“Your sister will be a gorgeous bride,” Valentina said, trying to break the tense silence.

“Maybe it will distract from the fact that she was given to an old man like a piece of meat,” Aria said with a sharp look toward Dante.

I squeezed her hand in warning, but she didn’t look away from Dante. I didn’t either because I wanted to make sure I knew when I’d have to pull my gun.

“Your father wants the best for…”

“Himself,” Aria interrupted Dante, and I tightened my hold. She winced but still didn’t stop. “After all, he got a child-bride in return for selling off my sister.”

“Aria, that’s enough.” My voice was sharp like a whip.

Her eyes finally found me. If we’d been alone she might have stood up to me, but we were in a room with Dante and she knew I had to show strength in front of him. Reluctantly she lowered her eyes, swallowing hard. After a moment, she turned to Dante. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean any disrespect.”

Dante gave a terse nod. The maids showed up with the food not a second too late. We managed to go through the rest of dinner without any further incidents, and Val and Aria soon engaged in a relaxed conversation about the south of Italy, which Dante and I could join without any risks of more conflicts.

My mobile vibrated in my pocket and I took it out, risking a glance down. It was Matteo. I held up my phone. “I have to take this,” I said as I rose from my chair and walked out of the dining room and into the entrance hall. Dante’s eyes followed me. He obviously didn’t like the idea of me walking through his house alone, but he had no reason to worry. If I had something devious in mind, I wouldn’t have left Aria alone at a table with him.

“Matteo? What is it?”

“I’m worried about Romero. He looks like he’s going to lose his shit. I’m not sure it was a good idea to take him to Chicago with us.”

I sighed. “I know. Make sure he doesn’t do something stupid.”

“I’m not sure I’m the right man for the job.”

“I don’t give a fuck,” I muttered in a low voice. “I’m busy over here.”

I hung up, wanting to return to Aria. Her being alone with Dante and Val didn’t sit well with me.

Movement up on the stairs made me tense and turn to face the source, my body going into high alert. I paused with my hand on the gun, then slowly lowered it when I saw a tiny girl on the second to last step. Dante’s daughter, Anna.

“Where are Mommy and Daddy?” she whispered.

“In the dining room,” I said, not moving. Her green eyes scanned me from head to toe, and I hoped she wouldn’t start crying. I didn’t think Dante would wait for an explanation before he tried to shoot me, and I really wasn’t looking forward to killing him in front of his kid.

“Who are you?” she said accusingly, and I had to stifle a laugh.

“I’m your godmother Aria’s husband.”

A grin spread on the girl’s face and she stumbled forward. I moved without thinking and stopped her fall by circling her body with my arm and lifting her up. She didn’t cry as I’d expected. Instead she wrapped her arms around my neck. “Is Aria with Mommy and Daddy?”

I nodded as I tried to set her back down, but she clung to me. “No!” she protested. “Take me to Aria!”

I glanced down at the girl. “Is that an order?”

She gave a sharp nod.

Sighing, I held her against me with one arm as I made my way back to the dining room. Dante wouldn’t like this, but if she started wailing because I didn’t do what she wanted, things would get even uglier.

The moment I stepped into the dining room with the girl, Dante rose and his eyes would have sent most people running. “She came down the stairs and wanted me to take her to Aria,” I said firmly. I got that Dante was protective. Fuck, I probably would have put a bullet in his head if our positions were reversed.

Aria stood, probably to go to me, but Dante gave a shake of his head and she froze.

Fury shot through me and I had a fucking hard time controlling it. I unfastened Anna’s arms and put her down. “Thanks,” she said with a huge grin before she started running toward Aria, unaware of the tension in the room. Valentina gripped Dante’s arm and tugged until he finally sank back down on his chair. Anna jumped onto Aria, who hugged the girl to her chest and kissed her cheek. Aria looked fucking ecstatic with the kid in her arm.

I approached the table slowly, still wary of Dante, and his eyes told me that he shared the sentiment. Aria gave me a meaningful look.

“Dante, perhaps now would be a good time to talk in private,” I said in a civil tone.

Dante gave a sharp nod and stood.

Val touched his forearm briefly, and I caught the warning in her gaze. Aria, too, was pleading me with her eyes to keep it together.

Dante and I walked out of the room and he led me out into the garden. The cold helped to clear my mind. “I am well aware that you don’t like me around your wife and child,” I said. “And I don’t like you around Aria either.”

Dante inclined his head. “We are at peace, but in the past that hasn’t always prevented accidents.”

He was probably referring to the truce between the Famiglia, the Camorra and the Outfit that had been broken by the Camorra by murdering the wife of the Boss of the Outfit. That had happened sixty years ago, but some things were remembered.

“We are both men of honor, Dante. You don’t like me and I don’t like you, but I can assure you that your wife and children are safe from me. I don’t prey on the weak.”

Dante gave me a closed-lipped smile. “Will that still be the case if truce was ever broken between us?”

“I could ask you the same—would Aria be safe if there was war between us?”

Dante didn’t say anything because we both knew that war was an unpredictable beast. “She’d be safe from certain things in my territory even in times of war. No woman, enemy or not, will ever have to fear rape in my territory.”

“That’s something I can guarantee as well.”

Neither of us said any more because there really wasn’t anything else to say. I knew that the voices in the Outfit that wanted to cancel the truce had grown louder, as they had in the Famiglia. It was old hatred that had only been buried, but not forgotten.

I’d attended countless weddings from a young age. They had all been tense to some degree, as was to be expected with arranged marriages, but Scuderi’s wedding to the Brasci girl topped it all. The girl was younger than Aria, and Aria’s father was over fifty. That was sick even by our standards. But that on its own wouldn’t have made me tense. No, that was all thanks to Romero and Lily. They had both been gone after the ceremony. It didn’t take a genius to guess what they were doing. To hell with them. She was supposed to marry Brasci tomorrow!

“I don’t get it. She’s younger than two of his daughters,” I said with a nod toward Scuderi and his too young wife. He was grinning all over his face. No wonder. He’d get to pop a girl’s cherry thirty years his junior.

“Some traditions are harder to change than others,” Dante said, but I caught the hint of disapproval for his Consigliere’s choice. We’d returned to being civil, at least in front of our gathered men. It wouldn’t do to send them the wrong message. Brasci and Scuderi had made the arrangement and as I knew very well, the influence of a Capo regarding family matters was very limited.