Page 43 of Bound to the Mafia King

I forced a smile onto my lips, but before I could even speak, he cut me off.

“Don’t do that. Don’t hide from me like you do with everyone else. Tell me what’s wrong.”

I hated how he could see right through me like glass. I considered just lying to him, but I knew he would understand I wasn’t being sincere.

“My brother called,” I started. “He said that the wedding is being moved to next month. Sergei paid an advance, and he was able to establish a few things in Moscow. He will be back home within the next two weeks.”

I left out the exact words that were said in our fight. I knew that they would only anger Valerio, and the last thing that I needed was an angry underboss. He already made his sentiments toward my brother known.

“You won’t marry him.” Like when he had asked me to marry him, the conviction in his voice was loud. “Like I told you last week,cielo, this is your life. You don’t have to do anything that you don’t want to do.”

“It’s not that simple, Valerio. I’m not like you. I don’t hold rank, and I have no real power. If I go back on my promise, Sergei will kill my brother for breaching our contract. I can't let my brother die.”

“He is willing to send you to a trafficker, how can you even consider him in your decision?” I could feel the anger in his system building. “To hell with your brother and his protection! He is a grown man and can take care of himself. You are his little sister. His job should be to protect you, and yet he has failed. No, he actually did worse than just failing. He is throwing you to the wolves without a second thought.”

“He’s my brother.”

“All the more reason why he is a colossal fuck-up. He is sending you off to Sergei. We live in a dark world, Anastasia, but Sergei exceeds evil itself. He is a Devil who does not abide to any laws.”

My heart clenched.

“You don’t have to do what he’s asking you to do.”

The grip on my heart tightened. “I do.”

Valerio grabbed the side of my face and forced my head to turn in his direction. I could feel the tears threatening to leave my eyes as I stared into his deep blue oceans. I could see the anger and frustration swimming in his pupils. He wanted me to walk away and choose the life I wanted. He wanted me to have the life I had envisioned for myself if I’d ever could have had it my way.

The only issue was that I did have an obligation to my brother. He had protected me and shielded me while we grew up in a world made up of malice and blood. Everyone who was a part of the Mafia world understood that we all had to do what we could for our Family.

“What’s done is done, Valerio. We were never meant to last anyway. We both knew that this,” I gestured between the two ofus, “would have to come to an end eventually, and it’s best that it stops here. Before things get bloody.”

I went to take off the bracelet, but his large hand covered mine. The heat from his palm prickled my skin.

“You will not take this off.” He leveled me with a steel gaze.

“Valerio, please, don’t make this harder than it has to be.” Why did it feel like my heart was breaking apart? I didn’t know that a heart could physically hurt this way.

“You won’t marry that man, Anastasia. You belong to me, and I will not lose you to some stupid call of duty that your brother brainwashed you into thinking you have to follow. You are a free-thinking woman.” He stood to his full height, then. He stared down at me with such conviction in his gaze that it hit me hard in the center of my chest. I could quite literally feel the waves of anger rolling off him. “I will handle this.”

“Don’t, Valerio.” I stood from my seat and grabbed his hand. “I can’t afford a war. As much as I am protecting my brother, I’m also trying to protect you.”

His eyes softened, but only by a fraction. “There is no life worth living to me where you are not by my side. And if it takes a war for me to have you, then to war I shall go.”

He pulled my face toward him and placed the gentlest of kisses on my forehead. He allowed his lips to linger on my skin for a few seconds before he pulled away.

I gripped his wrists as I searched his eyes. My heart thundered in the middle of my chest. I tried to calm the anxiety that built in my blood, but my spirit would not settle.

“Please, Valerio.” I didn’t know exactly what I was asking him for. For him not to start a war? For him to save me? For him to forget about us so that we could move forward?

“I will handle this.” There was a promise in his words. “Do you trust me?”

I nodded my head without hesitation. “But you can’t?—”

“Then let me handle it.” He cut my words off before I could say what I wanted to. “I will fix this.”

And then he turned on his heels and left me standing in my closet, alone and confused. I had no idea how he was going to fix this mess we had found ourselves in.

Valerio didn’t care if things got violent. Violence was a comfort for him, but I couldn’t risk my brother. He was the only family that I had left, and I needed to protect him.

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