“Well, I thought she needed a wedding dress.” Maria raised a perfectly manicured brow. “Doesn’t she?”
“Cassius.”
She turned her head when a young boy stood up from the couch. He looked as if he was Dominic’s mini-me. Both brothers bore no resemblance to their father.
“Go get Kat,” Dominic ordered without looking away from the blonde.
Staring at the little Luciano for a moment longer, she tilted her head to the side, seeing something different in the boy that was … almost reminiscent … but then he walked away.
“Can I take your coat?” Matthias asked, clearly wanting to see her without it as he reached to help her out of it.
“Touch me, and I’ll kill you,” she threatened with the sweetest smile.
Matthias didn’t take a step closer, somehow knowing her smile was an act.
The oldest brother, however, did, unafraid of her or the bodyguard she arrived with. “Does Lucca know the princess is out of her castle?”
That smile didn’t disappear from her face. “Do you think I would be here if he did?”
“Certainly not”—he looked at the suit who had come with her—“if this is the one who brought you.”
It took a minute before Todd realized he had been insulted.
Dominic’s hazel eyes moved back to her. “I hope the poor sucker knows whatever you promised him won’t be worth it by the time Lucca gets done with him.”
“What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.” Placing one tall heel in front of the other, she made the distance between them that much smaller. “It can be our little secret.”
Most men on this earth weren’t worthy a second glance, yet she finally let her eyes glance down his body.
For some reason, he was different than she expected. She thought he would be weak since agreeing to all of the Carusos’ terms, but now she could see that might not be the case at all …
Out of all the Luciano brothers, this one, she liked. A lot …
…Yesterday he had been confident yet distant. Today it was like he placed a brick wall between them. Radiating off him, however, she could feel his barely contained heat, knocking down his own wall, brick by brick with every passing second. In twenty-four hours, everything about him changed.
Before opening that door, she hadn’t found him dangerous. Now, she wondered if she made a mistake by letting him into their home. Well, almost. The only thing telling her otherwise was the usual emptiness in her stomach as she talked to men was gone.
“Is Lucca expecting y—”
“Take me to him,” he reiterated harshly, not letting her finish.
Maria didn’t know what possessed her, but instead of giving him hell like she would have anyone else, she simply nodded, seeing the urgency in his eyes.
Leading him through the house, he followed behind until she approached a wooden door that held a hint of smoke behind it. When she opened the door, she expected a furious Lucca, yet he appeared to be waiting for them.
It was hard for Maria to close the door once Dominic passed by and entered her brother’s office. She took her time doing so, hoping to hear anything the two might say, but they just quietly waited until the door clicked closed. It was even harder to walk away, knowing she couldn’t eavesdrop without Lucca knowing.
Going back to where she had started in the foyer, she found it impossible to walk up the steps, so she took a seat on the bottom step, deciding to wait and see how this would play out.
Dominic was here for one of two reasons—either regret or truth.
If he was here for regret, then it wasn’t going to do much good. The price was going to have to be paid for his father’s sins, and Dominic’s father, Lucifer, had many sins. Scarring Chloe Masters for life, he died for, but almost starting a war between the families was what his sons would pay for.
The Carusos needed assurance that it would never happen again, and they had done that by kidnapping Angel Luciano—until the time that Dominic cleaned up loose ends in his family and after their families’ blood became one; those were the terms her brother set. The new Luciano boss had promised a Luciano woman to marry a Caruso male and mother his children, but he did so without knowing that Lucca had found out Dominic’s biggest secret—a Luciano sister existed. Katarina had been handpicked by the Caruso male, Drago, and their arranged marriage was set in the next few days. Seeing him with his sister yesterday, she was sure Dominic would have never agreed to the terms if he’d known Lucca knew of Kat’s existence. Now he faced either a war he wouldn’t win or giving away his sister.
Maria didn’t know if Dominic had accepted his fate yet—he could have. However, he could also be here to tell the truth of what really happened yesterday ….
…“What are you doing here?” Kat asked.
From the second she walked in through the door Maria was locked in eye contact with Dominic, and after another moment she broke it and shifted her gaze to Kat. “I thought you might want a wedding dress for when you walk down the aisle.”
“I have a white dress, but it’s shor—”
“Absolutely not.” Maria stopped her before she could finish the word, flat-out offended. “I am taking you shopping right now.”
“O … Okay.”
“I’m going with you,” Dominic announced, grabbing his coat. “Matthias, you stay here with Cassius.”
Matthias, who was grabbing his jacket, looked defeated but stayed silent.
“That won’t be necess—”
Dominic raised his hand, cutting her off. “I’m not having Lucca find out I let you two go alone with this fucking idiot.”
Again, it took Todd forever to figure out Dominic was talking about him. “Excuse m—”
“Fine,” Maria blurted, maybe a bit too eagerly; she wanted to see where this went.
After Kat picked up her jacket, they all headed out the door, leaving Cassius and a heartbroken Matthias behind.
When Dominic saw the Cadillac that they had shown up in, he stopped in his tracks. “You know what, Ted—”
“Todd,” Maria corrected, trying hard not to laugh.
“Todd,” he corrected, getting the Caruso’s guard’s attention. “How about you go home, and we can all just pretend Maria snuck out by herself? I think we both know I won’t touch a pretty blonde hair on her head because of what Lucca would do to me if he found out. I’m sure it’s going to be similar to what he’s going to fucking do to you if you don’t leave.”
Her bodyguard’s face went pale as Maria waved him off. He left, running.
“Bye, Todd.”
Well, this should be fun.
“Aren’t you cold?” Kat asked her, seeing that she was only wearing a dress under her coat.
“You can’t feel cold if your heart is dead.”
It shocked her to find Dominic had been the one to answer. She would never forget that deadly smile he gave her as he opened the passenger door of his blacked-out Mustang for her, before he continued with, “Isn’t that right, princess?”…
…Getting into that car, she had felt that there was a man who could finally see her for what she truly was, and he hadn’t been threatened or seen just her looks. Even today, when the roles were reversed and he was the one to barge in on her home, he still seemed to see her. It was like she felt … equal to a man in this crazy mafia world.