Blood & Marriage (Dark Mafia Romance) (16 page)

Even with the doors and windows closed, I could hear
Vincenzo’s yelling.

“Fucking Acerbi! I can’t believe this shit! We’ve come all
this way for nothing!” Vincenzo shook something at Santo before throwing it
back in the bushes. It had to be the tracker that they’d so religiously
followed, but if it was here, then Seth has gotten away again. “Do Federico’s
people even know what they’re doing?”

Santo’s face expressed nothing but minor regret, a stoic
mask of someone who wanted to aid Vincenzo, not compete with him. He wore it to
please his new boss, and I hated seeing it every time. Santo was so much better
than that worm of a man. If it had been up to me, I wouldn’t even let Vincenzo
polish Santo’s shoes.

“I’m sure he—”

But Vincenzo shoved at Santo’s chest. A stocky mongrel
barking at a Doberman. “They’re fuckups! We’ve been here for over a month! This
is bullshit!”

Santo took the slight, calm as ever. “I’m sure my father has
good reason to want Acerbi alive. He’s your
consigliere
, and he’s been
in that position for a long time now. You should trust his judgment.”

Vincenzo was heaving, and he kicked his own car. “And I’m
the new Don! Fuck this bullshit. If there is no progress next week, we are
going back home, and I am claiming my prize.” He looked straight into my eyes,
and it caught me like a deer in the headlights.

I clenched my hands on the seatbelt and couldn’t bring
myself to smile at him. There was something of my father in him, but meaner,
less cultured, and--as all dumb people--he was convinced of his own
superiority. My temples pulsed with alarm, and I looked down, hoping he’d
forget about me and get back into his car.

His prize. That was what this was all about? He wanted to claim
all that had been denied him in favor of Seth?

My heart thudded in my chest when he approached our car and
slammed his hand against the hood. “That’s right, you eavesdropping bitch! I’m
sick of your fucking cockteasing.”

Santo took a few steps closer, and a million scenarios in
which he attacked Vincenzo and got shot for it by the goons, rolled in front of
my eyes.

I pressed my lips shut, looking into at Vincenzo as calmly
as I could, even though my neck and face were on fire. I wanted him gone. Why
couldn’t he just die?

If there was one person I ever truly wished dead, it was
Vincenzo Villani.

Santo nudged at Vincenzo’s elbow, only to be shoved back
with a huff. It made me boil to see him treated that way when I knew he could
take on Vincenzo if he wanted. I could only imagine the molten lava rising
inside of Santo.

“Let’s find a new hotel and cool off. Then we can talk to my
father,” Santo said patiently.

Vincenzo punched the hood again, making me stiffen further.
“Oh, fuck Federico! The old goat is losing his sense of smell if those two
worms keep evading his people. How useless must that hired man have been if
Seth took him down? This is ridiculous! Are you two conspiring against me?” he
growled, grabbing the front of Santo’s shirt.

I barely contained a shriek, and the two goons approached
them in silence, but was it to back up their boss or diffuse the situation if
needed?

Santo raised his hands, not even trying to defend himself.
“I am loyal, and a man of honor. You know that. You also know I couldn’t
stomach the thought of Seth leading this Family. I want him dead just as much
as you do.”

His lies were so convincing that for a second I actually
believed them.

Vincenzo took a moment to think this through and eventually
let go of Santo, adjusting the shirt he’d crumpled. “Good. Better don’t forget
it. I’ll reward those who are loyal to me,” he said, taking a step toward his
henchmen.

Santo nodded at him and rearranged his tie. “Lead the way,”
he said, already turning to our car.

Vincenzo smirked with self-satisfaction. “Good man,” he said
and pursed his lips in a mock-kiss while looking at me, before walking over to
the other vehicle. My body remained tense as hardened leather until they drove
off.

Santo sat in the driver’s seat, and I worried the volcano
inside of him was about to blow. But he grabbed the steering wheel and started
the car without a word.

I watched him in silence, my heart thudding so fast I was
getting lightheaded.

“Are you okay?” he asked after a good quarter of an hour,
but he didn’t even look my way.

Air went out of me, and I slumped against the backrest in
relief that he wouldn’t unload his anger on me. I always expected men to do
just that, even though Santo never had. “I think so,” I said, not able to bring
myself to tell him an outright lie and say ‘fine’. Vincenzo was becoming more
aggressive each day, as if the brakes of his temper were becoming less
functional the longer he knew me.

“You don’t look okay. You’re as pale as if you were about to
faint. Do you want some water?”

I shook my head and leaned against the door. “He scares me,”
I admitted, opening and closing one of my hands to relax its fine muscles.

“He’s a piece of shit. I just need to make sure there’s
another woman in his proximity, and he will back off.”

I looked at the road ahead, now only visible in the glow of
the headlights, rushing out of the darkness and taking us somewhere as unsafe
as the previous hotel. “I think he’s doing this because he’s jealous of Seth.
He wants to take over all that Seth got from their father.”

“He will
not
have you,” Santo said through clenched
teeth.

“He wants to hurt someone, and that someone might be me.
Just because I am his brother’s wife,” I said, my feelings somewhat dulled
after the earlier confrontation. “He thinks the world should belong to him.”

“He is wrong. And he needs to find himself another target.”

I smiled, but there was no happiness behind it. “Someone
more defenseless than me? That’s what he enjoys most, isn’t it? Picking on the
weakest.”

Santo took a deep breath. “He’s playing with fire. My
patience with him is running thin.”

I looked at him, and the threat behind his words stabbed
through my ribs, radiating dull pain all over. “If something happens to you
because of me, I’m never going to forgive myself.”

Santo grabbed my hand a little too hard, but I didn’t mind.
I wanted to melt into him. “None of this is your fault. You have to remember
that. You always did as you were told.”

I shuddered, squeezing his hand back. “That’s not true. I
bring bad luck to people whenever I don’t listen. I can’t have you on my
conscience too,” I whimpered.

“Lucrezia, who could you have possibly hurt? People make
their own choices.” The way he massaged my hand with his thumb couldn’t keep my
throat from clenching.

I closed my eyes, but I opened them right back when all I
saw behind my eyelids was blood on white sheets. “My mom. I did a bad thing,
and she died.”

Santo glanced at me, and he must have hit the brakes,
because the car slowed down, and we eventually stopped at the side of the road.
“What?”

I unbuckled my seatbelt and opened the door to breathe in
the cool air. It was so eerily quiet out here, with just the wind rustling the
trees nearby, but the peaceful nature did nothing to soothe my heart, which
hurt as if something tore it apart yet again. I swallowed and finally dared to look
back at Santo, who waited in silence for me to say something.

“When I was a young teen, I was dating this boy. It wasn’t
anything serious, but my father was very strict. He didn’t want me to meet up
with boys. He even sent me to an all-girls’ school, but I met this guy at the
mall, and we got closer. My mother knew about this, and she found it...adorable
so she allowed me to meet up with him. Sometimes, she would take me to town and
shop while we were on our date in the cinema or at the cafe.” I swallowed hard
when my throat tightened. My mind was flooding with dark, dirty oil and made
each second bitter. “My father found out, and they had the worst argument.

“Their marriage had never been a peaceful one. They could be
all lovey-dovey one minute, only to start shouting at each other over the
tiniest things. But this time it escalated so badly, and he...pushed her. She
hit her head, and then there was blood everywhere. She died,” I whispered,
watching his face blur in my tears. “I promised myself I would always do as I
was told. That I wouldn’t date a boy until Father let me, and that I would
never fall for anyone, so I wouldn’t end up like her. And here I am, despite
doing everything right.”

Santo unbuckled his seatbelt to move closer, and grabbed
both my hands. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“It was. I shouldn’t have asked her to cover for me. I’ve
been so selfish,” I whispered but turned toward him, so relieved to have him
touch me so tenderly. The weight of it all was still on my heart, yet I felt
somehow lighter for telling someone about what had happened years ago. I was
too afraid Mona would hate me if I told her what had actually happened. That
she’d never forgive me for killing our mother.

“You couldn’t have expected things would turn out that way.
Clearly, your mother thought you should be allowed to date. It’s your father
who is to blame.” Santo gave me a kiss on the cheek.

I exhaled, leaning toward him. My father had done the deed,
but that didn’t change the fact that nothing would have happened in the first
place if it weren’t for me. “I’m scared. I don’t want you hurt because of me,
but I don’t want Vincenzo to get his hands on me either. He will kill me in the
end. I know he will.”

“I will find a way out of this mess, I promise.”

I drowned in Santo’s arms, and with his heart beating so
close to mine, I found myself wishing the cool air that was biting my cheeks
would freeze us like this forever, so I would have to never again deal with
Vincenzo, Seth, Federico, or even Father.

Days stretched like the goo I liked to play with when I was
little. They were cold enough to make me dwell indoors, filled with worry that
could be suspended only by the relief of the stolen moments with Santo. I
stopped going to the pool, not wanting Vincenzo to walk in on me again while I
was in in skimpy clothes, and so whenever the silence of my own room became too
much, I spent my time in the hotel lobby or in the cafe in the first floor.

My Instagram followers ate up the extensive picture reports
I posted every day to kill the boredom and the anxiety that had me choking up
at night. They loved the change of scenery that came with my ‘road trip through
the US’, commenting on new outfits, snippets taken at hotels, and the food
porn. When I interacted with them I could almost believe my life was a carefree
one. I briefly wondered which of the people commenting and liking was Santo,
but I couldn’t come up with an answer.

Bored out of my mind, I browsed a website with all kinds of
viral content as I drank my coffee and ate a red velvet cupcake. Even the
sweetness of the frosting couldn’t soothe the emptiness of the existence of a
traveler who could only follow a pre-approved path and could be shot on sight
if they strayed from it.

Out of all the headlines crying out for my attention with
buzzwords and large fonts, I chose the one that promised burning hot eye candy.
‘
Anyone would like this hottie to roast a pig for them
’ was the title of
the so-called article, but I was beyond looking for anything but pure
entertainment. I opened the website and scrolled past the few paragraphs of
text at the top, but the moment I pressed play on the video underneath, I
almost choked on my cupcake.

Seth smiled at the camera without any qualms about being
filmed. He looked so different out of a suit, wearing a hoodie under a leather
jacket instead. And he was actually smiling, as if there was no care in his
world.

“I’m from Italy,” he said in English, smiling at the pretty
reporter. “But I used to live in New York. I wanted to make a henhouse for a
while now, so my dreams have come true.” He laughed and showed off a cage with
the hen he must have just purchased.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Did Seth have a sweet
twin brother I didn’t know about? He seemed perfectly relaxed when he combed
back his hair with his fingers, while around me, he’d always seemed so
standoffish, even if he’d acted perfectly civil.

The reporter laughed and pointed to something by her feet.
The camera followed her hand, revealing a small cage with a…piglet.
What on
earth?
“Oh, will it live with its pink friend?”

Seth looked at the animal. “Nope, I’m afraid that little
piggy’s gonna get roasted. Circle of life and all that.”

The reporter’s pink lips curved downward. “Ow, poor little
guy. Are you having a cookout with friends?”

Half the Villani family was searching for him, and he was
taking his time to
roast a pig
?

“Yep, but it’s gonna be a surprise party, so…” Seth put his
finger against his lips and made a shushing sound.

The woman narrowed her eyes. “Are you cooking for a special
someone?”

I knew it. He had a girlfriend in the US. He’d lied to me
and then fled to be with her, leaving me with this whole mess. It made me so
angry I put down my cup so that I wouldn’t be tempted to throw it against the
wall.

Seth laughed and looked away from the camera, smiling
despite the dark flush creeping up his cheeks. “Yeah, for my boyfriend. It’s
kind of a second honeymoon sort of thing.”

I didn’t even hear what the reporter babbled about after
that. I stared at his lips moving, but the words were subdued as if they came
from behind a wall of ice.

Boyfriend. Did he really say
boyfriend
?

My heart drummed furiously, and I lost all appetite,
rewinding the video in disbelief. But no, that was exactly what he said.

He was gay.

That motherfucker was gay, and yet he’d slept with me.

I stood up on shaky legs and slapped a bank note on the
table before all but running across the lobby, past Emilio, who no doubt
followed me at a distance, but I couldn’t bother with him now. My heart was
urging me on to go to war.

Santo usually let me know if he was leaving the hotel, so he
was likely in his room close to mine. I rapped at the door so hard my fist
hurt.

“Come in!” came from inside, followed by the buzz that
allowed me to push down the handle, and as soon as I burst inside, he got up
from his armchair. “What is it? Are you all right?”

I pushed my phone at him, so nervous and angry I could
barely think straight. Talking seemed even harder. “It’s him. Look. Look.”

Santo closed the door behind me, but once he played the
video, his frown deepened by the second. “What the actual fuck…?” he whispered.
“Is he insane? What is he doing talking to reporters?” But when the bit about
the boyfriend came on, Santo stared at the phone with his eyes staying wide
even after the video ended.

I stepped back and slumped on the edge of his bed, trying to
make air stop wheezing in my windpipe. This was unbelievable. I couldn’t
believe he’d done this to me. He knew he was gay, and he still married me, only
to disappear like the biggest coward.

Santo passed me the phone, staring at the wall. “They’re
fucking. That’s the missing piece of the puzzle. I thought they had an unlikely
friendship going on. Like between a puma and a baby bear, or some shit like
that. But this makes so much more sense.”

Oh God, so that was why Acerbi had watched me with so much
hate. He’d been jealous.

But even with the fiery anger coursing through my veins, I
grabbed Santo’s hand and looked up at him, ready to get on board with even the
tiniest glimmer of hope. “Maybe things could work out after all. If he’s gay,
then we could have completely separate lives. I could be with you, and we could
be happy. We could have children if we wanted to,” I whispered quietly,
embarrassed as soon as I said it. I knew Santo cared for me, but he never
declared that he wanted to be with me forever.

He squeezed my hand, and scooted in front of me with a stern
face. “Lucrezia. Baby. After this video, Seth will never become Don. Worse
even. He can’t come back from this. I don’t really care about him being gay,
but in our organization, I am in the minority. If he comes back, he’s as good
as dead.”

Which meant that the only plan we’d come up with so far was
now void, because Seth absolutely needed to brag about his pig roast plans.

I exhaled several times, holding on to Santo while a stream
of old ideas worked its way through my mind like water carving out a way
through rock. “If he can’t be the Don, who
will
be?” I asked firmly, looking
into his eyes. “You can’t seriously consider supporting Vincenzo.”

Santo dropped my hand and stood up, huffing loudly. “No.
There must be another way around it. I need to find out why my father wants
Acerbi alive. It will give me leverage in negotiations, pressure him to help
us.”

I chewed on my lip and got up as well, wanting him to pay
attention to my words. “It’s difficult to watch you take all this nonsense. Why
would you if you’re so much smarter than all of them put together? You are
decisive. You have the charisma a leader needs,” I said, stepping closer. “Why
don’t you take that prize?” I asked in a slightly lowered voice when I met his
eyes.

Santo’s gaze hardened. “We’ve already talked about this. I’m
trying my best to work out something that will suit us both.”

I squeezed my hands into fists. “What if that’s not good
enough? I keep being tossed from place to place. I keep worrying about what
Vincenzo’s gonna do next. This situation will never end if you’re not in
control.”

Santo’s face twisted into a scowl. “I’m sorry you’re in this
position, but between you, Vincenzo, and my father, my hands are tied. I’m
already risking my father’s anger for being with you against his explicit
wishes.”

“But our relationship is a secret, and it will always be a
secret, won’t it?” I asked, pacing in front of him. In this moment I could rip
Vincenzo’s throat out with my bare teeth if he got too close to me. “And I
don’t want to be your secret while you lead your life the way your father wants
you to. I want to be your wife. This isn’t good enough.”

Santo took a step back from me, baring his teeth. “Well, I’m
sorry you can’t have everything you want! I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but
my neck is on the line every day. I’m trying to make things work, but it’s
fucking hard to find a way out of this that doesn’t involve the risk of losing
you. Have you ever considered asking me if taking control over the Family is
even what I want? Is that even important to you?” He balled his hands into
fists and stepped away from me. “Or maybe I want to, and I’m constantly working
on it? No, you don’t care. You want it all your way, and you want it now. Well,
now
, I’m going to some country market in Tennessee to see whether your
husband managed to roast that pig, and if his new hen started laying eggs.”

I swallowed hard, but even though there was some sense to
his words, it angered me that he wouldn’t try to understand how it was to be in
my position, how it felt to be so vulnerable and under constant threat. But
with the way he was clenching his teeth until it hurt me to watch it, I knew
discussing this topic further made no sense whatsoever.

I crossed my arms on my chest. “Fine.”

Santo watched me in silence, and I looked back, waiting for
him to say something, to apologize, or even argue his point with me, but he
grabbed his wallet from the table and left.

I stared at the door, slightly numb, now that the initial
anger was cracking and falling off me in shards. I half-expected him to come
back, but when that didn’t happen, I left his room, shutting the door behind
me. I made my way down the corridor, watching the grey carpet underneath my
feet as anxiety rose in inverse proportion to my dispersing anger. Have I
really been out of line? What if Santo wouldn’t forgive me for trying to push
him? I swallowed hard when guilt crept up my throat. I shouldn’t have tried to
manipulate the one person who cared for me. I shouldn’t have made him feel
obliged to alter all his plans for me.

The soft thumping of footsteps behind me made my heart beat
faster, and I turned around hoping Santo came back to talk, but it was Vincenzo
heading my way, his gaze pinning me to the wall. I stopped breathing and gave
him a brief smile, but couldn’t bring myself to pretend anymore. I wanted to be
safe in my room. It was already within sight, so I looked straight ahead and
walked quicker. The louder I could hear Vincenzo’s footsteps, the harder I
squeezed my hand around the keycard, already having it ready for a quick
getaway.

With my skin tingling and my mind buzzing, I put the card
against the reader, walking in and turning to shut the door as fast as I could,
just to put a barrier between us.

I wouldn’t get to. Vincenzo’s foot blocked the entrance, and
my body went into panic mode, freezing so abruptly even my heart must had
stopped beating for a few seconds.

“Where you going, baby girl?”

I would punch him if I heard that term one more time. “I
don’t feel so well. I was going to have a nap,” I said quietly. The one thing
that counted now was making him go away and leave me in peace.

“That’s not gonna work for me,” he said and pushed the door
so hard I had to step back not to fall to the floor from the impact. “I think
you and I need to have a little chat.”

My lips twitched, and I wasn’t sure I’d still managed to
smile. My lungs constricted. I couldn’t breathe. “Oh? Okay then, let’s go to
the café,” I said and moved to walk past him, back into the corridor.

He grabbed my arm so hard it felt like a stab and shoved my
at my bed while kicking the door shut. “You think you’re so smart?” Vincenzo
frowned, and no matter how much I wanted to scream at him, I knew that would
only make my situation worse. “You’re not. And you’re now fucking useless,
because your faggot husband won’t give a flying fuck about you.”

I rolled over the bed and stood back on my feet, glad to
have it between us, but with him barging in here like that, I was like a little
dog cornered by a hungry grizzly bear in its own home. There was no way out and
no one to save me. There was no balcony where I could flee and be visible to
other guests, and my arms were so tense they ached. “I don’t understand what
you’re talking about. Our fathers made the match. It had nothing to do with me
in the first place.”

He moved toward me, step by menacing step, and my pulsing
brain wondered whether Santo had left the building yet, or if there was a tiny
chance he would come back to say a few words to me. He’d find Vincenzo here,
and he’d get rid of him, I knew he would. Maybe I could call him? But my phone
was in my bag, and I couldn’t allow myself to take my attention off the
predator after me.

Vincenzo’s eyes narrowed. “If he’s a fag, did he even fuck
you? I doubt that. So I guess your marriage has been a sham all along.”

I frowned at him, but my muscles turned into wood. “That is
absolutely ridiculous. I don’t like what you’re insinuating.”

He circled the bed, coming closer by the second. “Or maybe
he only fucked you up the ass if he likes guys so much.”

“He must be into both men and women,” I said quickly,
backing away with my heart thumping loudly. Could I smack him with the lamp, or
would he stop me on time? He was so much bigger, heavier than me that all my
earlier thoughts of teaching him a lesson evaporated. “Which is disgusting, but
I had no idea.”

He squinted at me, his gaze trailing lower until I regretted
ever wearing skirts in his presence. “I don’t even know if I want to marry you
anymore.” Vincenzo smirked as if I were supposed to be sad about it when, in
fact, my heart skipped a beat at the thought of being free of his attention.