Page 31 of Ties That Bind Us

Nick snaked his arm around my waist again, pulling me painfully close to him.

“I don’t know what your endgame here is, Alek, but I suggest you get out of here before you start something you can’t finish.” Words spewed like venom from Nick’s mouth.

“Oh, this is far from over, Caponelli. I look forward to seeing you again soon, Ava.”

Alek turned his back to us and walked away.

“Who was that?” I whispered, fixated on the figure walking into the night. Nick didn’t take his eyes off of him until he had disappeared.

“No one for you to be concerned about,” Nick said, turning me and leading us in the opposite direction.

“Nick?” He had just gotten through telling me we were a team, yet here he was keeping something from me.

He ignored me and continued to walk. “Nick!” I insisted, pulling my hand away from his.

“What?” he asked exasperatedly, turning around to face me.

“Who was that? Why does he know who I am? What we’re doing?” I crossed my arms over my chest, a slight glare on my face.

Nick dragged his hand through his hair in frustration. “Damn it, Ava. Do we have to do this tonight? We should be celebrating! We should—”

“I thought we were a team.” I threw his words back at him.

“We are.”

“Really? Because it sounds like you’re already keeping secrets from me. Which you promised never to do,” I snapped.

“That’s Alek Asnikov. He’s the son of the Russian Mafia leader. His family is encroaching on the city, which is a big reason why our families are joining together.”

I soaked his words in for a second. It was the first time I had ever been told any information about what was actually going on. My father kept me in the dark so much that Nick’s forwardness was both strange and refreshing.

“If he’s after us, why didn’t he do something right now?” I asked, trying to wrap my mind around this new information.

“Because he’s a coward, and that’s not how this kind of thing works. If he attacked us unprovoked like this, it would start an all-out war, which he certainly doesn’t want. He’d have both our families breathing down his neck trying to get justice. He’s just taunting us, don’t let him get to you. Let’s just forget we even saw him, okay?”

“But why do the Asnikovs even care that we’re getting married? It has nothing to do with them,” I persisted, not letting him get out of this conversation so easily. He had promised me openness and honesty, and I intended to get that.

“It has everything to do with them. If our families join, it could be the end for them. And there’s no way in hell they’ll go down without a fight.”

Until this moment, I hadn’t realized how much our marriage would affect other people, including Nick. The ramifications of this hit me all at once. I had been so wrapped up in my own feelings about it, I hadn’t even considered its ripple effect. Other Mafia families were bound to be upset, to attack, to converge, to do anything to stop it from happening. My dad had knowingly put me in the cross fire of a looming Mafia war.

“Ava.” Nick sighed and reached for my hand again. He seemed to realize something was on my mind. “Can we not do this tonight? All of this bullshit will still be here in the morning, so can we just put it out of our minds and enjoy our engagement for tonight?”

“Sure.” I nodded, determined to try my best.

“That’s my girl.” Nick smiled, then wrapped his arms around me and drew his lips to my neck like a magnet. “How about we renegotiate that saving yourself for marriage thing?”

He relaxed a little bit, but I could tell Alek and his family were weighing heavily on his mind also. It was like a cloud looming over us, and though we’d both do our best to ignore it, I couldn’t help but feel like a train was barreling down the tracks toward us and we had no way of stopping it.

Chapter 11

Ava

Over the next few weeks, the reality of my engagement to Nick sank in. It was starting to feel less suffocating and more like a real relationship than I ever could have imagined. I felt giddy talking to him, and sometimes I found myself looking for an excuse to bring him up. Luckily for me, there was no shortage of opportunities to talk about the situation when I was spending the afternoon with my sisters.

“I can’t believe you’re actually considering any of this.” Bella shook her head exasperatedly at me. She sat a few feet away, her feet dangling in the pool.

“It’s not like I have much choice, Bells.” I defended myself for what seemed like the millionth time. “I’m trying to make the best of all of this.”

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