Page 126 of Secrets of the Brother
At hearing that, I vaulted over the dining room table and snatched her around the waist.
I pushed her backward, pinning her against the wall. “Say that again,” I snarled.
Papà tried to interject. “Son—”
Without taking my eyes off Bianca, I said, “Stay out of this, Papà.”
I focused on Bianca as I braced my forearm over her head. “You think having these people here will save you from any consequences? Go ahead. Try me. Say you won’t marry me again.”
I knew this was difficult for her. This entire situation was difficult for us all.
Finding out that the third man, the piece of shit who had been taunting my family from the shadows for months, had actually been in our home, under our noses this whole time, rattled us all.
When I thought about how that man had laid his filthy hands on my woman, I wanted to rip his throat out with my bare hands. And that was nothing compared to what Cesare wanted to do with him for what he'd done to Milana back in school.
We all wanted our pound of flesh.
But that didn’t mean I was prepared to use Bianca as bait.
I knew she was stressed and overwrought. I knew I had put her through hell and back these last few days. I was a bastard for putting her through more. If I were a better man, a different man, I would be holding her and whispering soft words of endearment in her ear… but I wasn’t that man, and she might as well accept that fact now.
And I wasn’t about to relent and back off from claiming her as my wife just because she was upset.
The revelation that the third man was Nevio Rettici, the man her parents were trying to force her into marriage with, made it all the more pressing that we marry and soon.
There was obviously a reason why they wanted their last remaining daughter to marry such a bloodthirsty psychopath.
Especially since there was very little chance that Bruno and Claudia didn’t at least suspect that he was responsible for Renata’s death.
So to literally sacrifice Bianca to him meant that a great deal of money, or perhaps their own miserable lives, were on the line.
Either way, we were going to find out… but not until I had Bianca safely tucked away on Cavalieri land in Northern Italy with my Uncle Benedict.
One of my family’s closest-held secrets was Benedict Cavalieri.
We liked to say that he shunned society and preferred the wilds of Northern Italy because he was the black sheep of the family who hated wine and preferred to raise champion horses instead, but that was only half the truth.
The whole truth was that society wassaferwith Uncle Benedict in the north.
It wasn’t a fluke he was the one with the connections and plan to get me out of Italy completely under the radar to avoid serious murder charges if things went south with the Renata investigation.
Bianca’s full lips tightened into a flat line. “I’m tired of everyone around me trying to bully me! First my parents and now you. I wasn’t going to be bullied into marrying Nevio, and I won’t be bullied into marrying you!”
I leaned in and whispered, for her ears only, “I will drag you down to that church, lay you on the altar like a pagan sacrifice, spread your legs, and fuck you so savagely that Christ himself will hear your cries for mercy. The priest will have no choice but to take your screams of pleasure as an 'I do.'”
She inhaled sharply.
I looked down and saw the sharp peaks of her nipples through my soft cashmere sweater that she still wore over a pair of leggings.
The muscles of her throat contracted and released around a swallow. Her cheeks flushed a beautiful pink as she stared up at me, defiance still glittering in the depths of her dark eyes. “You wouldn’t dar—”
I raised an eyebrow.
She didn’t even finish the sentence.
Before I could say anything further, Rosa entered, followed by two members of the household staff. She let out a furious exclamation. “Why are there scuff marks on my nice, polished table?”
The entire room pointed to me.
