Bound By Love: Chapter 13

ARIA

The wedding celebrations passed in a blur and when the first shouts rang out that asked for the groom to bed the bride, I felt sick. Lily tried to appear strong, but I could see behind her mask, could see the terror and fear, and it broke me apart. Matteo practically had to hold Gianna in place to stop her from going after our sister, but I was frozen.

Helplessness. It wasn’t the first time I’d felt it, but today it reached new levels.

“Come on,” Luca said quietly when Brasci and Lily had disappeared in their shared bedroom. His hand was warm as it closed around mine, and I allowed him to lead me toward our own bedroom in the Brasci mansion. We shouldn’t have agreed to my father’s suggestion to spend the night there. The door fell shut behind us, and my throat closed up. I turned away from Luca and walked toward the bed. I remembered our first night in a room together, our wedding night.

I’d been terrified of Luca, of consummating our marriage, but Luca had showed kindness, had treated me with respect, and had continued to do so since we were married. I had been lucky.

Lily wouldn’t be that lucky. Brasci was a nasty piece of shit, or that was how Matteo had put it. I had seen it in his eyes. I knew rape was still common in some marriages in our world. It wasn’t called by that name because our old-fashioned traditions still viewed the woman’s body as the husband’s possession, but it was a dark presence in many women’s lives. Gianna and I had been lucky. I’d always thought Lily would be too. I had been wrong.

I began to cry for Lily, and for Romero. For their impossible love. I didn’t let my mind wander to what could be happening in the bedroom down the hall. I couldn’t bear it. Luca came up behind me and put his hands on my shoulders like he’d done on our wedding night more than four years ago. Back then his touch hadn’t brought me comfort, but now it did.

“Aria,” he murmured.

His gentle tone made me cry even harder, and he slid an arm around my waist and pulled me against him. He was warm and strong. His lips brushed my cheek, which was wet with tears. “It’s unfair,” I whispered through my clogged-up throat. “It’s almost like all the good luck was granted to me and Gianna, and now nothing is left for Lily.”

Luca turned me around to face him and tilted my head up. His face was kind. “Don’t blame yourself, Aria. It’s got nothing to do with luck or fate. Life’s unfair, that’s how it is.”

“No,” I said harshly. “That’s not how it is for everyone. That’s not how it is for men. Were you terrified before our wedding night? No. You were probably excited because you wanted to claim me.”

Luca sighed and wiped tears off my cheek. “Yes, I was excited, Aria, up until the point when I realized you were terrified, and you know that.”

“I know,” I said. “But Brasci won’t care that Lily is terrified. Nothing will stop him from raping her.”

Luca bent low until our foreheads touched. “Fuck, Aria. What do you want me to do? Do you want me to drag the asshole out of that bedroom and cut his throat? Because right this second, I want to fucking do it because I hate to see you so broken up. The only thing stopping me is the knowledge that I’d risk your life. If I kill Brasci or if Romero kills him, then we are at war with the Outfit.”

“Perhaps we won’t have to kill him…” I trailed off, realizing how foolish it was. Brasci wouldn’t let Lily leave the bedroom. We’d have to knock him out at the very least, and that would lead to war, too.

I tipped my head up and brushed my lips across Luca’s. His brows pulled together. “What’s that for?”

I forced a shaky smile. “For wanting to risk everything because of me. I don’t deserve you.”

He shook his head, but the ring of his mobile stopped him from saying anything. He raised the mobile to his ear and his face transformed into a mask of shock, then fury.

“Damn it, Romero!” he snarled. I stepped back, my pulse racing. “So let me get this straight—you are in a room with Lily and Benito?”

There was an answer on the other end.

“Damn it!” Luca growled. He hung up and lowered the phone.

Then he turned to me. “Did anything happen to Lily?” I whispered.

He glared. “She and Romero started war with the Outfit!”

LUCA

Aria stared at me uncomprehendingly. “What do you mean?” She sounded scared but probably for the wrong reasons. I bet her all her worry was for her sister.

“Romero killed Brasci. He’s with your sister now.”

Aria didn’t say anything, but relief showed on her face. I didn’t blame her. She only cared about her sister’s safety. She didn’t know what that meant, didn’t know that Romero had forced me to make a decision I’d never wanted to make.

“We’ll have to go to them now,” I told her as I gathered my guns and knives and arranged them in the holsters on my chest, back and calves.

Aria watched me with dawning worry. “We’ll have to run, right? If Brasci is dead, Dante will declare war on us.”

I gave a terse nod then I held out my hand for her to take. That was one option. The other was to show Dante I didn’t approve of Romero’s actions. “Come on. We need to hurry.”

She slipped her small hand in mine, and I led her out of our bedroom and down the hallway where Liliana and Brasci were supposed to spend their wedding night.

I scanned our surroundings and listened for suspicious noises, but only the sound of music and distant laughter carried over. The party was still going strong. My mouth tightened. Seven years. That’s how long we’d managed to keep peace between the Outfit and the Famiglia, and tonight the feud would break open again, probably worse than before. Dante was a proud man, and he would have to retaliate. If someone killed one of my men in my territory, I would hunt them down and slice them into tiny pieces.

Aria was surprisingly quiet at my side. Perhaps she’d realized the danger of the situation.

I knocked at the bedroom door and Romero opened it a moment later. Aria unfastened her hand and slipped in, hurrying toward her sister who perched on the edge of the bed.

Romero met my gaze, and he didn’t try to look like he felt sorry. At least he was being honest. I walked past him into the bedroom.

“My God, Lily. What happened? Are you okay?” Aria asked, but I had eyes only for the dead body in the center of the room. Brasci lay on his side, a letter opener sticking out of his stomach. I moved nearer and got down to take a closer look. The letter opener hadn’t killed Brasci. A knife had gone in right below his ribs and pierced his heart. That was Romero’s doing as I’d expected.

I raised my gaze to Liliana, who froze. “What happened here?”

She looked at Romero as if she wasn’t sure which lie to tell. I couldn’t believe them. “I want the fucking truth!”

“Luca,” Aria scolded. “Lily is obviously in shock. Give her a moment.”

“We don’t have a fucking moment. We have a dead Outfit member in a room with us. Things will get ugly very soon.”

Aria turned back to her sister. “Lily, are you okay?”

“I’m fine. He didn’t have time to hurt me.”

I didn’t give a fuck about any of this. We were in huge trouble. By killing Brasci, Romero had brought down the wrath of the Outfit on us at a time when we were already at war with the Bratva, not to mention a few MCs kept giving us trouble in Atlanta, Charleston and even New Jersey.

“Enough,” I growled, losing my fucking patience with all of them. I glared at Romero. “I want answers. Remember your oath.”

Romero’s gaze was steady. He’d always been a good soldier until now, but this wasn’t a small fuckup. For what he did today, there was only one logical consequence, and we both knew it.

“I always do.”

I pointed at Brasci. “That doesn’t look like it. Or are you saying that Liliana did this alone?”

Romero shook his head. “Liliana is innocent. Benito was still alive when I arrived. She’d stabbed him with the letter opener because he attacked her. It was self-defense on her part.”

Right. “Self-defense?” I echoed. I doubted Brasci had done anything that anyone in this house hadn’t expected him to do. These were the rules of our world. I narrowed my eyes at Liliana. “What did he do?”

“He tried to force himself on her,” Romero said.

“I didn’t ask you!” I snarled. Aria tried to appease me with a hand on my arm, but I had no intention of calming down. This wasn’t a minor transgression. That Liliana had stabbed Brasci would have caused major problems for her because she’d denied him something he had a right to as her husband. “And if he tried to consummate the marriage, nobody in this fucking house will see it as self-defense. Benito had a fucking right to her body. He was her husband, for god’s sake!”

Romero took a step forward but stopped himself. I eyed him, daring him to attack like he wanted to. It would take this fucking decision out of my hands.

“You can’t be serious,” Aria said, eyes imploring.

She knew what was expected on a wedding night as well as I did. Nobody would care that Liliana didn’t want to marry Brasci, that she had fought him. I didn’t make the rules nor did Dante, but neither of us had the power to change a tradition without the support of the other soldiers and their families. “You know the rules, Aria. I’m stating the facts.”

Aria shook her head. “I don’t care. A husband doesn’t have the right to rape his wife. Everyone in this house should agree on that!”

Aria was too soft for this world, too caring, but even she knew that most women were claimed on their wedding night. In the beginning I’d sometimes regretted that I’d spared her on our wedding day, but later I’d realized it had been the best decision of my life. If I’d hurt Aria on our wedding night, she would have never forgiven me.

Romero went over to Liliana and wrapped his arm around her.

Love. Father had always told Matteo and me that it was a weakness, and I had to admit he had been right. It weakened me, it weakened Matteo, and now it weakened Romero, and in consequence it weakened the Famiglia. My uncles would attack like vultures once word got out about this. “I told you this would end in disaster. So let me guess, Liliana stabbed her husband, called you and you finished the fucking job to have her for yourself.”

“Yes,” Romero said. “And to protect her. If he’d survived he would have blamed Liliana, and she would have been punished harshly by the Outfit.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “And now she won’t? They will put her on trial and they will not only punish her harshly, they will also accuse us of having set this up, and then there will be a fucking bloodbath. Dante is a cold fish but he needs to show strength. He will proclaim war in no time. All because you can’t control your dick and your heart.”

“As if you could do it. You’d take down anyone who’d try to take Aria away from you,” Romero said.

My eyes slanted to Aria. Her concerned blue eyes locked on mine. I’d burn down the world to protect Aria. If anyone tried to take her away, I’d kill them and anyone else who got in my way. “But Aria is my wife. That’s a huge difference.”

“If it was up to me, Lily would have been my wife for months.”

Did he really think about marrying her? Did he really think we were all getting out of this house alive? “Someone is going to pay for this. As Capo of the Famiglia I need to put the blame on Liliana, and hope Dante buys it and doesn’t start a war.”

Aria’s grip on my arm tightened, her eyes full of unshed tears. “You can’t do that.”

Romero got down on his knees in front of me, arms spread wide. “I’m going to take the full blame for this. Tell them I lost my mind and ran after Liliana because I’ve wanted her for months. I killed Benito when he tried to defend Lily and himself, but before I could rape her, you noticed I was missing and went in search of me. Then there won’t be war between the Outfit and New York, and Lily will get the chance at a new life.”

He meant it, but nobody would believe that story. Yet, that he would put down his life for Liliana showed how serious he was about the girl. What was it with the Scuderi women that made us all go insane? “If that’s the story we want them to believe, there’s something missing,” I said.

Romero nodded. “I will put my life down for this. Shoot me.”

“No!” Aria screamed, but I shook her hand off and stared into Romero’s determined eyes. I’d known him almost all my life. We’d partied together, got drunk together, fought and killed together. Next to Matteo he was the man I trusted most. That was why he had been allowed to guard Aria. I knew he would have never lain a hand on her.

Liliana moved between Romero and me. Fear twisted her face. Fear of me and my decision. I was used to that look from people around me.

“Please,” she whispered, eyes begging me, hoping to appeal to a side only Aria could reach. “Please don’t kill him. I’ll do anything, just please don’t. I can’t live without him.”

She started crying but it didn’t affect me like Aria’s tears did.

Romero got up and pulled Liliana away. “Lily, don’t. I’m a soldier of the Famiglia. I broke my oath to always put the Famiglia first, and I have to accept the due punishment.”

“I don’t care about any oaths. I don’t want to lose you,” Liliana said.

I reached for my gun, needing to get this over with, but Aria appeared in front of me and rested her palms against my chest, one palm over my heart, appealing to the part of me that had been dead before her—and in moments like these I wished it would have remained that way.

Her eyes held mine. “Please, Luca, don’t punish Romero for protecting someone he loved. He and Lily belong together. I beg you.” Her hands trembled against me, and her eyes were pleading with me.

I knew I should refuse her request, but I hated the thought of losing Romero. He was one of the few people I trusted at all. I knew he’d take a bullet for me, and more importantly for Aria. But I also knew that he’d never be as unconditionally loyal as he’d been because now his feelings for Lily would always get in the way.

I pried Aria’s hands off my chest, and her expression fell. “I can’t base my decisions on feelings. I’m Capo and have to make decisions that benefit my Famiglia.”

Romero stepped up to me, ready to accept my verdict. He wouldn’t beg. His eyes held no judgment for the decision he expected of me: a death sentence.

I held his gaze for a long time, and made my choice.

“You are my best soldier. The Famiglia needs you, and I don’t trust anyone with Aria as I do you,” I said as I rested a hand on his shoulder, surprising myself as much as him. “War has been inevitable for a while. I won’t end your life to postpone it for a few fucking months. We’ll stand together.”

Romero relaxed. He didn’t say anything, but I could see that he’d try to make it up to me for the rest of his life. He was a loyal man, a soldier I didn’t want to lose.

“Of course, we might not get out of this house with our lives. We’re surrounded by the enemy now.”

“Most guests are either drunk or asleep. We could try to sneak out. They won’t notice Benito’s death until morning; by then we’ll be back in New York,” Romero said.

I doubted we’d be that lucky. Picking up my mobile, I tried to call Matteo. We needed to figure out a way to get out of Chicago, but he ignored my call. He was probably busy fucking his wife. “Damn it. Matteo isn’t picking up his fucking phone.”

“Do you think something happened to them?” Aria asked.

“The only thing happening is that he’s probably fucking your sister’s brains out right now and ignoring his fucking phone,” I said. Romero and I carried Brasci’s body into the bathroom before Liliana went in there to change out of her ripped wedding dress.

The moment Romero went in to help her, and Aria and I were alone, she came up to me and wrapped her arms around my waist, her cheek pressed against my chest. “Thank you, Luca. Thank you so much. I won’t forget this. I didn’t think it was possible but for what you did today, I love you even more.” She shook against me as she lifted her head, tears running down her cheeks. I brushed them away. Fuck me. This woman held more power over me than anyone ever had, than anyone ever would.

Romero returned and Aria stepped back. Public displays of affection were something I had to limit, even around Romero.

“Done,” Romero said.

“Good. Now let’s get going. I don’t want to risk staying here a moment longer than absolutely necessary.” I held out my hand for Aria. She took it with a tense smile and I pulled my gun. I needed to get her out of this house alive no matter the cost. I opened the door and peered out into the corridor. It was deserted but the party was still going strong.

I signaled Romero that the coast was clear before I pushed the door open wider and stepped out, pulling Aria along.

We didn’t cross anyone’s path as we made our way to Matteo’s room. I knocked but, of course, the asshole didn’t open his door. He probably had his dick buried in Gianna’s pussy. I knocked a bit harder. Again nobody reacted. Aria threw me a worried glance, and I rammed my fist against the wood as loud as I could risk. And finally Matteo opened his fucking door, only dressed in his boxers and sporting a fucking boner.

“Didn’t you get the hint that I didn’t want to be interrupted when I didn’t answer your fucking call?” Matteo’s gaze moved behind me, and his lips pulled into a grimace. “I have a fucking bad feeling.”

I shoved him hard. “For fuck’s sake, Matteo, pick up when I call you. You need to get dressed. We have to leave now.”

“What’s wrong?” Gianna asked, coming up behind Matteo in a satin bathrobe. Her lips were swollen as if she’d been busy giving Matteo head. “Shit, something bad happened, right? Did the asshole hurt you?” She hugged Lily. Aria’s hand tensed in mine.

“He’s dead,” Liliana said.

“Good,” Gianna said. She patted Romero’s shoulder. “You did it, didn’t you?”

Romero smiled tightly. “Yeah, which brings us to the reason why we need to hurry.”

“Romero is right. We need to get out of this house before someone realizes that the groom is dead,” I said, losing my fucking patience.

“I always thought that I’d be the one to start a war between the Outfit and the Famiglia. Kudos to you, Romero, for proving me wrong for once,” Matteo said, grinning.

“I thought that too,” Romero said.

Everyone had thought that. Matteo was the crazy one. Romero had always been reliable, but Liliana had obviously changed that. I sighed. “I hate to interrupt your chitchat but we need to get the fuck going.”

Matteo and Gianna got dressed, and we left the room and continued our journey through the house. Every muscle in my body was tight with tension as I listened for the slightest sound of people crossing our path.

We took the second staircase in the back of the house down to the first floor and headed for the door that led to the underground garage. Most houses in this area had them because outside space was limited. There was the sound of steps from the corridor to the left of the door, and my body went into fight mode as I shielded Aria and raised my gun. Matteo and Romero did the same. Things had gone too smoothly until now, but that was over. Even with our silencers in place a shooting would create a certain amount of noise, especially if our attackers managed to cry out a warning. A bullet through the head was the only solution.

My finger on the trigger tightened when a blond boy turned the corner. Fuck. In the last moment, I stopped myself from shooting. His hair had saved him. It was Fabiano.

Aria gasped, her hand jerking in mine. She would have run to him, if I hadn’t held her in place. Fabiano’s eyes widened as he stumbled to a stop and pointed his own gun at us. He hadn’t been fully inducted yet, definitely hadn’t killed anyone yet, and he wasn’t good at hiding his emotions. Fear flashed across his face before suspicion took its place.

Aria pressed her palm against my arm, trying to force it down, but I kept my gun pointed at Fabiano. He was only a kid but a bullet from him was as deadly as from anyone else.

“What’s going on here?” Fabiano asked firmly, standing even taller than usual and trying to look like a man. With the gun and that serious expression, he almost managed to look like more than nearly a teenage boy.

“Put that gun down,” I ordered.

Fabiano laughed, but it sounded nervous and his eyes held fear. He would have to learn to hide it better if he wanted to survive in the Outfit—if he survived tonight. “No way. I want to know what’s going on.” His eyes moved from Aria to Gianna, then to Liliana.

“Why are you even running around with a gun? Shouldn’t you be in bed?” Aria asked and was about to take a step forward, but I pulled her back.

“I have guard duties,” Fabiano said with a hint of pride.

“But you aren’t inducted yet,” Lily said, confused.

“I started the induction process a few weeks ago. This is my first task,” Fabi said. The hand with his gun began shaking slightly. He would stand no chance against us, even if we didn’t have guns pointed at him. I would be at his side to knock him out in a heartbeat, and I preferred that scenario to killing him because of the woman at my side.

“Father gave it to you because he thought it would be an easy first job, right? Nothing bad ever happens at weddings,” Liliana said with a broken laugh.

“He gave me the job because he knew I was responsible and capable,” Fabiano said, squaring his shoulder. His eyes darted to me again, then to Matteo and Romero.

“You don’t really think you can kill all three of us, do you?” Matteo asked with a twisted grin.

Gianna shot him a glower. “Shut up, Matteo.”

“I can try,” Fabiano said. Aria’s fingers around my arm tightened, and her gaze was practically burning into me.

“Fabiano,” I said, trying to sound reasonable even though time was against us and I just wanted to get the fuck away. “They are your sisters. Do you really want to risk them getting hurt?”

“Why is Lily here? Why isn’t she with her husband? I want to know what’s going on. Why are you trying to take her with you? She’s part of the Outfit, not of New York.”

“I can’t stay here, Fabi. Do you remember how you told me I shouldn’t marry Benito? That it wasn’t right?” Liliana said.

“That was a long time ago, and you said yes to him today. Where is he anyway?”

Liliana looked at Romero with an expression even a twelve-year-old boy could understand.

“You killed him, didn’t you?” Fabiano hissed, and he raised his gun again. “Was this some kind of trick to weaken the Outfit? Father always said you’d stab us in the back one day.”

Aria tried to move toward him again, but I pushed her back with a glare.

She narrowed her eyes. “He’s my brother!”

“He’s a soldier of the Outfit.” Maybe she thought because I put her first, other Made Men would also forget that their first choice should always be the mafia.

“Fabi, the Famiglia didn’t try to weaken the Outfit. This isn’t about power. It’s all my fault. Benito tried to hurt me and I stabbed him. That’s why I need to leave. Father would punish me, maybe even kill me,” Liliana said in a soothing voice.

Fabiano took a step back. “You killed your husband?” Matteo gave me a look over Gianna’s head. He was waiting for me to give him the go to shoot, and if it weren’t for Aria’s shaking body at my side, I wouldn’t have hesitated.

“I didn’t know what else to do.”

Fabiano pointed at Romero. “What about you and him? I’m not stupid. There’s something going on between you.”

“We’ve been together for a while. You know I never wanted to marry Benito, but Father didn’t give me a choice.”

“So you want to leave Chicago and the Outfit for New York like Gianna and Aria,” Fabiano said.

Liliana nodded. “I have to.”

“You could come with us,” Aria suggested. Her eyes found mine, begging.

I looked at Fabiano. “You could become part of the Famiglia.” My family wouldn’t like it, and I probably would have to kill a few to show strength.

Fabiano shook his head. “Father needs me. I’m part of the Outfit. I made an oath.”

“If you’re not fully inducted yet, it’s not as binding,” Matteo said. A fucking lie. Matteo and I would kill any initiate who decided to break off the induction, not to mention join the Outfit.

“I won’t betray the Outfit.”

I’d expected that answer. Fabiano had been brought up in the Outfit, brought up with the knowledge that one day he would follow in his father’s footsteps. “Then you’ll have to stop us from leaving. And we won’t let you. There will be blood, and you will die.”

Fabiano met my gaze. “I’m a good shot.”

He was also terrified. “I believe you. But are you better than all three of us? Do you really want your sister Lily to be punished? If you force her to stay, you sign her death warrant.”

Conflict showed on his face. “If I let you leave, and someone finds out, they will kill me too. I could die an honest death if I tried to stop you.”

“You could, and they would sing your praise, but you’d be dead all the same. Do you want to die today?” He was still young. Death held more terror for him than it did for us. He hadn’t faced it often enough yet.

Fabiano lowered his gun a couple of inches. I doubted he noticed.

“Nobody has to find out that you let us leave. You could have tried to stop us but we were too many,” Romero said.

“They will think I was scared and ran away, and that’s why you escaped.”

I gave Romero a sign. I could tell that we had Fabiano. “Not if you got wounded. We could shoot you in the arm. This was meant as an easy first job—nobody expects you to be capable of stopping the best fighters of New York. They won’t hold it against you if you got shot.”

Aria stared. “You want to shoot my brother?”

“What if you injure him seriously?” Lily asked.

“I could hit the zit on his chin if I wanted to; I think I can manage to hit an unproblematic spot on his arm,” Matteo said. “And we’re taking a risk by not killing him, so an arm wound is really nothing.”

I ignored them and focused my attention on the boy. “So what do you say, Fabiano?”

There was conflict in his eyes but then he lowered his gun. “Okay. But I will have to call for help. I can’t wait more than a few minutes or they’ll get suspicious.”

I kept my gun pointed at Fabiano, as did Romero and Matteo. “A few minutes should be enough for us to drive away. They will follow us once they figure out what’s going on, but five minutes will bring enough distance between us and them. Dante isn’t someone who likes fighting in the open, so I doubt he’ll send his men on a wild car chase. He’ll attack us later, once he’s figured out the best way to hurt us.”

After we faked a shooting and Matteo shot Fabiano’s arm, we sped off in our rental cars. Romero and Lily made up the front in their car, and the rest of us got into the other car. Matteo was behind the wheel, Gianna beside him, while Aria and I sat in the backseat. I glanced through the window and after a few minutes, three black Outfit cars began chasing us.

“Down,” I ordered, and Aria complied at once, curling up on the seat, worry and fear on her face. I let down the window, preparing to shoot. So far Dante’s men hadn’t fired a single shot, probably because we were still in a residential area. Neither he nor I needed additional attention from the press or the police. The moment we passed into an industrial area, I held my gun out and began firing. Our window shattered and Aria let out a scream. I fired again and hit the shooter in the head. My next bullet tore through their tire, and the car spun out of control. The two other cars kept up their pursuit but eventually they slowed. Dante must have given the order for them to pull back. He would attack soon, after he’d made a plan where he could hurt us the most. Fuck.

When I was sure we wouldn’t be attacked again, I lowered my gaze to where Aria was pressed against the seat. I brushed shards off her hair and shoulder, and she opened her eyes, peering up at me with trust. Trust that I would protect her, but damn it, doing that had become more difficult today.

“You can never return to Chicago,” I said quietly as she sat up. “You will never see your brother again.”

Her expression crumpled, and she pressed against me and buried her face in my neck. I held her as she cried. Matteo met my gaze through the rearview mirror. We both knew shit would hit the fan soon, and we’d have our hands full controlling our uncles and keeping the Outfit out of our territory.

Love. The root of weakness.

Fuck.

Aria raised her head again, those fucking baby blues drawing me in as they always did.