Page 49 of The Mafia's Captive

It takes five more minutes of scrutiny for me to say, “Do I have something on my face?”

They don’t respond for a moment. They both have identical grins that I want to wipe off with a fist. Nico is the first to speak. “You know, there’s something about her face that is similar to him, right?”

Rico responds, “There’s something there.”

I swerve my head between the two of them. “What are you talking about?”

“Do you like my brother?” I turn to Rico. I can’t tell if he’s seriously asking, or he’s just playing with me. I shrug. “I like him.”

Nico leans forward, twisting his body towards me. Rico does the same. “We mean like him, like him,” he says. They both want to intimidate me into telling them the truth. “Why do you want to know?” I say.

“He’s our brother, I think we deserve to know,” Nico says.

“We don’t want him to get hurt,” Rico adds.

I can’t stop the laughter that bursts out of me. The idea of Dante being affected in any way by our relationship is ludicrous. He has a higher chance of hurting me than me hurting him. “I doubt I have that much power.” When this thing ends, he might miss having a woman in his bed all the time, but I doubt he will missmein particular.

They both exchange a look. “She has no clue,” they say at the same time.

“What?”

Nico is the first to speak. “Dante has had a thing for you. An obsession. For years.”

“No way.”

“Way,” Rico says. “He’s mentioned you to us before, but never by name. We had to deduce it ourselves.”

“And you came to the wrong conclusion.”

“Nah.” Nico shakes his head. “Otherwise what are you doing here?”

“Did you know, he’s never brought a woman to a family gathering?” Rico adds.

“Never.” Says Nico.

“You reading too much into this,” I say. “I’m just a prisoner of his until I pay back his dead.”

It’s their turn to laugh. “Take care of him, will you,” Rico says, “I never thought I would say this, but Dante’s is a better person when you’re around.”

I frown. I want to ask him what he means by that, but before I can utter a word, I see Dante striding toward us. He instructs Rico to take the seat next to his brother. Rico obliges, but not before winking at me. The second Dante sits beside me, my entire body changes. It always does that, I notice. He doesn’t turn to face me but looks straight ahead, program in hand as he says to me, “What were you three talking about? You seemed animated.”

“You.”

He whips his head at me. “I hope they weren’t filling your head with lies. Believe nothing they say.”

Rico and Nico chuckle. “Don’t worry,” Rico says, “we couldn’t find the time to tell him all the nasty things you did as a kid. But we will in time, won’t we?”

“Oh, yes. We have so much to tell you.”

Dante gives them a look that shuts them up. Satisfied with his dominance, he turns his attention back to the front, where the groom is already standing. Gio looked handsome in a black and white suit. Soon the here-comes-the-bride song started playing and everyone stands up. The bride, being led by a middle-aged man, whom I deduced as her father, looks beautiful in an elegant gown. As she passes us, I can tell from beneath her veil that she looks sad. Or is it angry? Whatever the emotion, it was not happiness. I turn to the groom. He, too, has a look of apprehension.

I lean into Dante and whisper, “Why do they both look like they don’t want to do this?”

“That’s because they don’t.” It’s not Dante who answers, but Nico.

“Why?”

“Marriage of convenience. They have to. We need allies.”

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