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“I’m close to all my brothers, but Dom has a special place in my heart,” Kat agreed. “He’s been more like a father to me.”

Considering who Katarina’s real father was, even Maria’s cold soul shuddered at what it must have been like living in the same home with the deranged madman.

“When I think of Dom, a father figure doesn’t come to my mind.”

Katarina suddenly stopped what she was doing. “You really do like him, don’t you?”

“I think so,” Maria whispered, shocking herself. “Thinking about giving me a sisterly warning?” she asked, wondering if Kat approved, since they’d become good friends in a short amount of time.

“No.” Kat laughed. “I want Dom to be as happy as I am, and he looks it with you, Maria.”

That made Maria feel fuzzy inside, but she couldn’t help herself from asking, “Are you? You didn’t exactly pick out Drago on your own.”

“I didn’t, but I also knew Dom would never have let me marry him if he had any doubts about the type of man Drago was.”

Maria felt bad to say the next part. “Dominic didn’t have any more choice than you were given, Katarina.”

Kat gave her an assured look. “Dom is protecting all of us. If I didn’t marry Drago, then it would have put my other brothers in danger. He would never put one over the other. We all serve our family, and each of my brothers had paid their dues. By marrying Drago I paid mine. For the first time, I was given the opportunity to be a solution instead of a problem that had to be protected from Lucifer. Without Dom, I wouldn’t even be alive; Lucifer wanted soldiers. I was no more to him than an annoyance that often kept his best soldier too occupied. I lost count of the beatings Dom took for me, or Angel and Matthias anytime one of us set him off.”

“Nothing personal, but I’m glad he’s dead,” Maria said, trying to conceal the tightening in her chest from hearing Kat talk about her brother that way.

Slipping off the counter, a strange thought occurred to Maria. “Did Cassius … ever take beatings for you?”

“No,” Katarina told her after a few silent moments. “He didn’t.”

Seeing that she offered no more information, Maria quickly changed the subject but was sure to keep her voice down to a whisper in case the boys were about to come back in. “Can you tell me more about Dominic’s old westerns?”

Laughing, Kat wasn’t able to divulge any more information for her to scare Dom with about her old western knowledge.

“Good?” Maria asked Drago with a raised brow when the men walked back inside. She was offering him a truce … at least for the night.

“Good,” Drago accepted, clearly in a better mood than when he left, making Maria wonder what Dominic said.

While Drago helped his wife finish up, Dom volunteered to set the table, and when Maria went to help, he made her sit down, knowing she still had a hangover.

Ugh! Everything he did was making her contemplate saying fuck it and marrying him already. He’s right, there’s always divorce.

Sitting there, Maria didn’t miss the way Dominic questioned Katarina about her day and activities. Big brother was finding out for himself that Drago was taking care of Kat.

She watched Dominic take notice of Drago, measuring how relaxed he was and unconcerned about what Kat would disclose.

“Dinner’s ready. Everyone have a seat.” Kat proudly set a serving platter on the table.

It was then Maria realized that Katarina didn’t go through all this trouble to just cook for her husband; she went through all this trouble to make him happy. Like when Lucca did it for Chloe. Maria obviously preferred the societal roles to be reversed and to have a man in the kitchen, but she now understood. If Katarina was happy, then Maria was happy, and that meant so was Dominic.

Staring at the dish, she had to give Kat credit. It looked like a picture in a magazine. Maria sat next to Dominic at the table and waited for the men to attack the food, but when they looked at her, she realized they were letting her serve herself first.

Spooning a small portion of the parmesan chicken on her plate, she passed the platter to Dominic before she took a helping of the lemon rice.

Politely, she waited until everyone had filled their plates before she took a bite. Oh God, it was almost as bad as the ketchup eggs. She had to count to ten to give herself the courage to swallow.

“It’s delicious, Kat.”

Maria stared at Drago’s plate to make sure they were both eating the same food. Excuse m—

“I don’t know how you do it,” Dominic complimented. “It gets better every time you make it.”

The fuck? The food was so bad she guessed there was no place to go but up.