Once we cleared the backdoor, Nico seemed to know where to go. The place looked upper-class, but I couldn’t really tell much from the corridor we were walking down. The place was pretty dark inside for being four in the afternoon. One thing I did notice, though…all the damn guards.
They were everywhere.
After a couple of turns, we stopped in front of an elaborate decorated wood door. The wood had a carving of a cross, but it looked more sinister than it did divine. Nico knocked and, no more than five seconds later, the door opened and Ciro Mancini stood before us.
My knees knocked against one another.
“Rossi,” Ciro acknowledged before stepping aside to allow us entry.
“Mr. Mancini,” Nico replied, returning the greeting with a slight nod.
Following behind Nico, it wasn’t until we were in the middle of the room that I noticed Luca Benetti and another gentleman standing off to the side of the room, near the bar. My eyes clashed with bright hazel ones, and I knew that the man with Luca Benetti was Phoenix Fiore. I only knew this because I once overheard Michael say that The Holy Ghost’s hazel eyes were enough to incite paralyzing fear in any man.
Intimidated, I tore my gaze from his and stepped closer to Nico. I knew it screamed of cowardice, but I didn’t care. I felt like an ant under a microscope and I didn’t like it.
Ciro shut the door and turned to face us. He spared Nico a microsecond glance before turning those sunlight eyes my way. If I hadn’t witnessed it for myself, I would have sworn against its probability, but Ciro Mancini’s face softened when he looked at me, and his eyes morphed with kindness.
What. In. God’s. Name?
“Mia,” he said smoothly, “it’s been a long time.”
“Mm…Mr…” I had to clear my throat. “Mr. Mancini,” I finally eked out.
He walked towards us until he was standing directly in front of me, and it was unnerving to have the sole attention of Ciro Mancini. “Mia, call me Ciro. Please,” he graciously allowed.
“Is…is that proper?” My head turned at a laugh that make you think of whiskey.
It was Phoenix Fiore.
My face must have given away my mortification because he smiled as he said, “He’s not a king, honey. That title is Luca’s.” Holy shit! The Holy Ghost had dimples.
I was surrounded by Satan’s spawns, and it really was unfair that they were all stunningly handsome men.
Christ, I was losing my mind to think these men were anything other than deadly.
Nico finally spoke. “May I ask what all this is about?”
Ciro circled us until Luca and Phoenix were at his back, and I saw the move for what it was. They were all united on whatever this was. If we objected to…well, anything, we’d be going up against all three of them.
“Michael came to us yesterday and told us you’ve moved up your pursuit of Mia,” Ciro answered. “We understand there were extenuating circumstances that caused you to reveal yourself and, in doing so, you decided to come clean about everything.”
Nico nodded. “That’s correct.”
“Understandably, Michael is her brother, and you would think the final say belonged to him, however, it doesn’t,” Luca Benetti said, finally speaking. “Michael entrusted Mia to us the day he got caught stealing from me twelve years ago. We have the final say in what transpires in Mia’s life.”
My hand tightened in Nico’s. They couldn’t be saying what I thought they were saying, could they?
“Mia won’t be handed to just anyone, Nico,” Phoenix added. “She’ll be given away only once, and it has to be someone worthy of her.”
I felt Nico stiffen next to me, but I kept my mouth shut. I knew better than to get in between whatever this was. This was a test or a challenge, and it wouldn’t help Nico’s case to have a woman come to his defense, even if that woman were me.
Then Nico said the words that he couldn’t take back and would cost him his life. “Mia’s mine,” he said savagely. “She’s mine, and no one will take her from me.”
Ciro raised a brow. “No one?”
“No!” I cried out.
Nico let go of my hand and moved to stand in front of me. “No one,” he repeated, the conviction in his voice vibrating throughout the room. “You will have to kill me first.”
“That can be arranged,” Luca commented casually, no infliction in his voice whatsoever.
“Do you know how many men have stood before us and lived after defying us?” Phoenix asked and answered before Nico could. “None.”
I grabbed onto the back of Nico’s suit jacket. This morning he had joked that he was glad to get out of the college fashion hell he’d been forced to live in for the past two years and wear a suit again. “Nico,” I whispered, begging for I don’t know what.
He ignored me. He stared down the three most dangerous men in the state and practically begged them to kill him. “Mia stays with me,” Nico insisted. “No other man will have her as long as I’m alive.”
“Mia, come here,” Ciro instructed.
I was terrified, but I couldn’t let them kill Nico. I stepped around him, but Nico grabbed my wrist and yanked me back. “No,” he snapped.
“You’re pushing your luck, son,” Luca warned. “Let go of her arm, now.”
I looked up at Nico. “It’s okay,” I promise. “It’ll be fine.”
His grey eyes searched mine, and I knew he was silently telling me he was sorry that he was putting me though this. I was terrified, but he looked remorseful. I couldn’t understand why he wasn’t scared, but then this was his life. He was used to this.
I stepped forward, this time with Nico at my back. “Y…yes?” My voice was shaky, but I couldn’t help that. But as I stared into Ciro Mancini’s golden eyes, I was transported back to a time when I felt safe and peace had settled in my soul when this big man had rescued me. Tears
