Holy shit.
I started to shake my head, pushing back on my chair to get up. To leave. But Enzo’s hand left my arm and gripped the back of my neck like a steel vice so not only couldn’t I get up from the table, but I also couldn’t look at him.
I pushed down the panic and tried to think. If Luigi and my father were such long friends, perhaps he wouldn’t go for the deal. It wouldn’t surprise me. I spoke up. “Daddy, you don’t have to do this. I’m a grown woman. I can take care of myself.”
His attention remained on Luca as though I hadn’t even spoken, and I could practically see the wheels turning in his brain. Friend or no, my father wanted to be on the winning side. His loyalty easily bought or sold. And his next words proved me right.
“And the rest of the family approves of this? How many do you have on your side?”
“Enough,” Luca told him. “But it would be careless of me to get cocky. And one thing I never am is careless. I also know my father won’t give up his throne easily, and I would like to feel confident about who is on my side and who is not.”
Ever one for dramatics, my father made a show of thinking about Luca’s offer. Luca allowed him his moment with an air of patience I didn’t share.
Finally, my father shifted his eyes over to me. They traveled over my hair, and I could see the disapproval before they made their way to my face, then lower, to where Enzo held the back of my neck in a death grip. He turned back to Luca. “I will need to know that my daughter has not been raped while in your care. Her virginity must be intact, or she is worthless to me.”
I nearly laughed hearing him say the words out loud, even as I blinked back tears.
But Luca wasn’t fazed. “I can assure you, she has been treated with nothing but respect.”
“I would like to take your word for it, Luca, but she was also on her own for weeks before she was found. Who knows what could have happened to her?” His eyes went to my hair again. “Luigi told me she was working in a club much like this one.”
“I wasn’t stripping,” I burst out. “Jesus, Daddy.”
His hand slammed down on the table, and I jumped. “You do not speak to your father like that.”
Even though there was three feet of wood between us and I was flanked on either side by Luca and Enzo, fear shot through me. “I’m sorry,” I told him. “I worked in a club. It wasn’t a strip club.” I didn’t tell him that most of my customers were professional escorts and their dates.
Ciro waved away my argument and turned back to Luca. “I brought her doctor. He will examine her here before we talk any more of deals and loyalty.”
“He will not,” Luca told him. “Your daughter is now as she was when she came to my home. If you would like her returned to you, then I need your word that when the time comes, you and your men will stand behind me.”
“I’m afraid I must insist.”
Luca was about to refuse again when it occurred to me that this was the way I would be freed. Once my father’s physician confirmed I was no longer a virgin, I would no longer have any value in his eyes. And Luca would just have to find another way to get my father over to his side. The war between him and his father wasn’t my fucking problem. “It’s okay. The doctor can examine me.”
“NO.” The angry response was from Enzo, who had been completely silent up until now. “You will not do such a thing to your daughter, here, in front of all of these men.”
Ciro watched Enzo carefully as he told him, “These men have already seen my daughter’s cunt. Plenty of times. Who do you think holds her down while the doctor examines her?”
If Enzo hadn’t been wearing his sunglasses, and judging by the way he practically vibrated with rage beside me, I was fairly sure that my father would combust into flames without that barrier between them.
While he was distracted, I tried to shake off his hand, but he only tightened it, effectively holding me in my chair. I knew better than to look to Luca for help. He knew as well as Enzo did that if the doctor was allowed to check me, there would be no reason for my father to pledge his loyalty to him. So, instead, I kept my attention on my father.
Luca tried once more to talk him out of doing this. “Ciro, you have my word that nothing happened to your daughter while she was under my protection. There is no need to humiliate her like this.”
“So you are certain that my Fina is still innocent?” my father asked him.
“Yes,” Luca lied. No one mentioned what had happened to me in Mexico, and I was grateful. If my father discovered I’d “whored” myself out…
I shuddered. I couldn’t even imagine what he would do to me. It wouldn’t matter to him one bit that it had been completely against my will.
“Good,” my father responded. “Then you have nothing to worry about when Dr. Ferrari examines her.” He nodded to the man on his right. “Doctor, if you please.”
The doctor stood up. As soon as he did so, Enzo came to his feet. “This is NOT happening,” Enzo growled.
“Enzo. Stand down.” Luca rose from his chair, buttoning his jacket as he did so, and left with no other choice without risking his own honor, said to my father, “If it will ease your mind to have Serafina examined, then by all means, do so.” With one look, he ordered Enzo to release me.
At first, I thought he was going to disobey Luca’s order. But then the pressure of his fingers left the back of my neck and Enzo’s chair scraped the floor as he pushed it back and walked behind me to join Luca and Tristan.
Behind Luca, Enzo stood with his fists clenched at his sides and his eyes locked onto my father, but he said nothing more. I watched as a muscle jumped in his jaw, and I didn’t understand why he was so angry. Yes, by doing this it would ruin Luca’s original plan to get my father on his side, but he was easily bought. Another opportunity would come up. And this way, we could be together.
Unless he didn’t want me.
My father, noticing his reaction, smiled. “Boys, get Fina on the table and hold her still.”
I stood up. “That’s not necessary, Daddy.” With my head held high, I walked down to the end of the table where Dr. Ferrari waited. I hopped up onto the table and laid back.
As soon as I did so, two of my father’s men came around to either side and held my shoulders down. I didn’t fight them. There was no point. The skirt of my dress was shoved up to my hips and my underwear pulled down and off. I stared up at the ceiling, just wishing the whole ordeal to be over. Through the roaring in my ears, I heard the doctor tell my father’s men to open me wider, and two hands grabbed the inside of my knees and spread my legs. Cool air caressed my exposed vagina and then two fingers were roughly shoved inside of me.
I gritted my teeth against the pain of him invading my body when I was tense and dry. I felt him pause, and then he pushed them deeper, feeling around until I thought his entire fist would soon be inside of me.
He pulled his fingers out and I was released. Shoving down my dress, I sat up on the table and scooted off the edge before I found my underwear and, with my back to everyone in the room, pulled them on quickly before fixing my skirt again.
Mortified, I stayed where I was and wrapped my arms around myself.
“Well?” I heard my father ask.
“Your daughter is no longer a virgin.” The damn doctor—if that’s what he really was—sounded strangely pleased about this fact.
Ciro’s crazed eyes turned to Enzo. “It was you. You did this. You ruined my daughter.” He slammed his beefy fist down onto the table.
Enzo stood still as a statue beside Luca and said nothing at all.
“Ciro.” Luca’s tone demanded compliance as he tried to take my father’s attention away from Enzo and back to the matter at hand.
Reluctantly, my father dragged his eyes away from Enzo. “He raped my daughter.” One fat finger jabbed the air in Enzo’s direction. “He raped her and ruined her for any other man.”
My own embarrassment forgotten, I threw my arms in the air. “For God’s sake, Daddy! No one raped me!”
Furious eyes swung my way. “Then you allowed him to do this? You whored yourself out to him just like your mother? Who else here has fucked you?”
I shook my head, and I couldn’t keep the contempt from my voice when I asked, “What does it matter?”
He turned back to Luca. “I demand that you marry her. He is your man. I demand that you restore my daughter’s honor and the respect of the family by making an honest woman of her.”
Oh, my god. A maniacal laugh rose within me, and I had to press my lips together to keep it inside. So this was his game.
But Luca didn’t even crack a smile. “I cannot marry your daughter, Ciro.”
“Your father might disagree with you when I call him to tell him what happened to my daughter while under your protection.”
“My father does not run my life,” Luca countered. He did not bring up Veda, and I didn’t blame him. If my father found out about her, he would use it to his own advantage.
I expected him to push it further, but something in Luca’s expression must’ve told him it would be of no use. “Fine,” he said. “Then I demand he marry her.” He indicated Enzo with a lift of his chin, crossing his arms over his ample chest in a gesture of stubbornness I knew well.
My heart sped up until it was racing so fast, I had to grip the back of a chair.
“Who Enzo marries or does not marry is entirely up to him,” Luca told him.
My father turned to Enzo. “Well? What is your answer?”
Enzo hadn’t moved or said a word since I was examined in front of everyone. But now, he looked at me down the length of the table. Even though I’d originally wanted nothing but my freedom, I couldn’t stop the flood of hope from rising in my chest that he would agree to this. Hope that surprised me as much as it did him when he saw it on my face.
As I watched, something changed with him. Something that made my heart drop into my stomach. So subtle that I doubted anyone else would have noticed. But I did.
He turned back to my father. “No,” he told him. “I will not.”
My father’s face turned blood red, and his eyes bulged beneath his heavy brows. Before I knew what was happening, he reached over to the man beside him, yanked his gun out of its holster, and pointed it at Enzo. “You will marry my daughter, or I’ll shoot you right fucking here.”
