Page 11 of Entangled
At the need to claim her as my own, without any logical reason.
Something deep within me called for her.
Mine.
I finally broke eye contact, not missing the warning glare her husband gave me as introductions were made around the table.
Jude Peirano didn’t know it then, but he should consider himself grateful that I was being a good boy for my father.
Because I now felt a very strong possessiveness over his wife, and everything in me screamed to take her from him.
A seed of obsession began to take root in that moment, and I could do nothing to stop it.
“These are my sons: Finn, Sawyer, Kade, and Maverick,” my father said, gesturing to us one by one. There wasn’t a single bit of warmth about any of us or the body language we currently displayed. Looking at any single one of us the wrong way was asking for a death wish. Everyone knew not to fuck with any of the Luchetti men.
And for good reason.
“Boys, this is Lilah Canella,” my father said as he gestured to the Mafia Queen of Boston. I’d heard plenty about her, but never met or put a face to the name before.
Honestly, I wasn’t impressed.
I nodded in greeting to her, the bare minimum of response, whilst Maverick and Finn barely acted like she existed, just staring coldly at her. Sawyer seemed indifferent, as if he wasn’t sure which response to give.
He had always been the most reasonable and softest of us brothers, and it had only gotten worse once he’d married his wife Vanessa.
“Pleasure,” Lilah responded, a sickly sweet fake smile plastered on her face. “This is my son-in-law Jude, and his wife Soren.”
She didn’t have to introduce them. I already knew who they were when I stepped into the room. Everyone knew about the notorious Jude Peirano who had bought his bride. Not to mention she’d just introduced Jude to my father not two seconds ago.
Just like Lilah, I had no idea what either of them looked like until now, but the way he carried himself, like the prick I knew he was, I nailed his identity down in two seconds flat. Only he would arrive so fashionably late with his wife on his arm.
I didn’t tempt myself to look at Soren again, nodding to Jude in greeting and knowing damn well by the look on his face that he was daring me to look at his wife again.
Protective prick.
I wanted to stare at her and laugh in Jude’s face just to piss him off. If this was a game he wanted to play, then game on.
I’d make him regret ever thinking he could cross me.
“Thank you for joining us, Matthias,” Lilah began, as the greetings and introductions finished. “Although I’m afraid it will just be a waste of time and gas for you.”
I could see my father’s blood begin to boil already, and I’m surprised there wasn’t steam blowing out of his ears.
“You’d do well to remember who you’re talking to, Lilah,” my father warned, surprising me slightly that he hadn’t threatened her worse than that.
“I remember very well who I’m dealing with, Matthias. You’d do well to remember who exactlyyou’retrying to duel with,” Lilah replied, clasping her hands together on the table in front of her.
I could almost hear my father’s jaw breaking as he clenched it, using every bit of restraint he had left to not strangle this woman.
“Everyone in Boston knows that any territory in the harbor belongs to the Luchetti’s,” Finn piped up, knowing my father clearly needed a minute to collect himself.
“Unfortunately for you, that territory intermingles with that of the Peirano family, and since it’s in Boston, it belongs to us.”
If I could describe what Lilah’s voice sounded like, I could equate it to nails on a chalkboard. She had me grinding my teeth with each word that came out of her mouth. I couldn’t imagine how my father must be feeling. I snuck a peek at Maverick to see how he was taking this, and he was about as close to losing his shit as my father was . That’s what happens when you inherit his lack of patience.
“My father, and his father, and his father before him, have owned the harbor, and it will continue to be that way as I pass it to my sons and they pass it to their sons. I don’t give a fuck if the Queen of England’s territory intermingles with it. It belongs to us. The only reason this is up for debate is because some small, unimportant mob member who owned the turf was murdered and he didn’t belong to either of us. How he managed that I’ll never know, but that’s not what’s important here. Only a fool would question whose ownership it belongs to now that he’s dead. That’s the only time it’s left Luchetti hands, and it won’t happen again.”
“So you think I'm a fool?” Lilah hissed, and I could have sworn I saw venom fly from her lips.
