CHAPTER THREE
Damian sipped on a glass of cognac, letting the flavors of vanilla, spices, and flowers wash over his palate as he stayed immobile in the corner. He liked the shadows. It was the best place to watch people, after all.
While the guests mingled, drunkenly laughed, and went about their merry day, Damian observed. Mostly Lily, though. She was not a happy girl. And not just because of the forced engagement, he suspected.
“Almost didn’t notice you over here,” Tommas said as he slipped in beside a quiet Damian.
That was the point.
Damian gave his cousin a silent nod of acknowledgment but kept his eyes on the blonde ten feet away chatting with Evelina Conti and the Trentini sisters.
“You’re really going to do this, huh?” Tommas asked, following his cousin’s stare.
“Yep,” Damian answered.
“Didn’t think you were the marrying type, D.”
Damian chuckled dryly. “I’m not.”
“Then—”
“Dino,” Damian interjected simply.
Damian knew he didn’t have to say more and Tommas wouldn’t question him further on the statement. Tommas was aware that Damian had been indebted to Dino for a long time though the two men didn’t discuss it.
“Well, she’s pretty,” Tommas said.
Damian sighed. “Yeah.”
If being pretty was the only thing a girl needed to make her something special, then Damian had seen more than enough of those kinds of females in his life. He wasn’t interested in having another one. Lily was beautiful, though. Damian couldn’t deny that.
Her brown eyes sparkled, especially when she was animated about something. He noticed while watching her during the dinner and party that Lily didn’t smile a lot, for whatever reason. But when she did, her plump lips curved in the sexiest way. With high cheekbones, small features, and standing a good six inches shorter than him in her heels, she wasn’t exactly what he would call a common beauty.
No, she had classic beauty. Like an old black and white movie actress.
She was not the kind of girl he’d go for. He didn’t like the combative, stubborn type. He intended for his agreement with Dino about the marriage to be solely business. Damian owed Dino, this was what his friend demanded from him to pay it back, and Damian planned on following it through to the end. Every last bit of it.
Lily wasn’t the least bit afraid to show her emotions. In a world where everybody wore a mask, Damian liked genuine things.
“I think she might be feisty,” Damian said.
Tommas laughed lowly. “Trouble, you mean.”
“No, she’s not trouble.”
Lily, no matter how much time she spent away from the Outfit and its suffocating rules for the women in the family, knew how to behave. Damian kind of liked that, too. He wondered what it would take to get her to let loose.
“What does Theo think of this?” Tommas asked. “I know he’s fond of her. At least he always talks about her like she’s still a kid instead of a twenty-one-year-old woman.”
Damian shrugged. “What does Joel think about you fucking his little sister?”
Tommas choked on air. “What the hell, man?”
“Just saying, Tommy. I imagine Theo feels the same way about Lily being made to marry a man six years older than her, one she barely knows for the sake of business, as Joel feels regarding you and Abriella.”
“Joel doesn’t know about me and … yeah, he uh … nobody does, shit, I thought you didn’t.”
Damian scoffed under his breath. “Yeah, I know.”
“How?”
“You smell like that fucking shit she wears—perfume or whatever—when you come into the club first thing in the morning looking like you didn’t sleep all night. And I saw your car parked down the street from her parents’ one night when Terrance called about something and I had to head over there.”
Tommas cursed. “Have you told—”
“No,” Damian said quickly. “I won’t, either.”
“Should I say thanks or what?”
“No, but she’s eight years younger than you, Tommas, with a mob boss for a grandfather and a fucking idiot for an older brother. They’re looking at men for her and you’re not one of them. You should clean house of that nonsense before it becomes a habit you can’t break and she gets you killed.”
Guessing by the look on Tommas’ face, it was already a damned habit.
Perfect.
Damian decided to let it go. He had enough of his own problems as it was.
Like Lily and what Dino wanted him to do for her.
Damian’s gaze found Terrance Trentini in the middle of the room engaged in conversation with his grandson Joel, Ben DeLuca, and a Capo for the Outfit. Business never ended when it came to the family.
Dino wanted Lily to be safe and he earned Damian’s loyalty a long time ago—Damian needed to pay up. Men like them were nothing without their word and too many men in the Outfit seemed to forget about that. Damian followed through on his word every single time. Lily DeLuca would be no exception, even if that meant she hated him for it.
Lily and Damian didn’t have to like one another to be married, apparently. People around them proved that fact all the time.
“What do you think of the Outfit?” Damian asked. “Inside, I mean. Not business, but what does it make you think of?”
Tommas hummed. “It’s family, man.”
“Really, that’s all you’ve got to give me? Family?”
“The only family we know.”
True.
“Sometimes family hurts,” Damian said.
Tommas nodded. “Ours certainly does.”
“Someone’s been watching you for the last half hour, Lily.”
Damian hid his smile with his glass of cognac as Lily shot him a piercing look over her shoulder. Oh yeah, the girl was still pissed. He pretended not to notice she had caught him watching her and instead, surveyed the room while keeping her in his peripherals.
Lily was three sheets to the wind if her fifth glass of red wine was any indication. She hid her buzz well. Damian gave her credit for that.
“Yes, I’m aware,” Lily grumbled under her breath.
Evelina laughed lightly as Lily’s gaze left Damian as quickly as it found him. “He’s very handsome and since he’s my cousin, that’s all I’m willing to give on the topic.”
“Shut up, Eve.”
“He is, Lily.” Evelina shrugged. “Hey, at least Dino picked someone for you that looks decent, can take care of you, and likes your brothers.”
“Yeah, because that’s everything that matters right there.”
“Just saying. You could be me.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Lily asked.
Evelina scoffed. “It means, I’m just waiting for the highest bid to come in, Lily. That’s what happens when your father is the front boss for the Outfit and you’re his only daughter. Think about it, he needs to compete with Ben and whoever the hell else Terrance likes. Men like my father only want to go up and that’s all they give a damn about. If they can’t get up there by their own hand, they’ll use somebody else’s to get there. My hand happens to be the one he’s going to use, maybe even for another family.”
“Which one?”
“Who knows? New York, Boston, maybe the fucking Vegas crew. He might as well slap a few stamps on my forehead and send me through the mail.”
Lily’s head turned just enough to give Damian a glimpse of her profile. Her frown and crumpled brow spoke of worry and disgust.
Why did she care so much about what happened to someone else?
“That sucks,” Lily said.
“Yeah, it does,” Evelina agreed. “And I was kind of liking on somebody, too. Daddy would have a righteous fit if he found out.”
“Oh, who?”
Evelina shrugged. “Nobody.”
“Eve,” Lily pressed.
“Nobody, Lily, seriously. Better for us both that you don’t know.”
Damian was learning all kinds of new things tonight.
“What about Adriano?” Lily asked. “Is your father going to do the same thing to your brother?”
“I don’t know,” Evelina admitted. “We’re not … like we were way back when. And he’s just like our father sometimes. Plus, he’s got a dick between his legs, right? So, boys get to be in with it all. Completely different thing, I guess. Whatever. Anyway, enough of this sad shit. We’re supposed to be the fun ones. Talking about this isn’t fun and I was trying to point out that Dino did consider you for this.”
Evelina’s voice lowered, but Damian still heard her as he acted like the dancing, laughing people had all of his attention. “Damian’s a nice guy. And I’m not just saying that because he’s family, either. You’ve not been around for a long time. You don’t know him well enough to pass judgement.”
“You’re not the one being married off to him like a cow on the market, Eve,” Lily said sharply.
“I’d rather see you go to Damian Rossi than another man in the Outfit.”
Lily spat out a laugh. “You’re just saying that because it’s not you. Had your father or brother tricked you like Dino did to me, you would be pissed off like nothing else. All that rebellion you did on the down low would suddenly get a hell of lot louder. Deny it, Eve.”
Evelina didn’t bother trying to. “I’m already pissed at my father so that’s pointless. Listen, Damian is kind of quiet like you are and doesn’t like the spotlight. He used to hang out with your brothers when Theo was twelve or something. They’re the same age. Don’t you remember him at all?”
Lily’s face darkened as she passed another glance toward Damian. “Did he?”
“You really don’t remember?”
“No,” Lily said.
Damian surveyed Lily from the corner of his eye, noting how she chewed on her bottom lip in her curiosity.
“He was kind of like you guys.”
“How so?”
“You know, like being shuffled around from place to place, people to people. Just … you two might have something in common where that’s concerned. They’re not going to give you a choice, Lily, and obviously Damian agreed to the arrangement for whatever reason. It’s settled—your opinion bears no importance to them. I know it’s barbaric and ancient, but it’s going to happen.”
Damian’s unofficial fiancée grew silent like she was considering Evelina’s words and taking the warning for what it was. Unofficial for only a short while because soon word would pass about the murmurings of the agreement between the Rossi and DeLuca families. The Outfit loved gossip and the news would spread like wild fire. Since Dino wanted the wedding to happen before his trial, dinners like the boss had thrown today could be considered an engagement announcement and party.
“Maybe,” Lily finally said quietly. “I don’t have to like it, Eve.”
“Yeah, I know. You want another glass of wine?”
“Hmm, yeah, I think—”
Damian decided to step in and shut that idea down before Lily could agree. Dino would have a shitfit if Lily got any drunker than she already was. “Thanks, Eve, but she’s good for the evening.”
Lily glared over her shoulder at Damian still unbothered and still in his corner. “Excuse me?”
“That’s your fifth glass of wine, your eyes are drowsy, and your brother never was one for a drunk woman,” Damian informed like they were breaking bread over a dinner table. “While drinking probably seems like a good way to deal with this shitty night—I don’t blame you, honestly—I can bet you’ll regret it in the morning if you act like a fool and embarrass yourself and your brothers. You’re not that kind of woman, Lily.”
Damian gave a wide-eyed Evelina a charming smile. “Again, thanks, but no more.”
“All right,” Evelina said faintly.
Lily spun around and pressed her fisted hand to her hip. “Who in the hell do you think—”
Damian’s gaze cut to Lily and she quieted instantly. “I’m not saying it to be an asshole, Lily. Go on, drink yourself stupid if that’s what you want to do. You’re the one who’ll have to face these people again when you’re sober.”
Lily handed the wine glass to a stunned Evelina without a word.
“Thank you,” Damian said with a smile.
“I didn’t do it for you,” Lily retorted.
Damian laughed.
No, girls like Lily never did things they didn’t want to do. He liked that, too. Too bad the whole engagement thing wouldn’t work out that way for her.
“Sure,” Damian said with a wink.
Lily’s gaze narrowed a second before she stormed off into the crowd.
Damian made sure to take note of which direction she went just in case. Evelina sighed with a shake of her head.
“That’s not going to help your case,” Evelina said softly.
Damian answered that with a shrug.
“Do you even care if she likes you, D?”
“Does it matter?” he asked back. “She doesn’t need to like me to have my last name.”
Evelina pursed her lips. “Damn, you’re proving me all kinds of wrong tonight.”
“How so?”
“I didn’t think you were that kind of guy, Damian.”
He cleared his throat and avoided Evelina’s gaze. Him and her, they were mafia kids. He had six years on Evelina and eight on her brother, but he spent time in the Conti homes as well growing up. All of their families intertwined in that way.
“Guess you don’t know me all that well, huh?” Damian asked, reverting back to his usual self.
Evelina didn’t look away as she said, “No, I just think you’re awfully good at making others believe you’re doing what they want.”
She was right.
“How much have you drank?” Damian asked.
“Too much.”
“Where’s your father?”
“Hitting on someone’s wife,” Evelina replied. “Ma’s probably watching from the corner—she likes that nonsense, you know. Gets off on it. I think the fight is like their foreplay. It’s disgusting.”
Damian laughed hard. “Yeah, you’ve drank too much. Hand it over, Eve.”
Evelina walked over and passed him her wine glass and Lily’s, but not before she emptied hers of the contents. “You always were a fucking spoil sport, D.”
“What’d you find out about the shipping deal with New York?” Tommas asked his boss. “It would be great if we could start working through there again. It’s cheaper and all to have it slide through their ports and then straight to ours since they’ve got the labor rackets and the bribes going on there.”
Damian pretended to sip on his cognac and seem disinterested in the conversation going on in Terrance’s personal office. He’d only followed the men when the boss asked them upstairs because he liked to know what was going on around him, not because he had to be there. Damian didn’t worry about crews, tribute, and bullshit like the rest of Terrance’s guys did. Damian’s work for the Outfit didn’t fall in line with that unless someone needed an extra pair of hands for something.
Usually Damian worked with Tommas on those things, anyway.
“Marcello isn’t going to let us in on that again, not after that mess a few years ago,” Terrance said before tossing back the remainder of his red wine.
“I don’t know why you bother making nice with them,” Joel muttered under his breath. “With the Calabrese and the Donati families working with us, we could easily cull the Marcellos down to nothing. We could set up a syndicate—”
“Oh, shut up with that fucking nonsense,” Terrance barked.
The quiet chatter in the room silenced.
“If your men had done what they were supposed to do in the first goddamn place when working in New York, we wouldn’t have this problem with the Marcellos, Joel,” Terrance said, scowling. “Instead, they decided to trade bullets with the dominating family. I might not like the Marcellos all that much, but I’m not an idiot, either. They control New York for a reason. They hold power over the other families because they earned it. They’re closely aligned with the Sorrentos in Vegas. So yes, let’s go right on ahead, act like bulls in a China shop, and start a war we can’t finish. Why don’t we do that, huh?”
Joel looked like he had taken a bite of something sour. “Grandpapa—”
“Shut up, Joel. Dio, you’re working my last nerve and I’m not even drunk.”
“I was just saying that—”
“Shut up or get out, Joel.”
Damian supposed he understood why Joel wouldn’t ever make it as a boss. The man didn’t know when to sit down and be quiet.
“We hold the power in Chicago,” Terrance continued. “That’s what matters here. We work here. We have our own dealings to manage here. The Outfit dominates and unlike New York, we don’t have to worry about or work with other families because the Chicago Mob controls even them. Forget about New York, it isn’t ours and I don’t want it.”
“Fine,” Joel said through clenched teeth.
“So, that’s a no then?” Tommas asked.
“Yeah,” Terrance said gruffly. “That’s a fucking no.”
“Pay a little more to get it straight through to here, that’s all,” Damian’s uncle Laurent said. “Keep doing what we’re doing.”
“Can we talk about giving someone their in to the Outfit?” Joel asked.
Damian perked at that, curious. Usually the boss would bring something like that up, not another made man.
“Who?” Terrance asked.
“James.”
“Poletti?”
“Yeah.”
“No,” Terrance said.
“Why the hell not?”
“Because he’s a fucking Poletti and half of his mother’s family is involved with the Lazzari guys. I’m not going to let some kid of another family weed their way into mine, Joel. That’s ridiculous. Just because you work with them on things doesn’t mean they’re Outfit material.”
“You don’t even know—”
“The answer is no,” the boss interrupted coldly.
Damian watched a couple of men filter out of the office quickly and silently as Terrance and Joel had a stare down. More meetings than Damian cared to count went down in this way. Joel had some crazy kind of superiority complex because his grandfather was the boss. Terrance refused to give his grandson any legroom to move.
No fucking wonder.
Damian wasn’t sure Joel understood what respect was. How Tommas was as good of friends with this man as he was, Damian didn’t know. He suspected it was because Tommas and Joel were the same age and grew up together. They weren’t anything alike, though.
“Out, Joel,” Terrance said. “No arguing. And the rest of you, too. I need a break. Get out.”
“We’re going to talk about this again,” Joel said.
Terrance pointed at his office door and said nothing.
Damian turned to leave with the remaining men but stopped when his boss said, “Not you, Ghost.”
It wouldn’t matter how many times someone called him that, Damian still didn’t like it. The damn nickname just reminded him of how forgettable he’d been as a kid and not the shit it referred to now in the present time.
“Yeah, Boss?” Damian asked.
Terrance waited for his office door to be closed, glaring at the last man who left with a glower: Joel. “Christ, he’s a problem waiting to happen that boy. I wish his father would have pulled his head out of his ass and joined the Outfit like I wanted him to. He would have made a good boss. Joel makes a damn good fool and nothing more.”
Damian chose not to dignify that with a response. He figured Terrance wasn’t looking for one, anyway.
“What did you need?” Damian asked.
Terrance rapped his fingers down to the desk in a fast beat. “That boy he mentioned … James. Do you know who he is?”
“Of him.”
“Me, too. His father was a habitual gambler that got beat to death when he couldn’t pay his bookie repeatedly. Made the kid’s mother a young widow to four kids she barely managed to take care of. I don’t want that family’s mess anywhere near the Outfit.”
Damian didn’t blink at that omission. “Interesting, but what does that got to do with me, Boss?”
“Joel needs to understand he doesn’t get to make calls like this, you see. And his little show like he did tonight has been happening far too often lately. I don’t know what has gotten into him but I feel the need to remind him of just who is in charge and why. So, you’re going to do that for me.”
Damian wasn’t sure he understood the job correctly. “You want me to teach Joel a lesson?”
He couldn’t think of a single time in his career as a hitman for Terrance that he ever had to make a move on the boss’s close family or friends.
“Of a sort,” Terrance mused. “If Joel wants to behave like a child, then I will punish him like one by taking away something that he wants. Clearly, he wants this man in with the Outfit, so that can’t happen. Make sure Joel understands that in a way that is permanent, Damian.”
Yeah, Damian got it.
James Poletti would need to go.
“Joel won’t like that, I imagine,” Damian said.
Terrance made a dismissive sound that came off as cold as his demand when he said, “I’ve let his nonsense go on long enough. It’s high time he begins to learn he is not the one man who runs this show, my boy. And it seems you now have a job to do, so why are you still standing there?”
Damian didn’t know. “How do you want it done this time?”
“Oh, make it easy on the kid, I suppose. It isn’t his fault, after all.”
No, it certainly wasn’t. Damian didn’t feel much about the entire thing and he wasn’t all too surprised about the demand, either. This was who he was and a part of living the life he chose. The killing didn’t always have to be justified or even make a whole lot of sense, not when the boss made the call. Men like Damian didn’t get the option to refuse, not if they liked being alive.
“You want a call when it’s done?”
“No, I’ll be watching the news.”
“All right, then.”
“Thirty-k for this one, Damian,” Terrance said. “It will be transferred into the account when I first get word.”
Thirty-k.
That was the price of the man’s life.
Damian probably could have argued the number with his boss and tried for something higher, especially since the man’s death was pointless and Damian didn’t usually go for that nonsense, but he didn’t. Obviously Terrance had his mind set on what he wanted and killing the Poletti man was it.
“What about his mother’s family?” Damian asked.
Terrance didn’t look like he gave much of a damn if his disinterested expression was any indication. “What about them?”
“They might retaliate.”
“So be it.”
Damian reached for the doorknob and pulled the door open.
“One more thing,” Terrance added.
“What is that?”
“Congratulations on the DeLuca girl, Damian. Getting married puts you one step closer to where you need to be. It’ll work out well for you, I’m sure. You’re twenty-seven, so it’s time to settle down anyway and have a couple of kids to keep you busy. She’ll make a good and proper wife for a made man—her brothers have seen to that.”
Terrance’s words hammered home what Dino had said to Damian two weeks earlier about the man looking at him for the head of the family. It only reinforced his resolve to do what needed to be done so he could keep his life the way he liked it.
As his.
Damian didn’t give his boss a reply as he walked out of the office.
The guests were finally starting to disperse from the Trentini estate when Damian made his way back downstairs. He noted Joel and a few other men in the family that had been in the office to witness the boss and his grandson’s disagreement had left also.
That was the thing about the Outfit—everybody had a side to pick.
Damian said his goodbyes to his cousins and ignored his uncle and aunt when he passed them by in the dining room. Instead of parking his car in the Trentini’s large driveway and take the risk of getting blocked in if he wanted to leave early, Damian had parked his cobalt blue Porsche 911 GT3 in the back of the home. The car was his baby. He didn’t live in an excess of luxury, considering his small two-bedroom loft was as modest as they came in Chicago’s Wicker Park. The Porsche was his one show of wealth.
Damian wasn’t in the Outfit for money. If that were the case, he probably would have dropped out of the business long ago. It took a man years before he was really able to start pulling in any kind of decent cash of his own where the Outfit was concerned. Most revenue went to the boss—seventy percent of everything.
Damian supposed that was another reason why he liked his choice in career. Working with the Rossi crew for Tommas from time to time earned him decent cash. But being Terrance’s personal hitman when needed was Damian’s real payday. While he never stopped working for the Outfit, and other people seemed to think he was their personal soldier to do with as they wanted, Damian knew he could step back from that.
So, why hadn’t he?
Damian frowned as he made his way toward the back of the house, realizing then how Terrance had been grooming him in some ways. Christ, Damian hadn’t even noticed it was happening and that sickened him. Terrance often shoved demands from his men onto Damian when it was something he didn’t want to handle. Thinking back, Damian could remember more than once when Terrance openly asked Damian’s opinion on certain things.
Damian thought it was innocent.
Fuck.
It wasn’t just about what the boss had been trying to slowly and quietly teach Damian, either. It was about the men around them and the Outfit as a whole. The Outfit’s men were getting glimpses of another person of importance, someone with a voice being heard and a hand in the game.
Except Damian didn’t want his hand in that fucking game. Lots of men would make a good boss—Damian could be a good boss. But he didn’t want to be.
In the back of the house, where the guests didn’t go during parties and dinners, Damian found the hallways quiet and dark without windows. Large homes like the Trentini’s had very few windows on the bottom floor but the ones that it had were higher than normal. No boss wanted to give someone an easy way in, after all.
The figure leaning against the shadowed wall by the backdoor stopped Damian in his tracks instantly. The bit of light coming in from the frosted glass window on the backdoor haloed around her shape and washed her in a stream of color.
For a brief second, she actually looked calm and happy.
Alone, but happy.
Lily DeLuca.
A memory flashed into his mind so quickly he almost missed it.
“Damn, Uncle Ben’s gonna be pissed, Lily,” Theo said, the twelve-year-old’s voice cracking on his uncle’s name.
Lily sniffed, moving away the tattered piece of her summer dress to look over the damage on her knee. It was scuffed up and bloody something awful. It probably hurt but other than her sniffling, Lily didn’t cry.
“Ow,” Lily muttered.
“Shouldn’t have let her tag along, maybe,” Damian said. “Dino’s not going to like that, either.”
Or maybe the boys shouldn’t have decided to climb the fence.
“But I always come with Theo,” Lily whispered.
Most of Damian’s friends didn’t let their kid sisters hang out with them, but since Theo and Lily didn’t have parents and Dino was too busy with whatever he did, Lily was always around. She didn’t have a lot of friends because she was too busy following her brother around. Damian didn’t mind since she was quiet.
Damian liked quiet people.
“The fence is rusty, too,” Damian said.
Theo groaned. “Great.”
“What does that mean?” Lily asked.
“Means we have to tell Uncle Ben so he can take you to the hospital.”
Lily’s brown eyes widened and tears started to well. “But—”
“You’re gonna need a needle, I think.”
“No!”
Damian winced. Whenever a girl cried, his stomach went weird. Girls shouldn’t cry. “It doesn’t hurt, right, Theo?”
Damian lied.
Those needles hurt a lot.
“Uh, right. It doesn’t hurt, little one.”
Lily sniffled again. “All right.”
Damian blinked out of the memory, surprised it had come back to him at all. A great deal of his childhood had somehow been lost to the recesses of his mind over the years. He didn’t have a lot to remember that he wanted to, really.
Did Lily remember him tagging around sometimes back then, too?
Damian, knowing she probably hadn’t heard his approach, cleared his throat quietly.
Lily didn’t even blink. “I figured Dino would come find me. Or maybe Theo. Definitely not you, anyway.”
“I wasn’t looking for you,” he said honestly. “My car is parked out back to avoid someone getting killed if they scratched my car.”
“Fascinating.”
“Really? Because you sound bored as hell.”
She also seemed a lot calmer than earlier.
Damian wondered what had changed for Lily in the span of a couple hours. He brushed it off. It didn’t matter. Damian had a job to do so that meant he had to go out and get the info needed to get it done as quickly as possible.
Resuming his walk down the hallway, Damian passed a quiet Lily by.
“Do they still call you little one?” he asked as he unlocked the backdoor and opened it.
Lily stilled but didn’t answer.
It was enough for Damian to know her brothers did still call her that.
Damian turned to face her. The breeze from the outside wafted into the hallway and blew the scent of Lily’s flowery perfume through the space. She watched him from under her thick, dark lashes and he wondered if she wanted to bolt as far away from him as she could.
There wasn’t a whole lot of space in the hallway, so turning like he did put him directly in front of her. Lily had to look up and Damian could plainly see the anger still warring in her gaze. It made her all the more pretty with just a glimmer of defiance behind her brown gaze. The frustrated pout of her lips demanded attention.
She had a mouth made for kissing.
Shit.
Damian didn’t need more added onto his plate than what he already had but he figured out in that moment that he liked angry girls.
“You know, you don’t have to hate me, Lily DeLuca. It might make this whole thing a hell of a lot easier if you just accept what is going to happen and get it over with.”
“Get it over with, right,” Lily scoffed. “Being sold off like cattle, you mean. I should just accept that I don’t get to choose my husband or future.”
“I never bought you—that wasn’t the deal put on the table.”
Lily looked away. “Oh.”
“Nope.”
“Why are you agreeing to this?” she asked.
Damian didn’t even crack a smile. “Because I have to.”
“Don’t you want to pick your own wife, not have one given to you?”
“Who said I wouldn’t have picked you, Lily?”