Page 106 of The Mafia's Bride

His beautiful eyes roll back, and he falls, unconscious.

Dom tsks lightly. “See? Easy.”

That flicker of rage grows to a damned inferno.

42

SLOANE

Dom moves Lex to the far corner, like a discarded toy. He grabs the poker, pushing it deeper into the flames. I don’t take my eyes off Lex’s chest, counting his breaths. I need to make sure he’s okay.

I would not let him die now.

Movement to the left has me glancing to the front entryway. There’s a ripple of a shadow and a body emerges. Nico, cane in hand, walks into the family room, back straight and head held high.

He scans me once and smiles softly, though I can see fury in his dark eyes.

Nico is frail, older. The cancer is slowly killing his body and yet he’s here.For me.

Dom stops short, glaring at his father. Nico sighs, as if his disappointing child just drew all over the walls.

“Is Lex alive, son?”

Dom rolls his eyes. “For now.” He waves the blazing red poker in the air. Vaguely, the end looks like a D in iron scrollwork.

It’d be pretty, the glowing tip a contrast to the black, if it wasn’t too close to my face for comfort. The heat sizzles, popping against the cool air, and I jump.

“Do you remember, Papa, when the De Luca men would brand their women?”

Nico goes oddly still.

I tilt my head, looking into Dom’s face as a deeper fear snakes down my back. My whole body locks up and I have to fight the urge to freeze in the face of this danger. This is not the time to shut down.

“I do,” Nico replies, hands crossing over his cane. He puts all his weight on it. “It was forbidden by my great-uncle.”

“Stupid, really.” Dom turns toward me. He shows me the end.Yep. Definitely a D.“The men would brand their women, not just for ownership, which is a plus. But for protection.” He lowers it to the top of my right breast. Nico surges forward, but Dom turns, leveling his gun on his father. “Ah, ah. I haven’t finished explaining the practice to her yet. She needs to know if she’s going to be married to me.”

Nico halts, eyes narrowed at the gun inches from his face.

Even if he was healthy, he wouldn’t survive a shot that close.

“As I was saying.” Dom looks back at me with an insane smile on his dark face. I want to vomit all over his knock-off designer shoes. “It was for protection. See… other families, they liked to steal women. Use them. Return them. Women were property. Fuck up the property, and it’d be a way to shame the man.

“But they agreed a long time ago that if a woman was important. Like a Capo or Don’s wife? They could be branded and that meant they could be kept safe from the family’s ministrations.”

The poker hovers over my skin again and I bite back a scream. It’s so hot, so fucking searing that I push against the chair to get more distance. Strands of my red hair burn on contact.

“I’m the wife of a Capo,” I rush out, chair leaning back. “I don’t need to be branded.”

He laughs. It’s dark and twisted, filled with so much malice. “Not yet, you’re not. But you will be. Consider this my proposal.”

Lex wanted to own me in ways with beauty and dedication.

This is pure ownership.

I can’t let him own me.

I glance back to Nico, to the gun leveled at his face. There’s a knifeon Dom’s hip that could slice me free, but Nico can’t reach it. He’s too far.