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ELLIE

“I need my own damn place. Then I can find the fucking eggs for once.”

Summer laughs as she races through the kitchen, grabbing her purse on the way by. “That’s going to be the day hell freezes over.”

I snort, closing the fridge and turning to look at her. “One of these days, he’s going to have to let go of the reins and let all of us have our own damn lives.”

“Yeah, because that’s going to happen.” Summer rolls her eyes, sarcasm dripping from her tone. “You may as well consider yourself an old nun destined to live in the family home forever. I have.”

She smirks and takes off out the door, leaving me to wish for the millionth time that Aiden would give me some breathing room.

My wet hair is cold against my bare back as I move around the kitchen, slicing an avocado before looking for a rogue egg at the back of the fridge.

I pull down the hem of my camisole as it climbs up my stomach when I stand on my toes to dig through the top shelf of the fridge for the egg.

The steak sizzles the second it hits the pan, early morning sunlight streaming through the large kitchen window.

Humming along with the song on the radio, I prepare my breakfast, my stomach growling. I’m ravenous after what felt like the longest shift at the clinic ever. The steak and eggs I want can’t seem to cook fast enough.

“There you are.” I pluck the egg from behind the container of leftovers with Royce’s name on them.

Footsteps echo on the tile floor. “My thoughts exactly.”

The egg flies from my hands, but I catch it before it can crack on one of the butcher block countertops. “Jesus, Aiden. What the hell? I haven’t slept in like eighteen hours. You can’t just sneak up behind me like that.”

“I made plenty of noise coming down the hall.” He leans against the counter, smirking as he crosses his arms. “You barely spoke the other night after the attack. I wanted to make sure that you were fine.”

“I’m good. I just want to get some breakfast and then pass out. I don’t have to be at the clinic for another four days, and I plan on sleeping those days away.”

Aiden chuckles. “Before you become a mole person in your room, we need to talk about what will happen now, after the attack.”

“Nothing needs to come next.” I grab a bowl from the cupboard, cracking the egg on the side. “I have a job to do, and I know that you and the rest of the men are going to be looking for the Rinaldos, so if you think I’m going to sit at home and wait for something to happen, you’re wrong.”

“I’m not telling you that you need to sit at home.” Aiden clears his throat, his voice stern. “You need to start being more careful, though. I won’t have you attacked again.”

“He surprised me.” I whisk the eggs with a fork a little harder than necessary, splashing some of them onto the counter. “You don’t have to worry.”

“I’m going to worry. Someone attacked you and said they were going to slaughter the entire family. Something has to be done about it, which is why I’ve been talking to a few people.”

The tone in his voice has the hair on the back of my neck standing.

It’s the same voice he uses whenever he’s trying to hide something from the family—slightly higher pitched and tight.

Aiden is a good liar, except when he’s in the comfort of his own home and trying to lie to his siblings.

I wipe up the spilled egg before adding the rest to the pan with my steak slices. “I’ll take Kara with me when I go out.”

He doesn’t need to know that I was already planning on doing that.

With Noah Rinaldo and his men lurking around, I don’t want to be a sitting duck. I’ve spent too much of my life building a world for myself outside the mafia.

I don’t need him ruining it for me.

If the only way to protect that life is to take Kara with me, then I’ll do it.

“That’s still not good enough, Ellie, although you’re right. Kara will be with you whenever you leave this house from now on.” Aiden rakes a hand through his hair, glancing out the window as one of the guards passes by with a rifle slung over his shoulder. “We already spoke about you needing to make more sacrifices for this family.”

I stir the food in the frying pan, adding a sprinkle of cheese. My spine stiffens at his mention of doing more.

As if spending my days sewing up the idiots who work for him or get injured by his men isn’t enough.

“Aiden, I don’t have time for anything else on my plate.”

“Well, you’re going to have to make time. A couple hours at least.” His words are sharp, cutting through the room. “I’ve about had it with your defiance, Ellie. All I’m doing is asking one thing of you.”

I spin around, crossing my arms. “No. You keep asking for more and more things, and each time you say it’s only one thing. You keep tearing at all these little pieces of me until there’s nothing left, Aiden.”

His mouth pinches, his glare one that I’ve seen send men running in the opposite direction.

He may be the head of our family, but right now, he’s my brother and he’s pushing hard against my boundaries.

“When I told you that I wanted to go into nursing, you told me that I could step back from this life as long as I was willing to provide medical care to the family. Then you told me that I had to do more. That I had to get the clinic to look the other way when people came in. And I did that without complaint. And a million other tiny things that always stack up in the end.”

“Well, unfortunately for you, I may have phrased this as a conversation, maybe a request you could turn down, but it’s not.”

My knuckles are white as I grab the frying pan and dump my food onto my plate, even though my appetite is long gone. “Then what is this?”

Royce whistles to himself, hands stuffed deep in his pockets as he strides into the kitchen before coming to an abrupt stop. “Oh no, what are the two of you arguing about this time?”

Aiden sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “You’re not going to take her side in this and try to talk me down, Royce. It’s not happening this time.”

I glare at Aiden, grabbing a fork and stabbing it into a piece of steak. “What are you even trying to force me to do now?”

“I spoke to Sean and Malcolm.” Aiden stands taller, shooting a sharp look at Royce when he opens his mouth to say something.

I shove the steak into my mouth, chewing longer than necessary to avoid having to speak. It unnerves Aiden when I don’t answer him.

Right on command, he shifts his weight to one side. “Ellie, I don’t want to argue with you about this.”

In a quick flash, Royce’s hand darts out and snags some of the steak from my plate. “Are you sure you want to talk to her while she’s holding a pointy object? She’s likely to stab you with it.”

I brandish the fork at Royce. “That happened once and you’ve never let me forget it.”

“You stabbed me!” He tosses the last stolen piece of steak into his mouth before snatching another.

“And now look! You still haven’t learned not to eat food off my damn plate.” I snatch the plate and turn from him, picking at the avocado.

Even though I don’t want the food right now, I need it if I want my stomach to settle even a little bit.

Aiden speaking with Malcolm Andino is never a good thing. He’s remained friends with Sean over the years, but dealing with Malcolm is dealing with another beast entirely.

Malcolm has always been just as likely to kill you where you stand as he is to talk to you.

Royce’s eyebrows climb higher. “Why the hell would you talk to Malcolm? He has no interest in doing anything for anyone other than himself.”

Aiden stares at Royce like the answer should be obvious. “Our families have both existed in New York for a long time—relatively peacefully—and he has as much reason to hate the Rinaldos as we do.”

I put my plate to the side, giving up on eating. “Are you saying that Malcolm is going to work with you?”

“With us .” Aiden gestures to me and Royce. “We all have to be in this together. I’ll talk to Skyla, Summer, and Jade later, but I’m sure they’ll be on the same page.”

Alarm bells go off in my head. “The same page about what? You said that you were going to need me to do something. If that something overlaps with whatever you promised Malcolm, you can count me out. I’m not having anything to do with the Andinos.”

Royce runs a hand over his jaw. “What did you promise Malcolm?”

“He only agreed to work with us if there was something binding in place that would keep us from killing each other.”

My stomach twists into a tight knot. “What did you promise him, Aiden?”

Aiden sighs. “A marriage.”

I bite my cheek, bile rising in my throat. “Well, I hope you and Rebecca have a nice life together. Honestly, the two of you will make a great couple.”

“Ellie.” Aiden’s tone stops me dead in my tracks the second I spin to leave the room.

My heart plummets to my feet as I face him. “Tell me you didn’t.”

“I did what I had to do to protect the family and that’s what you’re going to do as well.”

The color drains from Royce’s face. “What did you do, Aiden?”

Aiden presses his fingers to his temple. “I’m going to need some bourbon to deal with this.”

My throat closes, heart hammering against my ribs. “You’re not the one getting married, are you?”

“Ellie, you have to understand that I wasn’t in a position to choose the terms. I was the one coming to him with my tail between my legs. We need his help.”

“So you promised that I would marry the spawn of Satan himself?” My voice rises, hands gripping the edge of the counter to keep myself steady. “You didn’t, Aiden. Tell me that you didn’t do that.”

Aiden’s jaw flexes. “You were the one Malcolm wanted. I did tell him that there was no way it was happening, but we need him, Ellie. We don’t have the numbers on our own to take on the Rinaldos.”

I step closer to him, nails digging into the palms of my hands. “You had no right to go out there and tell Malcolm I would marry Sean. No right at all.”

“I’m the head of this family. I had every right,” Aiden says, his voice booming through the kitchen as he steps into my space, forcing me to take a step back, hitting the cabinets. “You’ll do as you’re told, and you’ll marry Sean in three days.”

“You might be the head of this family, but you’re a bastard.” I put my hands on his chest, pushing him back a step.

Aiden raises his hand, and for a moment I see our father staring down at me. I see the cold look in his eyes, ambivalent to the damage he was about to deal.

Instead of cowering the way I once did, I stand taller, even though my legs feel like they’re going to collapse beneath me. “Go ahead, Aiden. Do it.”

His hand drops. “I’m not that man and we both know it, but you’re testing me, Ellie. You’re an adult and you know what this world is. It’s time you start acting like it.”

“It’s time you stop making decisions about who I’m going to marry!” I gesture to Royce. “Would you have done the same if Malcolm wanted him?”

“You’re damn right I would. If it’s for the good of the family and making sure we survive whatever shitstorm the Rinaldos are about to throw our way, then I’m willing to do whatever it takes.”

“Even handing your sister over to the man who killed our father.” I bite the inside of my cheek as tears prick at the corners of my eyes.

Aiden isn’t going to see me cry over this.

I take a shuddering breath, wishing that I had gone to bed when I got home instead of making myself some food. If I had, I wouldn’t be standing in the kitchen right now, talking to him about how the rest of my life is over.

Pulling myself up, I stand a little taller. “This was supposed to be the one thing in my life that you didn’t have a hand in. I was going to fall in love with someone and get married. We were going to be happy. Have an actual life together. Now, I have to marry a man I hate. I have to spend the rest of my life tied to him because it’s for the family.”

“Yes.” Aiden crosses his arms, looking down his nose at me with the same judgment our father used to. “You’ll do it for the family. You might even start to like Sean once you get to know him.”

“I’m never going to like the monster who killed our father. I was right there, Aiden! I watched Sean shoot him and that plays over and over again in my head every time you bring that bastard into this house.”

Royce clears his throat. “I think everyone just needs to take a step back. A breather before we start throwing punches and saying things we don’t mean to each other.”

Shaking my head, I slump against the counter. “I don’t have the energy to deal with you right now, Aiden. I lost a patient tonight. Not that you bothered to ask me how my shift went. You never do.”

“Do I look like I have time to sit here and talk about your day?” Aiden scoffs, hands falling to his sides as he rounds the island and heads for the doors that lead to the backyard. “You’re going to marry Sean whether you like it or not!”

He slams the door shut behind him, leaving me vibrating with anger.

I want to go after him and insist that this fight isn’t over, but I would never disrespect him in front of his men.

He may not see the need to treat me like I’m still his sister and not some pawn in his game, but I haven’t lost sight of the fact that he’s my brother. The men out there need to respect him and they’re not going to do that if his own family openly challenges him.

It doesn’t change the fact that I would love to charge out there and wring his neck right about now.

Royce sighs and crosses the room to me, pulling me into a tight hug. “Everything’s going to be okay. He loves you. You know he does. Nothing bad will happen to you.”

I lean into Royce’s embrace, the comforting scent of his sweet and spicy cologne wrapping around me. “I don’t know how to go through with this marriage. There has to be some way out of this.”

“You’ll go through with it because you have to.”

It hurts to swallow as I fight against the lump in my throat. “I can’t marry Sean. You have to see that. After everything he put our family through and the hell he’s put me through over the last sixteen years, I can’t.”

“The way he treats you has only made you stronger, Ellie.” Royce smooths a hand down my hair. “I know this isn’t fair and I should have killed him myself years ago, but this is the way life is now. We all have our crosses to bear, and this just happens to be yours.”

“Aiden might see some sense if you go talk to him.” I pull back and glance up at Royce, knowing my hope is misplaced but still daring to do so anyway.

With a slight shake of his head, those dreams of escaping the fate Aiden assigned me to disappear.

“Ellie, you know that he wouldn’t ask this of you if it wasn’t the only choice. Nobody wants to see you connected to Sean like that.”

“Sean shouldn’t still be in our lives. Aiden should’ve avenged Dad when he had the chance all those years ago.”

Royce smiles and snatches the last piece of steak from my plate. He and Sean were only twenty-two back then. Neither of them knew what they were doing. They spent their entire lives being friends until they were forced against each other. Someone was going to die; Dad just happened to be that someone.”

“Promise me that you’ll try to talk to Aiden? Please. Just get him to rethink this. I’ll marry Rebecca if I have to.”

He laughs and pulls me into another hug. “You don’t even like women, first of all. And second, we both know there is no going back on this. The deal has already been made and now everyone has to go along with the consequences.”

I nod and step out of his embrace, my body numb as I head for the stairs that lead to my room.

The first tear escapes as I enter my room and shut the door behind me.

My body slumps against the wood panel until I’m sitting on the hardwood floor, my head buried in my hands. Sobs rack my body as everything I’ve been holding back pours out.

I have to marry Sean Andino.

The man who killed my father.

The monster who spent years making my life miserable.

I’m not going to survive this marriage.