Page 74 of Where Dark Hearts Devour
Breakfast?
Breakfast?
He’s just dropped the bombshell that in one hour I’ll walk out of here to live permanently with a man I’ll be serving for the rest of my life as a Cosa Nostra wife, when I’m falling fast for his brother, and he thinks I might wantbreakfast?
I grit my teeth and walk across the apartment to take a last look at the view.
Minutes pass silently, and I can’t believe he can feel comfortable about it.
“What will you do when I’ve gone?” I ask.
He swallows a mouthful of cereal. “Pack.”
I feel the skin across my brow go taut. I want to cry.
“So you’re leaving.”
“You always knew I was going to.”
“Doesn’t mean I’m happy about it.”
He stands and faces me as I turn my back to the window.
“I’m not happy about you marrying my brother, but I have no choice but to deal with it.”
I sigh heavily. “I?—”
He holds up a hand. “And don’t try to find a way we can make this work. I’ve been through a thousand different scenarios in the past four weeks, and it always boils down to two nonnegotiables.”
“Two?” I whisper.
“You can’t let your father down, Castellano. If you were to back out of this marriage, my brother would pull the plug on the whole arrangement. He’d use the strength of his army to screw over your family, and unlike me, he wouldn’t hold back on the bullets. He’s had his eye on your family’s port for years. Our father wasn’t interested in pulling it from under you, but now he’s gone ...”
My blood runs cold, my awareness latching onto the sinister fact the very man Cristiano is speaking of is about to come in here and drag me back to his home.
“You sound like you don’t approve,” I say accusingly. “Why would you let him get away with doing this?”
He tears a hand through his hair, gripping at the follicles, then drops his arm to his side. “Which brings me on to thesecond nonnegotiable,” he says, his tone weighed down with defeat. “I don’t agree with how Sav does business. I don’t want the same things he does. And I certainly don’t approve of his methods. But ...”
I take two steps toward him. I need to hear the reason why Cristiano is letting his beast of a brother get away with treating me and my family like pawns.
“... I owe him my life.”
I swallow and take a step back. “What?”
He cracks his knuckles, drawing my gaze to the tension in his hands. “When we were kids, I fell over the side of our grandfather’s boat and got stuck in the ropes. Savero cut me free and pulled me out. I was unconscious, but I eventually came around. If he’d been only a couple of seconds later, I would have died.”
The thought of Cristiano not making it that day suddenly overwhelms me, and I walk to a sofa, almost collapsing onto it. He follows and bends at the knees, bringing his face level with mine.
“I don’t like my brother.” He enunciates each word with care. “I don’t understand him. I certainly don’t deem him worthy of you ... But I wouldn’t be alive right now if it weren’t for him.”
My mind empties of all the happy-ever-afters I’ve dared to dream of with the man crouching in front of me, taking every drop of hope with it.
He reaches up and takes a curl of my hair between his fingers. Then he closes his eyes as he lets it slide from his grip.
“If he hadn’t saved me that day, I would never have met you.”
I nod slowly, and a tear rolls down my cheek to splash on the polished floor.
