Page 75 of Ruthless Oath

“You can’t help yourself, can you?”

“Maybe it’s you who can’t help yourself.” I raised my voice. “You’re so busy yelling at me and being rude that you can’t see what’s right in front of you.”

“Oh, I see what’s in front of me.” He backed me against the wall, placing his hands against it and trapping me. “I see a spoiled brat who can’t stop demanding everything from me while I’m in the middle of the biggest fight of my life. I see a selfish woman who can’t read the fucking room because she’s too busy asking for things she has no business asking for.”

“How dare you!”

“Shut it!” He slammed his hand into the wall, rattling the pictures on it. “I’m going to remind you that you came after me even when I told you to leave me alone. I told you we were not a good idea. Our families despise one another.”

My chest heaved as I tried to control my rapid heartbeat. Was I furious with him or turned on by the way he spoke to me? Either way, my temper was going to flare in about three seconds.

“You blew into my life and have caused me more trouble than I needed,” he said. “I’ve disappointed my father, and I’m leaving my brother with more than his fair share to deal with. Why? Because of you.”

“Then just let me go.”

“You say that as if there’s a choice. You have no idea what will happen to you if I let you go. You’re what we call leverage, princess.”

“This is still a business situation for you?” If I wasn’t so angry, I might have been sad. “Even after last night?”

“I don’t want to get into this now,” he said. “I have too much on my mind.”

“You have too much on your mind? I’m trapped here with no way of letting my family know I’m safe. Did it occur to you that my father hit your dealership yesterday because you won’t give me back?”

“I’m aware of what’s going on.” He lowered his gaze to my lips. “It’s you who is clueless if you think you can walk out of here and everything will go back to normal.”

“What you’re doing now isn’t working.”

“Don’t tell me how to run my business.” He punched the side of the wall again, and I ducked under his arm and scurried away from him.

As he advanced on me, I held up my hand. “Don’t.”

He stopped, giving me a moment to gather my thoughts.

“Whatever was going on between us before last night was fun,” I said. “But now our relationship has changed. We need to work together to come up with a solution. We can’t stay here forever, fighting and…”

“Fucking?”

“Why do you bait me?” I asked.

“It’s you who baits me.”

“Don’t you get it? We come from the same brutal world. We were forced into situations that we had no control over.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t I?” I pointed at him. “You were born into this world to run an empire and clean up the mess your father left behind. You’re stuck, trying to live up to his standards, doing everything you can to not disappoint him, but you are no closer to bringing him home than you were before you took me.”

“I would shut up if I were you.”

“Why? You don’t want to hear the truth?” The fury rose in my gut. “You’re forced to pick up where your father left off, and I’m expected to marry a man I don’t want to be with. That’s not normal. We didn’t get to choose these lives, but here we are living them.”

I never realized how much of a choice I didn’t have until now. I had reaped the benefits of being a mafia princess, and I never questioned where the money came from or how my father obtained it until it directly affected me. When he told me I was to marry Danny, I acted out and ran to Marchello as if it were a game.

“You know what?” I picked up the champagne bottle from the table and turned to leave. “Don’t ask me why I’m spoiled. You better than anyone should know who we have to become and what we have to do to survive in this world our fathers created for us.”

“Lissia, don’t walk away.”

“Don’t tell me what to do.” I headed into the house and down the hall, my heartbeat strumming loudly between my ears.

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