Page 18 of Ruthless God

Andre hooked his arm around me, and I tensed. He shot me a hard look.

“Still so fucking skittish. Don’t fucking embarrass me, girl.”

I bit the inside of my cheek as all the memories of the hell I’d endured in his house came to the forefront of my mind. All the abuse, both physical and verbal, flashed over, much like a movie.

About that time he had slapped me until I fell onto the kitchen floor because he caught a boy talking to me during a family event, calling me a slut and telling me not to tarnish his family name. Both Mom and Lina had been present, and while Lina smiled, getting some sort of sadistic pleasure from seeing me hurt, it was Mom’s apathy that cut the deepest.

“You don’t have to worry about that. After today, I will no longer be a part of the Lombardi household.”

He tightened his grip on me, and I gritted my teeth to keep from crying out in pain.

“How brave you are, now that you’re marrying the Las Vegas beast.”

“Not brave,” I said, keeping my voice even. “I’m simply telling the truth.”

“You little bitch?—”

His voice was cut off when the music began, indicating the start of the wedding. I walked forward, forcing him to follow, else he would be left behind.

I looked at him sideways, finding the fake smile he plastered on, but the anger remained in his eyes, and I was petty enough to have some satisfaction from that.

I was about halfway down the aisle when the reality of my situation finally hit home. I might be able to escape Andre, but now I had a bigger monster to contend with. An unknown monster, and somehow, that just felt worse.

I avoided looking up at the front.

My eyes took in all the people in attendance. I didn’t recognize anyone from the groom’s side, and it wasn’t all that better from the bride’s side either. I was merely a daughter—a stepdaughter at that—which meant I was mostly kept away from thefamily business. I barely knew anyone in the Famiglia, and those I did know, I wished I didn’t.

Mom was sitting in front, her eyes wet and a bright smile on her face. What a great actress she was. Anyone who looked at her would think she truly cared about me.

I quickly looked away and up toward the front. Lina was my maid of honor. Like much of everything about this union, I didn’t have a say. Next to Lina was Massimo’s sister, Giulia. I had only met the woman once, the night before the wedding, when she finally made it here with her brother Matteo. She was like the female version of Massimo, but without the scars and roughness. She was much more delicate than I thought a mafia princess should look. Her green eyes were nearly identical to her brother’s, and they stood out in stark contrast to her beautiful tan skin, making them even more mesmerizing than I thought possible. I had felt less than standing next to her.

Another woman stood beside Giulia. I recognized her as Francesca, the eldest daughter of one of Emilio’s capos.

I wasn’t close with her, but since Massimo had his three brothers up with him as his groomsmen, they wanted to make it look more balanced, so I had three women on my side as well, two of whom I didn’t know very well, and one whom I would have preferred not show up to the wedding at all.

My cheeks tightened from both embarrassment and pain.

How sad was this?

I blinked and took in Massimo’s brothers. They were all handsome, tall, and powerful-looking. Elio and Romeo looked the most alike, while Matteo was a beautiful mix of all hissiblings. Definitely the most carefree, or at least, what he portrayed to other people, the most charming, and from all the rumors, quite the player.

When he caught my eye, he smiled and winked at me. I quickly looked away, then shifted my gaze to Massimo and stayed on him. He was looking right at me, his face giving nothing away.

He could be attending an important meeting, or he could be bored out of his mind, or he could be attending a funeral. With about as much emotion as he was displaying, any of those were possible.

My eyes moved down to his lips on their own accord, and I thought back to our kiss. My skin flushed hotter at the memory, and I hoped the makeup did its job and didn’t show too much.

Finally, we were there.

Massimo reached and took me from Andre’s arms without waiting for the other man to say anything.

If Andre felt disrespected over the display, I couldn’t tell, mostly because there was this roaring in my ears that had blocked out most of the noise.

Massimo held me close and turned me to face him as the ceremony began.

I let my gaze stray down to his nose and held it there, so sure his eyes would have the power to undo me completely, and that was the last thing I wanted or needed.

We exchanged the rings, and I did well moving along and pretending I wasn’t on the verge of freaking out. I nearly dropped Massimo’s ring when I grabbed his hand to put it on, only to see how much bigger they were compared to mine. How much damage they could do. He could easily wrap them around my neck and squeeze until…