Chapter 2

CALISTA.

I took a step back, and another, and another.

It was only when he growled that I realized that this man could kill me easily, snap my neck like a twig with his big hands.

“I mean no harm” I stuttered, the alcohol clearing from my head. “I'm not here to cause trouble”

My heart began pounding fast in fear, and I eyed the distance between me and the door. How fast could I run towards it to escape from here

The man with whiskey coloured eyes tilted his head, watching me the way a predator would watch a prey before killing it.

Cold shivers ran down my spine, and my fight or flight instinct was immediately activated. There was no way I could fight this hulk of a man, so the only sensible thing to do was to run

“The minute you step out of this bar—” he murmured as he stalked closer to me. My knees turned to jelly. I couldn't breathe.

And I didn't know if my breath was catching because of fear or something else

He stalked closer, sucking up all the air, and continued his threat “—You're going to meet a painful end”

My lungs burned, and a heavy weight sank on me. I opened my mouth to speak, but only a choked sound of apprehension came out.

Then I glanced at the windows and my stomach flipped. “You...you...” I pointed a finger at him, then out to the window where I could see the Cappellucci soldiers.

They're all black outfits gave them away, I knew without any sense of doubt that they were soldiers of the Chicago Mafia family, if they had the faintest hint that I was the only child of their enemy...

Acid churned in my stomach and I was about to vomit all over the floor.

They wouldn't just kill me, they'd make me suffer before giving me a horrible death. I shouldn't have come here. I shouldn't have come to Chicago knowing this was enemy territory.

I cast pleading eyes on the man in front of me, not a flicker of emotion on his handsome face. “Please,” I begged, my words shaking the same way my body was.

His head tilted again, watching me with that intensity that burned. “Why did you run from Matteo?”

My eyes burned hotter than the alcohol in my system did. “He slept with my stepmother and I ....I shot his arm”

The man's face didn't change, but for one quick second, disgust twisted his features.

He glanced out to the window, where we could see more soldiers patrolling the front of the bar.

I would fall to my knees and beg him if it meant to keep my identity secret. As much as I hated the life I was born into, I wasn't ready to die.

“Please” my words were nothing but a whisper. “Please, don't tell them. I had nowhere to run to that's why I came here”

The corner of his lips curled in a wicked smile. “We found three of Matteo's men this morning. They said they were in search of someone, but didn't mention who.”

The half smile on his face twitched and his whiskey eyes gleamed with wicked delight. He prowled forward, I backward, till there was no space left to go.

The man, whose name I still didn't know took a strand of my hair and ran his fingers through it.

I shivered, not entirely out of fear

“How did Vitale and Matteo manage to keep you hidden for so long?” he questioned quietly, more to himself than me.

I should have stepped away, found some backdoor route to escape from. But the same spell that made me reveal my identity kept me glued in place.

“Can you help me?” I made my eyes wide. Imploring.

The man only let out a short dry laugh. “No one runs into Cappellucci territory and walks away.” His whiskey eyes held mine without blinking. “And even if by some miracle you manage to escape the seven trained soldiers outside...”

A scream clawed at my throat, begging to be ripped free. There was no way I was leaving here unharmed, not without help

His fingers touched my hair softly, then trailed over to my cheek's and my stomach erupted.

My fear mixed with something else. Something that warmed my thighs and made my core ache.

“If you're able to take those soldiers down and leave Chicago, Matteo would still hunt you down and rip you to shreds”

The half smile turned into a dangerous smirk. “Seems to me that you're doomed anyway”

A tear spilled down my cheek and the man's eyes zeroed in on it. His thumb wiped away the tears with surprising gentleness. “Beautiful” he breathed and locked his gaze with mine. “No wonder Vitale hid you all those years.”

I didn't know what he meant by that, and I didn't want to find out. What I wanted was to be safe. To be free.

“Help me” I begged.

From the look of things, this man was one of the soldiers. He could protect me from Matteo, if his Capo allows it

His smirk widened. “And if I do, what shall I get in return—”

“Calista” I supplied.

His breath turned uneven and he muttered to himself. “Calista”

“Help me” I repeated.

I didn't know how he could, given that helping me would be going against his Capo, and that could cost both our deaths.

He didn’t answer for a beat. The silence stretched between us. “You can survive one way.” He bent his head until his lips lined up with my ear.

“Become part of the Chicago familar.”

My stomach dropped to my toes. “There's only one way for that to happen.”

I wasn't breathing anymore. Did this man know what he was saying?

“For someone like me, the daughter of Vitale, the only way I can be accepted into the Chicago family is through...”

I didn't even want to say it. It made no sense.

A fire blazed in his amber eyes. “Through what?”

It was the arrogance in his tone that had me sneering. “The only way I'll ever be accepted into the Chicago Mafia, is if I marry your Capo”

Then his thumb grazed my lips, I couldn't help it. The shivers that shook my entire body or the way my core spasmed or even how my traitorous lips immediately parted

The man's eyes darkened as he thrust his thumb into my mouth, against my tongue.

And I should have been repulsed, I should have been irritated, but danger always turned me on and I had a feeling this man was as dangerous as they come.

His voice dropped lower than I've heard and he growled. “That's right. Marry me and earn your place in my family”

The world stopped. The butterflies fluttering in my belly paused, and my knees buckled.

I stared up at him, at his face.

Acid churned in my stomach, and everything began to make sense.

I wasn't just standing in front of any man; I was standing in front of the Capo of the Chicago Mafia.

The most dangerous man in all of Illinois.

Romano Cappellucci.