DONATELLA
He was the Devil.
And this was Karma.
I had killed Tobias and so now I had…Satan. I was sure of his identity now. How else could one man walk into this family and make a mess of things so quickly? He caused chaos and destruction whenever he opened his mouth. What was worse, I wasn’t sure how to escape this yet… And just like always, it seemed I’d been left on my own to deal with the aftermath of someone else’s shit.
Satan had decided to marry me.
Of course, this was the type of life I had.
I really am a Greek tragedy in the making.
“Should I gouge out my eyes?” I whispered softly to myself as I floated in the water of the pool.
And Satan replied, “Seeing as you are already in water, why don’t you stick with Shakespeare and drown yourself?”
Opening my eyes and allowing my legs to drop down as I stood, I looked to where he was now sitting; in my white pool chair, drinking my smoothie, while once again reading the same book from lunch.
“And you’re here, why?”
“Here in this house? Or here at the pool?” he questioned, not bothering to look at me…even though I was half naked in the water…that was new.
“The pool,” I said swimming to the edge and rising from the water.
“Can’t a man visit his fiancée as she swims?” he questioned.
The word fiancée from his lips was worse than a thousand nails on a thousand chalkboards. He wants to fight, Dona! I reminded myself and I wondered if salt wouldn’t keep him away, then maybe sugar would.
“You’re absolutely right,” I said sweetly, walking up to him and at the tone in my voice he made a face before glancing up. The moment he did, he couldn’t look away; his eyes following the beads of water as they slid down the space between my breasts and past my stomach, not stopping until they disappeared into the waistband of my black bikini bottoms. I walked over, sat beside him on my chair, and leaned forward while brushing my hair to the side, “Forgive me sweetheart for being so harsh. Can you hand me a towel?”
“You’re free to get it yourself, my love,” he replied just as kindly, shifting to the side for me to take the towel that was right beside his waist. “Your poor nipples look like bullets.”
Gritting my teeth, I reached over carefully to take the towel, my eyes never leaving his and his gray eyes never leaving mine. He seemed completely amused. The longer he stared, the more annoyed I became. I even thought about strangling him with the damn towel, but resisted and wrapped it around myself instead.
“Gabriel?”
“Yes, Donatella?” He nodded, closing his book.
“I’m a very reasonable person, you seem like you are capable of being reasonable too—”
“I’m not though,” he said, sitting up. “I’m wrathful, demanding, and vindictive. I’m only reasonable when it comes to things which benefit me. So, Donatella, what is it you need my reason for?”
Punch him! Beat his insolent ass into the next century! Not only did this cunt interrupt me, he had the nerve to challenge me even when I was trying to be nice.
Inhaling, I went on as if he hadn’t said anything, “My brothers will never let you take Italy.”
“I guess we’re getting married then.”
My fist clenched so tightly I could feel my nails digging into my palm but I smiled. “Perhaps you have not noticed but I’m temperamental, prone to violence, and hostile to authority… I doubt you want a wife like that.”
He snickered, nodding in agreement before saying; “I’m sure you’ll change; after all, look how sweet you are right now, dear.”
“Or you could find another wife.”
He sat up and grabbed my chin. “I could but I doubt she’d come with the same fearsome attitude, and round, slap-able ass, so pick a date and a nice dress.”
He brushed me off and got up.
At that point, I’d lost all my patience. I took off my towel to swing it at his head, but he dodged and grabbed on to it, pulling me close. In retaliation, I kicked right into his chest and he stumbled back, only slipping slightly before regaining his footing.
“I tried being nice—”
“Was that you being nice?” he laughed, tossing his book onto the pool chair. “I thought you were constipated—”
My fist hit his jaw and caused his head to twist to the side for a second.
“I’m sorry, you were saying?” I told him while lifting my fist up.
He licked his lip, just like last night, and glared at me, not saying a word. Before I knew what he was planning, he bent down and pulled on the towel I didn’t realize I was standing on, sending me on the ground…hard.
“Fuck—uh!” I screamed out as he grabbed on to my ankle and dragged me until I felt my body hit the water. Bubbles and water rising around me, I opened my eyes, and tried to swim up but before I could, my back was slammed against the wall of the pool, and his hand was wrapped around my neck. My eyes went wide as I stared at him calmly pinning me underwater against the wall.
Let GO! I mentally screamed at him, trying to push his arms away. But he didn’t budge and the more I struggled, the more my vision began to tunnel…stupidly forgetting that the more energy I used, the harder it was for me to hold my breath. So, I tried to calm down, but it was too late, my lungs were already burning as I hadn’t breathed when he threw me in. Reaching up, I grabbed his wrist and dug my nails in as hard as I could, but he stared at me emotionlessly…coldly, not even caring as I drew blood.
There was a sensation I hadn’t felt in a long time…fear. It creeped on me as the pain in my lungs got even worse.
Dona, I made you, and I made you strong, beautiful, and fearless. My mother’s voice came into the back of my mind.
And then my father’s voice, I could give away everything I owned, Dona, and even then, it wouldn’t come close to equaling you. You are worth the world, princess.
In that moment, I could focus on him, the man in front of me, and I let go of his wrist, smiling at him sincerely before opening my mouth and inhaling… And a split second before everything went dark, I saw the shock and panic that came over his eyes, forcing him to let me go.
I win. I thought happily.
GABRIEL
She was bloody insane!
Completely mental!
“Come on.” I pinched her nose before breathing into her mouth and placing my hands over her chest. “You’d really rather die? Is that what you’re saying? COME ON!”
“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING!”
BANG.
That was all I heard. It felt like my arm was on fire, and I was on my back beside the pool, the back of my head hitting the ground so hard my ears started to ring. When I opened them again, it was none other than the elder standing over me, rage in his eyes, a gun smoking in his hand.
Did he fucking shoot me? I thought, and got my answer when I tried to sit up and he stepped on my shoulder. No, the bullet had only grazed my arm but it still hurt like a fucking bitch.
“Ugh!” I bit my teeth when together he stepped harder.
“I gave you the benefit of the doubt for my grandmother’s sake,” he spoke above me. “But it seems that was mistake on my part.”
There was no saving myself from this apparently, so I tried to ignore the pain and looked up at him calmly.
“Is she alright?” I asked.
He pulled back the hammer of the gun; “What right do you have to ask?”
“She’s my fiancée.”
“And when did it become acceptable to try and kill the person you are engaged to?”
“Didn’t your mother shoot your father when they were engaged?” I asked, more than ready for him to get off my shoulder.
“Ethan.” I heard her voice call out to him and only then did I take a breath of relief. The voice was faint, but it was her.
He moved off me and grabbed on to my shoulder. Blood now covered the whole left side of me when I sat up. It wasn’t just Ethan; Wyatt was bent in front Dona and checking her pulse. Helen, her cousin, wrapping a towel around her, and Ivy, standing by the door. And most notably, at least twelve guards now in the pool.
“I wouldn’t move if I was you.” Make that thirteen guards, I thought, feeling the gun at the back of my head.
Well, this is a bloody mess, isn’t it?
Ethan reached out to help her up, but her legs wobbled and she tried to push him off. There was something odd about it…however Ethan just grabbed on to her, lifting her up. Wyatt stood up in place for a moment before looking to me, and I was sure as anything else in this world, he was thinking of a way to get rid of me.
“Lock him in his room,” Ethan said as they all moved to leave.
All of them were looking forward but her. Donatella, looking over Ethan’s shoulder, grinned brightly at me and winked… And the moment Ivy looked to her, Dona’s expression changed to pain…the witch.
She wasn’t trying to die. She was trying make sure I did! In the back of my mind I could see her laughing like the little madwoman she was…
This isn’t over, sweetheart.
“Get up!” they yelled, pulling me to my feet.
“Gentle, I bruise easily,” I joked. Apparently, they didn’t find it funny…and whatever they then hit me with made everything dark.
***
“Fuckin’ shit,” I hissed when I woke up. I wasn’t sure what hurt more, my head or my arm. When I reached up to touch my arm, I felt the bandages wrapped around it and was thankful they at least had the common sense not to let me bleed on the floor.
“You awake, sweetheart?” The madwoman asked softly, and when I opened my eyes, I realized I was not on my bed, but on the floor. I rolled over and saw her sitting on the vintage chaise by the window. She was dressed in a short navy dress, her smooth thighs tucked underneath her as she happily ate her vanilla ice-cream from a crystal bowl. She grinned, the small spoon on her lips. “You should go back to sleep, you’re much safer there.”
“You knew your brothers would save you, which is why you inhaled the water,” I groaned, sitting up, “But for a brief moment you were scared, weren’t you?”
“I’m a Callahan, I don’t—”
“Bullshit,” I cut her off. “For a brief moment, you thought I was going to kill you, and you got scared.”
Her green eyes narrowed on me as she sucked on her spoon, which left me both turned on and annoyed. “Was that brief moment worth you now being chained to a bed post?”
“Chained?” I questioned, glancing around. Sure enough, like a bloody prisoner, these people had me chained to the bed. I reached for it and then looked back at her. “What 90’s prison did you all steal this from?”
“That’s your reply? You think you’re in a position to be witty?”
I nodded, leaning back on the bed. “If you all were going to kill me; I’d be dead already. But seeing as you have treated my wounds and given me at least some type of drug, I’m not going to die.”
“Don’t rush to assume…both of my brothers are fond of torture,” she reminded me.
“So am I, and even if you want to keep your prisoner alive, you don’t take care of him this well. So, my love, try again.” I winked at her. Her jaw cracked the side, and she put her ice-cream to the side. Rising from the chaise, her bare feet on the wooden floor, she walked over to me and knelt right in front me. “Careful… I could try to kill you again. You’ve been here for a less than a week and in that time, you’ve been shot, punched, mobbed, and threatened…and still you don’t seem in the least bit worried about your life. Either you’re insane or whatever your family used to get my parents to agree to our marriage is much more important than I thought.”
I leaned forward and whispered, “Both.”
She was calm now, calmer than I’d ever seen her, and I wasn’t sure if it was because she planned on stabbing me to death with a spoon or she was really trying to think.
“Who are you?” she pressed. “More importantly, what mafia family are you linked too?”
“Are you asking or your brother?”
She leaned in closed to my face and said, “Both.”
“And here I thought you were trying to oust your brothers. First you use them to get to me, and now you are in here trying to get information for them.”
She didn’t flinch, just stared me down like a wolf. Her eyes were mesmerizing, I didn’t want to look away.
It’s the drugs, I tried to lie to myself.
“I use a lot of people,” she finally spoke again. “Using people doesn’t make you weak, it doesn’t mean I can’t fight on my own; it means I’m so strong I don’t need to. The reason I want to take power from my brothers is because I already have the power. Ethan and Wyatt, no matter what they may say or do, will have my back. I know it.”
“Sounds like you’re trying to convince yourself, which is why you keep fighting with your brothers so openly,” I pushed back.
“I want everyone to know. I want to publicly wear that crown. I want to see people have no choice but to bow down to me nowhere I go,” she admitted, rising and taking her ice-cream before heading back out the door. “Which is why I can’t marry someone I don’t know, someone who is weak and can’t protect themselves from my own brothers.”
“Then who will you marry?” I asked her.
“None of your—”
“You are temperamental, prone to violence, and hostile to authority,” I repeated her words to her, “on top of that, your family is feared, and you killed your last lover. Who would be insane enough to marry you? Who can even make it on to your list to be considered? What you want most is strength and power.”
“If no one comes, I’ll stay single—”
“And wither from the vixen every man wants to the old maid no one wanted. When you walk by they won’t speak in fear but laugh in judgement. It’s not fair really; a man can stay single all his life and no one would question him. But a single woman, no matter who you are, no matter what you are worth, or how much you accomplish, people will still consider you a failure.”
“You really think I care—”
“Not just them,” I cut her off. “I’m sure your brothers will have kids, and you’ll drop in importance even more, their kids will think something is wrong with you. Hell, with that temper of yours they may even fear you, crazy Aunt Dona. Ethan and Wyatt, to save their own, will start keeping you away. They’ll lock you up somewhere where the only power you will have is over peas and mashed potatoes—”
She threw crystal bowl right beside my head and it shattered, cold chunks of ice-cream splattering on my face. Reaching up, I wiped some off my cheek with my thumb and tasted it. “There you are, love. I was beginning to worry the water had short-circuited your rage,” I said, my grin wide as I looked into the fire within her eyes.
“You are dead-set on pissing me off!”
“Only because I prefer that to your fake Stepford-wife smile,” I snapped back. She froze, as if that wasn’t what she expected to hear. “You have a temper, a tendency to break things due to that temper, and you are not above physical violence. I’m well aware, Donatella. I’ve seen it up close and personal for days now. But guess what? I’m neither shocked by it nor am I afraid of it. I. Am. Not. Afraid. Of. You. Or. Your. Bloody. Brothers! If I need to throw you back into the pool and hold you down until you calm down, I will. Though I might have to find a method which you won’t use to your advantage to harm yourself first.”
“Why in the fuck would you—”
“Because I want you,” I told her truthfully. She looked a mixture of confused and scared. Why, I didn’t know. “I want to marry you. I have my reasons. I’ll use you at times. But I’ll be honest about it. Just like you can use me to avoid becoming a prisoner in this mansion, to escape your fate if you remain here forever, single and with only a fraction of the power you crave.”
“You really are insane—”
“Marry me, and you’ll have everything you want. Power, respect, public acknowledgement…and affection. You’ll be the most important person to me, my family, and millions of people.”
She paused. “And how is that?”
“You’d like me to explain how affection works?” I teased, knowing full well she didn’t care about that.
She crossed her arms, waiting.
“Do you really think your parents would marry you off to someone who they didn’t think was worthy—”
“My father would never have thought you were worthy.”
“Like most fathers. However, even he must have known you’d be safer with me.”
She chuckled at that. “Safe with you? You’re chained to a bed at the mercy of my family.”
“Wrong.” I shook my head, taking the chain off my ankle. Her eyebrow rose as I stood on my feet. “The Callahan family is at the mercy of me. Ethan wants to know who I am and he wants me out of his house, yet here I am. Wyatt wishes to kill me, but he can’t. You want me to break the agreement, but I won’t. You all are waiting for me to give you information…waiting to see if killing me will cause unforeseen damage to you all. The same question is going through all of your minds… Why me?”
“We’ll find out who you are—”
“Or you could agree and I could just tell you,” I said, stepping up to her. “I could tell you, and once you know, you’ll regret fighting so hard.”
“Take another step, and you’ll regret not dying.”
I paused and then took another step, and her nose flared. Smiling, I stopped, not pushing my luck any further. “If you won’t agree yet, at least stop fighting long enough for me to show you…”
“You started the fight.”
“All I did was tell you the truth.” Boldly, I stepped forward, and she pulled a gun from some hiding spot, I didn’t know where, and held it in front of me.
This damn family and bullets.
I didn’t say anything; I just stared her down.
“Winning me over will be harder than trying to stop my brothers from killing you.”
She put the gun down and left, slamming the door behind her.
“The sweetest honey is always at the top of the tallest tree,” I whispered to myself before gripping on to my shoulder. “Bloody fucking Jesus…” It burned like fire.
Grumpily, I moved over to the side of my bed, taking out my cell from the drawer and dialing. She answered on the first ring…
“Have you lost your damn mind?”
“I’m the victim here, Evelyn. I was shot.” I pouted.
“I couldn’t care less! And good for them for shooting you! Going around talking about Liam getting shot, you earned yourself a damn bullet,” she snapped and I rolled my eyes, laying on the bed.
“Other than that small hiccup, I’ve finally gotten her to warm up to me.”
“What?” She paused her anger. “How?
“A few truths….and couple lies.”
DONATELLA
“Well?” Ethan asked me as I came into to the study where he and Wyatt were both waiting for me.
I said nothing as I took Wyatt’s glass of whiskey and sat down.
Wyatt sighed and turned to Ethan. “Let’s get rid of him and whatever happens—”
“He’s the devil,” I said, mostly to myself but loud enough for them to hear.
“What?” Ethan asked me.
I snickered and drank, not breathing until I finished. The whiskey burned my throat as it went down. “He’s convinced me to do something crazy…something I might regret.”
“What?”
“Give him chance.” How the hell did that happen?
“How the hell did that happen?” Wyatt questioned, reading my mind.
Handing over the empty glass, I stood up, facing Ethan; “Leave him alone. I’ll handle it from now.”
“That’s what you’ve been doing! Dona, he tried to kill you—”
“No, he didn’t.” He was afraid when I almost died. Looking to Wyatt, I hugged him. I didn’t have a reason; I just did it and let him go. Looking to Ethan, I said, “Let him do what he came here to do and we will see what happens.”
“We will see?” he questioned. “So, you’ll marry him?”
“Worst comes to worse, I’ll marry him, fulfill the contract, and then kill him. At least then I’m a widow and not a spinster,” I joked but neither of them laughed.
“Since when do you care about being a spinster?” Wyatt asked, brows bunched together, completely lost.
I understood why. I’d never thought about it. It had never crossed my mind. Until the Devil whispered into my ear. Now, the more I looked at them, the less I saw my brothers as my brothers and the more I saw them as men. Men who would have their own families. In the back of my mind, I’d known that would come but right now it was all I could see… It was all that was going through my mind.
What happened when they both had their own families?
What would people say of me?
At my age, my mother had already married and had Ethan. I told myself that I shouldn’t care. Screw what other people thought. A much bigger part of me remembered the fact that this whole family was built on what people thought of us. We were perfect on the outside, so why wouldn’t I get married? I tried picturing myself single for the rest of my life, and I remembered my parents together. I tried thinking of a man to stand beside me, and I didn’t have one…with the exception of this stranger. And all I knew about him was that he had balls to not only speak back to me but fight back.
My mind was a mess. I felt myself being pulled in ten different directions and the more I thought, the less I wanted to.
“Dona?”
“Huh?”
“Are you sure you’re alright?” Ethan asked me seriously.
I laughed. “Why? Because I said I’d give him a chance?”
“Yes,” Wyatt said, as if it were the obvious answer.
“You’re free to give him a hard time; I’m not going to go crawl into his arms. I’m going to find out why out of all the men in the world they picked him…”
At least he’s sexy… Whoa, where did that come from?
“Okay.” Ethan nodded at me but I couldn’t read the expression on his face.
“Okay, then.” I nodded back… I was going to date the devil.
Date?
Urgh, oh Lord help me, I thought as I left the room for the second time today. This time I went straight to my room, wishing I hadn’t when I saw Helen on my bed.
“Please go; my head is mess and I have no idea what is going on,” I whined, walking over to my bed and falling on top of it. I grabbed my pillow and put it over my head.
“Gabriel?”
“Don’t say his name!” I held up my hand to stop her. “Just hearing about him right now gives me a migraine. He’s just…ugh! What is his problem? A rational person would be running yet there he is, saying he could give me everything! How? Where? When? He pops out of nowhere and says he wants to marry me? Me! Does he not know I’m not the marrying type? I’ll fight him every day of his life and he’ll go bald from pulling out his hair. We might go bald from pulling out each other’s hair. On top of that, he has no boundaries. He’s just in my face pretending to be Casanova… What if he tries to be romantic now? I don’t do well with romantic. I’d tell him to ask Toby but… You know he’s dead. Which should be his clue to run away! Why is he not running away!”
“Donatella, look at me.”
“Why?” I lifted the pillow off my face to look at her. She grinned so wide I thought her face would crack. “What?”
“You were rambling.”
“What?”
“You were rambling!”
“I don’t ramble!”
“You just did. Since we were little, this is the most normal you’ve been…ever. You’re like a regular girl.”
“Fuckin’ shite.” I stared at her in horror and not even jokingly, I blessed myself with the sign of the cross. Because of him, Gabriel, the book nerd devil… I had Shakespeare on my mind. Specifically, The Tempest: Act 1, Scene 2, Line 215: Hell is empty, and all the devils are here.