Page 36 of The Chosen Heir

“Do you, though?” he challenged. “I never envied your position, because your life is not your own, but you chose to pick up the crown our father tossed your way. That’s on you.”

“Perhaps, but there are limits, and I’m drawing one now,” I returned.

Nicu snuck a worried look my way, and Tatum turned his face away, both signs they silently agreed with Luca that my life wasn’t my own. Well, fuck them. Boundaries had to be drawn, and they were going to be drawn by me. Today.

“My head isn’t on the chopping block, and that’s my final decision,” I declared.

“Good luck with that,” retorted Luca. “Nelu may not give you much of a choice.”

Nelu could go fuck himself. I wasn’t his dog.

“Luca, you’ll be the groom.” I pronounced. “Let me worry about Nelu.”

“I. Won’t. Do. It,” he growled. “Don’t try forcing my hand, Alex. You won’t like how I react.”

“I have to force your hand every single time, Luca. Every fucking time because you won’t simply do what you’re told,” I snapped in exasperation.

“Like your good little solider right here?” he shot back, gesturing toward Nicu. “Fucking take him. He’s willing to do anything for you. He has no soul. No feelings. He doesn’t give a shit who he marries. Use him.”

“Wow, talk about throwing your brother under the bus,” drawled Nicu, taking a sip of water, completely unperturbed.

“Don’t be such a child. You know Nicu is the youngest. Nelu will take that as an insult.”

Since Luca always said no, I was going with the assumption he’d capitulate in the end. God, I prayed I was right…I had to be. Otherwise, it was my head that was going to tumble, and that couldn’t happen.

Luca slapped his hand on the glass top of the coffee table, rattling the glasses, cups, and plates. “I’m not fucking joking, Alex. If you can’t get your little fuck toy here to do your dirty work, then you’ll have to marry the girl yourself. I’m not doing it.”

I stroked the prickly bristles of my chin, recalling the red rash I’d left on the inside of Nina’s thighs when I went down on her and licked her delicious honey last night. Outbursts were so common with Luca that I didn’t even twitch.

Watching my brother carefully, I noted the flush on his pale skin. The man rarely went out, choosing to entomb himself in that mausoleum of a mansion he lived in, in the north of the city. While we’d returned to our family’s home in Queens, he’d escaped to a fancy suburban neighborhood in Westchester County, as far from the city streets of the borough he was born in as he could get.

Clearly, we’d reached an impasse for today. He was an obstinate bastard. It was what made him so good at what he did for our family. Luca liked to fuck with other people’s money, especially rich people with dirty money. He was our Robin Hood. But when he stole, which he loved to do, he filled the Lupu coffers.

Flicking my wrist, I checked my Greubel Forsey watch.

“Time’s ticking, and I can’t waste it arguing with you, Luca. We can return to this discussion later. Scurry back to your marble mansion while I get my hands dirty with Nelu,” I taunted.

“Better you than me,” he mumbled, not taking the bait. “We can discuss this all you want, but I’m not budging. Not this time. There’s no negotiating or haggling our way through this.”

Rising to my feet, I made a scoffing noise in the back of my throat. “You know better than to say something as stupid as that. There’s always space for negotiation. And you’re not Tasa. I don’t have to worry about your sensibilities or that you’ll run…” Like a coward. I left the words unspoken, but they hovered in the air between us. I didn’t say them, because I wouldn’t want them paired with Tasa’s act. She hadn’t run out of cowardice. For her, it was an act of strength and willpower, but that didn’t mean it’d be the same for my brothers. She was a girl. Right or wrong, in our world, that made a difference.

I ignored Luca’s low growl. It was best to act from a position of strength, which was to assume I’d get what I wanted in the end.

Nicu and Tatum rose to their feet as I did. Luca could stay. He rarely attended meetings, and he’d refrain this time to avoid suggesting he’d tacitly agreed to my demands. Days like today, I questioned my sanity for taking on the role of sef. On top of having a runaway sister and a difficult brother who rarely did as he was told, I had to face Nelu. Holding him off would be no easy task.

---