Captivated by the deadly mafia boss

Micah

Color drains from Lena’s cheeks as she sits quietly between her brother and her father while the details of the deal are worked out. She doesn’t raise her gaze from the edge of my father’s desk. My father will see this as a sign of obedience. A woman who knows her place among men, silent and waiting for direction.

Her thumbnail jams beneath the manicured nail of her opposite hand. She drags it beneath each nail until she gets to the pinky, and then starts again with her thumb. This isn’t an obedient woman; this is a woman biding her time. How many ways has she killed us in her mind?

“We’ll bring her home tonight-”

“No.” I push off the edge of the desk where I’m leaning. “I think it’s safer for her to stay with me.” I level Joseph Staszek with a glare, daring him to deny me. Dominik can bluster all he wants, he’s in the same position as me. Until his father relinquishes full control, he will have to follow orders-same as me.

“The wedding. When will it take place?” Joseph asks, turning his gaze back to my father, dismissing me.

“Sooner the better,” my father says with a shrug. “A week.”

“A week?” Lena’s eyes dart up to my father, her eyebrows rise beneath her trimmed bangs.

“A week,” my father says with more confidence. Her unease fuels him. She should learn from that if she’s to survive my family.

Wife or not, she will be expected to behave a certain way.

Wife. My mind still hasn’t absorbed the concept. Roman gave me no indication he had even considered the possibility. While we stepped into the next room for the Staszek men to reel Lena into cooperating, he gave me no explanation. I didn’t need one. Marriage to her or marriage to any other woman was the same to me.

Men in my position don’t search out love. We sure as hell don’t date. If I wanted the company of a woman, I had plenty to choose from, but they weren’t long arrangements. I never made promises, and they never held expectations from a man like me.

But looking at Lena when her father made the agreement, seeing the hope drain from her eyes lit a fire beneath my skin. Maybe she didn’t understand her position. Daughter to a mob boss, Polish or not, would be expected to marry at the advantage of her father if necessary. And after what her brother pulled, it became necessary.

The meeting finally ends past eleven o’clock. Lena sits in the same chair, her shoulders bowed forward. I wonder if she’s slept at all while down in the stables. I had told her to get rest, but I doubt she would have given my orders any weight.

“Niko, take Lena to the car. I’ll be there soon.”

“Now?” Lena leaps to her feet, searching out her father for protection that he’s not going to offer. Instead, he slowly clamps his mouth closed and gives her a curt nod.

“I’ll come to see you, Dominik and Jakub, too,” he says to her in Polish. They don’t think I speak their language, and I won’t let on that I do yet.

Dominik looks at her. This is his fault, and by the tinge of darkness in his eyes he knows it. “I can bring Kasia if you’d like.”

At this, her jaw clenches and a sharp redness covers her cheeks. “Don’t bring that woman near me.” She turns on her heel, marching past Niko and through the office door without another word. I won’t take offense that she didn’t bother to look my way before departing, but I will explain manners to her later on.

The click of her heels on the marble flooring in the hallway fades as Niko leads her from the house. Dominik steps up to me as his father and mine say their goodbyes. He scans me with a hot glare I’m sure has more to do with him being her oldest brother than his distaste for me.

“If you hurt her-” The threat dies in the air between us. Yes, this is the big brother protecting his little sister. I’ll let him bang his chest for now. I’m feeling generous.

“No more than I have to,” I say with a wink, and his jaw clenches. He gets my meaning. “You worry too much, Staszek. We’ve just created peace. Why would I do anything to fuck that up? It’s a good thing. Only a fool would play around with such a deal.”

My comment hits the mark, and his eyes narrow. I pick up my glass from the desk where it’s sat throughout the meeting, and down the last bit while keeping my gaze locked on his.

“Dominik. Let’s go,” Joseph barks at his son and shuffles toward the exit. Dominik’s jaw ticks. He’s fighting back words that will make matters worse.

With another glance at my father, Dominik follows his father from the room, slamming the door behind them hard enough the door shakes.

“Well,” my father groans as he sits back in his chair. The arthritis in his knees hurts him by the end of the day, and with all the tension of the last few hours, I’m sure he’ll be sore throughout the night. “That went better than I thought.” He rubs his chin. “I should have thought of marriage before.”

“Maybe you could have run it past me first, then.” I bring my empty glass back to the bar and pour two more fingers of vodka.

“Why? You do what’s best for the family.”

He’s not wrong. “Still. Some warning would have been appreciated,” I say then shoot back the liquor. The heat crawling down my throat and spreading through my chest is welcomed after the tension of the night.

“You let that girl shower and put her in a nice dress. You even had someone come in to do her hair and put that awful makeup on her, didn’t you?”

“I did.” I slide my hands into my pockets. “Do you think Joseph would have been so easy to maneuver if he was raging over the treatment of his little girl? Boss or not, she is his daughter and any disrespect you showed her would have made this meeting more dangerous. For all of us.”

He stares at me for a long moment then pinches his lips together and concedes the point. “You’re right. It went better this way. Good call, Micah.”

“What’s your angle with this marriage?” A day ago he wanted this girl sold to the highest bidder, even contemplating killing her to hurt the Staszeks. Now he wants to fold her into our family?

“Angle?” He laughs. “You saw Joseph. It was killing him to see her in my office. Under my control. He knows this is his fault and, in a war, he’d lose more than he’d win. He broke the truce, by accident yes, but still his fault. He has to make it right. Now, he’ll pay for the girls he stole, and we get to keep his daughter. Parade her around as one of our own. Fill her belly with our family genes. What better humiliation is there than that?”

“And the girl?” I ask, sure I know the answer.

“Who cares. She’ll do what she’s told.” He points a finger at me. “I expect you to keep her in line. She may take your name and give you children, but she’s still a Staszek whore.”

The picture becomes clearer now. For once my father has thought ahead. He’s not looking to make a truce; he’s looking to embarrass the Staszek family. To provoke them.

“Any abuse of her will give them cause to break the truce, and it will be our doing,” I remind him.

He waves a hand through the air. “I’m not suggesting you beat the woman. But you make her understand her place in this family. She’ll do what she’s told. She won’t cause trouble, and she’ll give you sons.”

I put the empty glass on the desk. “I’ll take care of it.”

“I know you will,” he says, but I don’t miss the clear warning in his voice. If I don’t handle this the way he wants, he’ll be sure to take care of things himself.

I leave him in his office without another word. He’s already made it clear what he wants. Anything from me that doesn’t support him will insult him.

When I step out onto the front porch, I see my car idling a short distance on the driveway. Niko is in the front seat, and my fiancee is sitting in the back, staring out the other side into the darkness.

I wonder if she understands her luck. Any other turn of events and she’d be heading back to the stables.

Instead, she’s being taken home with me.

Lucky girl.