Sera had been gone for two weeks when we got the invitation in the mail for a Christmas Eve wedding.
I was in Luca’s office going over some last-minute changes for a shipment we had coming in when Lisa brought it in to him. When he opened the envelope and saw the telltale stationary, he stopped. His blue eyes found mine as I rose from my chair and approached his desk.
“Go ahead,” I told him.
The room blurred around me as he pulled out the invitation and opened it. “It’s not her,” he told me. I barely heard him over the blood rushing through my ears.
“It’s for my father. ‘You and a guest are cordially invited to the wedding of Luigi Morelli and his bride to be on December 24th…’” He didn’t bother with the rest. “It’s not her,” he said again. “My father is marrying Linda.” There was a note of disbelief in his voice, and I knew why. Luigi had never remarried after Luca’s mother. He would move them in. Abuse them however he saw fit to punish them for not being the one he really wanted. But he never, ever married them.
Maybe he was starting to feel his age and decided what the hell. Or maybe Linda had somehow cracked open his cold heart. Either way, I didn’t really care. What he did with his life was no concern of mine.
I sank back down onto the couch and scrubbed my face with my hands. I wasn’t in the mood for a wedding. Or being around people. Or anything for that matter.
From what I’d been told by Luca and Tristan, after I left the meeting, Ciro commanded his men to grab Sera and took her with him back to Dallas. No one had any idea what he’d done to her after that. We assumed she was once again locked in her room as he tried to find someone who would take a slightly used bride.
The thought made me sick to my stomach. But she was better off away from me. I was getting far too attached. People died when I got too attached. And I thought that once she was gone, this crazy need I had to possess her would fade.
I was wrong.
Instead, it ate away at my insides until I couldn’t eat. Couldn’t sleep. I spent hours in the gym until I was so exhausted I could barely walk, and still I would go back to the hotel and lie there in bed with my eyes wide open, listening for the soft sounds of her breathing and hoping to catch the lingering scent of flowers and coconuts on my sheets, despite the fact that housecleaning had changed the linens while I was gone.
The only thing I had left of her was the money I’d locked away in my safe. I’d told her the truth when I said I wouldn’t give it to her father. She’d worked hard to save up to start a better life, and I knew that, someday, I would get a phone call. My heart stuttered in my chest every time someone knocked on my door, only to be crushed again under the weight of disappointment when it wasn’t her.
As the days went by, she never contacted me to demand I return her money. I never heard anything about her, and neither did Luca. There was nothing at all. It was like she’d never been here in my life, and I’d dreamed her gap-toothed smile and soft, soft skin.
“I suppose we have to make an appearance,” Luca muttered as he stared down at the invite. “It would make my father even more suspicious if we didn’t.”
Which meant Tristan and I were required to attend also. Because there was no way in hell I was allowing Luca to walk into a room filled with his father’s friends and supporters without my being there to help Tristan protect him and Veda.
Goddammit.
We arrived at Saint Mary Cathedral five minutes before the ceremony was supposed to start. Luigi’s soon-to-be wife had chosen the largest, oldest, Catholic church in downtown Austin to say the vows that would ruin the rest of her life.
The church was beautiful in the way all old churches were. Victorian Gothic in structure and made entirely of limestone, with two bell towers, it was originally designed in the 1870s and renovated in the early 2000s. Inside, dark-stained Gothic arches rose high above our heads and stained-glass windows from France and Germany lined the walls. And of course, Jesus hung from the cross in a morbid display behind the candlelit alter to remind us of our many sins.
The wooden pews were already filled with guests as Luca, Veda, Tristan and I made our way to the front of the church where our seats were reserved in the front row. I sat beside Veda—stunning in a red, long-sleeved dress that hugged her figure and a soft, white wrap over her shoulders—and Tristan took his place beside Luca. Two more of Luca’s men stood at the back, watching the crowd, who spoke in low murmurs as they waited for the show to start. And more were outside walking the perimeter, keeping an eye out not only for uninvited guests, but also on Luigi’s men.
A door opened to the right of the altar and Luca’s father came out, along with the priest dressed in full robes. He found us immediately, and he smiled before facing the back of the church.
I immediately became suspicious. Luigi and Luca’s relationship had always been stormy. And since Mario, Luca’s brother, had disappeared, they could barely be in the same room together.
Something was going on. And I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like it.
But I had no time to talk to Luca as organ music filled the room, indicating the start of the ceremony. All of the guests went quiet and rose to their feet. I scanned the room as the doors at the back of the church opened and gasps were heard when they saw the bride. Tristan and I exchanged a look. Apparently, an overly expensive wedding dress could make anyone look good.
Over the heads of the crowd, I could see only the white poof of the top of the wedding veil. My eyes skimmed over the man walking her down the aisle, only the top half of his head visible, before moving on.
Something struck me as odd, and my heart began to race inside my chest before I fully comprehended what I’d just seen.
No.
It couldn’t be.
The father and daughter couple approached the front of the church with agonizing slowness. My eyes were glued to the spot they would appear. The seconds ticked by as the notes from the organ seemed to grow louder, mocking me.
A piece of a white gown flashed before my eyes as the bride took a step. And another. More of the skirt was visible. The flowers. And then she was hidden by the girth of the man beside her until they arrived at the altar where Luca’s father waited with the priest.
The man and his daughter stopped, his back to me, hiding her from my view. I tried to slow my breathing as his arms rose and he lifted the veil over her head, then bent down to give her a kiss. Ever the proud father. So full of himself to make such a match for his only daughter. He stepped aside, leaving her there with her groom, and for just a moment, her blue-gray eyes locked onto mine before she turned to face Luigi. A vision in white, she wore very little jewelry other than the silver nose ring and diamonds in her ears, her pink hair the only color as it fell over her shoulders and back.
I heard Veda gasp beside me as everyone around us sat back down. Heard Luca quietly say my name.
And then there was nothing but red.
