Page 56 of Keeping Kasey
“He’s getting impatient.”
“Then he can marry her off to someone else.”
“He wants to,” James says. “She’s twenty-three, and he’s been waiting since the day she turned eighteen.”
“Then why doesn’t he just do it already? I don’t like being pushed.”
“You know exactly why he hasn’t done it yet.”
I do.
Giovanni Romano is the boss of the Romano family, which is one of the larger factions residing within my territory. The trade of arms, substances, and protection has been mutually beneficialover the years. With their family located in the heart of Chicago, they’ve allowed us to reside on the outskirts and still remain in control of the city.
Giovanni’s wife passed away twenty years ago, and since he refused to remarry, his daughter is his only child.
Isabella Romano is the definition of a mafia princess, having been bred and raised for the sole purpose of being married off to strengthen family ties. There are plenty of suitors within our territory who would jump at the opportunity to marry the Romano princess, but Giovanni hasn’t accepted any of the offers for one reason, and one reason alone.
Me.
Giovanni approached my father with the proposition of an arranged marriage, and on Isabella’s eighteenth birthday, she and I officially met and agreed to it. My father was adamant about the arrangement being on my timeline, and Giovanni agreed to the condition.
This allowance could be seen as a mercy from the great Gabriel Consoli—as giving his twenty-five-year-old son the freedom to enjoy his youth and settle down when the time was right—but I knew better.
The only reason he included the condition was so I could ensure that the timing of the wedding wouldn’t interfere with my work. As time passed, it was also evident that my father wanted me to take over communication with families like the Romanos, and the expectation of a proposal kept Romano from getting on my father’s bad side while keeping the pressure onme.
“Now is hardly the time to be worrying about things like marriage. This family has enough to deal with.”
“That’s exactly why weshouldworry about things like marriage,” James says. “You don’t have kids, which means you don’t have an heir, and our men know it. It would strengthen our family to unite with the Romanos.”
I narrow my eyes at my brother. “Why now? And don’t say it’s because of the rumors about Kasey. Romano isn’t stupid. He knows I haven’t been chaste all these years.”
“The problem is that they aren’tjustrumors. Kasey is the first girl to work and live with us, and you go and throw her over your shoulder in a public declaration for all our soldiers to see,” James says with a pointed look. “Besides, we’ve been in mourning, and the timing hasn’t been right.”
“And what makes you think the timing is right now?”
His smile is thinly veiled. “Because you’re interested in companionship.”
I almost laugh. “Companionship? I’m sleeping with Kasey, and that in no way indicates that I’m looking for a wife.”
“And yet you need one, so unless you’re planning to make Kasey a bride, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t move forward with Isabella.”
“You’re right,” I say with a tight nod. “Screwing one girl is the perfect time to get engaged to another.”
“Kasey doesn’t strike me as the type to see an engagement as a hard line.”
His assumption grates on my nerves, and heat spreads over my chest.
We’re exclusive, I almost tell him, but I don’t.
He’s already wary of whatever Kasey and I are, and I don’t need to give him more fuel for that fire.
One breath. Two. Three.
“You like her, don’t you?” James says with a growing smile.
A string of curses runs through my head.
Most of the time, the fact that my brother knows me so well makes him the perfect underboss, but in times like this, his ability to read me is obnoxious. The smirk on his face says he knows it, too.
