Broken Bride

I've never met anybody capable of understanding my contradictions before. But Angelo is a walking contradiction. Maybe he’s like me. Maybe I’m like him.

Maybe he’s going to be a good husband.

Maybe.

Chapter 9

Angelo

“She screams so prettily.”

Bobby meets me outside the bedroom, his dark eyes lit with his particular brand of malevolence. He’s happy now he thinks Tilly has been punished for her disobedience. Order has been restored to his vicious little world.

“Yes,” I agree, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. “She does.”

He walks with me, silent.

“Angelo…”

“Yes.”

“Have you thought about all the implications of having a wife?”

“Which implications specifically.”

“Married men get fat and boring.”

“I’m sure you’ll keep me fit, boy.”

“Are you going to move to the suburbs? Have a couple kids?” He’s teasing me. He wants a taste of my belt too, I think. But I have other matters to attend to.

“Angelo!” Mark sticks his head out of the office and waves a phone at me. “The British are calling!”

I unloop my arm from around Bobby’s shoulders and gently nudge him away from the office. This is not a call I want Bobby in on. “Go check surveillance,” I tell him. “We need to be on high alert.”

“Not everybody is happy with you having the girl, huh?”

“Surveillance, Bobby.”

Bobby does as he’s told.

Mark hands me the phone as I walk into my office. I recline in my chair before putting it to my ear.

“Hello, Digby.”

The man on the other end of the line doesn’t even bother with cursory pleasantries. “You weren’t supposed to take her. She’s the heiress. We need her to access the treasure.”

There’s just something about an English accent saying treasure which does it for me.

“I’ve done more than take her,” I reply. It’s too late for them to do anything about it. Tilly is mine.

“That marriage isn’t valid, Angelo, and you know it.”

“Oh, I think it is.”

“You’re an outlaw. You can’t get married. You shouldn’t even be able to cross borders.”

Outlaw. There it is again. I’m not sure these English lads can get through a single sentence without sounding as if they’re putting on an impromptu Robin Hood play.

“And yet here we are.”

I adore it when I am told that I cannot do something I have already done.

“If you’re holding her against her will…”

“I’m not.”

“She's wanted for questioning in connection with the death of her father.”

“She can answer any questions over, what is it they call it? The computer video…” I wave a hand at Mark. He knows these little details.

“Zoom,” Mark volunteers.

“Yes. Zoom.”

“Bring her back, Mr. Vitali. She was never yours to take. We had a deal. You were supposed to be a silent partner. Funds only. Dividends paid out in eighty days.”

“I didn’t like the deal, Digby, so I changed it.”

“That’s not how deals work, Angelo.”

“It is how they work when I make them.”

I hang up. There’s nothing else to say, so continuing to talk would be a waste of time.

Mark is standing at the door, his arms folded over his chest.

“So I’m starting to put the pieces together,” he says with all the self-assurance of someone who has absolutely no idea what they are talking about. “You killed her father so some allies over in England could take his estate, and you’ve married her, so they can’t take it, and you’ve actually claimed everything.”

“That’s almost right.”

“I’ll double surveillance and triple the guard,” Mark sighs. “I hope she’s worth getting us all killed over.”

That’s a very un-Mark-like thing to say. I raise a brow at him and he looks away.

“I know I’m not getting the full story,” he says. “And I know I never have the full story, but there’s a girl involved now. She’s so young. Far too young for you.”

“She’s nineteen.”

“You’re old enough to be her grandfather.”

“And you’re old enough to be her father,” I remind him.

“I’m not the one who married her. You should let her go,” Mark says. “Find her some witness protection type arrangement. There’s no life for a girl here. We live in a very small, very dark world.”

“She's not complaining. I don’t know why you are.”

“She’s not complaining because she doesn’t know any better. I do.”

“If you want to go out into the big wide world and get arrested and charged with all the federal crimes they believe you’re responsible for, be my guest,” I drawl. Mark tried to leave me once. It was a disaster I do not think he is eager to repeat.

“I’m not talking about me leaving. I’m talking about her leaving.”

“So you’d let her go out into the world alone, for some other man to take advantage of her naivety and inexperience?”

“Of course not,” Mark pushes off the door frame he was leaning against. “There’s nobody better suited to taking advantage of naivety and inexperience than you.”

Chapter 10

Tilly

I must have fallen asleep. I was warm and slightly sore and cuddled up in bed and suddenly it is afternoon. Light is trickling through the windows, leaving me in the most cozy mood.