Page 79 of Forced Vows

She rolls her eyes. "We're back to that?"

"Yes." My future wife is not going to refer to our marriage as damned.

I'm not a demon, even if some of my enemies think I am.

"At the cost of one life?" she asks sarcastically. "It's Biblical anyway."

"Two."

Oh, she doesn't like hearing that. Interesting. She can say she hates me all she wants but she doesn't want to marry a man who considers it a sacrifice.

Leaning back in her chair, she crosses her arms, unknowingly plumping her breasts upward and increasing the amount of cleavage on display.

She looks at me with accusation. "You could have refused."

How hard would it be to rip that pink jumpsuit right off her?

"My life is forfeit to the greater good of la famiglia. To refuse to do my duty would be a betrayal of my family and my don."

"I don't consider marrying a stranger a duty. It's the result of blackmail. Plain and simple."

That's the first hurdle we have to get over. "Yes, pressure was brought to bear, but women in mafia families are raised to believe it is their duty. Your cousins understand this. Why don't you?"

"How do you know my cousins believe that outdated garbage?"

"It's not garbage. We all have a role to play in keeping our families strong."

"You mean the syndicate."

"It's one and the same."

She huffs out an exasperated breath and jumps to her feet. "Let's go for a walk. If I have to listen to more lectures it can at least be in the spring sunshine."

I shrug, unwilling to argue over something so trivial and follow her to the French doors.

But when we get there, I stop her from going outside. "Let Allessio clear the area first."

"Are you kidding me? There's nothing out there but my backyard and the bay."

"A sniper in a boat—"

"Would be too unstable for accuracy. Alerting you to his intentions without a better chance of success would be stupid."

"Not all killers are smart." But she is. "Where did you learn that about the boat?"

"My dad. After my mom died, he told all of us girls because we didn't want to play outside anymore."

"And you believed him." It's not a question.

"I trusted him. But after he died, I looked it up because Fiona refused to leave the house at all. For a long time, the only place she would go was the backyard."

Allessio gives the all-clear signal and I open the door for Róise. "Does she see a therapist?"

Róise looks at me incredulously. "Don't tell me you let your people see therapists."

"If they need to."

"But what about…I mean how does that work when they can't talk about the stuff that probably bothers them the most?"

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