Belonging to the Italian Mafia Boss: A Dark Mafia Arranged Marriage Romance (Possessive Mafia Kings Book 7)

My little brother stood tall at my back as we waited to cement the truce between our two peoples in one of the two ways we knew how: through marriage or through death.

We used to be one combined group in the beginning, but the fucking Rizzo family split off and built their empire behind our back, growing more powerful over the years. Not even our empire could challenge them. But we couldn’t live under their shadow.

We had to end this.

It was the reason I’d proposed this truce.

It was also why I, the oldest Trullo and the newly crowned boss of our organization, was set to marry the daughter of the Rizzo family. The only heir they had. When my father died two weeks ago, he made it clear that he’d never corrupt his legacy with the “god damned Rizzo clan,” but I saw it differently.

The doors to the church opened, and the princess of the Rizzos stood coolly on the other end. The impassive expression on her face resembled a marble statue as she strode forward, every sharp twist of her hips becoming a sinful beckon—one she’d planned, no doubt. The long locks of blonde hair fell nearly to her waist as the white dress she wore trailed behind her.

I didn’t know her, but I knew her father, and I knew that she would be just as manipulative as him.

It took a moment before I saw the two armed guards following the heir into the room, standing on each side of her. Her father waltzed behind her, holding the train of her dress as she went. He shot a smirk toward me. He acted as if he’d won by bringing her here, and the look he gave me showed a hint of knowingness. He had no idea what he was looking at. He had no idea that it would be my face that peered down at him as he took his last breath.

I shook myself out of my fantasies as I looked down at my bride, stepping up the steep altar steps. She kept a cool expression on her face, but as her eyes darted between my brother and me, then to our guards on the other side of the altar, I detected a hint of uncertainty. She didn’t say anything, but I could see that she didn’t want to be here. Was she asked about this union, or had it been forced on her? Neither option would surprise me.

“This is my daughter, Sabrina.”

I didn’t look away from her, even as her father spoke to me.

“Is she even aware of what this union entails?” I spat, my eyes focusing on the slightly widened brown orbs of her eyes.

“She is capable of speaking for herself,” the woman retorted, her voice huskier and deeper than I’d anticipated from such a petite woman. The sarcasm had me raising my brows as I stared down at her. “I’m aware I’m being sold off as a prized mare.”

I clenched my jaw as I looked down at the way she’d been wrapped like a present for the taking. I took a step forward, intruding on her personal space. She didn’t bother taking a step back as she looked up at me, narrowing her eyes. Interesting. I’d thought that women in the Rizzo family had been bred for submission, but this one… She wasn’t that at all.

“Do you know what is involved in a marriage with me?” I asked her, keeping my tone low enough that only she and I could hear.

Her breath hitched. “I can imagine,” she said, though her tone sounded far less confident this time.

“After today, you won’t need to imagine.”

I saw how she gulped, her fingers shaking on the bouquet she held between us.

I knew what was coming, but as I looked down on Sabrina, I realized that one part of this plan would have to change. Sabrina had no idea what a life with me would entail—a life on our side of town, away from all the shops and uppity hotels. We dealt with the nitty gritty, and I had a feeling she’d never endured anything but princess-like treatment her entire life.

I looked over her shoulders again and narrowed my eyes.

In one swift motion, I pulled Sabrina into my chest and locked my arm around her chest—a move that hadn’t been planned. I jerked my pistol from my hip holster and aimed it at my nemesis, holding his daughter against my chest. “Take them out. All of them,” I ordered my men.

I didn’t bother paying attention to Sabrina’s soft gasp.

She was meant to be among them, but something about her had intrigued me. As the gunfire went off—all of our men coming out of the woodwork—Sabrina writhed in my arms. My cock involuntarily hardened against her back as her father and all the higher-up men in her empire went down around her.

They hardly had a chance, I realized as I watched everyone but her father fall. My men had taken aim long before the Rizzos knew my men were there. Sabrina and her father were the primary targets. The idea of taking the head off the snake had been a long-desired one, but my father had been against stabbing them in the back. He’d been far more honorable than me. As soon as he’d passed, this plan had been set into motion.

Lure them here with promises of an alliance, and end them.

Sabrina shook in my arms as I held her to my chest, pointing my gun at her father. He looked between Sabrina and me, and I wondered what the bastard was thinking. He didn’t even bother going for the weapon that I knew he had—not as his men all fell in heaps of blood around him. I noticed with a sense of amusement that Sabrina’s dress had droplets of that blood staining it.

I knew I needed to kill both of them and end this, but Sabrina… Something about the way she looked around like she had no interest in being here—something about the sinuous curves of her body—had me hesitating.

I bent slightly, pressing my lips into the back of her ear. “If you don’t want to watch, look away,” I demanded.

Sabrina didn’t hesitate to cast her gaze downward, and I pulled the trigger.

I watched as my nemesis fell backward, shock still present in his eyes as he died alongside his men. He’d killed dozens of my guys over the years, and I wished I could have drawn out the process. I wished he could have suffered, but I had vastly different things on my mind.

I looked down at the woman in my arms and huffed, tucking my gun away and turning her toward me. I looked over her face, finding a few droplets of blood across her left cheek. “Sabrina, was it?” I asked.

She clenched her jaw and straightened her shoulders. Bold.

Then, she reared back and spat in my face.

I gaped down at her, wondering at what point this woman’s survival instinct had become so poor. Did she value her life so little? I slowly swiped my hand down my face and flicked the fluid away, eying it with just as much shock as before.

For the first time in my life, I had no idea how to react.

“Do you need me to kill her?” my brother asked behind me, coming to my side.

I shook my head. “You and the others, leave us.”

As everyone filed out of the room obediently, I watched as the steam faded from her, and she looked around at the carnage, finally seeming to realize the precarious situation in which she’d found herself.

“Are you done?” I asked.

She only clenched her jaw, and a slow smirk pulled at my lips. Ordinarily, I didn’t particularly appreciate being challenged. I’d killed for less, but from her, I couldn’t help but feel amused. What was it about this woman?

“You killed my father,” she stated, far less devastated than I’d expected. That was yet another thing to intrigue me. “And my guards.”

“I planned to kill you,” I told her, and finally, she flinched. She had to have realized it, but now—hearing me say it—the situation finally seemed to sink in. She took a small step back, and I matched it. “But now, I have other plans.”

“Other…” she stopped and bit her bottom lip, taking a deep breath. “What other plans?”

Her eyes dropped to one of the bodies behind me, but I didn’t veer my gaze to where she looked. I didn’t need to. I knew what gore remained behind me. “You, my dear Sabrina, are the last Rizzo standing. You are now the sole heir to all of your father’s assets and business deals. That is valuable to me in many ways.”

I watched as she cemented herself, straightening and putting her shoulders back. I expected some level of grief, but she showed none. I wondered what her life had been like to make her unable to show even an ounce of grief toward the death of her father. “I don’t know why that would be valuable to you.”

I chuckled deeply, raising a hand and running my knuckle down her porcelain cheek. She surprised me when she didn’t flinch away, so I took another step into her. “You’re my wife, Sabrina. We’re wed in the eyes of the law, and that means that what’s yours is mine.”

She shook her head slowly.

“Unless, of course, you’d rather die like the rest of them.” Her lips pursed at my words. “You only have two options. Merge your resources with mine willingly, or I’ll kill you and do it by force. It makes no difference to me.”

Her eyes dropped, and I knew she’d made the correct decision. I didn’t know why I hadn’t considered sparing her life until now, but as she nodded, I knew it would be the best choice. I moved my hand to the back of her neck and pulled her face closer to mine. The lack of fear she showed intrigued me, and I wanted to ask her what was running through her mind.

Why did she have no regard for her life?

If I were any of the other bosses I’d met during my travels, they would have ripped out her tongue for the lack of submission. Any one of them would have killed her.

Oh, she was lucky.

“You’re the last Rizzo, and we have a lot of work to do if we’re going to make this marital merge as effortless as I’m hoping.”