Defying Her Mafioso by Terri Anne Browning
There was no way in hell I was going to agree to give her a favor without knowing what it was. I might have liked the little Russian immediately, but that didn’t mean I was stupid. I got the feeling that Anya was just as dangerous as her brother.
“I want you to keep your sister away from my brother.”
I sat up straight in bed, anger at the steel in her voice already boiling through my veins. “Excuse me?”
Another long sigh. “You heard me, Scarlett. Your sister has no idea what she’s in store for if she gets involved with Adrian. I love my brother—really, I do. He’s the most important person in my life. Without him I would have nothing. But I don’t want to see Victoria get hurt.”
I couldn’t believe what she was saying. The night before, Anya had seemed to like Victoria. Had even looked approvingly at the couple as the night had progressed. Had I read it wrong? Now she wanted me to step in and keep them apart? I couldn’t—wouldn’t—do that to my sister unless there was a good enough reason. “Why?” I bit out. “Why do you want her to stay away from him?”
There was a long pause on her end before she muttered something in Russian I didn’t completely catch. “I can’t tell you without betraying my brother’s confidence. But if you care about your sister, you will keep her away from Adrian.” Another pause but I didn’t try to break the tension that was building. Right then I wanted to tear Anya’s hair out by the handful and shove it down her throat before I broke her pretty little neck. “If you love your sister as much as I love my brother, you won’t want to see her heart broken.”
“I’m not going to stand in her way if Adrian is who Tor wants,” I told her, angry her elusiveness. “Unless you tell me my sister’s life is in danger, then I’m not doing shit to keep her away from him.”
Anya’s laugh held no humor. “It’s not her life you need to worry about, myshka. It’s her heart, and in the long run, that’s more important. I like her, Scarlett. For her own good, keep her away.”
Before I could blast into her, the phone went dead in my ear. Pissed off, I tossed my phone on the bed and got up. I had no idea what the hell was going on with fucking Adrian Volkov but I was going to find out. Until then, I wasn’t going to stand between him and Victoria.
But if he did hurt her, I’d personally put a bullet right between his eyes.
Cursing under my breath, I quickly showered and dressed before heading downstairs. I wouldn’t say anything to my sister about Anya’s call, not until I found out what was up with the Russian. If I found out anything. It could have just been Anya being a manipulative bitch. Maybe I’d gotten it wrong the night before and she hadn’t liked Victoria. I could normally read a person pretty well, but Anya was different.
Knowing better than to ask my father or even Cristiano personally, I went searching for the first person I knew would hopefully give me answers. Before I’d left for Sicily, Ciro had been my closest confidant, second to no one. I’d gone to him with everything and he had dropped everything to help me. If I had a problem, he would either give me advice or deal with it himself. That had all changed when I’d left, but right then it was the only option I had. After the night before I wasn’t sure if I was strong enough to be alone with him, but I had to find out if Adrian Volkov could hurt my sister or not.
As I descended the stairs, I saw Cristiano talking to one of his men. His head turned when he heard my footsteps and he dismissed the other man with a curt order in Italian. That curtness was gone as he turned around, and not for the first time I was surprised by how easily he could turn off his coldness. For all the bickering and fighting the two of us did, I was never left wondering if my brother loved me.
Smiling for me, he waited until I’d reached the bottom of the stairs before stepping forward. “I see you got your beauty sleep. I’m surprised Victoria wasn’t able to con you into going out to lunch with her.”
Lunch? Victoria had gone out for lunch? I didn’t show my surprise at what he’d just said by so much as a blink. Now I understood a little more why Anya had called. I would have bet good money that my sister had met up with Volkov for her supposed lunch. No wonder Victoria let me sleep. She had wanted some alone time with her wolf.
“Have you seen Ciro?” I changed the subject by asking. “I need to talk to him.”
My brother’s brows shot toward the roof, but I thought I saw flash of sly amusement in his eyes. “About?”
“None of your damn business, Cristiano,” I snapped at him, hating that he had always known about my feelings for his best friend. He’d never teased me about it, but then again, I’d never given him the chance to. “I would like to speak to him. Is he here?”
He shrugged. “Earlier. He left for his mother’s about an hour or so ago.”
Damn it. Why had I expected it to be easy? “Have a car pulled around for me. I’ll just go over and see Mary. I haven’t seen her in forever.” I loved Ciro’s mother. She was sweet and kind and I wasn’t completely sure how she’d given birth to such a beast like Ciro. Mary Donati was so tiny compared to her son that it looked impossible for her to be his mother.
My brother sighed, concern darkening his voice when he spoke. “Just be careful, Scarlett.”
“I’m always careful,” I assured him with a small smile. “Give me ten minutes. I want to say hello to Papa before I go.”
Without giving him time to reply, I walked around him and back to my father’s office. The door was closed, telling me that he had company, so I tapped on it twice before opening it and sticking my head inside. Since there had been no guards outside, I’d known that whomever was inside was more friend than foe.
My father’s head lifted and he offered me a warm smile, but my attention was quickly pulled to the man sitting across from him. Benito Donati was my father’s closest and most trusted friend. He looked so much like his son, I could easily picture what Ciro would look like with thirty more years on him, and I had to admit that it would look very, very good on him.
“Zio Ben,” I stepped fully into the office as both men got to their feet. “It’s so good to see you.”
Benito chuckled as he opened his arms, and I hugged him. “There’s the little ballbreaker,” he teased as he pulled back enough to smile down at me. “Beautiful as ever, I see.”
“I was just about to go over to see Mary,” I told him.
“Good, good.” He glanced at my father. “She’s a good girl, Vito. How’d a fuckup like you raise such a good girl like her?”
“She’s just like her papa, that’s how.”
I pulled away from Ben to hug my father. “I just wanted to say hello before I went out, Papa.”
Papa’s arms tightened around me for a moment before he pulled back and tapped my nose twice. “Just be careful, passerotta. Stay with your security men. Don’t make me worry.”
“Yes, Papa.” I kissed his cheek, then turned to Benito. “See you later, Zio Ben.”
The car was already waiting in front of the house with the driver behind the wheel. Another guard held the back door open for me and then climbed into the front passenger side with the driver. Neither asked where I was going but the driver turned straight for the Donatis’ home that was several miles away.
Once there, I got out and climbed the steps to the front door. The two men waited by the car, knowing I would be well protected inside the Donatis’ house. Both Benito and Ciro made sure that Mary was safe and she rarely left her home without her husband or son to accompany her. Ringing the doorbell, I waited for someone to answer.
When the door opened I’d been expecting to see Mary or even her housekeeper—hell, Ciro even. The woman who stood on the other side of the door was a stranger to me though. She was beautiful, with her obviously dyed cherry-red hair and big blue eyes. She was on the shorter side, but she had a body to die for, compared to mine, which her jeans and tank top only enhanced. Her smile was genuine, but I could see something in her eyes that told me she was assessing me just a
“Can I help you?” she asked after a small pause between the two of us, her curiosity just as strong as my own.
“Is Ciro here?” There was no use pretending I’d come for any other reason but the real one. The need to talk to him had only increased when I’d found out Victoria had gone out. As much as I’d missed Mary, I had to get to the bottom of what Volkov was up to before I could focus on anything else.
Surprise darkened the other woman’s eyes for a moment before she hid it. Of all the reasons I could be standing on the other side of the front door, apparently Ciro hadn’t been on her list. “I think he might still be here.” She stepped back, waving me inside. “Come on in and we’ll see. If not, I’m sure Mary can lead you in the right direction.”
Was that possessiveness I’d heard in her voice? Jealousy hit me right in the stomach, but I refused to show it as I crossed the threshold. I had no idea who this woman was but from the way she was acting I got the impression she was close to Ciro. Ciro, who got close to no one. Was he involved with her? She was apparently staying under his mother’s roof, which meant Mary must have liked her, and Ciro wouldn’t introduce his mother to any woman he wasn’t serious about.
Pain twisted in my chest as the jealousy ate a hole in my stomach. It made me hate this woman and I didn’t even know her name. I had the urge to stab her in the back as she led the way through the huge house to the kitchen. It would have been so easy to kill her and have the two men who had came with me get rid of her body. No one would miss her except for Ciro.
Like I cared.
“Who is it, dear?” I heard Mary call out as we got closer to the kitchen.
“Someone here to see Ciro,” the woman in front of me called back before pushing open the kitchen door.
Reining in my urge to kill the stranger in front of me, I put a smile on my face as I stepped into the kitchen. Mary Donati was sitting at the huge island in the middle of her beautiful kitchen, drinking a cup of tea. When she saw me, her face brightened and she jumped to her feet. “Scarlett, what a pleasure.”
I let the smaller woman enfold me in her arms, giving me a long, motherly hug that filled my heart like nothing else could. I didn’t remember my own mother very well. She’d died when Victoria and I were still toddlers. Mary, however, had always been a part of our lives and had been the one we had turned to when we’d needed advice about female things.
“I was going to give you a few more days to rest up from your trip before I stole you away for some girl time,” Mary informed me as she pulled back, her blue eyes so like her son’s moving over me with a critical but loving guise. “Where’s Victoria?”
I shrugged. “She was already on the move before I got out of bed,” I told her as I glanced around the kitchen.
My gaze instantly landed on the big man standing on the other side of the island, a mug of coffee lifted to his lips as he watched me over the rim. Dressed in black dress pants that looked like they had been tailored to fit his narrow hips and toned thighs, with a simple gray T-shirt over his hard chest and the ivy cap he never seemed to be without, he was everything I craved all rolled into one dangerous package.
I forced my eyes away and back to Mary. “I’m sorry, I actually came to talk to Ciro.”
Amusement I didn’t completely understand filled her eyes. “Ah. Well, then, I won’t keep you.” She glanced over her shoulder at her son. “Play nicely, you two.”
Ciro set his mug down on the counter and deliberately glanced from me to the pretty brunette who was still standing quietly by the kitchen door. I didn’t look at her—couldn’t look at her. Not if she was looking at him the way I wanted to be able to freely. Affection crossed his face before he could hide it, and my jealousy only doubled. Had Ciro ever looked at me like that? There was such tenderness in his expression that it was like a slap to the face. If he had wanted to hurt me, nothing could have been more affective.
Mary cleared her throat, thankfully pulling my attention back to her and away from the thought of how badly I wanted to destroy the other woman’s pretty, pretty face. “Scarlett, I don’t believe you’ve met my niece. This is Felicity. Felicity, this is Vito’s eldest daughter, Scarlett.”
Niece.
Relief flooded through me, which only pissed me off twice as much. I’d seriously been about to hurt this woman for no other reason that she had the one thing—the only thing—I’d ever wanted. Ciro loved her. Now I knew she was his cousin and that the affection I saw between the two was only because they were family.
Would he have told me that she was his cousin, though? If Mary hadn’t been there, would he have let me believe he had a closer, more intimate connection to the beautiful Felicity?
I had to stop letting Ciro affect me so strongly, but I honestly had no idea how to turn it off. It hurt in a way I couldn’t ever begin to explain.
Felicity stepped forward, her hand already extended. “Hi. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
I shook her hand but quickly released it, my feelings too close to the surface for me to care if I was rude or not. “You too,” I muttered through gritted teeth. I was still trying to get my head wrapped around the sudden realization that Ciro wasn’t involved with her.
“Scarlett and I will talk in the study, Ma,” Ciro told his mother.
“Of course.” Mary gave me a warm smile, ignoring the fact that I had just snubbed her niece so coldly. The amusement that had been in her eyes earlier had only intensified.
I didn’t know what she was laughing about. I saw nothing funny about any of this.
Chapter 7
Ciro
I opened the door to my parents’ study and waited for Scarlett to enter before following her inside and closing the door. Her shoulders were stiff, her head held high while her guarded eyes gazed at something on the wall behind my father’s desk.
I’d seen the jealousy that had been eating at her as she’d tried not to look at Felicity. For a moment I’d even thought about letting her continue thinking that Felicity was my lover. It had been funny for all of five seconds before I realized that she was hurting.
The thought of Scarlett in any kind of pain, physical or emotional, drove me fucking nuts. If my mother hadn’t explained who Felicity was when she had, I would have done it myself. I’d killed men to keep my cousin’s identity a secret. It was one of the reasons I was glad she lived on the other side of the country, surrounded by an entire MC that would give their lives for her. But I couldn’t keep it from Scarlett.
“I didn’t know you had a cousin,” she murmured, finally turning to face me.
I’d almost been expecting her to tear into me, but her expression was neutral, her brown eyes almost blank, but that told me more than if she’d started throwing things or yelling. This was her mask, the one she’d been using from the time she was a little girl, the one that she put up when she was hurting or upset to the point that she was already planning someone’s painful death. The last time I’d seen that look on her beautiful face, she’d been getting on one of Vito’s private jets, heading for Sicily.
I thrust my hands into my pockets to keep from reaching for her. I’d gotten a taste of her skin the night before and like a crack addict I’d been craving more ever since. “It’s safer for her not to be linked to me or my father,” I explained, and she nodded.
“She’s beautiful. You two have the same eyes.” She crossed her arms over her chest and pressed her lips together. “I guess I should have figured it out when I saw them.”
I just stood there, watching her, aching to touch her. A full minute went by without either of us speaking. She was watching me just as closely as I was watching her. It would have been so easy to reach out, pull her against me and kiss her until neither one of us knew who we were. It would put us both out of our misery.
Fuck, I couldn’t even remember the reasons why I shouldn’t do just that. It was hard to think when all I wanted was to sink into her wild
“What do you know about Adrian Volkov’s personal life?”
The question—that fucker’s name coming off her lips—had the force to knock some sense into me. I clenched my hands into fists in my pockets. “Is that what you came here to talk to me about?”
Jealousy hit me right between the eyes, making me see red as I wondered how I would kill Volkov and get rid of his body before nightfall. I’d take my time with him. Cut him up while he screamed over and over again until he passed out from the pain. Then I’d wake his ass up and do it all over again, before tossing his body into a barrel of acid while he was still breathing.
She shrugged, pulling me out of my dark fantasies. “Should I seek you out for any other reason? You’ve made it pretty plain that you don’t want anything to do with me.” Her forehead wrinkled and fire blazed in her eyes as she glared up at me. “You had Papa send me away just to get me out of your hair, Ciro.”
I didn’t need the reminder. It hadn’t been Vito’s idea to send the twins to live with their grandmother in Sicily. I’d planted it there when Scarlett had made it obvious she had feelings for me. It had been a stupid and desperate idea, but one Vito had taken seriously because he’d known I’d been close to giving in to what I felt for his daughter. I’d told him point blank that I wanted her. Vito hadn’t been surprised, but he understood why I didn’t think I was good enough for Scarlett. The blood on my hands was mostly there at his orders.
I’d regretted the plan the second she had stepped onto that damn plane. It was in that moment I’d known I was throwing our chance away, but I hadn’t made a move to stop her. She deserved so much better than what I could give her. A life where she didn’t have to look over her shoulder every minute of the day wondering if one of my enemies was ready to put a blade in her back.