Page 27

CHAPTER

TWENTY-SEVEN

ADALYN

I n the days following the meeting with my family, a new wave of conflicts had begun in New York and some of Marco’s other territories. The cartel had been the instigators of some of them, and my father’s warnings were starting to ring true.

It appeared that the La Torre’s had another enemy poised on the horizon, and I couldn’t help feeling entirely responsible for it.

The niggling feeling of dread had since saturated my bones with fear and tirelessly kept me up at night.

That and the fact that in two weeks, I was set to become Mrs. Adalyn La Torre.

Marco had insisted we get married as soon as possible given the escalating conflict at our door, and I had no qualms in agreeing to it. I loved the man with everything I had and a small part of me hoped that once Ricardo knew we were married, he would disappear from our lives forever.

It turns out that two weeks was not a huge amount of time to plan a wedding for over three hundred people in Sicily. Though…by La Torre standards that was still considered a small wedding, according to Eliyana.

I spent most days on a long-distance call to Marco’s mother arranging it all. She was so ecstatic about the wedding that her enthusiasm was contagious, lifting the heaviness that had settled within me a little.

She had hired numerous wedding planners to take care of the preparations on their side of the Atlantic, leaving me with the less stressful role of picking my favorite colors and design elements I wanted to include.

Marco even involved himself in the preparations more than I had expected. He chose the evening entertainment, sorted suits for the men and attended the wedding cake tasting session the planners had arranged.

There was something oddly sexual about seeing a lethal, ruthless man tasting different flavored frosting with a handgun tucked into his trousers.

My mouth had watered, and it wasn’t from the decadent cakes before me.

“Everyone out!” He had shouted at the staff in the kitchen. “I need to have a word with my future wife.”

They had all scuttled like bugs under a log. Exiting the room in seconds. The doors shutting ominously behind them.

“You’ve been looking at me like you want to fuck me for over an hour,” he’d said sternly, unbuckling his trousers and my eyes tracked the movement viciously. “That’s really not appropriate with a room full of staff, is it?”

“No, it isn’t Don La Torre,” I responded submissively, moistening my lips as my stomach pooled with arousal.

“Now,” He started, freeing his erection from his trousers. “Bend over so I can lick frosting off your ass as I punish you.”

Then he did as he said, delivering my punishment swiftly and deliciously.

“This had better be fucking good.” I sighed and then shrieked as I stumbled forward.

Marco’s hand caught my arm, steadying me as I tentatively put one foot in front of the other.

I could feel the cold spring breeze against my face and knew we were somewhere outside, but where exactly I wasn’t sure. A blindfold obscured my view.

“Watch it, Ada.” He muttered before dropping his hold on the material over my eyes.

My mouth fell agape, and I gasped.

“What the fuck is that?”

A dark purple-mirrored paint-job reflected my stunned expression back to me.

“A car.” Marco offered sarcastically.

But it wasn’t just any car—it was a Lamborghini Aventador.

I balked as I took in the vehicle, parked pride of place on the driveway.

I took a step toward it, feeling that somehow the car was familiar…then it dawned on me.

I turned to him questioningly. “This is exactly like the car at the garage. The one I showed you on the phone.” I accused. My mind immediately cast back to the luxury vehicle I’d spotted at the car dealership and had shown him on a video call. This car looked exactly like the one I had jokingly asked him to buy me.

“It is the car you asked me buy you,” he chuckled, understanding my frown of confusion and answering my unspoken question.

“It was still for sale?” I was only half listening as I took in the beautiful vehicle.

It had been almost eight months since I— well, Marco —had bought the Brabus…

He didn’t answer for a moment, stepping forwards to look around the car.

“No, I bought it the day your Brabus arrived.”

Shock must have been evident on my face as he snickered in response.

“And why exactly would you buy your hostage a Lamborghini?” I questioned, skeptical that he was telling the truth. It didn’t make sense for him to have bought me the car all those months ago.

He shrugged simply. “You’d looked so happy when your car arrived, I guess I just wanted to be the reason you’d smile like that again.”

I smiled in sudden understanding. “That’s why I couldn’t park in the garage wasn’t it?”

He shot me a sheepish look and I laughed, wandering over to him and wrapping my hands around his waist. I pressed my face against his silken shirt until his smell of spice hit my nose.

I sighed in contentment. “I love it. Thank you, baby.”

The next day, I had auctioned off my Hellcat and donated the money to charity. There was no need for me to keep all three cars. Even as spoiled as I was, I didn’t need three cars on the driveway just for me to get to and from work.

Jesse and my usual parade of security guards had come with me that afternoon when I went to try on wedding dresses from a local designer. It was too short notice to have something custom made like Marco had wanted, but I was happy to have something simpler. My tastes had changed over the course of the last few months and perhaps the old me would have wanted a $10,000 bespoke dress by a renowned designer, but something about it just didn’t sit right anymore.

The ladies at the boutique couldn’t quite believe their eyes when the four of us piled into their tiny store and I snorted out a laugh as the hulking great big men were forced to share a dainty little sofa opposite the pedestal.

They had watched me try on various gowns one after the other all afternoon. Jesse had been enthusiastic enough, though his tastes were questionable at best…Tom had passed out cold after he’d eaten his way through half the finger sandwiches and drank most of the champagne. Thankfully, Alonso was the most helpful of the bunch and actually made some insightful suggestions.

I surveyed my reflection in the mirror, certain that I had found my wedding dress but also certain of something else too.

I walked out of the changing room and over to the pedestal, just as I had with the numerous dresses before. Jesse let out a low whistle and Alonso’s smile almost touched his ears.

I grinned excitedly at both of them. “I think this is the one.”

“You look bea—” Alonso began, but was quickly cut off by an exuberant and over the top Jesse shouting,

“ARE YOU SAYING YES TO THE DRESS?!”

Tom stirred and groaned, still half asleep. “Shut up , Jesse!”

I chuckled as Jesse reached behind the man and smacked him on the back of the head, jolting him awake. Tom’s gaze focused after another second, and he finally looked over at me, letting out a quiet ‘ wow’ .

The dress was stunning. It was a simple A-line dress, made of liquid white satin. A strapless modern corset allowed the material to hug my features, before fanning outwards at the waist into a simple skirt with a slit that rose up to my thigh. An elegant train fanned out behind me, rippling like water.

It was simple and elegant…and I had never looked so beautiful.

I looked over to the man that had become my closest friend over the course of the last few months.

“What, Bandit? You said it’s the one!” He enthused, standing and coming over to me.

I patted away a few stray tears and stepped down from the pedestal, enveloping Jesse in a hug. “It’s not that, I just figured something out is all.”

“That you’re…getting married?” He guessed and I felt him place a kiss on my head before pulling away.

I smiled, “It’s not that. For some time now I’ve been trying to think of some way to help other people.”

“Like your fundraiser?” He responded, retrieving a glass of champagne and bringing it over to me.

I took a small sip and nodded.

“I don’t want to just do a fundraiser, Jess. I want to help people who have gone through trauma or are at rock bottom. I want to give them a fresh start in life, like what Marco has given me.”

He eyed me skeptically a moment. “So…you’re going to kidnap addicts and hold them for ransom too?”

I smacked him on the arm playfully, unfazed by his obvious lack of enthusiasm.

“The Cosa Nostra has done its fair share of creating the drugs epidemic facing this country. It’s time that we do something to help some of the lives we have damaged and give back.”

Jesse’s seemed to contemplate my words for a moment longer before he nodded. “It’s a great idea.”

He took my glass and downed the rest of the contents as I headed back inside the changing room.

“Are you sure you don’t just want a horse or something?” He yelled through the door on the other side. “That would be so much easier to arrange!” He whined jokingly.

“Animal therapy? I love it! We can add it to our list of services,” I yelled back tauntingly, and he groaned in mock defeat.

When we had reached the house that afternoon, I spoke to Marco about the idea, and we’d somewhat refined the details. Surprisingly, it didn’t take much to get him onboard with the whole idea, and we agreed to sit down after the wedding to work out the logistics.

Suddenly, I couldn’t wait for the future.

Marco had held me in his arms as we stood on the terrace that evening.

We had come out to watch the sun dip behind the horizon, the spring air mild and fresh, his warmth keeping the slight chill at bay.

“You know I never thanked you, Marco, for this exceptional and beautiful life,” I murmured into the quiet as I looked out across the grounds of our home. “I know our world is not perfect, but I am glad to be here and to share it with you all the same.”

“It was far less exceptional and beautiful before you got here,” he remarked, brushing his nose against the shell of my ear. I felt him take a deep breath, his chest brushing my back.

“I don’t have many regrets in life, Ada, but I do regret that our love story was not more conventional . That you have had to see the bad parts of me more than any of the good…but I’m working on it.”

My heart fluttered in my chest.

“I don’t regret it.” I caressed the back of his hand with my fingers. “Our love story may not be conventional but that’s how I know it’s real.”