Page 12 of Brutal Devil

“His hands,” she says, rubbing her wrists, looking pale. “Are you going to cut them off? I would ask that you please don’t.”

She’s being protective of her father, and the knowledge kills me. He doesn’t deserve her loyalty or her love. At the first sign of trouble, he offered her as a sacrifice—and obviously without athought to her future plans. When I first signed on for this shit, I was expecting a bride who would marry me for the good of the families. To forge a truce, a bond. To build our strength, our wealth.

Instead, I’ve been given a wild woman who’s plotting all the ways she might kill me in my sleep. I know the signs. I’m no fool. This marriage bargain was sprung on her today. Without warning.

I’d expected better from Tomasso, but now, I can see that I was wrong. I’d given him far more benefit of the doubt than he deserved. Good thing I’ve got a room prepared at my penthouse for all occasions. I’m going to have to lock her in it until I figure out a plan.

“Priest,” she says, looking like death.

So serious, so pale, so still.

“Please don’t hurt him.”

My lip curls. Iwantto kill that motherfucker. I want to gut him like a fish. I should. And she should want me to do it—fuck, she should want to watch from a front-row seat. Doesn’t she know the shit he’s done? She has to. She’s his daughter.

“Don’t defend him,” I snap. “He’s not worthy of your concern.”

Or your anything, I add silently.

“He’s my father.”

“Your father who sold you to me,” I remind her harshly. “And you didn’t even know it, did you?”

She inhales sharply. What just went down was a complete surprise to her. No question.

I don’t like the idea of forcing an unwilling woman to marry me, but I don’t have a lot of options at this point. We need to play nice-ishwith Revello for now. Emphasis on the ish. We need to control him, to use him and his businesses. He’s like a bomb we just defused. If I don’t marry his daughter, the countdown is onuntil he detonates. His cancer isn’t that progressed. According to my intel, he’s got a few months in him, at least.

“What do you mean, he sold me to you?” She wants to know, her voice sharp as a blade.

“I have a contract with Daddy Dearest. We keep the peace. I get you.”

“You can’tgetme. I’m not some object you bought at auction to put on a shelf.”

I grin at her. “Baby, I’m not going to put you on a shelf. Trust me. I’ll put you against a wall, on a table, in the back seat of a car?—”

“You aren’t going to put me anywhere, asshole,” she snaps, interrupting.

I think about spanking her sassy ass. About my palm print, red on one of her bare cheeks. I wonder if she’d like it. I know I would. But this isn’t the time or the place.

We have the rest of our lives to figure out what works between us.

I hold her stare, meaning business. “You don’t interrupt me, sweetheart. Got that? And you don’t call me names. At least not in the presence of others.”

I jerk my chin toward Rocco.

“I’m not your sweetheart.Yougot that?”

I like her balls. She’s feisty, and it makes my dick rock fucking solid.

“You’re whatever I say you are,” I tell her. “Because you’re fucking mine.”

Yeah, I like the way that feels. I like knowing she belongs to me. I’ve claimed her. I’m keeping her. She’ll learn to like it. If she doesn’t…

Tough luck, as my father always used to say. This marriage isn’t about what either of us wants. It’s about what’s best for the Andrianis. It’s about uniting two warring families to make usstronger, wealthier, and more powerful than we’ve ever dreamed possible. But she doesn’t need to know any of that.

“I’m not yours,” she insists, like arguing with me is going to change anything for her. “This contract…I want to see it.”

Smart of her to ask.