Page 106 of Luciano (Belles & Mobsters 1)

Please don’t bid.

Maybe if nobody bid on us, we could escape the clutches of these two lunatics. My heart immediately sank as a hand went up. Then another. And another.

Two million. Three million. Four million

Benito King chuckled. “I knew you’d be the hit.”

“Ten million,” someone shouted.

Eleven. Twelve. Thirteen.

Then it finally stopped.

“You have superseded the price of the last four auctions combined,” Marco bragged. “You were worth the wait.”

Ella and I shared a glance. I could sense desperation rising in her, just as I could feel my own.

“Fifteen million,” Benito announced. “I have decided to make Miss Romano my bride.”

“What?” Marco hissed low, so nobody else could hear him. It didn’t matter though, because his fury was written all over his face.

“I thought you were married already,” the words escaped me.

“I have a mistress, but she won’t interfere.” He chuckled like he just said the most entertaining joke. “Your husband and son, on the other hand. We will have to take care of that.” Then he chuckled, displaying his yellow teeth. “Roberto will take care of that, won’t you?”

I kept my face stoic. I couldn’t show any emotions to these people. I knew men like Benito. They relished in destroying what people loved. Just like my grandmother. Just like my uncle.

I have to kill Roberto.It finally made sense why I saw Roberto in my mom’s dressing room backstage alongside my uncle.

My lips pressed tightly together, I held his gaze. He wanted to see me react. Well, he had another thing coming. I wished he’d hold his breath waiting for my reaction. My back stiff, I refused to even blink.

He finally looked away, bored expression on his face as his eyes shifted to Ella.

“Now what to do with your friend,” he pondered although the damn bastard already knew. He kept waiting, hoping I’d say something. I squeezed Ella’s hand, biting my tongue.

Do. Not. Show. Any. Emotion.

Just like my grandmother, he would destroy what I loved and cared about.

“She can be mine and my son’s courtesan.” The greedy bastard thought he won. “What do you say, Marco?”

“What the fuck ever,” he muttered. “How about Grace Romano to be my courtesan? She was supposed to be my bride.”

But Daddy got greedy. The pathetic loser should learn to go get himself a girlfriend the old fashioned way. And his father should be executed. On second thought, every single man in this room should be executed.

Theatrically, Benito King addressed the crowd bowing down. “And this concludes Belles for the evening.” Disappointing grunts echoed through my grandfather's home.

“This is bullshit, Benito!” One of the mobsters complained. “You had us come in the dead of the night just to witness you getting the Romano bride.”

“You bid thirteen million, right?” Marco interjected.

“I did.” The man puffed his chest when in fact he should probably hide somewhere for being so stupid to offer such a ridicules amount of money for a woman.

These men were pathetic, every single one of them.

“Well, considering my father’s short attention span,” Marco continued, “you can have her next. For half that price.”

The room broke out into laughter at my expense.

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