Page 2 of Deviant Knight

“I’d keep my Sasha problem overthatproblem any day, brother,” Ren adds, noting the jealousy in Brooklyn’s tone. She’s fucking five years old. Soon-to-be six, but still the same. This shit is getting worse. While I was gone for a month and she started kindergarten, I figuredthiswould have faded into the wind like it never existed. Since I’ve been back, she’s stuck to me like glue when I’m home.

I like the girl far more than I like her dumbass of a father. She’s tough and feisty. She reminds me so much of Sienna that it’s easy to forget she isn’t a Caputo by blood. I’ll never regret ridding the world of her mother. Kennedy, Matteo’s ex and Brooklyn’s mother, deserved every bit of what I gave her the night I took her pathetic life.

“Then why don’t you dance with your dad?” I finally say to her.

“Because I want to dance with you.” Her eyes narrow as her back straightens. She isn’t afraid of me. That alone means I should reward her with a single dance. There is a fight in her eyes. She isn’t shy about going for what she wants. Her little girly crush will wane, and this will be something we laugh at in the years to come.

I’m about to push off the rim of the bar when Krishna’s almost whisper-like voice stops me. “Kitten,” he says, his tone as excited as it is surprised. My eyelids snap up, landing where my father, Si, and Sasha stand with another among them.

The long strands of her bright red hair cascades down her back in loose waves captures my attention first, then my eyes begin to roam, taking in the rest of her curvy form. She’s dressed in a black wrap dress with silver, open-toe heels. The material crosses, making a V-shape between her breasts and the sleeves stop before her elbows.

My feet are moving in her direction before I realize I’m closing the distance between us, dragging Brooklyn along with me. Since she wouldn’t release my fingers, I wrapped mine around her wrist.

“You!” I hiss, narrowing my eyes on a woman I met once, but one I haven’t gone a day without thinking about since. Resentment settles in my chest at the same time blood rushes downward. I rip my grip away from my niece the moment Ciera’s emerald eyes connect with mine.

“Who exactly is she, and why is she here, Dad?” Sienna questions, caution and curiosity in her voice. Krishna steps up behind me, his taller height giving him away. Ren stops next to me, followed by Matteo.

“I’m Ciera Fitzgerald,” she announces, her Irish accent coating my exposed skin like a blanket I mentally fling off before it tries to encase me. Unfulfilled lust will do that to a man. It’ll blind you to reality, which is all this is. I wanted to fuck her the second I laid my eyes on her five weeks ago. Apparently, my dick still does.

My father’s stare lands on me, but I don’t break eye contact with the woman next to him. She blinks and then swallows as I watch her chest expand and fall, getting faster with each breath, anxiety blooming from inside her the longer I stand here in silence. She inches closer to my dad, and something about that rubs me the wrong way.

“She’s Domenico’s bride,” my father answers with finality in his tone, severing my stare down with Ciera. My eyes dart to his dark orbs. The boss stares back at me, daring me to challenge him, but instead of reacting the way I should, I keep my lips sealed.

She’s a Fitzgerald. That fact didn’t slip past me when her honey-coated voice introduced herself. It’ll be a cold day in Hell before I give one of them my name.

“Like hell she is. Have you lost your fucking mind, Dad?” Sienna lashes out on my behalf.

Dad’s lips twitch, but he stops the smirk from forming as he flicks his eyes to my sister.

“Hold up. Daddy, I think it’s time we have a come-to-Jesus meeting. I didn’t say anything when I found out you arranged Ren’s marriage. I wanted to kick you in the gut if I’m being honest. I say that with love and respect, Boss, and I still want to, by the way, but I won’t keep my mouth shut on this. You do not have the right to arrange Dom’s marriage with . . . What’s your name again?” My sister flicks her gaze to the stunning woman at my father’s side.

“It’s Ciera,” I answer for her, recalling how I heard her name roll off her tongue the first time I heard her say it.

“Um, excuse me, you know her?” Sienna asks, her surprised brown eyes finding mine as her brow arches.

“Not someone you forget,” Krishna says from behind me, his hot breath coating the back of my neck. My dick jumps to attention every time he does that.

“Okay, so you both know her. Noted. But not my point.” Sienna’s lips thin before she huffs out a breath. Folding her arms across her chest, she snaps her eyes back to our father. “You don’t get a say in who Dom marries or doesn’t marry. You don’t get to pick for him. What the hell is wrong with you?” Dad goes to open his mouth, but my sister continues, “He gets the same chance Matteo and I did, to find the right person and fall in love. That’s how this works. Isn’t that what you got with Mom?”

My little sister got married today. If I’d been given a say in the matter, Matteo would’ve had to work harder to earn her love, her trust, and her heart.

She’s been in love with him for as long as I can remember, since she first started showing signs of liking boys. He ignored her. Didn’t show an interest back when they attended school together. Lorenzo and I went to a different school than our sister. I never liked it. If she wasn’t with us, I couldn’t protect her. Had I been at the same school, I would have beat Matteo’s ass each day he let my sister love him and didn’t reciprocate.

“You know what your mother and I had, so I’m not entertaining that dumbass question, princess. Domenico will marry whomever I tell him to marry.”

“Like hell he will,” Si throws back, her stare igniting as anger seeps into her irises. She’s always been a fighter. Her interest in drawing blood from another is how it was awakened in Lorenzo. When we were kids, Sienna saw our dad watching a boxing match on TV and decided to prove she was tough by punching her twin brother. I wish I’d seen it, but I was asleep, just as they weresupposedto be. “What gives you the right to decide your sons’ partners?”

I’d interject, but my sister is doing the job for me, so I continue observing Ciera, watching her squirm under my gaze.

“What gives you the impression it’s only my sons? I have a daughter too,” Dad volleys back with her, his tone more amused than I’d expect given the tone my sister has taken. She may be his princess, but he doesn’t take attitude from us.

“Hello. Wedding.” She drops one arm and throws the other in the air in a dramatic gesture around the reception. It’s then that I take notice that all eyes are on us. “Matteo and I—”

“Were arranged the day you and Ren were born,” he says, cutting her off. Sienna’s jaw drops, her eyes rounding in shock. “And the first too. You and Matteo wouldn’t be together without my help. You got the dumbass of the group, for which, I’m sorry, princess. Your relationship with Matteo was harder to achieve than Ren and Sasha’s. He worked hard to sabotage my goal.”

“The fuck?” Matteo sputters. He usually doesn’t drop curse words when his daughter is present, but I can’t blame him. Even I didn’t expect that, which enrages me. It’s another thing the boss has kept from me. His secrets are starting to pile up higher than Lorenzo’s.

“Giovanni and I found common ground again. We wanted to merge families,” Dad goes on.

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