Page 15 of Bad Bishop

“He’s right. She must be wedded,” Achilles said dryly, ignoring Papa’s accusations.

I knew Luca and Enzo loved me. They always showed it in small brotherly ways. But Achilles took after my father. His heart was an iron fist clenched tight, always ready to deliver pain. It beat for power, money, and corruption. He had no more soul than the chess pieces sprawled on my father’s board.

“This needs to happen immediately. We can’t have people question the timeline,” Achilles added.

“And the baby?” Enzo flipped his pocketknife, cut-cut-cutting shallowly across his thumb to take the edge off.

“Sofia and I will take it.” Luca ran his knuckles over his jawline. “Or it can stay with Lila and some nannies. We can send Imma to live with her.”

Immacolata was the nanny who’d raised my brothers and me. She still lived and worked on our estate.

“But I’m not excited about the idea of Callaghan.” Luca stroked his angular jaw. “Enzo’s right. He’s a menace.”

“A menace who rules South Bronx and sits on a mountain of his enemies’ skulls. The man has no fear or morals. He’s a liability. A wild seed. We need to strike an alliance with the Irish.” Papa’s words were swift and final. “He’s my biggest headache right now. I need to nip it in the bud. This will tie our businesses with his. We’ll throw him some incentives, give him territory, and kill two birds with one stone.”

“Sei un coglione,” Mama snarled, rising to her feet. “He gave your daughter his eye.”

My life drained from my body.

Thiswas who they wanted me to marry?

The awful man without the eye who threatened to drown, chop, rape, and kill me?

“The shit are you talking about, Mama?” Achilles swung his entire body in her direction, scowling.

“It’s true.” She tilted her chin up, straightening her spine. “She was doing her little doodles on the fountain outside the night you brought that godawful creature into my house. He found her and gave her his eyeball. She was covered in his blood, her hair all wet from the water when I found her. This is how depraved the man is. Taunting this poor, innocent girl.”

“Uhm, and you didn’t think of—let’s see—telling us?” Enzo stared at her incredulously.

She hitched a shoulder up. “I didn’t think we’d have to see him again, and I didn’t want to trigger Lila. You know how delicate she is.”

Luca squinted. “And he didn’t rape her?”

“Well, no, but—”

“And he didn’tkillher?” Achilles frowned.

They made it sound like him sparing my life was a heroic act. I wanted to scream until my lungs caught fire.

Luca curved an eyebrow, contemplating. “Maybe he spared her because of her disabilities?”

Achilles and Enzo shot him disbelieving glares.

“Riiiight.” Enzo chuckled sarcastically. “Because he’s just that kind of stand-up guy.”

“He’s not the catch-and-release type.” Achilles scratched his jaw. “And he is not prone to mistakes. Something’s fishy.”

“Probably your breath,” Enzo suggested sunnily. “Have you been with any more of my exes recently?”

Sometimes my brothers said crude things I did not understand. This was one of those times.

“Maybe he decided to finish his business at Luca’s wedding,” Dad marveled.

“And this is fine with you?” Mama went red. “Marry her off to her rapist?”

“Tiernan Callaghan has grand aspirations. I’d rather work with him than against him. Lila will give birth as a married woman, and we’ll be able to put thatpazzoon a leash.”

“And if he abuses her?” Luca leaned a shoulder against the wall, a godly sculpture, arms crossed around his middle.