Page 72 of Cassio (Belles & Mobsters 3)

Pushing all my quivering desire for this man aside, I focused on the topic at hand.

“Either way, Jack. Marrying Margaret to Cassio King or any family member of the King family is nuts. And wrong on so many levels! Those bastards are-”

“Áine, that’s enough!” Jack’s voice held a warning and his blue eyes darkened. His anger had never been directed at me. I went to open my mouth to say something but immediately shut it. There was only so far I could push my stepfather. But he was crazy if he thought Margaret would be a sacrificial lamb. I wouldn’t let it happen.

My eyes fleeted back to Hunter… No, not Hunter. Cassio. Goddamn it! Why did I hate the idea of him being an enemy so much?

ChapterTwenty-Four

ÁINE

Cassio Hunter King.

I heard of his ruthlessness, and I wasn’t even an active part of the mafia world. The stories of men he killed and his brutality were whispered all over the world. Benito King was a crazed, bloodthirsty lunatic. But Cassio King, he was rumored to be a cold killer. Dispassionate. Harsh. Intense.

Except, his eyes were kind of warm. Mentally, I shook my head. It was deceiving. Everything about him was deceiving. Yet, counterintuitive to everything I had just learned about him, something deep inside of me retaliated at the knowledge that he was a man I should hate.

I watched him, trying to reconcile that knowledge with the man that comforted me in the elevator during my panic attack. The man that ensured my pleasure first and foremost. With the man that talked to me over the phone. Yes, there was a hardness about him, but for some reason, protectiveness and fairness screamed underneath it all. Maybe my instincts were failing me. I wasn’t great at reading people, but usually my instinct warned me of bad people. I called it my self-preservation radar. But my instinct wasn’t screaming at me to keep away from him. Instead, even now as we watched each other intensely, something about him nagged at my memory and the need to remember was like oxygen.

Maybe it was my imagination. After all, our worlds were vastly different.

Well, they were until my mother married Jack.Then why did something stir deep inside my memories every time I looked at him.

Truthfully, this whole world that Jack belonged to was such a different world from the one I grew up in. I knew Jack and his men were involved in shady businesses and illegal dealings. I also knew some of the families arranged their daughter’s marriage to gain power or money. It was mind blowing and wrong on so many levels. Almost like trafficking but with the parents’ approval. It made me want to fucking kill them all for even contemplating it.

Either way, it would seem Cassio King was the man Margaret was supposed to marry, and she was pregnant. Well, good for her and I fully intended to support her and defend her against this ridiculous arrangement Jack has made.

Though I couldn’t deny the bite of jealousy at the idea of Margaret with Hunter sent through me. Even worse was the knowledge that the bastard slept with me, knowing he was engaged to my cousin.Bastard. Goddamn bastard!

“Margaret carrying another man’s child creates a problem in this plan,” Jack finally concluded. “I gave my word.”

“Well, you shouldn’t have made plans without running it by Margaret first,” I snapped. Truthfully, I was agitated at myself as much as him. “You know, it takes two to make marriage work.” I turned my head towards Cassio and Luca. “This bullshit idea of arranged marriages should be torched to the ground and banned.”

“No arguments from me,” Margaret drawled. “Or maybe we can force them to marry someone they don’t want. See how they like it.”

My lip quirked. “I kind of like that idea. Let’s start with your brother. Or maybe these two here.”

“Both of you stop it,” Jack warned us with a groan.

We shrugged, sharing a glance. Jack could be tough, but he’d never hurt us.

“You could still go through with the marriage and just raise the baby as your own,” Jack suggested to Cassio. I had to swallow a bite of protests forming on my tongue.

Why did the line ‘I volunteer as tribute’ keep coming to my mind? DamnHunger Games. I only wanted to volunteer so I could get closer to Marco and kill the bastard that tortured me in my nightmares. Eventually, I’d kill Cassio too.Maybe. I don’t fucking know.

“That’s just cruel,” I protested. “To let a baby go around any King member. It’s not the baby's fault you made some stupid arrangement withhim.” I tilted my head in Cassio’s direction.

“I don’t want to do it.” Margaret’s voice was that of a wounded animal.

My head snapped to Margaret. There was a trace of an emotion lurking in her eyes, which I had never seen before.She is scared, I realized. We both held back our fears, it would seem.

“I guess that’s that,” I announced. “Can’t force her to do it.”

“Actually, I could,” Cassio stated calmly. He didn’t seem upset that Margaret was pregnant. But there was a beast lurking in that expensive suit, ready to strike. I could practically taste it. Cassio King had an agenda, I just had to figure out what it was. “Breaking an arrangement like this causes wars. In the name of honor, I can demand her death as retribution. Or Callahan’s.”

“What?” My mouth dropped to the floor. There went the protectiveness and fairness I attributed to Cassio out the window. “You would do that?”

My eyes darted to Jack and I saw the truth in his eyes. He would let him do that? What kind of stupid honor was that?

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