Page 9 of Broken Innocence
I’m not an amateur when it comes to breaking and entering, although this is my first time slipping into a woman’s home for my own selfish reasons.
Removing my leather gloves, I run my bare fingers over her round cheek, a shiver of awareness working through me. To touch her is fucking heaven. My cock hardens with each light stroke, my mind and body fascinated by the innocence radiating from Eden’s sleeping form.
I don’t want to scare her, and a stranger in her bedroom would surely do so. Which means this is as far as things go tonight, unfortunately.
Soon, sweet Butterfly.
Soon, you’ll be mine.
***
“Congratulate your half-brother, Luca. Fabian is finally becoming a man.” My father pats Fabian’s shoulder as he raises his glass of bourbon in his elegant Beacon Hill brownstone, and I join the toast while maintaining a facade of complete apathy.
Fabian and I aren’t close.
He’s the legitimate heir toThe Family.
I’m the illegitimate bastard, borne from our father’s past indiscretion.
None of that would matter, though, if Fabian wasn’t the world’s greatest prick.
“Thank you, Father. I’m sure Luca is overjoyed to see me so happy. Eden Marino will be a sweet little bride, won’t she, brother?”
Oh, yeah, and this jackass got himself engaged to my woman.
I don’t know why Fabian took an interest in Eden when his usual type is rail thin with fangs for teeth, but the why isn’t important when this wedding is never going to happen.
Not while I’ve still got breath in my lungs.
Enzo wants Fabian married in the hopes that he stops being a damn nuisance by drawing police attention to himself. The cops are in the mafia’s pocket, but that doesn’t give Fabian a free pass for reckless driving, drug possession, and drunken brawls, though he likes to think so.
There’s not a chance in hell Fabian will calm down with Eden as his wife, so maybe I can steer our father in a different direction.
“I don’t know her, but Eden sounds like a good woman. Her family isn’t very well-connected, though. I’m surprised you approved of the union.”
“Fabian made a compelling case.” Enzo beams at his younger son whose satisfied smirk grates on my nerves. No way in hell is he getting anywhere near my Eden.
“Let me offer another one,” I say, and immediately, Fabian straightens in his seat to glare daggers at me.Just wait, brother.“You’ve been wanting a stronger connection with Blackthorn. Perhaps we’ve overlooked a simple solution: I could marry someone inThe Family. Eden, for example. Which would leave Fabian open for a more advantageous match.”
Enzo strokes his chin in consideration. “I thought you despised how the mafia forges contracts. You’re willing to marry a stranger to strengthen our bond? Your brother’s betrothed?”
“Father…”
“Silence,” Enzo barks, and Fabian shuts his mouth like the weak little runt he is.
“It’s a win-win situation. Eden’s family isn’t so high in the ranks that people would chafe at her marrying outside the Boston faction, but she’s still connected to it. And while I admire my brother’s interest in matrimony to a nobody…” I hide my wince at the description. “This isn’t the first scheme he’s cooked up to get in your good graces after a spot of trouble. I heard about the DUI charge that was dropped last week. I’m guessing his sudden rush to marry a good Italian girl is for your benefit alone. But why go along with a woman of his choosing when it makes sense for Fabian to make a stronger match?”
“You bastard! You…”
“What did I say, Fabian? Your don is speaking, and you will hold your tongue unless you want me to rip it out.” The fatherly indulgence that blanketed Enzo before is gone, replaced by the authority of a powerful mafia don. “You make valid points, Luca. I will think about it. Until then, I’ll let Marino and his family continue to prepare for a wedding. We won’t tell them there might be a change in the groom yet.”
Hiding a grin behind my tumbler, I mentally pat myself on the back.
Score: Luca 1. Fabian 0.
Ever since my father’s wife died, he’s stopped pretending I don’t exist. The first overture was an invitation to his birthday party—the one where I saw Eden for the first time. Then he invited me for drinks at his private club where he officially introduced his two sons to each other.
The change in tune—from hiring a crew to kill me in a drive-by shooting in Paris months ago to welcoming me back into theThe Familyfold—raised several red flags, but like the old adage says:Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
