Page 37 of Nikola

And now these two oldies wanted to marry her off to someone else.

“Skye needs a good boy,” Sasha stated, directing his words at me. “She’s a good girl.”

I rolled my eyes. The only difference between a good girl and a bad girl was that good girls were selective about who they would be bad with.

“Skye will marry a sweet boy who won’t be a danger to her,” Dante drawled, his Italian accent bleeding into his words. “She’ll marry someone who’ll worship the ground she walks on and would give his life for her.”

She would be mine—I’d make sure of it. All I needed was patience and the discipline to toe the line, no matter how much I wanted to rush in.

I’d wait for the right moment, bide my time, and when the opportunity came, I wouldn’t let it slip through my fingers. Not exactly my fucking forte. I was better at wreaking havoc and violence. I’d learned it firsthand from my uncle. The results were instant.

Or maybe I just thrived on driving my father crazy. He wanted me to be just like him: responsible, reasonable, and worthy to lead the Nikolaev empire.

“We need something to trump Enrico’s suggestion,” Amon said, making his opinion known for the first time.

“Or… we kill him,” Uncle suggested. He definitely had my vote.

“Skye’s too vulnerable for the harshness of the underworld,” Dante reasoned. “I don’t want to risk any arrangement that will put her in harm’s way.”

I watched him closely. He meant every word. The irony wasn’t lost on me—how he saw me as the threat when all I’d ever done was go up against the real dangers lurking around her. I’d kill to keep her safe. The idea of anyone else dragging her into this world made my blood boil, but at the same time, I couldn’t let go. Not now. Not ever.

But I knew if I uttered those words, I’d not only alienate my uncle and Dante, but I’d also risk both of these men barring me any access to her. So, I remained silent.

“We agree to Skye and Amadeo’s arranged marriage but insist on a date far in the future,” Amon, ever the diplomat, recommended.

Something violent spread through my organs like a case of internal frostbite. My irrational side began speaking for me. “Maybe in the next lifetime, when he’s dead and gone.”

“Exactly,” Uncle Sasha agreed. Thankfully he and Dante were both too lost in their own fury about this marriage to notice my jealousy.

“I want Skye to enjoy her freedom,” Dante explained.

Maybe it was stupid, but I went for it again. “Ours could be a marriage only on paper. If she’ll remain in the mafia world, she’d be safer with the Nikolaev name attached to her.”

Uncle Sasha, Dante, and I stared at each other, and I knew the answer even before they uttered it.

A firm, final “Fuck no.”

Goddammit. I’d give her all the freedoms she wished for as long as she had my last name attached to her. I needed Skye, and I suspected she needed me too. But if I pushed too hard,I would risk her father and my uncle getting wind of my true feelings and killing me off. Besides, after witnessing Skye’s panic when handcuffed, I worried about her reaction to my kinkier tendencies. She was innocent and fragile, despite her brave and independent façade.

So for now, I let it go, but there was no way in fucking hell I’d let them take Skye away from me.

For better or worse, she was mine.

13

SKYE

My papa’s pristine office was a place surrounded by beautiful memories. I’d spent many hours with him in this room—sometimes in silence and other times discussing my worries, dreams, and nightmares. The latter usually revolved around losing the Nikolaevs as a family.

Children usually remembered big milestones and significant events, and I was no different. Except that the biggest event of my life had happened to me before I knew anything about the world.

I’d never forget the day I stepped foot in this castello when I was five. Or the first time I realized Papa would do anything to make me happy.

Muted rays trickled into my bedroom and I twirled around, thinking how much it looked like something out of a dream. My dream, maybe. Everywhere I looked I saw my favorite colors. Pink fairy lights twinkling from the ceiling, Disney princesses and Legos scattered everywhere. Pink and white drapes hanging on either side of the two great big windows.

When I first saw this room, I was so happy I bounced up and down, eager to explore every inch of it and my new home. In a way, the castello reminded me of Branka and Sasha’s home.

My chest got tight and I tapped it lightly.