Arranged Mafia Marriage

Christian

“Aurora!” My heart slams into my rib cage. My pulse ratchets up. I race in the direction of the scream. Seb is hot on my heels, and my other brothers are behind him. I run through the bushes and burst into a clearing on the grounds of the property.

I see Aurora with her back turned to me. A man stands with his gun pointed at her; the lower half of his face is covered with a mask. It’s the same man who shot me at the lodge. Theresa stands frozen in between them.

I slow down, and he turns to glance at me. That’s when I notice his arm is in a sling. A fierce surge of satisfaction grips me. At least, I managed to shoot the bastard.

“Porca puttana!” Motherfucker! I curl my fingers into fists. The man glances in my direction. His blue eyes are so light, so pale, so familiar. For the first time, I take in his figure, his height, the breadth of his shoulders, the way he holds himself. He reminds me of someone, but who? I take a step forward, and he shakes his head, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

I pause; next to me, Seb shuffles his weight from foot to foot. Massimo flanks me on my other side. Anger radiates off of him. I sense Michael, Luca, and Adrian behind me. None of them move. The tension in the air ratchets up.

Theresa draws in a shuddering breath, and the stranger jerks his gaze in her direction. He glares at her, and she pales. “D-don’t hurt us,” she pleads.

“Put your arms up,” he growls at her.

“Excuse me?” She blinks.

“Put your arms up, or I’ll shoot her.” He waves his gun in Aurora’s direction, and anger thuds at my temples. How dare he point a gun at her. How dare he threaten her? How dare he intimidate what’s mine? My muscles tense, my stomach muscles knot, and I must make a noise, for he turns on me. “That goes for the rest of you, too; raise your hands.”

I draw in a breath, then slowly do as he asks.

Next to me, Seb, then Massimo, follow suit.

“You too, Don Sovrano,” he scowls at Michael, “do as I say.”

I sense Michael hesitate, then he says, “I’ll do as you ask; just don’t hurt her.”

“That’s up to her husband, isn’t it?”

“What the fuck do you want?” I growl. “Why are you here?”

“Not to attend your wedding,” he says in a hard voice, “and it’s too bad that I am going to have to make your wife a widow so soon, but-”

“No!” Aurora closes the distance between them until his gun is poised against her forehead. “Don’t hurt him,” she says in a low voice. “I’m the one who did not stick to my side of the bargain. I’m the one you should be punishing; not him.”

“Bargain?” I stiffen.

“She didn’t tell you about our bargain, eh?” The man laughs. “She didn’t come clean to her new husband about how she wanted him killed.”

Aurora inhales sharply. “You’re lying,” she says in a low voice. “Why are you lying to him?”

Around me, my brothers seem to turn to stone. Massimo’s big shoulders flex. Seb curls his fingers into fists.

If I turn, I know I’ll see similar reactions from the rest of my brothers too.

“What the hell is he talking about?” Michael asks in a low voice.

“Christian,” she half-turns, so her face is in profile, “he’s lying.”

I glance between the two of them. It can’t be true, can it? Aurora wouldn’t want me killed. She isn’t capable of such a thing. On the other hand, she does come from a Mafia background, so perhaps, there’s a part of her that did want me gone? If I were in her place, wouldn’t I have done something similar to protect myself?

I glare at the stranger. “I don’t believe you,” I say flatly.

His lips curve. “You poor devil, you… Being taken for a ride by a woman and not even being aware of it.”

“Christian,” she pleads, “it’s not what it sounds like; you have to believe me.”

“So they all say.” The stranger rolls his shoulders. “Nothing changes the fact that she came to an arrangement with me.”

“What did she want?” I clear my throat. Don’t engage with him. He’s only trying to provoke you into making a mistake. Fuck, if I don’t know that, so why the hell am I encouraging him to speak? Why don’t I shut him down? “What was it?” I snarl.

“Your life.”

I stiffen; the anger pours off of my brothers. Their gazes hone in on her… On my wife…who has eyes only for me.

“Christian,” she says in a low voice, “please, please give me a chance to explain what happened.”

I want to do so. I want to tell her that it’s okay. That I understand that she made a mistake. That it doesn’t matter what negotiations she had made. That all of that is in the past. Now, the future, that’s what I need to focus on.

“So you deny that you asked him to kill me?”

I don’t dare look at her. If I do, I won’t be able to go through with this. Do I want to go through with this? Why am I putting her through this? She’s your wife, for fuck’s sake. Can’t you at least have this conversation in private? Why are you insulting her in front of everyone else?C0pyright © 2024 Nôv)(elDrama.Org.

“Do you?” I clear my throat, “Answer the question.”

“I asked him to distract you. I told him I needed him to do something to get your attention off of me so I could escape from you.”

I stiffen. “So you did come to an understanding with him?”

“Yes, but it’s not what it seems, Christian.”

“Oh?” I narrow my gaze on her. “I’m not sure I believe you, Aurora.”

“What the fuck are you doing?” Massimo asks in a low voice.

“This is not the place for this conversation,” Seb adds.

“Christian,” Michael growls, “are you trying to get us all killed?”

No, just me. Why the hell does my heart feel like it is breaking in half. Why does my chest feel so heavy? I try to draw in a breath, and my lungs burn. “Aurora,” I say through gritted teeth, “answer the fucking question, you-”

“Yes,” she bursts out. “Yes, I did. What else was I supposed to do? You all but kidnapped me and held me captive and threatened to kill my family.”

“I saved your life by doing that.”

“Did you?” She swallows. “You’re no better than…than him in what you did, and you know it.”

Anger grips me; the band around my chest tightens. The blood pounds at my temples, and my vision tunnels. “You dare compare me to him?” I take a step forward, and that’s when he swerves his gun in my direction.

Something… Someone moves in the shadows of the tree line beyond him. The glint of metal catches my attention. My gaze widens.

Something in my stance must alert the man in the mask because he swerves around, gun in hand, and fires.

The sound echoes through the trees, and a flock of birds takes off into the air, squawking. There’s a returning c-r-a-c-k as the person in the shadow of the tree line returns fire. The stranger in the mask moves so fast that he blurs. He steps in front of Theresa, and his entire body seems to shudder. He stumbles back, raises his gun, and fires again. Then he collapses to the ground.

“Oh, my god,” Theresa screams. She drops to her knees in front of the fallen stranger, even as Seb, Adrian, and Massimo race past her and in the direction of the man who had fired at us.

Aurora turns toward me; her features are pale, her eyes huge in her face. “Christian,” she wrings her hands together, “Christian, I am so sorry.”

I close the distance between us, then walk past her and toward the sobbing Theresa. I kneel down next to the stranger, take in the blood flowing from a wound at his temple.

I pull off his mask. My breath catches in my throat, and my head spins. My heart beats so fast in my chest that I’m sure it’s going to break out of my ribcage.

“It can’t be,” I whisper. “No way. This is not possible.”