Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 84446 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 422(@200wpm)___ 338(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84446 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 422(@200wpm)___ 338(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
What had I been expecting?
That he might see me there in my wedding gown and suddenly fall in love with me?
This was a business arrangement to Renzo.
Nothing more.
Nothing less.
He didn’t know…
He couldn’t, I reminded myself, cutting off those thoughts, knowing they would only make my efforts at stemming the flow of tears fail.
I had no idea what Renzo Lombardi expected from a wife.
But crying in the backseat on her wedding day was likely not it.
I sucked in a breath, trying not to sniffle too hard, aware of the almost painful silence in the car, only broken by the muffled city noises outside as we drove… somewhere.
Adding to the list of many things I did not know about my husband, the location or type of home he had was one of them.
My father and brothers had used this as one of the many reasons I should not marry Renzo.
Being that Renzo’s territory was Brooklyn, far from my family’s domain of Manhattan, and that he protected his area with an iron fist, none of us knew where Renzo’s home was, what it was like, where I would be spending the rest of my life.
The car took a turn that had my belly bottoming out, making my eyes fly open, immediately noting how much speed we’d picked up since I’d closed my eyes to fend off the tears that threatened.
Both of my hands went out, one pressing on the leather seat at my side, the other grabbing the handle of the door as the car took another hairpin turn onto a narrow street.
Then another quick turn.
I glanced up toward my husband, but noticed no tension in his body. As if this was an everyday occurrence.
I tried to force myself to relax as well, but the whole day was too nerve-racking to calm myself down.
Until, finally, what felt like a long time later, the SUV slid into a suspiciously empty parking spot directly out front of a red brick apartment building situated on a corner. It was a six-story structure that I figured might house around sixteen to eighteen apartments, given what I knew about general apartment sizes in the city.
From what I understood about the Lombardi crime family, they were every bit as wealthy as my own. It seemed strange that Renzo would rent a normal apartment instead of a penthouse in a skyscraper or have an entire brownstone to himself. Like the ones I spotted several blocks up.
The engine cut, though, and the driver and Renzo climbed out, the doors slamming making me jolt.
I stayed put, having not been told to follow as the two men stopped on the sidewalk, talking for a moment before the driver nodded and walked off down the street.
Renzo glanced at the car for a long moment. I was watching him closely enough to see him suck in a deep breath, then exhale it, before making his way to my door, reaching for the handle, and pulling it open.
“Come on, mouse,” he said, then waited for me to follow his instructions.
I did, my heart doing a little flip-flop at the pet name.
As soon as my skirts were clear, the door slammed behind me, and Renzo started to walk toward the building, leaving me to follow behind.
With no other choice, I did, a small crack forming in my heart at realizing that this wasn’t going to be what I’d been fantasizing about for so long.
A fairy tale wrapped up in a mafia contract.
Renzo said nothing to me as we moved into an elevator, then climbed the floors as I counted.
All the way to the top.
The doors slid open, not revealing the long hallway of apartments I’d been anticipating, but a small closed-off area featuring two chairs and tables, both manned by Renzo’s men flanking a big, metal door.
Renzo gave them each a nod, then used the keypad to unlock the door, and moved into what was now our home without me.
I hadn’t imagined he’d carry me over the threshold, of course. But I thought that maybe he’d hold open the door for me.
“Mrs. Lombardi,” one of the guards said, making my pulse skip at my new name, reaching for the door himself, and holding it open for me. “Welcome home.”
Taking a deep breath, I moved through the door.
Because, whether this was anything like I’d hoped or not, this was my home now.
With a husband who clearly wanted nothing to do with me.
CHAPTER TWO
Renzo
You could cut the tension in the church with a fucking knife.
Neither side of the aisle was happy about this arrangement.
The Costas felt like they’d been forced into something, that they had to offer up one of their girls like a sacrificial lamb.
And my family, well, they weren’t exactly thrilled about a Costa in our midst. They’d been enemies of our organization for many years, and no one trusted having one of them in the inner circle.