Chapter 4

"Lorenzo told me today he's going to formally present me to his mother!"

The moment Adriana finished the words, her circle of hangers-on seized me by the hair and hauled me toward the front of the salon, a Vitale front off the main boulevard.

Before they left, she raised her voice at the owner. "Whatever damages you're out today, send the bill to the Vitale bookkeepers. Tell them the heir's promised bride sent you."

The instant she heard the name Vitale, the owner's face changed. She knew whose territory her polished little shop truly sat on, and she knew what it cost to be on the wrong side of that name.

She quickly plastered on a fawning smile. "So you're the Vitale bride. Don't you worry, whatever happened here today, no one calls the Feds. No one talks. Omertà."

Adriana looked smug and pleased with herself.

Nearly drained of all my strength, I suffered the humiliation and let them drag me the whole way out onto the street.

Faced with the pointing fingers of passersby, Adriana planted her hands on her hips and screamed, "I'm teaching a rival's kept woman a lesson. None of your damn business."

Someone couldn't stand it any longer and stepped forward to reason with her. "Young lady, even if she really is some man's woman, you can't beat her until her face is covered in blood and tear her evening dress to pieces."

"Find something to cover her up. Everything's exposed for all to see, and people have their dignity."

"Besides, what you're doing is against the law."

Adriana didn't listen to a word of it.

She even sneered at the woman who'd spoken up, her tone snide and cutting. "Ha. So eager to jump in and plead for this piece of trash." A quick laugh, too quick, and her hand rose to brush her collarbone. "If you ask me, you're just like her, birds of a feather. You're somebody's kept woman too, aren't you?"

"And I've got the Family behind me. My husband is the heir apparent of the Vitale name. Even if I beat her to death, there's tribute enough to bury it."

The woman shot Adriana a furious look. She'd never imagined a girl who looked so gentle and delicate could speak with such venom.

In the end, Adriana and her people drove me to the hotel lobby where the alliance sit-down feast was being held.

For today's betrothal pact, both bloodlines had brought their own. There had to be dozens of tables, capos and their wives, soldiers standing along the walls with their hands folded low. The instant I was dragged in, Adriana's people, Falcone relatives of every kind, all turned their eyes on me at once. The room went quiet the way a room does when the wrong thing is about to happen.

"Adriana, is this the woman you told us about?"

Her parents rose from the head table, staring at me with pure hatred.

Adriana nodded. "That's her. She's the one Lorenzo named through the Family circles last night. The most important woman in his life. There's no way I'm mistaken."

Hearing Adriana confirm it with her own mouth, her mother, Carmela Falcone, matriarch of the Falcone household, ran straight up to me, grabbed a fistful of my hair, and slapped me like a woman gone mad.

"You slut, you dare fight my daughter for her man?"

"Today I'll beat you to death."

The blows landed one after another until I didn't even have the strength to speak. I found myself wondering whether they might actually beat me to death right here today, on a Family floor, with soldiers watching and not one of them moving.

"Kill her!"

"The only one marrying into this bloodline is my daughter!"

Carmela called out to her whole crowd, and the Falcone side closed in around me again.

Then Carmela turned to Adriana. She wet her lips, and her eyes went to the table settings, to the silver laid out for the feast. "Sweetheart, bring me the dinner knife. I'm going to ruin her face."

"Let's see how she seduces other men after that."

Adriana put the dinner knife into her mother's hand.

Everyone was watching me. Not a glass moved. Not a soldier shifted.

Through my splitting, agonizing pain, Carmela actually took the knife and slashed it hard across my face.

"Aah!"

A hoarse scream tore out of my throat.

The boundless pain jolted my hazy, fading mind back into clarity.

And it was right then.

Adriana's phone rang, and she flipped it to speaker with a triumphant flourish. My son Lorenzo's voice came through.

"Adriana, has my mother arrived?"

"What's going on over there? Why is it so loud?"

Adriana sneered. "I'm teaching a rival's kept woman a lesson!"

Lorenzo froze.

"A kept woman?"

"What woman?"