Page 75 of Convenient Mafia Vows

“Victoria, you don’t have to go ahead with the wedding reception.” The words appear from nowhere, but now that I’ve said them out loud, it’s like slotting the final piece of a jigsaw puzzle into place.

After the party, once Victoria has been introduced to the rest of the world, we can think about cutting short the agreement. It’s the tipping point, the peak of the mountain, passing the test you’ve been studying for your entire life and realizing that it’s all downhill from here on. I’m not ready to let her go. I’ve barely even scratched the surface of Victoria Callahan, but if this is onlythe beginning, I’m not prepared to walk away without knowing more.

Plus, there’s the niggling concern at the forefront of my mind called Olivia Dragonetti.

Victoria tilts her head back so that she can look me in the eye. “What’s brought this on?”

“I… I know that you want to help. You didn’t have to marry me, but you did. You accepted my fucked-up proposal and you’ve done nothing but keep your side of the deal from the moment you stepped into my office.”

Her eyes are glittering with unshed tears, but she doesn’t say anything.

“My family … they can be persuasive when they want to be.” She opens her mouth to speak, and I shake my head. I’m not finished. “They want the reception to go ahead because it works in our favor. It ties up loose ends. It may even, with a bit of luck, result in the alliance we’ve been trying to seal for years.”

“It works in your favor too.” It’s barely more than a whisper.

“Depends which way you look at it.” I smile. “Until now, I’ve used people to get what I want and never given them a second thought. It’s what people like us do.”

“People like us?”

“I’m not going to sugarcoat it. You’ve seen the way we live. The lifestyle, the trappings, the bodyguards. It all comes at a price, and I’m not prepared to barter with you and Abigail.”

I feel her stiffen in my arms. Maybe I’ve said too much, but she needs to hear it like it is. She needs to know exactly what’s instore for her if we don’t walk away from each other as planned. As if the bullet wound and the stalker haven’t made it blatantly obvious.

She shakes her head. “You’re not bartering with me and Abigail. I came to you of my own free will. I’m a big girl now, Caleb. I make my own life choices, and I choose you. With or without the lifestyle and the trappings and the bodyguards.” Her mouth twists into a lopsided smile. “Although I’ll admit that the bodyguards are useful when you’re being followed.”

“So long as you don’t lose them in Macy’s.”

“Yeah…” She winces. “Sorry about that.” She looks like she has a whole bunch of stuff more to say that’s eating away at her, and I wish she understood that she can talk to me. I want to listen.

“I need you to trust me, Victoria.”

“I do.” She leans back to get a better look at my expression. “What is it? What haven’t you told me?”

“I’m calling off the reception.”

“But—”

“I’m making an executive decision. It’s what I do, if you hadn’t already noticed.” I’m making light of it, but I know I’m not fooling her. “We’ll find another way to call Olivia’s bluff. Fuck knows we have enough resources to throw at it.”

“But what about your mom? Kyle?”

“I’ll handle them. This isn’t what’s best for Kyle.”

There’s so much I want to tell her about Kyle. I want her to know that he isn’t an asshole, that he would never leave a woman for dead to save himself, that he’s not as strong as he looks. Babysteps. I haven’t even told her how I feel about her yet because I’m still figuring it out for myself.

“You can stop Kyle, Caleb. He’ll listen to you. They all listen to you.” I sense a but coming. “But I think the wedding reception should go ahead as planned. You need this. Your family needs this. Maybe I…” For the first time since we stopped here on the Byway, she turns her face away and refuses to meet my gaze.

I take her chin between my thumb and forefinger and tilt it towards me. “Go on.”

“Maybe I could talk to Olivia.”

“No.” I release her and step backwards, missing her presence in my arms instantaneously. “Don’t even think about it. You don’t know what she’s capable of. You’ve not grown up in the same world as she has, so you wouldn’t understand how little respect she has for anything or anyone.”

“No, you’re right.” Her voice is brittle. “I don’t belong in your world. Thank you for the reminder.”

She goes to walk away, but I grab her arm and turn her back around to face me. “That isn’t what I’m saying. I don’t want you to belong in this world.”

She glares at my fist wrapped around her arm until I let her go. “What do you want then, Caleb?”

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