Mafia Monster's Forced Bride Read online

  If his father wanted a private word in another man’s house, then he knew without a doubt that something bad was about to happen, but he didn’t say so.

  He followed his father away from the building, near his car, and there was no one close by. Lucas clicked his tongue. “Tell me how things are going with Alex.”

  “She’s alive. There were no attacks today.”

  “Liam seems to be under the impression that at any moment, when Alex asks for it, he will seek to have this marriage annulled. Is that true?”

  Roman didn’t want to lie to his father.

  “For fuck’s sake, Roman, I saw those bloody sheets. An annulment would make you a mockery, and I would be laughed at. Our power, our reach, it would sever overnight.”

  “There’s no guarantee she’s a virgin,” he said.

  Lucas snorted. “Please, you think that woman in there is not a virgin? I have known Liam my whole life. I’ve had many dealings with him over the years, and I have also seen that little girl grow up into a beautiful woman. There is a reason I didn’t pursue the test. I knew she spoke the truth.”

  “But you’re … you don’t like her.”

  “I’m not used to a woman who can’t be controlled, Roman. Surely you can see that she is … different.”

  “Yes.”

  “Liam hasn’t trapped her in a life like we do. He allows her to be her own person, within his protection, and I know it makes her a subject of gossip in our family. Liam is a powerful person. I have watched him go from nothing to controlling the streets of the city, Roman. He is not a man to be insulted. The only weakness he has is that woman in that house. He will do everything for her, and if she is unhappy in this marriage with you, and seeks an annulment, then he will do it. Even if it means soaking the streets with blood. He will.”

  “We will fight him.”

  “Roman, I know you are a Greco. My blood runs in your veins, and I know we will put up a good fight with Liam, but I could never guarantee the outcome. Our men and our women would die just because you won’t make a young innocent woman fall in love with you.”

  “Do you want me to rape her?” Roman asked, trying not to show his anger, but it was difficult not to.

  “No. Of course not. I would have no choice but to let Liam handle you, and anyone who goes against Liam is never found again. You are set to take over one day. What I am telling you to do is get Alex to fall in love with you. By doing so, you’ll be able to bed her, and then any annulment cannot happen. Our families are united. We are strong apart, but together, we are unstoppable.”

  “You don’t think it makes us look weak, binding ourselves to Liam?”

  “No, it is the best and wisest decision we have made. Trust me on this.”

  Chapter Six

  Being seated at the dinner table with Lucas, her father, Roman, Antonio, Marlo, and Cash was the most surreal experience for Alex. She sat next to her father, while Lucas sat opposite him on the other end of the table. Roman was beside her father, next to her. Opposite were his three friends.

  Millie and a few of their wait staff brought out platters of food for them to serve themselves.

  “You have food prepared at home?” Lucas asked.

  “Yes, it has always been this way.”

  “And you don’t find that reckless?”

  Liam smiled at Millie, who was shooting dangers at Lucas. The man had just insulted her cooking.

  Alex wondered if Lucas had a death wish. She wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t do something awful, like not season his food.

  “I have found that if you have the right allies, make friends, and don’t fuck them over, they don’t want to poison you. Maybe you should try it. It beats all that crap they serve at restaurants.”

  “There is no way I would allow my family to eat at such … places.” Millie glared at him. “I’m watching you.”

  Lucas held his hands up. “I’m sorry. In my experience…”

  “We’ve had people die from poisoning. My little sister died because of it,” Roman said.

  “I had no idea,” Liam said. “I’m sorry.”

  “It was ten years ago, but still, you are right. I have too many enemies and certainly not enough friends.”

  Liam grabbed his glass. “Then let’s toast to new friendships and a future of peace.”

  Alex lifted her glass and joined in with the toast. There was no point in arguing with them.

  “How was Stuart?” Liam asked.

  “He’s not … the past couple of months have been hard on him.”

  “I know, but he must learn to adapt.”

  “I still think I could—”

  “No.” Liam slapped his palm on the side of the table.

  “Dad, please.”

  “That boy is not your responsibility. You are not going to take the time adopting him or having anything to do with him. That is final.”

  This was the only time they disagreed on something, and it sucked, big time. She stared down at her plate.

  Silence rang around the table.

  “Maybe I can be of some assistance,” Lucas asked.

  “My daughter found a kid. A sweet kid, but he’s not hers. She wanted to adopt him at eighteen. From personal experience, raising a kid is not easy. Besides, you now have a husband of your own. End of discussion.”

  Alex had never asked for anything. She’d never caused a problem. Never made waves. She’d been the perfect daughter to him. Gripping the edge of the chair, she tried to calm herself, to remove the tension building in her body, but it just kept threatening to get out. To expel.

  Anger flooded her body.

  They had started talking about their work, about business as if her life didn’t matter. As if what she wanted didn’t even register. She wasn’t asking for the latest gadget or something selfish. She wanted to help a little boy. Actually, she wanted to adopt all the children in the damn orphanage. When she was eighteen, she had even asked for a gift, the chance to do just that, but he’d refused.

  She slammed her hand on the table. “What would Mom say to you right now?” she asked, raising her voice to be heard.

  She looked toward her dad and saw the shock in his gaze. She had never questioned him, certainly not in front of business associates.

  “Alex, we will discuss this another time.”

  “Why not now? You’re treating me like I’m asking for the most impossible thing when all I am asking is to make a difference to children.”

  “Exactly, Alex. To children. Not to one kid. You want to help everyone, but not everyone can be helped. I am not going to allow you to throw your life away.”

  “But you’re quite happy to throw it away for me?” she asked.

  “Enough.”

  “No! No more enough. No more telling me to be quiet. I’m twenty-one years old, and I have already married a man I do not love, who cannot stand me. I have done everything you asked of me. I ask for this one thing, and you won’t even consider it.”

  “You were eighteen. Raising a child alone is not easy.”

  Tears filled her eyes. “And here was me thinking I wouldn’t be alone because I’d have my dad. Thanks a lot.” She shoved her chair back.

  “Alex, get back to this table.”

  “Screw you.” She had never spoken like this. Never felt like this.

  She kicked off her heels and stepped out toward the gardens, not even caring that it had started to rain. The night was still warm, but she was done being cooped up all day.

  With her heels gone, and the lights illuminating the garden, she took off, chasing away the anger building inside her.

  What more did he want from her? What did she have to give?

  She headed toward the back gardens. It had been years since she last came to the gardens, and only a couple of solar lights were working. Her father had built her a tree house. She used to love spending hours out in the yard, watching sunsets, reading books, doing a little hand sewing, and there was once a telescope, whi
ch had broken after a storm knocked it out of the tree house.

  Alex found the steps and climbed up, not caring that her feet were sore and she’d gotten a few cuts. Hauling herself up into the tree house, she groaned as there were cobwebs in the corner, but it looked the same, only smaller, seeing as she was bigger.

  The sound of rain hit the roof, and she left her feet dangling out. She just sat, trying to get as much protection as she could.

  Her dad was right. She didn’t know the full consequences of raising a kid, of doing it alone. He’d done it with her, but he always said it was a pleasure.

  Time passed, and finally, the rain subsided, but Alex didn’t want to go in and face her father. It was warm enough to stay outside.

  “Are you okay up there?”

  She looked out to see Roman standing on the ground, alone.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Well, it looks like I’m asking a girl if I can come and join her in … what is this?”

  “It’s a tree house. Didn’t you ever have one as a kid?”

  “Nope. None whatsoever. Can I come up?”

  There was enough room, so she nudged over, being careful not to disturb any cobwebs. “Come on up,” she said.

  He climbed into the tree house. The wood creaked beneath his weight, but as he sat down next to her, it settled.

  “Did my dad send you?”

  “No, he didn’t send me, but he did send this.” Roman held out some wrapped foil. “He said you’d know what it means.”

  Alex took the foil and opened it up, seeing a sandwich. It would be her father’s famous guilty cheese and pickle sandwich. She loved it.

  Her father rarely cooked, and he never set foot in the kitchen. Unless Millie was sick, or to cheer her up, he’d make her something.

  Picking up the sandwich, she took a bite and smiled.

  “Did your dad make this?”

  “Yes.”

  “It’s … great.”

  She laughed. “You should have seen it when he first put it together. It was amazing.” She missed those days. Spending hours playing out in the backyard, when her father had once said she’d be safe, protected, and loved. “What brings you out here?”

  “I don’t know, sitting in your room and reading your diary seems wrong with you outside.”

  “You shouldn’t be reading my diary. It’s an invasion of privacy.”

  “I know you don’t want to be married to me, but I think I speak for both of our parents when I say that it does have to happen,” Roman said.

  “You don’t like me,” Alex said. “I embarrass you.”

  “You’re … different, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like you.”

  “Please, you always look angry. I get it, I’m not like those beautiful women that are passed around your families.”

  Roman tapped his thigh. “It’s not an escort service. They don’t get passed around. Marriages form strong alliances. They build power and wealth.”

  “And they forget about love. Women don’t need to feel that, right?”

  “Love is never brought into the equation.”

  “Have a lot of successful marriages?” she asked.

  “Yes. We have zero divorce.”

  “Just unhappy marriages for the women?”

  “You’re infuriating.”

  “And I don’t want to be married to you, Roman. I don’t like you. I know you’re probably sleeping with a gazillion women, and this life isn’t for me.” There she had said it. After spending the day with Stuart and being back home, she had come to the decision she was going to ask for an annulment.

  This wasn’t going to work. It was doomed to fail right from the start.

  “I know what you want, Alex, and to be honest, I don’t know if I can give it to you. What I can do is offer a compromise.”

  “Don’t you want to be free?” she asked.

  “No one has ever asked for a divorce or even started proceedings.”

  “We won’t be getting a divorce.” Did she have to point that out to him as well?

  “You are determined to make a mockery of me, of everything our family built?” Roman asked.

  “I want to set us both free.”

  “And how many lives are you willing to take to get it?”

  “There will be no lives lost.”

  He chuckled, but it sounded forced. “You heard Liam. A future of peace. The moment you request an annulment, peace will be a thing of the past. It will be the fairy tale that mothers tell their children in the hope of helping them fall to sleep at night. War will rage, and no one, not us, or Liam, can guarantee who will win. We all have enemies. Your father’s are now ours, and our enemies are now your father’s. We are united by blood. By marriage. Take that away, and all that will remain is war.”

  “You’re lying.”

  “I’m not, Alex. Do you think I entered this marriage lightly? I did not. I know what is expected of me. One day, men and women will look toward me, not my father. I will be the Boss of the Greco outfit. It will be up to me to decide who lives and who dies. This unity is as fragile as fine china. If you want to end this marriage, then fine, but I hope you’re willing to deal with the consequences and their deaths. Yours, your father’s, Millie’s, Stuart’s, all those children’s. Anyone you loved, or have ever loved, strangers, could all end up dead because you want to be free. It’s not a cost I am willing to make.”

  ****

  Roman stood with Antonio, Marlo, and Cash in Liam’s backyard. His father and Liam were discussing Alex’s future.

  Running a hand down his face, he glanced up toward her bedroom window, and sure enough, he saw the woman who was driving him fucking crazy staring right back at him.

  “Did you convince her?” Antonio asked.

  “I have no idea.”

  “What’s the plan?” Cash asked.

  “Simple, I’ve got to make her fall in love with me. I have to bind this marriage, and then, I’ve got to get her pregnant.” His father had been clear. In fact, after his little exposé of what their annulled marriage would look like, his father had pulled him aside and warned him that his time was running out.

  Roman didn’t have the first clue of how he was going to make his wife fall in love with him. He didn’t know anything about her, and the few little bits of detail he did know was everything he’d learned in the past few days.

  “And what about our part in your plan?” Marlo asked. “Do you still want us to continue … pursuing her until you’re satisfied she’s a slut?”

  “Yes,” Roman said.

  “Don’t you think that is going to be a little counter-intuitive?” Cash asked. “Getting all three of us to get in her pants? To fuck her?”

  “The moment she caves, I will have all the proof I need,” Roman said.

  “The moment you fuck her, according to you, you’ll have the proof you need,” Marlo said.

  “If you don’t want the job, then I can find someone else.”

  Antonio groaned. “It’s not that we don’t want the job.”

  “We know what it means if we succeed,” this came from Cash.

  “If you see an opportunity to pursue her, go for it. I’m not going to stop you. The moment I know the truth, I can deal with it. It will put me and my father back in fucking control over this situation, and we don’t have to take orders for Smith. That’s the goal. Until then, I’ve got some work to do.”

  He squared his shoulders and made his way into the house. No one tried to stop him as he walked all the way up to her bedroom.

  Alex hadn’t stayed in the treehouse, which he had to admit was cool. His dad had only ever taught him about fighting, self-defense, and training. Learning to take pain. Ever since he was thirteen, he had lessons every single day where one of his father’s trusted soldiers would inflict pain. He had to withstand the pain, and not squeal, not cave in to the pressures. The moment he learned how to take pain, and his ability to withstand it increased, his father had t
hen given him permission to start trying to escape.

  Once he learned how to escape and fight back, he was able to prove himself worthy to his father. It was why he was always by his father’s side, and his little brother, Phillip, never got the chance.

  Even now, his brother struggled on a daily basis to earn his father’s respect, but then, Phillip was also ten years younger. Closer to Alex’s age, but also weak.

  Entering the bedroom, he found Alex sitting on the window ledge, book in hand.

  “It’s dangerous to be by the window,” he said.

  “My dad has guards everywhere. I’m protected here at all times.”

  “Insinuating that you’re not protected at my home.”

  She closed the book she’d been reading and tilted her head toward him. “Your soldiers are ordered to take care of you. My father orders his men to take care of his family. They’re loyal to him and to me. Your men will fight for you.”

  “And that’s a problem?”

  “No, I just know I’m more protected here than at your place. Besides, we both know your family and your world hates me.” She got to her feet, and Roman couldn’t help but notice the curvy shape of her legs.

  Alex was a curvy woman. The shorts she wore didn’t hide that, and with her sitting on the ledge, with her feet up, it had caused the fabric to ride up, exposing more of her body. Even though it had been raining earlier, the air was still warm, and she wore a tank top.

  One glance at her tits, and he saw she was indeed still wearing a bra. He had an overwhelming urge to feel her against him. To have her naked chest pressed against his and to touch her body. His dick ached.

  He wanted her so badly. The intense sensation took him off guard.

  “Did you mean what you said?” she asked.

  “What?”

  “Before you left. The war. The death. All of it, or were you just trying to scare me?” She held the book against her chest, and he wanted nothing more than to tear it right out of her arms and to pull her against him. She held her hand up when she took a step toward him. “I don’t want you to lie to me either. Just give me the truth, and give it to me straight.”