds her right hand out to one of the soldiers. As heglances at me again, I realize that I’m going to have to reinforce her positiononce we are married. I can’t have all the soldiers looking to me before theyrespond to her every request.

Bruno steps in quickly and handsher his Glock, which has her giving him a slight nod of thanks. Taking thewoman’s face in her left hand, she squeezes her cheeks hard and forces hermouth open. Slipping the gun between her lips, Elli stares into the woman’seyes and I’m convinced she is going to pull the trigger.

“Let’s try this again, shall we?Your life is in my hands. Do you have the slightest doubt about what I’mtelling you?” Elli tilts her head questioningly, and the woman tries to speakpast the weapon in her mouth. Hearing the muffled ‘no’, Elli smiles the evilestsmile I have ever seen, and we all hear the splatter as the woman pissesherself.

“Why did you steal from thecasino? More importantly, from the family?” Removing the gun barrel from hermouth, Elli puts it against the woman’s forehead and waits.

“It was easy money, that’s all. Ibought luxuries that I wanted but couldn’t afford on my standard salary.” Tearsspring from her eyes and she sobs uncontrollably.

Shaking her head with a look ofdisgust, Elli states, “Greed. Plain and simple greed. Now, the money you havestolen will be retrieved from your account. You will continue working for thecasino under strict supervision until you have reimbursed the same amountagain. If you try to quit before that is achieved, you will die. If you run,you will die. If you do anything that I don’t like, you will die. Once allfinancial remunerations are complete, I will decide what happens to you fromthat point. Are we clear on this?” The woman nods rather than trying to speak,and tears continue to roll down her cheeks.

Signaling for a soldier to takeher away, she gives the second woman her attention. Before she asks anyquestions, the woman looks Elli in the eye. “I am sorry for what I have done. Ifelt I had no choice but to risk my life to help my mother. Her medical billsare crippling my family, but I couldn’t sit back and watch her die withoutdoing everything I could to help her. We have all given everything we have topay for her medication and treatment, but we haven’t been able to stay on topof it. When she approached me with her idea of skimming the bar money, I waseasily swayed. I can offer to pay it back, but I have nothing in my bank to doso. I can work the debt off willingly or forfeit my life to the family. All Iask is that my family are spared. They will have enough to grieve over when ourmother passes.” Throughout her plea, she holds her head high and never breakseye contact with Elli.

“You should have approached themanagement for support in your dark hour. I’m sure that the Don would have beenable to put something in place without you having to resort to theft. I willtake personal responsibility for your mother’s medical bills going forward.They will be documented accurately, and you will now become a part of mypersonal staff. You will work to pay off your debt.” Elli hands Bruno hispistol and then looks at the remaining soldier. “Take her to Yasmine and haveher delegate duties to her and a room in the mansion. She will be free to comeand go when she is not working, but will be required to return here every nightto sleep.”

Elli was magnificent. She showedthese two women that they could not fuck with the family and walk awayunscathed. One was a greedy, money grabbing bitch. The other I had empathy for,as she needed the money to pay for her dying mother’s treatment. Elli dealtwith that issue firmly yet kindly.

I am proud of the way that shehandled the women and when word of this spreads, which I’m sure it will, itwill cement her position as my wife and a force to be reckoned with. It alsoseems she may be coming around to the idea of being the Don’s wife.

Later that evening, Bruno, Tiny,Aeron, and I watch as Elli and Tia sneak through the house like two little micescurrying away from the house cat. But reaching the garage, they come to a stopwhile looking around for the Ranger, I’m sure. But we’ve moved it to the farcorner behind three other vehicles, one being the armored Escalade.

We all snicker as we watch theexasperation and annoyance flow over both their faces. Tia recovers the fastestand heads to the wall where the keys are hanging for all the vehicles. Butbefore she can take the keys for any, three soldiers appear and stand firm inher way.

“Come on, let’s go recover oursneaky brides, shall we?” I stride out of the tech room where we have beenwatching the monitor, knowing what they had planned.

Rubbing his hands together, Brunochuckles, “I can’t wait to get married. I always dreaded the idea, but likeyou, Nico, if she is going to be fierce, I will more than enjoy the challenge.”

Aeron mumbles something aboutstupid idiots, and becoming pussy whipped, but I don’t care what he says. I’malso looking forward to the future with Elli by my side. Tiny surprises me whenhe speaks. “Well, I’ve got my eye on a nice little woman in the kitchen. I’mgoing to woo her until she can’t say no any longer.”

“Idiot!” Aeron snaps as he surgesahead and reaches the garage before the rest of us. That is where we stop inour tracks, seeing the standoff that is happening.

Elli has a damn shiv in her hand.It is obviously a piece of the mirror she’d broken in her bathroom, with apiece of bed sheet wrapped around the base to stop cutting her own hand. Butshe’s threatening my men without a blink of her eye. Tia is standing at herside looking proud as can be, and I’m thinking maybe this bride thing isn’t asgood an idea as I first thought.

“Now, Elli, put down yourweapon,” I calmly say, trying my best to not shock her into doing somethinghastily.

“No. We are leaving, and you arenot going to stop u…” Before she can finish what she’s saying, Bruno and one ofmy men has snuck up behind them and grabs one each. Elli's struggling, but atleast she's not trying to shiv my man.

Once Elli is back in her bedroom,without Tia as she is in her room with Bruno watching over her. I take a seatand cross my legs, showing that I’m in no hurry to leave. “Now, this is thelast attempt to run on your part. You dealt with the women perfectly. You willbe a Don’s wife, you know this, so you need to quickly come to terms with it.Make life easier for yourself and Tia, who I think will make a superb wife tothe Underboss.”

Sighing, Elli rubs her handstogether before looking me in the eye. “Okay, but I’m not a doormat, and Iwon’t ever be a doormat. I want to have power with the women of the family, andI want children. If you ever think to take a mistress or cheat, I will cut offyour man parts and feed them to you.”

I love her threat, and canimagine she’d try to do it, but I would never stray. It is not who I am, so Ieasily reply, “Okay. Now, we are having the wedding on Saturday, so you need toget things arranged.”

Not waiting for Elli to respond,I stand and step over to her, take her head in my hands and kiss her. I makeuse of the fact she gasps and deepen the kiss. Eventually leaving Elli with aflush on her face and watery eyes.

Chapter 18

Elli

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