Page 47 of Bound to Him

I shook my head. “I don’t know either. Papà just said he was going to help our business flourish.”

Huxley’s mouth became a flat line. “Yeah. Sounds eerily similar to the pitch he gave me.”

“What does Don Antonio say?”

“I haven’t spoken to him yet. We need to think cleverly about this.”

I suddenly felt completely and utterly useless. No matter how hard I tried to come to terms with my future, everything crashed down on me now. The fear, the sadness, the absolute heartbreak. Tears welled, and I began to hyperventilate.

“Oh God, I—I don’t know what I’m going to do!” I buried my face in my hands. “I can’t marry this guy! He’s going to rape me; I just know it! And those poor girls! I saw one of them at the racetra—”

By now I was struggling to speak between my sobs, and I felt big, warm, strong arms envelop me.

“Jesus, baby. I will never let that happen. Never.” His big hand cupped my head and pressed me into his chest. “We’ll find a way to get rid of him. Me and Antonio, Vinnie. We’ll deal with this fuckingdiavolo.”

I sniffed. “You should ask Tony.”

“What?” He loosened his grip and looked down at me.

I wiped my eyes and explained, “He’s not as bad as you think he is, Hux. He’s my big brother, and he’ll do whatever it takes to help me and Viola. He’s my father’s underboss, he must know more about what the business deal was with Christian.”

Huxley broke eye contact, looking up, and chewing on the toothpick. I could see he was reluctant, but he nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“What do you think you’ll do?”

“I don’t know. But I promise you,tesoro,” he put his hands on my cheeks, wiping the tears away and staring into my eyes, “we’ll sort this out. Don’t ever be alone with him in a room, you hear me?”

A little late for that… but at least I handled myself.

I nodded, and he added to his list, “And don’t get any funny ideas. Just hold down the fort, act like everything is going according to your father’s plan. And don't—” He widened his eyes to get the message across. “Don’t talk to Tony yet. I’ll contact him when the time comes.”

“Okay,” I breathed out, “I got it.”

His hands were still cupping my cheeks, his eyes still boring into me. I could see him falter when his eyes bounced between mine. My wishes came true when he spat the toothpick out to the side, dropped his head, and kissed me. He held me with his lips pressed hard against mine for what felt like ages, but still not nearly enough, before forcing himself to pull away and let go of my face. By then tears were streaming down my face again.

“You’ll be just fine,” he told me, nodding, looking slightly misty himself, then turned and walked away.

21

Huxley

From the pier, I went straight home. It was time to involve Antonio. I walked into the family lounge and found him on the sofa with his arm around Mia, watching a movie together. Fiona was splayed across an armchair to the side, focused on the romantic scene taking place on the screen.

“Hey, bro,” I said softly, not wanting to disturb the girls. He looked at me with raised brows, and I jerked my head to the side, signaling that he should come with me.

I walked to his office and held the door open for him.

“What’s going on, Hux?” Antonio said with some annoyance. “I’m trying to relax with my wife.”

I gestured to the sofa and sat down across from it. He took a seat.

“I need to come clean about something. And, I’ll admit, only because something much bigger has come up that we need to handle.”

He frowned, looking at me with a mixture of concern and ready anger. I’d put him in tough spots before, as a younger, more reckless man. But this time he could see I was very serious about something, and he leaned forward, clasping his hands together. “Let me have it.”

“Alright.” I took a deep breath. “You know that Colombian, Christian Reyes?”

His frown deepened. “Yeah?”

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