Blood & Marriage (Dark Mafia Romance) (18 page)

Paco was like a dangerous animal that snuck into your home.
We couldn’t get rid of him, and his presence prevented me from talking to Santo
despite the growing need inside my chest. At least I was in the backseat,
hidden by shadows as we drove deeper into the countryside with only the
headlights to guide us.

The navigation system pointed us to a location, but we
passed it, at loss when none of us could spot a lone house with an old school
mailbox at the front of the driveway. Only after a few more minutes of moving
at a painfully slow pace, the metal box on a pole emerged from the darkness.

Paco, who had earlier sat in the driver’s seat of Santo’s
car as if the vehicle belonged to him, pulled into the driveway and followed it
all the way to the dark, old house at the edge of the woods. Three black cars
were already there, and my throat tightened with discomfort at the thought of
what could be happening inside.

Vincenzo was the first one to get out of the other car,
talking to someone on the phone, with a wide grin and excitement plainly
visible in his quick movements. Paco opened his door and left, but Santo
followed his example, leaving me alone in the car.

Vincenzo waved at him dismissively once he turned his phone
off. “Stay with the girl and let the grownups handle it.” He snorted and patted
Santo’s arm, as if Santo was supposed to be in on the joke.

My teeth clenched with anger, but if that meant Santo would
be out of harm’s way—that he could stay with me—I was glad about Vincenzo’s
decision.

Santo didn’t argue and went back into the car, moving to sit
behind the wheel. We watched the dark silhouettes of the other men move about
in silence until they all disappeared behind the front door, which must have
been unlocked before we’d even gotten here.

I hugged the other front seat before getting to my feet and
taking a step above the transmission to sit next to Santo. He glanced at me,
but I couldn’t read his face. The dark shadows on it made it even more
obscured, as if he was too far away for me to reach.

I didn’t want to think of what Vincenzo and his men were
about to do to Seth. No matter how much I wanted by husband gone from my life,
I’d gotten past my initial anger. I didn’t want him to be physically hurt or
dead.

“What happens now?” I asked quietly, savoring the silence
around us and hoping it would not be disturbed my screams soon.

Santo took a deep breath. “Unless either of them is Houdini,
this is the end of the line.”

I exhaled, smoothing out non-existent creases of my skinny
jeans. I felt numb, but at the same time, the drive here had given me a lot of
time to ponder all the things that had happened recently. About the possibility
of people dying because of me versus my own comfort. It was the end of the line
indeed. “I was trying to weigh my options. I can’t be so frigid all the time.
And you’re right, Vincenzo can be manipulated to some extent,” I said, unable
to keep from scowling when I remembered his hands on my breasts.

Santo turned his head toward me, as if I’d woken him from a
dream. I smiled at him. It was time for me to face the reality of becoming
Vincenzo’s wife, and keeping my relationship with Santo secret. If he didn’t
want to make his move, I could not manipulate him into doing it. It wouldn’t
have been right.

I exhaled, looking at the dashboard illuminated by the faint
glow of the moon. A light went on in one of the windows, a single eye in the
dark face of the house. “He got very aggressive today. But it helped when I
pretended to like him. I made him believe the only reason I was rejecting him
was the fact that I was still married.” I took a deep breath, cuddling up into
my hoodie as the car slowly grew colder. “Maybe it could work. Your Father has
the most experience with all this, doesn’t he? If he thinks Vincenzo should indeed
become the new boss of the Villanis and you agree with that... I’m fine with
it. I’m sorry I tried to push you into something you don’t want to do,” I added
in a whisper, resigned to my fate. Vincenzo would surely get bored of me
anyway. Soon enough, I wouldn’t have to be around him all that much anymore. It
would be all right as long as I could be with Santo as well. I could take
another scar or ten. They would not destroy me.

“He got aggressive? What did he do?”

I squirmed, uncomfortable as if the seat grew spikes under
me. “I think he lost patience. He barged into my room, and...made advances,” I
said flatly, even now so very nervous about what had happened that my fingers
trembled. I pulled my hands closer to my chest as soon as I noticed, not
wanting to alarm Santo.

“Fuck!” Santo hit the top of the steering wheel with his
palms. “Was it when I left to look for Acerbi? I should have planned it
better.”

I touched Santo’s thigh with the tips of my fingers. “When I
marry Vincenzo, there is no way around it. I will be alone with him. There’s no
use fighting it now.” I did my best not to convey the anguish that it brought
me. Santo had enough on his plate without my issues, and I couldn’t have him
handle everything for me.

Santo sat there in silence, his brows drawn together. For
the most frightening moment, I wondered if he would even want me again once I
start a relationship with Vincenzo, whom he so clearly despised. Sooner or
later, he would get bored with the secret love affair. Even if it came to that after
five years, not two. Even if his feelings for me remained fond, it was
inevitable.

Santo opened the door and stepped outside but didn’t linger
and headed for the trunk of the car.

I froze, but followed him with my gaze, despite my heart
rising all the way to my throat. I wanted to ask him what he thought. Was he
disappointed with me now? Did he think I actually
wanted
to have more
than one man in my life?

Tears burned my eyes, but I didn’t dare speak and just
watched him fiddle with a bag. He slipped off the hoodie and pulled off the
T-shirt as well. His dark skin seemed pale and cool in the moonlight, which
accentuated every scar and ridge of muscle. He was changing quickly, because it
was cold outside, but my eyes never left him, drinking in the graceful strength
of his tightly-packed body.

He looked like himself again in the dark suit and shirt. He
even took his time to put on a tie. I swallowed when I saw him put on the gun
holster.

He walked back to me and opened the car door from my side,
leaning in far enough that I sensed his natural scent. “Wait here, okay? Acerbi
is going to be like a rabid, wounded dog if he manages to get away. If you see
him, run into the forest. Understood?”

“But Vincenzo told you to stay back…”

“He doesn’t know Acerbi as well as I do.”

I wasn’t sure what to say to that, but Santo wasn’t waiting
for an answer and walked off, all the way to the large house.

I sat back, so nervous I could’ve crawled under the
dashboard and wait there if it hadn’t been for the lack of space.

Minutes passed, and I waited, all alone in the dark car in
the middle of nowhere, by a house that was likely filled with pain and torture.
My fingers were stiff from the tension, the steering wheel calling out to me as
loudly as the key left in the ignition. I could leave and never see Vincenzo
again, but that would also mean saying goodbye to Santo forever and living in
fear until the end of my days. Worse still, it could mean condemning Santo to
the consequences of leaving me to my own devices. And knowing Vincenzo, those
could involve any amount of cruelty.

So I stayed, trying not to think too much. I even considered
turning on the radio, but then dismissed it as a ridiculous idea, when I should
be listening out for any suspicious sound. The time kept extending, stretching
like elasticated threads, but the house was far enough from the car for me to
not hear any screams or cries for help.

I still wondered what I would have done if Santo had come
out of there hurt, bleeding, with broken bones, or a gunshot wound? I’d never
had any first-aid training, and noted to myself that it was something I needed
to learn in the future, just in case.

A sudden thump made me jump in my seat, and it was closely
followed by another. The sound came from the house, but it might have been a
piece of furniture falling over for all I knew. Despite my attempts to explain
the strange noises to myself, they made me feel ill with worry and a desperate
need to hit the gas pedal and drive off as far away as I could grew inside me
again.

Instead, I sat in place, frozen in the same position until
the front door opened.

For a while, I wasn’t sure who the lone figure walking in
the darkness was, but with each step he was making, I became increasingly
certain it was Santo When he lit himself a cigarette on the way, and a yellow
glow illuminated his face, I became certain.

He didn’t seem to be in a hurry, which made my stomach
tighten, because it could mean that the torture Vincenzo was no doubt
inflicting would still take a while. No matter how angry I’d been at Seth
before, I didn’t really wish for him to suffer.

Santo opened the door at the driver’s side and sat,
instantly filling the cab with smoke. I was like Pavlov’s dog, and relaxed
slightly as soon as I could smell it.

I tried to act normally, but when I made myself speak, my
voice sounded as if someone pinched my vocal cords. “Is Seth...dead?”

“No.” Santo took another drag of smoke, looking through the
windshield. Dark eyelids and long lashes made him seem contemplative in the
faint light of the moon and stars.

I shuddered and rubbed my face as every inch of my body
clenched with sympathy. So Vincenzo’s bloodlust still hasn’t been sated? “What
happened in there?”

Santo scowled. “I paid off a debt. Vincenzo will never lay a
finger on you again.”

I stilled, as my heart sped up from zero to a hundred. I was
ashamed at the relief that flooded me like some kind of cooling balm. “Is
he
dead?”

Santo let out the smoke through his nose. “All our men are.
Vincenzo, I left for Acerbi. He will take his time and do much worse than I
ever could.”

I let out a shuddery breath and slumped against the door,
not sure if I was relieved or scared. Did that mean Santo had killed
our
men? Did he shoot them all?

I noticed a few tiny spots on the front of his shirt. Were
they blood, or was it coffee? No. Much too red for coffee.

I was in a car with a killer, and nowhere else had ever felt
as safe. “What does it mean for us?” I whispered, unsure how to break through
his stoic facade.

Santo licked his lips. “Once Acerbi is done, he will burn
the place down, fake his and Seth’s deaths, and disappear. I will tell my
father I got rid of them all, and that he has no choice but to support my stake
now. But you…” He put out the cigarette, threw it out, and glanced at me. His
expression was odd, as if he tried to look straight through me. “If you ever
wanted to be free, now is the time. I can claim you died here as well and deal
with the fallout, blame it on Vincenzo. I would set you up somewhere low key in
the US or Canada. I would make sure no one ever found you.”

It was as if a million needles prickled my skin all at once.
Santo wanted to set me free. He did all this for me.

Overwhelmed by this sudden change of heart, I needed several
moments to gather my thoughts. Somewhere deep inside there was the fear that he
wanted to use this situation as an opportunity to get me out of the picture and
start with a clean slate. But I could see it in the way his eyes slid over me,
caressing every inch of my skin with so much longing, that he was trying to
give me a choice here. For the first time in my life, I truly was the mistress
of my own destiny. It was the greatest gift anyone could have ever given me.

I smiled, taking a deep breath as I leaned toward him and
closed my hand over his. “Santo, I am not going to leave you alone with all
this.”

Santo’s eyes widened, and he squeezed my hand. “Then you
will have to marry me. This is forever, Lucrezia,” he said as if he expected me
to buck against making our relationship official.

I laughed this time and cradled his fingers in both my
palms, leaning closer to kiss his soft, tempting lips. For the first time since
forever my heart was completely at peace. It didn’t matter that there had been
a bloodbath in the house, because I was with Santo, and my life would finally
be real. “Yes.”

He pulled me close, and I was in his lap before I knew it.
Squeezed between the roof and the steering wheel, I couldn’t have been more
comfortable, because I was in Santo’s arms.

“You will be the wife of a mafia Don, and I will never share
you again, understood? You are mine and mine only.” Santo took a deep breath
and kissed me gently.

My arms felt so at home around his neck that if I’d died at
that very moment, I’d have been happy. “What about your father?” I asked when I
remembered one of our earlier conversations. Santo had suggested the kind of
move he’d just made could endanger his life, and I pulled away to look into his
eyes.

“Fuck my father. He will have to adjust his plans,” he said
through clenched teeth, not even blinking as he watched me intensely, as if I
were the only woman in the world. “I’m done listening to a liar and cheat, just
to never get what I truly want and get pushed around by scum.” His hands slid
to my ass and squeezed.

I gasped, rolling my hips slightly as our gazes connected,
establishing a buzzing link of electricity, which swallowed my entire body.
“You are the most amazing man I know,” I whispered, brushing my hands up his
cheeks and pushing my fingers into his hair, gently massaging his scalp.

“And you are the woman I want by my side.” His breath
quickened and his next kiss was much more self-assured, reminding me of that
first kiss he’d stolen from me before I even knew his name.