Page 34 of His Bride

“Jesus. Did I miss a group text? So, I had a little too much to drink.”

“A little?” Isaia cocks a brow.

I’m about to mouth off, but something about Nicoli’s demeanor stops me. Maybe it’s the trademark Alexius stick-up-his-ass look he’s nailing today.

“What’s going on?” I ask.

Nicoli straightens his tie. “We have a guest, but?—”

“Who?”

“—I need you to stay calm.”

“Ah, shit,” mutters Isaia.

“Belucci?” I ask, brows raised. “Is that fucker here?”

“Caelian,” Nicoli starts, “I need you to behave.”

“The man auctions his daughter to the highest bidder, then asks for our help to get him out of it.” I rise out of my chair. “My life and his daughter’s derailed because of him. His daughter then gets threatened, almost kidnapped, and our brother gets shot, followed by the death of our mother, and he can’t even show his ugly motherfucking face around here? Not even as much as a phone call?”

Nicoli holds up his hand. “Caelian, calm the fuck down.”

“Oh, I’ll be calm,” I bite out, then turn to walk out. “So calm I’ll be able to slit his throat with the hands of a surgeon.” I stop andglance at Nicoli. “Who are you today? You, or the Abercrombie model?”

He drags a hand through his hair and loosens his tie, ruining Alexius two-point-O within seconds.

“Awesome. Original asshole version it is.” I stomp out into the foyer just as the son of a bitch walks through the front door, shrugging off his coat. I grab him by the throat and slam him against the wall.

“Give me one good reason,” I snarl, leaning in as mottled red creeps up along the lines and creases of his face, “why I shouldn’t rip your fucking spleen out and shove it up your ass.”

“My son…Cristiano,” he croaks.

“What about him? Did you auction him, too? You want Isaia to take his hand in marriage to keep him safe, too?”

“Hey,” Isaia objects. “That’s not funny.”

“But highly plausible since this fuck likes to sell his own flesh and blood for popularity points.”

Belucci swallows. “That’s not?—”

“Shut your mouth, you utter piece of shit. You try to marry off your daughter to that sick fuck Aurelio, then you push her on to us, because you made amistake?Then that fuck tries to gun us down. Threatening our wives, one of whom is pregnant. Who takes their small dick problems out on a group of women?”

“I didn’t?—”

“Let him go, Caelian,” Nicoli says. “Now.”

“Listen to Nicoli.”

I ignore Isaia. “Don’t you have packing to do?” I say over my shoulder to Nicoli. “You and Mira? Italy?”

I squeeze Belucci’s pathetic throat until he comes off the floor and his face turns puce.

It takes Isaia’s hand on my shoulder to ground me, to not kill him. But that doesn’t mean I’m shutting my mouth.

“How the fuck do you sleep at night? You come to us to keep your daughter safe becauseyoufucked up, using your friendship with our dead father to get us to help you. Your daughter almost got kidnapped, shot, our brotherdidget shot. You don’t call. You don’t write.” I move in closer, right into the cloud of whatever aftershave he’s wearing and breathe in the fear that’s beneath it, the slime he lives in. “I gotta tell you, your concern is fucking touching. Now, give me one reason I shouldn’t leave you a bleeding mess on this floor.”

“The cleaners?” Isaia asks.

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