Page 114 of Brutal Revenge

Matteo lifts his eyes to Don Adami, who barges his way into the room with no concern that Matteo’s family has more power in this realm than both him and my father combined. “It isn’t?”

“No. It’s about alliances and strengthening ties with our international comrades.”

Matteo’s disgust is as strong as mine when his focus shifts to my father, the person more concerned about alliances than his flesh and blood. “You’re going to let your daughter marry a monster for an alliance not worth the piece of paper her marriage certificate will be printed on. What the fuck is wrong with you?” Concern flickers through his eyes when he returns them to me. “His last wife died a week after they wed.”

“By suicide.” Antonio throws my earlier words in my face. “That’s no one’s fault.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that.” Matteo glares at my father before raking his eyes down his frame, his disgust unmissable. “I’m sure we could find someone to blame if we looked deep enough.”

My heart launches into my throat when my father steps closer to Matteo. I’ve seen him gun down men for less disrespect. It’s just fortunate that Matteo’s brothers and father joined the celebrations this morning, or I might have seen the man I can’t get out of my head murdered before my very eyes.

It wouldn’t be the first time my father killed someone I cared about.

“Unless you have a better alternative for my daughter, be a man and show yourself out.”

Matteo doesn’t get even three seconds to think before Don Adami orders the priest back to the altar. It pushes his desperation to a fever pitch.

Reaching into his jacket, he pulls out a folded document and throws it onto the desk. My heart stops beating. It’s the marriage contract that held his name for mere days, open on the non-penetration term of our agreement.

“A vital term of their marriage contract became void, rendering it invalid.” He collides his eyes with mine. His gaze is apologetic; however, his words are anything but. “We broke the non-penetration rule last night.”

“No,” I say immediately, my heart sinking to my feet.

Breaking that term means I can’t marry anyone but him.

He thinks throwing this out will stop me from marrying Antonio.

He has no clue it will tie me to him for life.

Or worse.

“We didn’t do anything. Nothing happened. I swear onNine’slife.”

My father doesn’t even look at me. I could scream until I turn blue in the face that Matteo is lying, and he’d never listen. He never does. I was the child he had to keep his wife happy and submissive. That’s it.

Support comes from the last person I expect. “Without proof, you can’t void our contract. Your word alone is not enough.”

Matteo’s jaw tightens as he strays his eyes to Antonio, my only lifeline. “I have proof.”

He pulls out his phone, and my blood turns to ice. The footage he plays shows me bent over the desk in the nightclub office. Since Matteo is double my width and a foot taller, I’m fully covered, but no amount of coverage can hide the sharp thrust of Matteo’s hips.

It looks bad. Worse than anything I could have imagined.

It makes it seem as if I gave Matteo my virginity in a nightclub office.

“You said nothing happened!” Antonio roars, ripping his hand away from mine. “You fucking wh?—”

“Finish that sentence, and I will gut you where you fucking stand,” Matteo interrupts, his tone announcing his threat isn’t idle.

Stupidly, Antonio sniffs, goading Matteo. He wants him to make a mistake he can’t take back. I’m familiar with Turkish mafia law, but I learned a thing or two about the Cosa Nostra before arriving in Sicily.

To stop internal wars that almost wiped the Cosa Nostra off the map, they have a rule that you can’t kill a sanctioned member. If you ignore that ruling, your name is the next carved on a headstone.

Although I shouldn’t, I put myself between Matteo and Antonio. Matteo takes my position as an immediate sign to back off. Antonio’s thoughts are more deranged.

“You’re protecting him!”

“No, I?—”