Twisted Hearts(19)

“I thought I had time.”

“She’s sixteen, Savio. Don’t play dumb. You know that girls are often promised way before then, especially in traditional families like Gemma’s. That they waited this long is already unusual.”

I made a non-committal noise. I knew why they’d waited this long because they’d thought I might throw my hat in the ring. “I need to have her.”

“You need to have her so you can fuck her, boost your ego and then discard her. Or you need to have her—”

I interrupted him. “I want her as my wife. It’s the only way I can have her at all.”

Remo looked close to laughter, a far more unsettling sight than him covered in the bowels of his enemies. “You want to marry?”

Could he have sounded any more shocked?

“Is that so hard to believe?”

Remo walked past me and toward the liquor cabinet. “I think that requires alcohol.”

“Come on, stop being dramatic. If you can be a husband, it should be a piece of cake for me. A few years ago, you loathed the idea of marriage, now you’re making a marriage work as if it was nothing. You’re a father for fuck’s sake.”

Remo poured a generous amount of whiskey into two glasses then held one out to me. Rolling my eyes, I went over to him and accepted the drink. I could use some alcohol. Today’s news had been a shock to my system.

Nino appeared in the room, only dressed in underpants, regarding us with a suspicious expression. When it had been only my brothers and me in the mansion, most of us hadn’t even bothered with clothing. “What’s going on? You woke the boys and Kiara with your rude entry.”

Remo grabbed another glass, and filled that too. “You should have a drink.”

Nino accepted the glass. “What are we toasting?”

“That Savio wants to put his bull on a leash.”

I sent Remo a scathing look, which he answered with his twisted grin.

“What exactly does that mean?” Nino asked in mild curiosity.

“He wants to marry.”

“Gemma Bazzoli, I assume.”

I downed the rest of the whiskey, annoyed that my brothers could look through me as if I was a glass figurine. “You are a fucking know-it-all, aren’t you?”

“Did you ask for her hand?”

I grimaced. “No. Until recently, I didn’t really consider marriage a valid option.”

Nino regarded me as if I was a curious specimen worth studying. “And what changed?”

“She was promised to another man, Michelangelo.”

“Carlucci’s second son,” Nino stated. “And one of your best friends.”

That was true. Diego and Mick were pretty much my only friends, except for my brothers. Finding people that you could trust if your name was Falcone was close to impossible. “He won’t marry Gemma. I don’t care what I’ll have to do to make her mine.”

“The Carluccis and the Bazzolis are loyal families,” Nino drawled. “Offending them would come with a price. Our soldiers respect us because we’re just. If we force the Bazzoli girl into a marriage with you despite her engagement to Michelangelo, that could lead to dispute among our men.”

Remo nodded. Usually, he didn’t give a fuck about other people, but as cruel and twisted as he was, he took care of his men. “Nino’s got a point. We have to handle this carefully, or this could snowball into something very ugly, all because you were too horny to make up your mind in time.”

“Gemma wants to marry me, not Mick, that’s something you should keep in mind, and let’s be honest, her family will throw a fucking party if Gemma becomes a Falcone.”

“Are you sure the girl really still wants you? Maybe she’ll hold your man-whoring ways against you, not to mention that you didn’t bother asking for her hand when she wasn’t promised to another.”

I glared at my brothers. They always knew how to make me feel like a stupid boy again. “Gemma still wants me, believe me.”

“Be that as it may, we need to figure out a way to break her engagement to Michelangelo without causing discord.”

“Mick wants her. He won’t go quietly.”

“Challenge him,” Remo said. “During one of the public training sessions. Challenge him in a cage fight for Gemma’s hand. In front of fellow soldiers, he’d lose face if he didn’t agree to the fight. Make the girl be there as well. If he’s got the hots for her, he’ll try to impress her.”

I considered that. There was only one problem. “Mick knows he doesn’t stand a chance against me in a cage. I’ll wipe the floor with his sorry ass. Why would he agree to a fight he can only lose? He already has Gemma in the bag after all.”

“Tell him you’ll fight him a day after your big fight. You’ll be sore and tired fighting this close together. Have Diego and Daniele be there as well. Mick would be considered a coward if he didn’t accept your challenge.”

“All right. This sounds like it could actually work,” I said, smirking.

“Nothing to be smug about,” Remo growled. “Because of your fucking dickheadedness, we’ll have to offend a loyal family. That’s nothing that should happen again, so you better go through with this wedding once you’ve won the girl’s hand, or I’ll personally castrate you.”

“Don’t worry. Gemma will be mine.”





The next day, Dad joined Diego and me on our way to the gym. Apparently, Remo wanted to check the fitness level of his men and had invited several of them over to train with him and his brothers. It had happened before. Dad always said that Remo had made the Camorra strong by making his men strong and keeping them that way. The man despised laziness and weakness and expected his men to stay sharp and in shape.

I’d almost backed out. It wasn’t like I was required to be there, even if today was my usual training day. Deep down, I was scared of facing Savio after I’d been promised to Mick. I was worried about the feelings his presence would evoke in me and absolutely terrified of realizing that he couldn’t care less that I was promised to another man. Diego had mentioned that Savio knew about the upcoming engagement, but he hadn’t been forthcoming about anything else. That could only mean that Savio didn’t care that I was as good as engaged. Savio had so many girls at his disposal, all of them beautiful and not bound by restricting traditions, why would he waste a second thought on me?

Dad looked almost worried when we headed for the gym. “It’s been a while for me. I haven’t had much time to work out these last two months.”

“You’ll be fine, Dad,” Diego said, slanting me a concerned look when we walked into the gym. It was already filled with many soldiers Diego’s age but also a few men who were over forty like Dad. Over to the right, there was Mick with his father and older brother.

Mick still looked as if he was on cloud nine. I avoided looking directly at him. I simply couldn’t meet his eyes, because across the room, standing among his brothers was Savio, and he commanded my attention as usual. Tall, muscled, with his arms crossed in that casual way, and an air of absolute confidence. I tore my eyes away from him too. Seeing him hurt in a way I couldn’t explain—a pressure in my chest that increased with every passing moment.

I hurried toward the locker room, already regretting that I had come along. From this day onward, I wouldn’t work out with Savio. I couldn’t take his presence, not anymore. Stumbling into the sweat-soaked air of the locker room, I tried to breathe, but the pressure on my chest made that difficult. As the only girl, the men waited outside while I changed, which allowed me to brave my freak-out without prying eyes.

With shaking fingers, I fumbled with the buttons of my jeans, popping open one after the other. If only it were this easy to release the pressure in my chest. A knock sounded, startling me out of my breakdown.

Before I could shout a warning, the door swung open and Savio slipped in. His eyes slid down the length of my body, lingering on my open jeans and my plain white cotton panties peeking out. Horrified, I whirled around. “Savio! What are you doing here? Get out!” My cheeks throbbed with embarrassment, and worse: excitement, because the second it had taken me before I’d turned around, my eyes had memorized every detail of Savio’s body. I didn’t think I’d ever grow tired of admiring the hard planes of his chest. As vain as Savio was, and he was one of the vainest guys I’d ever met, his muscles were the result of fighting, meant to make him invincible in the cage. They weren’t just pretty decoration.

“Calm down, Kitty. I only saw a tiny bit of your panties, nothing to get them in a bunch over.”

“I’m promised to Mick. I can’t be alone with you. That’s inappropriate,” I said, and my voice shook the slightest bit. I straightened my spine, but my muscles didn’t stop trembling. The image of the tips of horns had teased me from beneath Savio’s low sweatpants. That stupid tattoo would definitely haunt my dreams.

Silence fell between us, then warmth ghosted over my back—Savio standing so close that I could feel his presence everywhere. I swallowed. “You need to leave.”

Then why didn’t I sound like I wanted that?