Sal shifted onto the bed, his legs dangling off the edge, and his back facing me. “Hmm. I don’t know anything about that.”
“Do you know Marcello?”
“Not personally, no.”
I edged closer, dropping my arms on his shoulders, curiosity making my insides buzz. I needed to know everything about the man my dad wanted me to marry. It was the only chance I had to get out of it or make Marcello hate me enough to renege on the deal.
“What do you know about him? I’m sure you heard a few things.”
Sal didn’t answer for a long time. Too long. His foot tapped a steady beat on the floor. The fan whirled overhead. “I should wait downstairs. Your dad won’t like it if he comes home and finds me in your room.”
“Oh no you don’t. Not now.” I wrapped my arms around his waist, pulling his back flush with my front and buried my face in his neck. I didn’t have any illusions I could prevent him from escaping. I weighed a hundred and five pounds max. He was nearly a foot taller than me, and he had all those muscles that had the habit of making themselves known even beneath a suit. “Tell me what you know. Please. I haven’t been able to piece anything together. It’s like he’s a ghost, and it doesn’t help that I didn’t even know his real name until now.”
Sal reached back and smoothed a hand down my back, his fingers getting lost in the tangles of my messy hair. “In all honesty, I don’t know much, other than that he has a lot of power. Some say he’s next in line to be the head of the Masciantonio Family. Some think he doesn’t have anything to do with them anymore. If I remember correctly, he’s in his twenties, maybe early thirties. I don’t know. He’s kind of a mystery.”
I drew his woodsy scent into my lungs and rubbed my forehead against the prickle of his five o’clock shadow. “What else?”
“He beat a rap for fraud and loan-sharking six or so years ago. I think he was a soldier even though his dad was the boss. Nobody believed he had a future because he had a hot temper. After the jury acquitted him, things changed. He developed a knack for negotiating the outfit out of sticky situations, and that earned him a lot of respect. He has a shit ton of power in Chicago, and not only in the criminal world.”
My stomach soured, and I tightened my hold on him like he could somehow change my fate. “My dad doesn’t know, but I met him once. Or at least I think I did.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, fighting the memory of meeting Marcello. It surfaced anyway.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Loud voices woke me up, and I crept down the stairs to make sure my dad was okay. My mom and dad had been fighting all the time. I was worried about him, especially since she had disappeared on another trip.
When I reached the alcove outside of the study, I ducked inside to listen.
“It’s a done deal,” barked a man’s voice I didn’t recognize, and my nerves shimmered with anxiety.
“I’m sure there’s something I can offer you to change your mind,” my dad shot back.
“Not interested in what you have to offer.”
“I’ll give you forty percent.”
“Why would I share it when it will all be mine anyway?”
“She might refuse you.”
“Then she refuses me. This isn’t about the money. This is about what you did to my family and my godfather, and unlike you, I’m a man of word. My family made a promise, and I intend to honor it.”
“Don’t talk to me like that.” The booming sound of a fist hitting wood echoed into the hall. “I knew you when you were a little shit in diapers, and I’ve heard enough about your reputation to know you’re not good for my daughter just like your father wasn’t good enough for Ava.”
“I’m done wasting my time on this. I’m going to marry your daughter like everyone agreed, so you better get used to the idea of having me as your son-in-law and treat me with the respect I deserve, or I’ll turn her against you, and you’ll be left with no one. They’ll both hate you.”
I blanched, and my body curled into itself. Marry this stranger? What the hell was going on?
The sound of breaking glass exploded inside of the room and I flinched.
“Don’t fuck with me. You won’t like the consequences.”
“No, I won’t be fucking with you. As I understand it, I’ll be fucking your daughter.”
I gasped at the crude exchange, quickly slapping a hand over my mouth. I was thirteen, but I’d be the first to admit I lived in a bubble of my dad’s creation.
The study door flung open, then closed immediately, slamming against the doorframe and rattling the wall. The stranger ran his hand through his dark hair. Shadows hid his face, but I didn’t need to see him to sense the power emanating from him. He was the type of man who strutted into a room and owned it and everyone in it without uttering a single word. My breaths came out in ragged pants, and whole body shivers overtook me. I silently prayed he wouldn’t look in my direction.