Chapter 5

SALVATORE

She took a few sips from my glass. I wanted to watch Matteo burn with fury. I wanted him to realize he lost the fight before it even begun.

“ Since our wedding got interrupted, why don’t we… make love?” She chokes on her drink, almost spitting out the contents on Zakai’s face.

I could spend all day teasing her.

“ Shouldn’t we handle the larger issues at ground before we.. you get such.. such silly thoughts.”

Silly? We could spend the rest of our time in bed putting into practice those silly thoughts of mine.

“ I’m taking Alessia home with me. I’m her rightful husband,” finally, I had been waiting forever to hear him voice out those stupid words.

Seems my wife had almost forgotten about our ‘guests’. She held onto the glass cup more tighter than she would ever hold onto me.

Anyways, time to call it a day. How about I put our little friend in his place?

“ I’ll make you an offer. You’ve got a gun, Cesare is also well prepared. A one on one fight to entertain my bride and I. Tell your men to stand back. If you can kill my brother, you win yourself a wife,” I say the last words loudly, taking in the reaction of my wife.

She doesn’t look pleased with it though. Good.

“ If Cesare kills you, which I bet on your father’s life he’d do so in less than a minute, well, if he does, you’d just be grateful I didn’t have to send you off myself.”

I notice his men contemplating if to ask their boss to decline and leave immediately. But Matteo is as stubborn as a pit bull. He’d never decline such an offer, not when his ego is involved.

He would put on a show anytime any day just to show off to Alessia.

“ I agree,” he says almost instantly, “ on one condition.”

Son of a bitch.

“ Let’s hear it.”

He draws closer, stopping abruptly in front of Alessia, almost startling her. His gaze sweeps through her, lips curling into a wicked smile.

My hands curled into fists. Ever ready to beat up that face of his if he dares touch her. No one touches what’s mine. No one.

“ If I win, I’ll take my prize to bed here and now and y’all will be made to watch. Her parents included.”

His frail fingers push a lock of hair behind her ear. Alessia shifted uncomfortably in her seat, but he went as far as touching her lips. “I’ll fuck you so hard, your parents will have no choice but to kneel before me and beg. You should have married me when I asked nicely, Alessia.”

His hand travels down the nape of her neck.

Just what I needed. I was blinded with rage.

“ You son of a bitch!”

Zakai got to him faster than I could. Two punches in the nose knocked him to the ground. I got on him, throwing punches nonstop. He was losing blood and I was losing my mind.

Just the thought of his dirty fingers caressing her body made me go wild. I dealt him more blows despite Alessia’s shrill cry pleading I stop.

His men didn’t move an inch. Cesare waved his dagger in their faces. The bodies of the two men he had taken down earlier served as a strict warning to them.

“ That’s enough, Salvatore. You’re going to send him home early.”

I had never lost control before. Definitely not over women. Yet I couldn’t get a hold of myself as I seeped life out of him.

“ You are killing him Sal. We don’t want to start another war with the Outfit. That’s enough.”

It took Cesare and Zakai to get me off him. He was almost dead and I was boiling hot.

“ That fucker dared put a finger on my bride.”

Cesare and Zakai led me out. That scene kept replaying in my head; the one where my wife is touched by someone else other than me.

“ What’s up with you, man?” Zakai shoots at me the moment we’re alone. “ You have never lost your cool before.”

Cesare doesn’t say a word. He just looks at me with a face I know too well. He’s about to laugh his ass off. He’s trying so hard to keep a straight face, scared I might blow his brains off.

“ Take it easy man, I thought this marriage meant nothing to you? Last I checked, you didn’t want a wife. Changed your mind already? Or you just mad he spoke of fucking the woman you married?”

Zakai glares at him, but Cesare would always be Cesare. “ Don’t worry, your little secret is safe with us. I’m going to get the bride, before you get restless and kill someone.”

Kai waits until Cesare is out of sight before he chides me. “ You know he’s right, Salvatore. You never wanted this marriage, never wanted the girl in fact. Maybe her body. All I’m trying to say is, it’s okay if you like her, it’s normal to not want anyone touching her but slow the fuck down, man. You are going to get us more enemies at this rate. The man you almost killed is Giuseppe’s son! The same one we signed a treaty with using your marriage with Alessia to finalize it.”

And he thinks I don’t know all these?

“ If he dares lay a finger on her again, I’ll kill him in the worst way possible. Screw the treaty, screw his father and screw the outfit! If anyone dares touch my bride, I’ll send them to hell in a fancy train ride. Get your hands off me! Go get the girl, and while at it, tell him to stay out of my face. I’ll not hesitate to kill him when I see him.”

I climb into the vehicle and gulped down a bottle of water under Kai’s observant eyes. He left shortly leaving me to myself. Now that I was alone, what the fuck just happened out there? Since when did I become so possessive of a woman?

Maybe I should see a therapist? A psychiatrist perhaps? A bishop? Whatever it takes to rid me off this… this feeling.

I brush it off and lie to myself that it was nothing. I’ve got everything under control. I’m Salvatore Berlusconi after all. I’ve always had my shit under control.

I’ve always had..

But just with the sight of her being guided to the car by Zakai and Cesare, made me realize I was bound to lose my shit in the future. Frequently.

Her hair now wrapped into a messy bun, her luscious lips that looks tempting, the nape of her neck now bare. Her body in that dress! Every single part of her belonged to me. Her every part of her body was mine to explore.

She belonged to me.