Arranged love

I’M SITTING BEHIND my desk when Titan enters my office. “You’re here early this morning.” We haven’t even had our daily meeting in the conference room yet.

“What do you want?” I ask without even looking up at him.

“What’s wrong with you?” he asks, sitting down.

I place my elbows on the desk and glare at him. “Last chance. What do you want?”

He just smirks. “So Mia?” I sigh, knowing this conversation would come. “Who knew that Luca had a little sister.”

Yeah, who the fuck knew? “I didn’t.” Lie. Even if I didn’t remember her, I knew she existed. I just never would have guessed she was a Bianchi.

Reaching up, he runs his hand down over his face. “What are you going to do with her?”

“Excuse me?” I ask, blinking. He makes it sound like she’s something I can just return.

“Well, the world has no idea she exists. How are you going to keep that under wraps?”

I sit back in my seat.

“Look … by the way I saw you and Nite react to her running into the hospital, you two knew she existed. I’m not even going to ask how. But she’s obviously been in hiding. Now she’s out.” He spreads his tatted arms out wide. “The Bianchis have a lot of enemies-case in point, our friend is currently in a coma after being shot-and Mia making her presence known to the world could cause even more problems. For her. For you. The Bianchis in general.”

I never thought about that. Luca said she was to be used as a weapon, but what would happen if someone actually got their hands on her? Her father wouldn’t give a shit what happened to her. He proved that by selling her off to the highest bidder. She said he wants Kingdom, but the dots don’t line up. If someone else had bought her, who knows where she’d be right now. He got his money already. Did her father send her back here because he knows I was the one who purchased her? Names were never used in the private auction. I didn’t have to sign anything. We paid our table fee in cash, and that was that. The wire transfer was untraceable. If someone were to leak any information about the auctions-you’d be killed. No questions asked. So that makes me wonder how they know I did it.

I try to tell myself she’s not my problem, but then I think of Luca. I can’t allow someone to use him against her like that. I can’t go to her brothers for help. They already gave her a timeline before they came after her again.

“Call a meeting,” I tell him. “The conference room in thirty. And text Nite. I want him there too.”

He nods and gets up without saying another word. Picking up my phone, I make a couple of phone calls.

An hour later, I walk into our conference room to see my brother, Titan, Cross, along with Nite already seated at the custom-made black table that easily sits twenty people. A skull is carved out of the middle, and Kingdom is written in gold at each end. This is where we conduct all our business meetings. We’ve got jammers blocking any type of electrical devices in here.

“You’re late,” my brother announces, checking his watch.

I snort. Like he’s never been late for a meeting before. Hell, there were days that went by, and none of us even knew where he was.

“What’s this about?” he asks when I don’t acknowledge his previous statement.

Cross gives a chuckle. “I can guess.”

Sitting at the head of the table, I toss some folders onto the center and speak. “We’ve got a problem.”

“Well, you’ll have to be a little more specific.” My brother laughs, reaching out for one.Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.

“The Bianchis,” I add.

Grave’s jaw sharpens, opening it up. “What about them?”

“Mia is meant to steal Kingdom,” I announce.

Silence falls over the room, and each one looks up at me. Then the Kings start to laugh, and even Nite smiles. The guy is mute. We all have our weapon of choice, and he’s picked silence. “How’s she going to do that exactly?” Cross questions.

“She’s supposed to marry me,” I answer.

All laughter comes to a stop, and I lean back in my seat.

“Wait … what?” Grave asks, his eyes quickly scanning over the papers in front of him, double-checking it’s not a marriage license or something. Making sure I haven’t lost my mind.

Cross shakes his head.

“You’re serious?” Titan sounds skeptical, not even bothering to pick his folder up.

I nod. “Luca came to me about four weeks ago. Showed me a video of Mia. She had been sex trafficked-”

“Fuck,” Titan hisses, interrupting me.

“Told me she was being shipped to New York. I made a phone call, got an invite to an auction, and bought her,” I explain in the simplest way possible.

“Tell me you’re kidding.” Grave growls. “Why are you giving us medical records then?” He gestures to the open folder in front of him. “Who do they belong to?”

I go on. “I shipped her off to live in my Malibu home. Everything was going well. Then three days ago, Matteo and the twins somehow found her at my beach house. Told her to come back-her father wants Kingdom, and he’s going to use her to get it.”

Cross pushes his seat back and stands over by the floor-to-ceiling windows. Pulling his Zippo out, he starts fidgeting with it.

“Then ship her back,” Grave demands. “Somewhere they won’t fucking find her.”

That’s not going to work. “She refused them.” He snorts, not believing that. “When she told them no, they gave her three months to make me fall in love with her, marry her, and her dad will have Kingdom.”

Titan scoffs. “Shit don’t work that way.”

Grave places his elbows on the table and runs his hands through his hair. “Unless she married Bones, and then he kills them both off.” He shrugs. “Then he’s got a forged trust that leaves his shares of Kingdom over to him and of course whatever he makes up on Mia’s behalf.”

“It still doesn’t work that way,” Titan argues.

“It’ll work however John Bianchi wants to spin it,” Grave snaps at him. “Look at what George did to Emilee.”

Titan’s jaw sharpens at the mention of his wife and her father. “You guys are looking at this the wrong way.” He shifts in his seat. “John has nothing if he doesn’t have Mia. So …” He lifts his hands out wide. “He can’t get what she doesn’t have access to.”

“Just what are you suggesting we do exactly?” Cross asks, spinning around to face us.

“We take care of-”

“Don’t you dare say we kill her,” I interrupt him.

Titan sighs. “Don’t tell me you haven’t thought about it.”

I ignore that comment. “No. We’re not killing her. She’s innocent.”

Grave snorts. “So she says.” My brother argues.

I fist my hands on the table. “She refused to return to Las Vegas after they assaulted her, and then three days later, Luca is shot. Don’t you think that’s a big coincidence?”

Nite just stands there, staring at the table, and I can see his mind trying to play catch up. See if there’s anything he missed.

“Wait a minute.” Grave lifts his finger. “Are you saying that you think Luca’s brother shot him to lure her back here?”

“That’s exactly what I think.” I nod.

“The Bianchis are ruthless,” Titan adds.

“Are these Luca’s medical records?” Grave asks, frowning and picking his folder up once again. “Did they fuck him up before they shot him?”

“No. They’re Mia’s.”

“What do you mean?” Cross growls. “And why do you have them?”

“I spoke with Lane. They beat her up and left her there at my beach house. Mia thinks that because she didn’t come running to me in Vegas, they went after the only person she loves.”

“So what do we do?” Cross asks, flipping his Zippo open and closed.

“It’s simple. Bones doesn’t get married. John can’t do shit without that connection,” Grave answers. “I mean, he’s not going to marry her.” He laughs like that’s absurd.

“Then you’re putting a timeline on Mia’s life,” Titan argues as if he cares if she dies. “If she was given three months, then what will happen at the end of that time?”

“We’ll worry about it then.” Grave shrugs, looking at me. “But in the meantime, I’d hide her so fucking well that even you forget where you put her.”

I sit down and sigh, knowing he’s right. I can’t protect her. Not like she needs. The more miles between us, the better. If she stays here, her brothers will think she’s just useless and kill her. If I send her away, they’ll think she’s useless and kill her. Or worse, sell her again.

“Hear me out,” Titan goes on. “What if he did marry her?”