Page 26 of Wedlocked

I sighed heavily. “Guys, I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but you’re putting a real dampener on my special day.’”

“I’m sorry, you’re right,” Isabella said, stepping close and cuddling me, her dark hair smelling of cinnamon. She stepped back. “Now who were those men you were speaking of?”

I accepted my drink and nodded for yet another. The shots were already helping to evaporate my fear. “They were both tall and solid. One of them had light brown hair worn to his shoulders. He had a hard face and cold, dark eyes. The other had a dark, trimmed beard and short styled hair. His skin was a little darker, too, though it was hard to see properly in their Armani suits.”

Isabella giggled, then covered her mouth and did her best to look contrite. “I’m sorry, it’s just…I think you just described two of my brothers.”

Chapter Sixteen

Ethan

My temper flared as I walked away from my wife to follow in the wake of my father and my right hand man. Carlo was now my consigliere, not my father’s. He was here solely to advise me.

My wife’s eyes followed me as I thrust open the door and stepped outside. I generally didn’t give a shit what others thought about me, but I did care that I was abandoning my bride on her wedding night, even if for a short time. That the feeling was laughable considering what I planned on doing to her in the near future wasn’t something I was willing to focus on. Not right now.

The cool air was a slap to the face, while the sickly sweet, pungent scent of my father’s Columbian cigar made me flinch. I’d much prefer Columbian coke, which we trafficked into the country via our shipping business.

The two men turned to me as I approached; their thinning, gray hair and paunchy bodies not making them appear weaker in the slightest. They both radiated power like it was their god given right.

I resisted curling my lip. “Papà,” I said smoothly. I nodded at my advisor. “Carlo…is there anything important you needed to share with me?”

My consigliere shook his head, his wintry silver eyes hardening fractionally. “Of course not. I’m just…catching up with my old friend.”

“Just remember who you’re working for now,” I reminded him succinctly.

My father drew his brows together. “And just remember who taught you this business figlio. Without me you’d be nothing.”

Fury roared through my body, though my face stayed implacable, my voice immune. “Without me you’d become nothing, your empire turned into rubble.”

Respect for my father might be ingrained, but no one questioned my work ethics or my ambition. Not even my brothers denied I was the best for the position of don, even if my pleasure to kill didn’t match Nico’s standards. That he was dead and buried meant nothing to my father, he loved to compare and find fault with his eldest living son.

“When Nico was murdered in cold blood, you were always next in line. Don’t make me regret my decision.”

The tension could have been cut with a knife, but I held my tongue. This wasn’t the time or the place for a showdown.

Then a young brunette woman in a teeny tiny gold top, her tits almost spilling free, stepped through the side door with a small tray held aloft. I knew immediately it held a mirror with fine lines of cocaine, the rest of which we’d distribute to various dealers.

She bent and placed the tray on a small table, her white shorts barely covering her ass and her brown eyes wide as she took us in before she focused on me and said, “I’m here to satisfy your every craving.”

My stomach lurched and I glowered at my father. He’d set this up so that I’d succumb to not only the drugs, but sex too. He wanted me to screw over my wife before my marriage had even really begun.

I stepped toward the woman and clasped her chin, looking into her pupil filled eyes as her generous chest rose and fell sharply. She was higher than a kite and still clearly terrified. It was all too obvious she’d been lured by a substantial offer of money to entertain me. It was also pretty evident she was new to the escort business. “Thank you, but I don’t require your services.”

I dropped my hold on her as my brothers, Alessandro and Serafino stepped outside, joining us under the portico, the door shutting behind them with a decisive click.

I smiled coldly at the whore. “But I know my brothers will be happy to keep you company.”

She gasped, but she wasn’t my problem anymore. She’d chosen her fate. I turned my back on her even as Alessandro backed her up to the railing and twisted her around so that her ass was to his front. He growled low in his throat, completely unperturbed by his audience as he unbuttoned her shorts and shoved them and her thong down her legs.

Serafino joined me at the table as I inserted a coke straw up one nostril and pinched shut my other as I bent to snort the fine line of nose candy. Fuck. Yeah. I limited my use, I had to if I wanted to function at my best, but I needed this high, even if the once significant rush had dulled over the years.

Alessandro was still busy fucking the whore over the railing, my dad and Carlo avidly watching, when Serafino shoved back his shoulder-length hair and took a fresh straw. Bending low, he inhaled a line of the white substance, sniffed hard again, then closed his eyes before he straightened and exhaled heavily.

I sent him a tight smile. “You’re good?”

He nodded, then fondled his sizeable junk before nodding pointedly at the whore presently getting fucked good and hard by our brother. “Everything’s fucking sweet now, brother. But it’s about to get a whole lot sweeter.” He smirked. “Guessing you’re not screwing anyone tonight other than your wife?”

“Why would I? Sabrina is all I want.”

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