Chapter 5 - Marco

Angela looked at me, terrified, her hands outstretched in front of her, trying to keep some distance between our bodies, even though just a second ago, she had been nestled against me, so relaxed after being saved that I could feel every curve of her body.

It wasn’t hard to find the woman in white collapsed on the floor, being trampled by everyone around her. One minute before we stormed in, she was their salvation from war or total ruin. Angela was there to marry for the *Famiglia*, and they showed how much that meant to them: nothing!

Even that bastard of a groom couldn’t protect her. Filippo pushed her to the ground before running for his life, and I saw it all clearly.

“What do you want? What are you going to do with me?” she asked frantically, her voice almost breathless as she glanced at my brother Nero and Frank in the seat beside me. “I’m sure my father will pay any price to have me back unharmed. Please, don’t hurt me!”

Her sweet, brown eyes turned back to me, and I wanted to smile at the irony of her words.

“As far as I know, it was your people trampling you in that church. We were the good guys—we saved you!” I said, raising an eyebrow, earning a look of outrage from her.

“Everything was fine until you threw bombs in there and attacked everyone!” she shot back, showing that maybe she wasn’t just the little princess everyone thought she was.

“Sure, you were just being handed over in marriage to a scumbag who’s already slept with half the city,” Nero grumbled beside me, sounding bored with the topic. But when I saw her horrified expression, I elbowed him to rein it in. “What? I’m just telling the truth. As his bride, she shouldn’t be so surprised by the jerk. Just last night, he was at his father’s brothel screwing whores until two in the morning.”

Angela gasped in shock, staring at my brother with her mouth agape, which finally seemed to shut the idiot up. He might be right about Filippo—he was no good, not even by mafia standards. But I doubted Angela was used to such crude language. Knowing about sex was probably unlikely for someone like her.

Before I could say anything, she recovered, lifting her chin defiantly.

“As if you’re all pure saints! You’re all the same! You all think women are property, puppets you can manipulate and do whatever you want with!” she shouted with all her fury, and I was certain those words had been bottled up inside her for a long time.

Silence fell over the car. We all sat there, stunned, staring at her, while my mind raced with thoughts of what she must have suffered at her father’s hands, what Angela had seen, and worse, what Filippo might have done to her.

“I wish my wife thought like that,” Frank was the first to speak, breaking the ice and making us laugh.

“My sister will never think like that. She may be a Rossi now, but she’s got Falcone blood in her veins!” Nero said, and I had to agree. Melissa had always been the most stubborn of the three of us. No wonder she got married before either of us.

“God help me when our daughter is born. I hope she doesn’t have her mother’s temper!” he said, raising his hands to the sky.

Angela stared at the two of them, seeming overly interested in the conversation, almost as if she couldn’t believe their words. Then she shook her head in disbelief and let out a sarcastic laugh, growing louder by the second until it caught everyone’s attention.

“We value our women, *Angel*,” I said. She narrowed her eyes, challenging me. “We may be ruthless with our enemies and traitors, merciless and tough with our men, but our women are sacred. We don’t force them into anything, and that’s why they marry willingly and always choose men who will honor the Camorra. Very different from the husband chosen for you.”

“What do you know about Filippo? You know nothing about him or how my father treats women or the Famiglia!”

“I know a lot more than you, Angel…”

“Don’t call me that!” she growled, clenching her teeth and furrowing her brow.

“Your father has more mistresses than a brothel owner! And Filippo is just as rotten as him!” I shouted, tired of trying to stay calm while she refused to see the obvious. “Neither of them is any good. None of the men in your *Famiglia* properly care for their women or value what they do for them! Otherwise, they wouldn’t have left you on the floor getting hurt. They would’ve protected you first and thought of their own lives later. They would’ve died protecting you, who was saving them from a war and bringing them more allies!”

She stared at me with wide eyes, seemingly shocked by everything I said. Even Frank and Nero stayed silent, seeing that my patience had run out.

“You think you’re better than them, but you just kidnapped me… and you’re already saying I’m your future wife,” she replied, her voice faltering, almost as if she were afraid of me—the same fear I saw in her eyes when she realized who I was.

“Yes, you’re my future wife, but because I’m certain you’ll want to marry me when you see what your life can become.”

“And I’m certain you’ll abuse me like you did the other women who fled the Cosa Nostra,” she said so quietly I almost couldn’t hear her. Nero and Frank leaned closer to listen better.

“What?” Yes, I knew about the women who fled, and they were all sheltered and placed in safety wherever they wanted in exchange for information. “What are you talking about?”

“You… you raped and tortured them… until they gave you all the information you wanted… and then you killed them without mercy,” her chin trembled, and she looked at the two men beside me with terror, while I was still stunned, processing what she had said. “That’s what you’re going to do to me, isn’t it?”

The car stopped, and Angela looked outside, seeming even more terrified. I was so focused on our argument that I didn’t notice when we entered the estate. As soon as my driver got out and opened the door, the woman leaped off my lap and ran.

“Sir, I’m sorry, should I go after her?” he asked as we watched her run down the gravel path, clutching her wedding dress haphazardly.

“No, I’ll go after her myself.”

“Looks like I won’t be the only one with a fiery woman,” I heard Frank say as I started running after the crazy woman.

She wouldn’t get far, not in those heels, and even if she weren’t wearing them, there were still the gates and the guards. I had no idea what Angela thought she’d achieve by running like that. Did she really believe she could escape?

I was almost catching up to her when the complicated creature turned around, coming face-to-face with me, just an arm’s length away. The little angel tripped on the lace of her dress and was about to fall when I grabbed her by the waist, spinning her body with mine, making me hit the gravel with my back to keep her from getting hurt.

Her body landed on top of mine, my arms tightly wrapped around her waist, holding her there. Her surprised gaze met mine, and even with her hair falling around her face, I could see her flushed cheeks from the run, her lips slightly parted with uneven breaths.

Damn, she was beautiful, and now she looked like an aroused little angel, ready to be fucked. Shit, I couldn’t think about that now, not before I’d married her and could rub it in her father’s face.

“Ready to stop acting crazy and talk like a normal person?”