Page 118 of Bad Little Bride

A sharp pain settles against my chest and I drop my eyes to the water. That one falls a little too close to home, as my mother made my father promise never to do such a thing to my sister or me.

“By the time we made it inside the building, it was empty, and that was how we figured it all out. The young girl’s clothing and the bars and drapery on the windows. There were messages on an old computer they didn’t have time to take, and a few had written letters we had to decipher. We took everything and within two days we knew we were played. The man panicked and sent an email out, and since we had one of the computers, it came right to us. He put his sixteen-year-old daughter up for auction.”

“And you outbid everyone else.”

“I did.”

“And he just let you have her even though you knew the truth?”

“Not exactly, but in the end, the ceremony was complete, and she was—” He cuts himself off.

My gaze softens, and I offer a small smile. “Your wife.”

“Not because I wanted her to be.”

“Still counts,” I whisper.

“Legally, yes, but not where it matters most.” His eyes hold mine, the passion within them, themeaningbehind the words too much. He means what he’s saying, it’s all right there, written in the lines of his expression.

I break eye contact, focusing instead on the half-empty bowl in front of me instead of on the man I didn’t know how bad I wanted to fall for, let alone when it started to happen. “And then?”

“And then I killed him and every single man he brought with him.”

My head snaps his way, eyes widening, and Enzo chuckles.

“He intended to kill me the moment he hired me if I found what he was hiding. He would have tried again and again until he succeeded had I not, but even if he didn’t, I would have killed him anyway.”

“Couldn’t have him telling people he came after you and lived to talk about it.”

Enzo grins. “Exactly.”

My laugh is low, and I shake my head. “So why did you go back to Costa Rica when I first came to stay here?”

“We got a tip that there were men who escaped alive, and they claimed my name was being mentioned among some cartels there. You and I had just signed our marriage contract and you only just arrived. I had many plans for us, Little Bride, but your safety was the most important. I couldn’t risk anyone showing up here knowing you were within my walls, so I went straight to the source only to find out there was no bad blood waiting for me there at all. I’m beginning to wonder if that wasn’t the entire purpose—driving a wedge between us when there was already a mountain we had to move.”

I chew on the inside of my cheek, deeper parts of me, parts I’ve never felt before softening,warming.

I didn’t know the knowledge of learning the truth about those first three months mattered to me anymore, but apparently it did as there is something happening right now that feels a lot like surrendering my all to the man before me.

Enzo is watching me closely, his expression one of tenderness, though there’s a small glimmer of delight in his eyes, as if he knows exactly what’s going on inside my mind.

I pinch my lips in a small smile, tipping my head. “So Katana is, what? The heir to her own empire that’s just waiting for her to take it over or…”

His eyes narrow playfully, like he doesn’t want to change the subject back, but rather focus on me and fillet me open righthere so he can read my every thought. After a moment, his lips twitch and he sighs.

“Katana will remain Katana Fikile,” he explains. “She will be only as my little sister, until she’s had proper training at Greyson Elite. She knows nothing of this life and has only begun to understand the simplest of its ways. When the time comes, if it comes, we will reveal the truth, but not yet. She’ll lose everything if it gets out too soon because she’s too weak to be the leader she’s expected to be, and if she loses everything,” he pauses, holding my gaze, “it’s not only her that will fall, but the entire union as you know it.”

The union.

As I know it.

Not asheknows it…because he is not from one of the four families.

I am, though I’m not the chosen heir to represent our name or cardinal compass. Rocklin is.

And Delta.

And Bronx.

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