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  Daniel looked at her. “You don’t want to get married?”

  She smiled. “Someday I do. I’d love to be married, and have a couple of kids, but I don’t want this kind of wedding. Something that has been written down on some paper with the knowledge that it would bring two families together.” She shrugged. “I guess I just want to be a normal person. Didn’t you want to be that before you became this?”

  He shook his head. “All I’ve ever known is the Solano way. I will take over, and the blood will be on my hands.”

  She shivered.

  He gripped the lapels of the jacket and closed it around her. “We should get inside. I don’t want to be accused of killing you.”

  She chuckled. “There’s a long list of people trying.”

  He shook his head. “That’s not funny.”

  “What you need to do is find the funny in it.”

  Chapter Three

  A few days later Daniel sat in Alfie’s office. Alfie’s sons and closest family were there, all men of course. Daniel’s own family was there, along with Vincent and Ronnie. He tapped his fingers on the arm of his chair as he listened to the details of the upcoming marriage. The binding contract, what would become his by joining their two families together.

  In the back of his mind, he couldn’t get Natalie out of his head. This weekend, he’d found every single opportunity to be with her. He found her smile refreshing. Her wit left a lot to be desired, but she was funny. She made him laugh, and there wasn’t any falseness to her. Fashion or gossip were the last things she ever talked about.

  She also tried to constantly sing Louisa’s praises, and he noticed she kept him away from Ben, the soldier screwing Louisa.

  Not only had he been watching Natalie though, he saw the soldiers were all nice to her. No one had a bad word to say about her, and for him, that meant something. She didn’t flirt, tease, or tantalize them. Whereas he’d watched Louisa, and she showed off her body in a way that was taunting them. They couldn’t have her.

  Natalie stirred him.

  Louisa left him cold.

  There was no way in hell that he was going to marry that bitch.

  “No,” Daniel said, drawing all the men’s gazes to him.

  “Excuse me,” Alfie said.

  “I’m not marrying Louisa Valenti.”

  There was silence, and then chaos as both men faced off with each other.

  Daniel saw the impending war if he didn’t marry the Valenti girl, but he couldn’t put his name to such a woman. Natalie, however, she was another thing.

  “I want Natalie,” he said, speaking up.

  Both of his friends were staring at him. They had seen his interest and they’d even spoke about it, but they told him it was useless to want someone who would never want him.

  He didn’t care.

  Natalie was his. Every time he was with her, he felt her inside him, and there was no way in hell that he was going to ever let that go.

  “Natalie’s not on offer,” Alfie said.

  “This is a contract, Alfie. My son for one of your daughters, and you have two.”

  “It has been agreed that Louisa will be that girl,” Alfie said.

  “Louisa is fucking every single soldier you have guarding her,” Daniel said. “It’s pathetic, and I’m not taking a wife like that. You want to insult the Solano name, and insist I marry her, then we’ll leave here with the start of a war, but it will be known that Valenti is the cause. Not us.”

  He was playing with fire. Before they even left the house, Alfie Valenti could kill them all, but again, he wouldn’t live long to embrace the victory. There would be trouble no matter what, and vengeance would rain on the city. No, he’d be foolish to even think of trying something like that.

  “Natalie is not part of this lifestyle.”

  “Her name is Valenti. She’s your daughter, and she’s who I want. Louisa is a slut. If you didn’t want to parade your daughters in front of me, Valenti, you shouldn’t have invited her for Thanksgiving.”

  He saw Natalie’s brothers were shocked. Clearly, they hadn’t anticipated Natalie capturing anyone’s attention. They had underestimated her pull.

  “Is this going to be a problem, Alfie?” Frank asked.

  “No. You’re going to have to give me time. Natalie and I have an agreement—”

  “She’s a woman. She’ll learn to fall in line. I’m not leaving here without this agreement signed and sealed, and a date arranged,” Frank said.

  Alfie stared at both men. He looked a little pale, and Daniel saw his love for Natalie. “Go and get Natalie,” he said, looking toward one of the soldiers at the door.

  No one spoke as they all waited for Natalie to arrive.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Vincent asked, leaning in close.

  “What I want,” Daniel said. They were used to their father telling them what to do, and how to live their lives. He was done playing that game. He was more than happy to marry. At thirty years old, he’d done all the playing around he needed to do, and now he wanted to move on. Starting a family didn’t sound like a bad idea. When he imagined Natalie swollen with his child or running around the garden with a little boy or girl, it filled him with so much pride. No one had ever made him feel this way.

  Natalie was special, and there was no way in hell that he was going to let her go.

  The door opened, and he turned to see Natalie enter with a smile. She’d been chatting with the guard, completely unaware of what was about to happen.

  The apron she wore was completely covered in flour, and there was some chocolate on her cheek, and her hair had other white powder in it. He didn’t know what it was, but she looked utterly adorable.

  When she saw all the men the smile on her face dropped. She wasn’t an idiot, and he saw that.

  “Hey, Dad,” she said.

  Her brothers were smirking, and Daniel wanted to protect her from their cruelty. This family, if it wasn’t for the love he saw on Alfie’s face, he’d happily start a war and slaughter them all in the name of Natalie.

  As it was, Alfie looked ready to throw up, which was saying a lot.

  After a few seconds, it fell away, and Alfie got his shit together, staring at his daughter. “You’re to be married to Daniel,” Alfie said.

  “What?”

  “You heard me.”

  “No, no, he’s marrying Louisa. Would you like me to go and get her?”

  “He doesn’t want Louisa. It’s you he wants.”

  Her gaze went to him, and he saw the fear there. She needed to be taught how to keep her emotions in check. People would walk all over her if she let them, and he had a feeling she did, often.

  She shook her head. “No. You promised. We had an agreement, and you promised. I’m not a Valenti.” Tears filled her eyes.

  “This is the way it has to be. You and Daniel will be married. You will stop this ridiculousness, and you will become a Valenti bride.” Alfie turned his attention to him. “Sign!”

  Daniel stood, signing his name at the bottom of the contract.

  Alfie turned to look at Natalie. “Sign it.”

  “No! You can’t make me.”

  Alfie looked toward one of her brothers. They suddenly left.

  “Natalie, this is not a bad thing.”

  “We agreed,” she said. “I asked you how I could get out of this, and since I was sixteen years old, I’ve been working for my living, and pulling away from the Valenti. I’ve done everything you’ve asked, and now you’re taking it all away.”

  The tears stayed in her eyes, but he saw how hard it was for her. He felt so sorry for her, but Daniel knew he’d get her in the end. She’d be his wife, and he intended to treat her with love and respect, which was more than she’d get from a lot of men.

  Her assumed name didn’t matter. People would find out the truth, and then she’d end up dead.

  The door to the office opened, and they pulled in Mary, the cook. The brother had a gun pointed at M
ary’s head, and Natalie gasped, going toward them.

  “I will shoot her,” her brother said. “Sign the damn paper.”

  “Mary?” Natalie asked. She shook her head. “I don’t want to.”

  “It’s okay, child.”

  Natalie’s tears finally fell down, and she gasped on a sob. Pushing past everyone, she went to the desk and signed her name. “Let her go.” She threw the pen down onto the desk.

  The brother let Mary go, and Natalie rushed toward her friend.

  She wouldn’t look at any of them, and without a word, she left. She didn’t even look toward her father.

  Daniel didn’t like the pain he saw on her face.

  “Did you have to do that?” Daniel asked.

  “Get over yourself,” the brother said. “Natalie thinks she’s too good for everyone. It’s about time she was taught a lesson.”

  Daniel glared at him.

  “This is done,” Alfie said.

  “Friday,” Daniel said.

  “What?”

  “That’s when I want all the arrangements made. This Friday, Natalie will be my wife, and we’ll even have the wedding here. I don’t think she’s going to be so agreeable to a church wedding.”

  With that, he stood, leaving the room. Vincent and Ronnie flanked him.

  “You took a risk in there,” Ronnie said.

  “Yeah, well, I’ve got what I want.”

  “You really want the girl or are you just fucking around?” Vincent asked.

  “I want Natalie. She’s going to be mine.”

  There’s no way he could settle for second-best. He wanted Natalie, every single part of her from her sexy curves to her wonderful mind. He’d claim and take everything that she was. If she’d not turned up for Thanksgiving, this would have gone a lot differently.

  ****

  Natalie couldn’t remember crying so much in her life. No matter what Mary said to try to console her, the pain just kept coming back. She’d refused her father’s invitation to not only join him for dinner but also to see him at all. She wanted nothing to do with him. He wasn’t her family.

  They’d had an agreement, and for business, he’d completely broken it.

  Like her mother, who took a great deal of glee in what happened, said, she was just a woman, and in this world, she had no place. She was merely a pawn to be used, and that hurt more than anything else.

  She was more than aware of what her family was capable of. Staring out of the window on the day of her wedding, she saw all the people getting ready. Her sister had already stopped by, smirking as she did, and said that if she tried to upset anyone, Mary would be dead. They were using Mary to make her conform.

  Gripping the curtain, she wanted to scream, to curse, to do anything that would get her out of this.

  Killing herself would get her out of what was about to happen, but she … couldn’t do that.

  She didn’t want to die.

  There was a soft knock on the door, and she didn’t even bother to tell them to come in.

  Glancing over her shoulder, she saw her father enter the room.

  She couldn’t look at him without feeling betrayed. No one else was in the room with her. She didn’t have any bridesmaids, unless they counted her sister, who had appointed herself in that role. She didn’t want anyone around her.

  “Natalie…”

  “You know, I could take the hatred from my brothers and Louisa. I could even handle Mom’s utter contempt for me. I still don’t know what I did wrong really. From what I can gather, she hated me before I even left the womb, so not a lot working there. Why?” she asked, looking toward him.

  “It’s business, Natalie.”

  She scoffed and gripped the curtain harder. “This is not business. I begged you not to bring me into this, and yet, here I am. On my wedding day with a man I don’t know. I don’t love him.”

  “Love is overrated.”

  “You never loved Mom?”

  “Nope. I still don’t. Haven’t you ever wondered why your mother tried to kill you? She didn’t want to be my wife, and I didn’t want her. She planned to get rid of you, did you know that? I stopped her. Made sure that she couldn’t take matters into her own hands. Forced her on bed rest, ’round the clock security, I even had to force feed her. There was no way I was going to let her kill something that belonged to me, and you’re my daughter, Natalie. I should have known you were going to be different. You always have been. I had every intention of keeping our deal.” He stepped up toward her. “Daniel is a good man. He will do everything to protect you.”

  “No, you see him as a good man because you can’t stand the thought that you could be giving me to a monster. I don’t need protecting from anything.” She’d seen some of these “good men,” and also the bruises that their wives tried to hide when there was a big party or something.

  She placed a hand to her stomach.

  Sickness kept sweeping through her, and it was scary.

  It had been a long time since she was so scared.

  “Honey, I would never give you to a man that is known to hurt women. Daniel isn’t known for that. He’s part of this life, I grant you, but he’s not someone who hurts people for the fun of it. This is to stop a war.”

  “Marriage stops wars?”

  “Yes. It keeps us all in line.”

  “Is that why you married Mom?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  There was no hesitation. “Did you ever love her?”

  “No. I’m not like Daniel though, Natalie. He will learn to love you.”

  “I don’t want to do this,” she said. Tears built once again. She shook her head, refusing to let them fall. She wouldn’t cry. Not now. Not ever.

  Her father gripped her shoulders and pulled her against him. She went this time, not fighting him. What was the point? He’d win. The life she had planned, or at least hoped for, she realized was a dream. Her father would have never allowed it. He probably had something set up to keep her safe or some plan that kept her within the family. Her father always had a reason for doing everything.

  “It’s time for us to go down.”

  Even though she didn’t want to go, and all she wanted to do was fight him, she didn’t. She walked down to where her sister waited for her. The smug look on her face was almost too much.

  Louisa had been basking in telling her exactly what she’d be involved with this evening. The lovemaking.

  Natalie figured she’d let her sister have her fun, even though she knew every single word coming out of her mouth was a lie. Women didn’t bleed profusely on the first time. There was a chance that Daniel would hold her down, and take what he wanted, but she didn’t know.

  Everything else, the searing pain that felt like fire, she knew was bullshit. Not only had she read up on it, but she had also checked some videos online. Yep, to help her this evening, she’d watched some porn, and while some stuff had been exceedingly disturbing, some hadn’t.

  Still, she didn’t know what to expect from Daniel tonight.

  She’d live through it.

  She’d been able to live through her mother’s attempts on her life, so she’d be able to live through pretty much everything else.

  Louisa took the lead, heading toward the altar that had been set up.

  She hadn’t looked there yet, as she was too afraid. Biting her lip, she ran a hand down the front of her dress. Her heart raced.

  “I love you, Natalie. Please, never forget that,” Alfie said.

  Holding onto his hand, she finally lifted her head. Both of their families were there on either side of the aisle.

  The wedding song came on, and slowly, too slowly, she was walked down the aisle. When she couldn’t stand to look at the family and friends, she turned her attention to Daniel. He stood waiting for her.

  His blue gaze captured hers, and for a few seconds, she felt completely lost. He seemed to ground her, and everything felt amazing. A rush ran through her, and as he smiled at her, s
he couldn’t help smiling back.

  This was utterly crazy, and yet, she didn’t fight it. She went with it.

  Her father placed her hand in Daniel’s, and he led her toward the priest.

  Staring down at their joined hands, she couldn’t believe this was happening. Part of her wanted to run away, to scream for help.

  No one would come, and so before their two families, she married Daniel. The next man in line to take over the Solano name.

  When it came to the part of him kissing her, she had a little panic attack. Mary had trained her well, so instead of pulling away and screaming, she held herself still as he placed his lips against hers. His hand sank into her hair, and within seconds, she found herself responding to the pressure of his kiss.

  It felt … good. So good.

  He pulled away, and she heard clapping. People were happy to see them together. Daniel kept hold of her hand as they made their way toward the man with the camera. Of course, everything went off without a hitch. They had pictures to be taken.

  “You don’t have to keep on holding me,” she said.

  “I’m going to keep on holding you for the rest of my life, baby,” he said.

  “Why?” she asked, looking up at him. No one was around, so they couldn’t hear either of them talking. For a few blissful moments, they were alone.

  “Why what?”

  “Why me? Why didn’t you pick Louisa? She’s beautiful, and knew the score of what was expected of her.”

  He cupped her cheek, tilting her head back. His thumb lightly stroked, and she didn’t like how easy it seemed to be distracting her.

  “I didn’t want her. I’m not here to have a woman who thinks of nothing but clothes and gossip. I like you, Natalie, and you may not think this, but I’m going to give you an amazing life.”

  She didn’t say anything.

  From the cameras, they were led toward the small feast. She couldn’t believe how fast everything was set up. Selling off a daughter was clearly a regular feature in the mafia. She’d known it happened often, but still, she couldn’t believe that she was the one that ended up sitting in this seat.

  When the time came for them to have the first dance, she tried to pull away, but he wouldn’t let her. Daniel was determined for her to keep doing every single step. By the end of the night, she’d learned they were no longer staying at her parents’ house for their wedding night, which was news to her.