Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 77066 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77066 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
His lip twitches with the reference. He’s always been bitter about my betrothal to Alessio. It’s not that the man in front of me wants me, he just wants what he was promised. I could be anyone, and his hatred for not being promised would still be just as strong.
The second part of his words is the fact that Alessio doesn’t give a shit about my past being a promised possession. He doesn’t love me or have any concern for me past protecting me for the investment that I am.
“I’ll pack a bathing suit just in case,” I tell him, knowing full well we’ll never see the beach.
We could be in a five-star hotel overlooking the sand and surf, and they’ll keep me in the room with the curtains pulled back just to torture me.
I’ve never done anything to make them hate me. I’m compliant, doing everything they tell me to do, which I know will happen more than once just by the look in Marcello’s eyes as he licks his lips.
“I bet we can get some time away while Alessio takes care of business. Bring the red bikini.”
A shiver of terror and disgust races down my spine as he walks away. Marcello and Alessio haven’t put me on my back the way I’ve seen them do with countless women, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t both forced my head into their laps. Alessio, of course, doesn’t know what his brother gets up to with me while he’s working. I’m not foolish enough to tell him. Marcello likes to use it as a threat where I’m concerned, knowing I’ll be the one punished if the older Severino ever finds out.
I swallow down the bile threatening its way up my throat, only climbing out of bed to shower and dress after the door closes fully.
I think of Elio, wanting to curse him but knowing better than thinking of the dead in an ill way.
My brother, Elio, only ten months older than me, died years ago in a car accident less than a year after he was forced to prove his loyalty to the Severino family. I guess I should be grateful that he is unaware of the deal our father made with Lucian Severino after being caught smuggling merchandise from one of the warehouses he was responsible for running for the family.
Instead of ending up in Lake Michigan, a deal was struck, and although it involved my entire life, I wasn’t given a choice. My father was too much of a coward to choose death, but had I been given the option, I think I would’ve chosen differently.
Thinking of Elio makes me miss my mother. I blame my brother’s carelessness for her death. Dying of a broken heart at his loss was a year-long illness, but she’s in a much better place, despite me knowing she’d never stand up against the Severino family any more than I have.
Instead of thinking of the past I can’t change, I consider what traveling to Mexico means.
Although Lucian Severino is quick to hand out punishment to men that betray him, he stops short of making an example of his sons. They know this. It’s why they’ll go to Mexico and make deals with the various cartels in order to feed their business with drug money despite their dad being adamantly against it. The boys think their father is too old-school, that he isn’t willing to change with the times, and that includes getting involved in drugs because the whorehouse and guns aren’t enough to keep them relevant.
They’ve always been the type to ask their father for forgiveness rather than permission, but I know for a fact this is something Lucian has specifically told them not to do. The fallout from this could be terrible, and when their father punishes them, it increases the likelihood they’ll punish me.
Instead of thinking about what might happen, I let myself drift off to a fantasy land, one where I’m not vowed to a thirty-four-year-old man. One where I won’t be walking down the aisle at the young age of twenty-two.
These fantasies tangle with reality even in my head, cutting my shower short because I know the trouble I’ll be in if I make any of them wait.
Chapter 3
Hollis
I question my choice of drink for the third time as I lower the glass from my lips. I don’t know if the bartender just has a heavy hand or if I’ve triggered some need for the man to try and get me drunk with a single whiskey and Coke.
Monterrey, Mexico looks gorgeous in travel photos, the mountains a perfect backdrop for the modern-day mecca that it is, but people in the know are well aware of the things that hide in the shadows once the sun goes down.
The front of the bar I’m in is lit with neon signs, a warm welcome to anyone on the street, screaming in invitation. Yet, the bathroom is the place for coke deals and blow jobs performed by hookers after their pimps are handed the money. The back alley no doubt holds the silent secrets of at least one dead body that more than one person has stepped over without reporting.