Page 31 of The Reaper's Bride
Are these acts meant to comfort me with my family gone? Is that why one of the girls has come to my bedroom the last three nights? Sure, they could’ve come on their own but wouldn’t they have feared interrupting the newlyweds unless they knew forcertain Alessio was sleeping elsewhere? I wish he would have spoken to me before he left.
These unexpected gestures make my heart squeeze with hope. But do I dare take the risk of harboring any with a man they call Reaper?
17
Caterina
When I walk into the dining room ahead of Valdo and the other women, I find my husband and his father standing beside what looks like a tablecloth until I realize it’s not a tablecloth at all. It’s a white sheet with a dried splotch of blood smeared across it, the one from our wedding night. They haven’t noticed me yet but my stomach bottoms out as I understand what they’re discussing.
“We should send it to her brothers since they weren’t with Arturo that morning,” Silvio says, sick satisfaction in his tone. I cringe at the mere thought of my brothers looking at it and the assumption they’ll make. “You haven’t shared her bed since that night. Why?”
“Been busy watching the surveillance cameras again, Father?”
“I’d grow very bored waiting for something interesting to happen doing that apparently, but I know what’s happening under my own roof. One fuck and you’re done with her? That’s not what we’ve discussed when it comes to-”
“Just because I don’t want to bed a Morelli more than necessary when she’s on the fucking rag, doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten him, alright?” Alessio snarls.
“Since when have you developed an aversion to blood?”
“You know better than that. Enough of this bullshit. She’s my wife, Father. I know what you want but let me handle things my way.”
They turn as one the next moment, some instinct making them aware of my presence. The way Silvio De Luca’s cold, pale blue eyes narrow as he looks me up and down makes me weak in the knees with terror. He stares at me the same way he stared at my brothers earlier. He hates me, and he wants Alessio to torment me in the bedroom. Probably outside of it, too.
But Alessio shakes his head, bundling up the sheet and throwing it at a passing maid. “Burn that.” He doesn’t smile at me as he pulls out my chair, but he seats himself between me and his father. Is that meant to make me feel safer? Because the look Silvio just gave me suggests I’m anything but safe.
And he is Alessio’s Capo as well as his father.Defying one’s father is one thing but defying one’s Capo means death in the Trio.
Over dinner, when Gia explains to her parents that she’ll be staying longer than expected, both of them stare at me and then Alessio. “You want your sister here in order to help your wife adjust, Alessio?” Bibi asks, clearly shocked.
“I don’t mind, Mom. Ritchie won’t miss me, and I won’t miss him.”
“Your husband needs an heir, and a married woman should know her place,” Alessio’s father grumbles from the head of the table. “I wasn’t aware your bride needed a babysitter, son.”
“Not a sitter. I think my wife might be better suited for other tasks,” Alessio replies with no evident concern as he cuts into his bloody steak. “Perhaps I’ll bring her along on the next debtor’srun. She’s quite skilled with a blade. Runs in the family, I suppose.”
My eyes nearly pop out of my head. How can he say that to his father after what Nico did to his firstborn? Is he trying to get me killed?
Armando, who joined us for dinner, throws his head back and laughs, but Valdo howls in protest over being overlooked for that so-called fun. His father soon shouts the boy into submission, but it isn’t until Alessio promises his little brother he was only joking that Valdo smiles again.
“Sofia, the designer’s assistant called earlier,” Bibi says, grasping for a change of subject. “We’ll do your final fitting for the wedding gown at-”
“I’ve already told you there will be no further need for fittings, Mom. I’m not going to marry Carlo.”
“That’s the last time I will hear this nonsense. Youwillmarry him,” Silvio says in a voice so deadly the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
“He cheated on me,” Sofia sniffles.
“He will be faithful once you are wed, my love,” her mother says, consolingly. “What man wouldn’t worship a beautiful girl like you once you are joined in martri-”
“But I don’t want to marry him. Please, Daddy…”
Whatever sympathy Sofia hoped for from her father, he shows her even less than my own showed me two years ago.
“YOU WILL DO AS I SAY!”Silvio roars, rising to his feet.Without warning, a knife goes sailing across the room, parting the wainscotting behind Bibi’s head with a twanging noise as Frankie and Sofia both shriek. “This is because you spoil her!” the Capo spits at his wife. “Get the fuck out of my sight and take this ungrateful little bitch with you!”
Bibi scrambles from her chair as I nearly fall out of mine from shock. Even hearing how brutal the De Lucas were growing up,I can’t believe he just threw a knife at his wife during a family dinner.
Armando pushes his chair back, his hand twitching toward the gun in his holster, but I catch the subtle shake of Alessio’s head toward his friend before he leaps to his own feet, positioning himself between all of us and his father. “Sofia will marry Carlo, don’t worry. She’ll get over the emotional bullshit and cold feet soon enough. Why don’t you go have a drink in your office, Father, and I’ll handle things here?”