Page 62 of I Would Die For You

I’m about to pull the door open when loud pounding slams into the panel. It’s Dino on the threshold, eyes wide and face somber.

“They just rolled in,” he says to me and the Don over my shoulder. “You better come, quick.”

I’m already barreling down the stairs when a high-pitched voice breaks through in a shrill tirade as the music cuts off abruptly. What the hell is going on?

“You think wearing his mark makes any difference? He can fuck you all he wants, he’ll never be yours. You’re just sloppy seconds, anyway. A slut who opens her legs for money, aputtana—” it sounds like she’s spitting, “—fucking whore!”

When I see what’s going on, my blood freezes before an inferno rages through me.

“You fucking little bitch!” I yell. “No one speaks to my wife like that, and much less a cunt like you.”

Lorena Bruno’s waif-like form takes the blow of my words like a fist to the gut. “Your wife?”

“You married that slut?” a man’s voice bellows.

“Watch your words,” I say to Cesare Bruno.

My steps have now taken me to Kaya who’s standing frozen in the middle of the lounge as this attack rains down on her. I wrap her in my arms and kiss her hair.

“I’m sorry,ama. You never should’ve had to hear this.”

“I’m sorry, too,” the Don intones behind us. “You—” it sounds like he barks at the gathering to the side, Cesare Bruno and his entire family, it seems like, “—get out of here and make sure I never see your faces again.”

“Don Rossi—”

“Out!”

Dino and Sandro appear and cart that bunch of assholes away. Cesare Bruno just signed his death warrant. He won’t be unalived per se, but he’s now in the bad books of his former Don. No one will touch him with a ten-foot pole once the news is circulated.

Something makes me look up at the entrance tunnel of the club. I’m not surprised when my gaze snags that of my father. There’s only condemnation in his hazel eyes so like mine. But that’s where the resemblance ends. The man I am is nothing like him.

Before I can see him leave, I turn my back to him. I get to close that chapter of my book, not him. And the pages ahead of me all have this woman on them.

I breathe out her name next to her ear, the one word a plea, a sigh, a confirmation.

She jerks a little in my arms.

“No, don’t cry. Please don’t cry,” I mumble as I pull away to stare into her face. But she isn’t crying—she’s smiling, and a laugh spills out of her. I can truthfully say that lovely sound jumpstarted my heart again. “Kaya?”

“Did you just ‘my wife’ me in front of everyone?”

I have no idea what that means, and my frown only makes her guffaw even more. Yet, if it makes her happy like this, I’ll gladly be the fool every second of every day I get to live with her.

“Well, you are my wife.”

“I am,” she says, her voice bubbly and shaky with joy.

“Actually, I’m not sure about that,” the Don says.

We both turn to him, worry dropping to the pit of my stomach. I know he won’t take her from me now, but what the fuck is he on about?

He winces. “From what I’ve heard, you two got married before an Elvis impersonator. That’s not…right. We’ll do things the proper way here, in church, with a decent reception. This weekend?”

I don’t think anyone else will ever know what transpired between us in his office just moments ago. Only I will ever be privy to what his desire to see us together really means. And like I thought before, I will honor this.

I turn to Kaya, then clasp her hands in mine. Next, I get down on my knees in front of her. We never got the chance to do this properly, and now, we can. We should.

“Kaya Norton, you are the only woman I will ever love. Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”

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