Filed to story: Bound by Honor (Aria & Luca) Drama Story
“If he hurts Gianna…”
I held up a hand. “He won’t. I will make sure of it, don’t worry.”
Gianna and her father were at each other’s throats the moment they met. I could tell that Scuderi would have hit her if I wasn’t there. But even their constant fights didn’t worry me as much as the looks Romero gave Liliana whenever he thought nobody was paying attention. He was like her constant shadow throughout the days leading up to her mother’s death, and even at the funeral. If I hadn’t been busy consoling Aria, maybe I would have realized where his attention would lead.
ARIA
Lily spent the summer with us in New York after Mother’s death, and I was happy having her around, especially since she lost that forlorn air after a while. She returned to being the life-affirming sister I knew. I should have known Romero was the reason for it, but I had ignored all the signs, hoping I was wrong, until reality slapped me in the face one day during our holidays in our mansion in the Hamptons.
Luca and I had been on our way to have lunch in a small bistro close by when he’d gotten a call because of a Bratva incident and had to leave for the city without me. I headed back to the mansion to ask my sister if she wanted to join me for lunch instead. “Lily, I-” I froze when I spotted Romero on top of Lily on the couch, his hand shoved up her shirt. Romero jerked back, his arms draped in front of his groin area, but I had seen the bulge.
I closed the door, glad that Luca wasn’t here to see it.
Lily quickly tried to smooth down her hair, but there was nothing she could do about her swollen lips. “This isn’t how it looks,” she said.
I raised my eyebrows then glared at Romero. He had the decency to look guilty, as he should. “That’s why I didn’t want you alone with her, Romero. I knew this would happen!”
“You make it sound like I had nothing to do with it. It wasn’t only Romero’s doing,” Lily muttered, but I could only look at Romero. He was a man. One girl more or less didn’t mean anything, but for Lily to be caught with a man before marriage would be her ruin. He knew it.
“Why are you back anyway? Shouldn’t you be having lunch with your husband?” Lily asked.
I couldn’t believe her. Didn’t she realize what kind of situation she was in? What kind of situation I was in because I’d caught them? “Are you blaming me for this? Luca got a call that there was trouble in one of the clubs. Something with one of the Russian underbosses, so he dropped me off in the driveway and headed straight to New York. You’re lucky he didn’t come in.”
“If you tell Luca…,” Romero began, as if I didn’t know what would happen if Luca found out Romero had touched the daughter of the Outfit’s Consigliere, as if I didn’t know what would happen to Romero because he’d gone against Luca’s direct orders.
“I won’t tell him,” I said angrily. “I know what he’ll have to do if I do.”
Romero helped Lily up, and the look they shared tore at my heart because I knew they couldn’t be together. Romero met my gaze. “He’s your husband. You owe him the truth.”
My insides turned because he was right, but he also knew I couldn’t tell Luca. He knew I couldn’t condemn both him and Lily. And more than that, I couldn’t baggage Luca like that. His family and the Bratva were still giving him enough trouble; he didn’t need the weight of having to decide what to do with Romero. Luca liked Romero, he valued him as his best soldier. If he found out what Romero had done, he’d be faced with a decision I didn’t want to burden him with.
Even as I warned them to stay away from each other, I knew it was too late for that-but I had to hope things would miraculously solve themselves.
A few weeks later, after Father had called Lily back to Chicago, things really took a turn for the worse.
Shouting drew my eyes up from the folders with the Pergola’s forged earnings from the last months. Luca jumped out of his chair and stormed out of the office. I followed close behind him.
Romero was pummeling one of the other soldiers.
“Hey! What’s going on here?” Luca growled. He gripped Romero’s arms and pulled them behind his back. “Romero, what the hell are you doing? Calm the fuck down.”
Matteo knelt beside the injured soldier, who was bleeding from a wound on his head and from his nose. My fingers on the folders with the forged books tightened. If Romero was this rattled, it could only mean one thing: Lily.
Matteo helped the soldier up and sent him off, but I barely paid them attention.
I walked up to Romero. “Did something happen with Lily?”
“You can let me go now,” he told Luca, who released him, then turned his narrowed eyes on me.
“Why would Romero know if something was wrong with Lily?” Luca asked carefully.
I didn’t say anything, keeping my eyes on Romero, but Luca’s eyes remained on me. “Your father has arranged a marriage with Benito Brasci for her,” Romero murmured.
I gasped. “What? He never mentioned that he was looking for a husband for her!” I glanced at Luca. “Or did he mention anything to you?”
Luca’s expression was stone. “No, he hasn’t. But right now I’m more concerned about the fact that Romero knows about this before anyone else, and that he almost kills one of my men because of it.”
“Lily and I have been seeing each other during the summer,” Romero said, and my stomach did a flip. Now that he’d admitted to it, Luca would realize I’d been in on it.
Matteo let out a low whistle.
Luca got into Romero’s face. “Didn’t you tell me not too long ago that you weren’t interested in her? That there wouldn’t be a fucking problem when she was around? I remember that conversation pretty damn well, and now you’re fucking telling me that you were seeing Liliana behind my fucking back all summer?”
Luca looked murderous. I touched his arm and positioned myself halfway between them. “Luca, please don’t get mad at Romero. He and Lily didn’t mean any harm. They fell in love. It just happened.”
“And you knew all along?” Luca muttered. “You knew and didn’t tell me? Didn’t we have a discussion about loyalty and trust when you helped Gianna run away?”
I blanched. He was right. For him it was betrayal if I kept things like this from him, and it wasn’t like I didn’t know that. “They are my sisters.”
“And I’m your fucking husband.”
“Luca, she didn’t mean-” Romero began.