Page 40 of Luca
“Of all the women in this world, you settle for Callahan’s niece,” he noted wryly. “Why am I not surprised?”
Because he was a sharp motherfucker, but he didn’t need more boosting. His ego might just explode.
“Why did your men attack her?” I asked instead.
His jaw tightened. “Those weren’t my men,” he said darkly. “I got an alert that a Callahan family member would attempt to enter Italy.” I clenched my teeth. This fucker had Callahans on the radar. Probably for as long as my father set up the murder of Margaret’s father to fall on Marchetti’s. “The instructions were to keep close watch. They went too far.”
“So you don’t want her dead?” Nonno inquired.
A sardonic breath left her. “I wouldn’t kill a woman but a promise is a promise. No Callahan family members in this country.” His expression darkened. “They killed my twin brother.”
That much was true. But they killed him in retribution for something that the Marchetti family didn’t do.
“She won’t be a Callahan much longer,” I said, keeping my composure. It took all my self-restraint not to shoot the fucker. His answer was too conflicting. It was better to be safe than sorry. Shoot now, ask questions later. Except, this fucking guy was too powerful to fuck with.
“Why is the girl traveling with a fake passport?” he asked instead, watching me carefully. The guy could sniff out a lie from miles away.
“She refused her family’s line up of marital prospects.” My voice was dark. Just the thought of her marrying anyone else was enough to have me seeing red.
“So she refused to marry, but she’ll marry you?” he inquired curiously. “Or is it that the last four men she was lined up to marry died under mysterious circumstances that has Margaret Callahan gun shy?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “Nobody but Margaret Callahan and I will be raising our daughter.”
Surprise flashed in his eyes. “Your daughter?” He rocked back in his chair. “So you knocked her up, huh?”
I clenched my teeth so hard, my jaw bones cracked.
“Maybe a proposition,” Nonno chimed in. “A peace offering. An alliance between us.”
“As far as I know, Signore DiMauro, your family and ours already have an alliance,” Enrico remarked.
I knew where this was going before Nonno uttered the next words. “But this would include the Callahan bloodline too. A marriage alliance. Between Luca’s daughter and your son.”
This was the part I didn’t like. Giving my daughter to any fucker. Didn’t Nonno realize my baby girl would be a nun? Okay, maybe that was slightly overboard, but I certainly didn’t want my daughter connected to the most ruthless family in Italy.
Besides, every single woman that married the head of the Marchetti family for the past few generations was murdered. Including Enrico’s wife.
That was definitely not the path for my baby girl.
“I want your word that my wife and her family are safe in Italy,” I insisted.
He watched me, silence stretching. “Concordato.” Agreed. “But it only extends to her brothers. If her uncle steps foot here, he’ll be a dead man.”
An hour later, Nonno and I were in the car, leaving the Marchetti estate.
“Thank you, Nonno.”
“Prima la famiglia.”Family first. He knew what was at stake here. If Marchetti learned that it was me who killed Callahan, Margaret’s father, and went along with my father to set Enrico up, we’d be on the chopping block. With each year we’d kept the secret alive and refused to come clean, we’d become the guilty party. It cost Enrico his twin brother.
We couldn’t go back and change the course of what happened. So we had to leave with the secrets and consequences.
The main thing for now was that Margaret would be safe in Italy.
Now there was only one obstacle left. Convincing the stubborn Irish beauty that I was her best option.
ChapterSeventeen
MARGARET
