The first part of his vengeance was marrying the dead man’s beloved daughter, and as she walked towards him, her beautiful face with the voluptuous lips that matched her small, voluptuous body stony, he smiled.
The first part of his vengeance was going to taste very sweet indeed.
* * *
Sienna walked the aisle with her stare fixed on her youngest brother, Rico. She wouldn’t look at anyone else, especially not her groom or his family, whose eyes she could feel burning into her like lasers. Rico had always been the one she’d been closest to, the one full of devilish mischief who could make her smile whatever her mood. Recently, he’d gone and fallen in love with an angel disguised in human form and stepped away from the family business for his angel’s sake, but he hadn’t abandonedhis family. He was here, in the chapel, giving Siena his silent support. If she hadn’t been determined to walk the aisle alone, she’d have asked Rico to give her away.
For this wedding, walking the aisle to her groom alone was as big a statement of intent as her navy trouser suit. Siena was no one’s possession to give away or claim, and when she took her place next to Elio, she faced the priest without sparing her groom a glance.
She hated looking at him at the best of times, and this was the worst of them.
Wearing her best poker face, she recited her vows mechanically and made sure not to react at all to the mocking tone Elio made his with. She found his smooth-as-chocolate voice as loathsome as everything else about him.
The legal stuff taken care of, Siena fixed a hard stare on the priest, daring him to disobey her instructions. There was no legal requirement for a bride and groom to seal their union with a kiss, and she was damned if she would let those filthy Ranieri lips anywhere near hers, not now or ever. This union would be one made only on paper.
She’d struggled enough with the thought of giving her virginity to Niccolo Martinelli. She was damned if she would give it to the monster that was Elio Ranieri.
She’d been prepared to consummate her marriage to Niccolo Martinelli and give her father grandchildren with Martinelli blood, had spent months psyching herself up for it. She’d never felt anything in the way of desire for Niccolo, but he was fundamentally a good guy, and she’d liked him well enough. The order to hunt him down and kill him after the jilting had come from her brothers. She’d had to mask her relief when they spared his life.
If her brothers were to shoot Elio down in front of her right now, she’d have to restrain herself from spitting on his corpse, but only because they were in a house of God.
She hated the way he looked at her. His eyes were unique and unsettling, a pale silver so bright she imagined they glowed in the dark. The rings around the irises were as black as the pupils and his heart.
She’d first locked onto those eyes five or so years ago. She’d been in a nightclub and had felt someone looking at her. When she’d turned her head, he’d been propped against the bar, openly staring at her. It had been the most unsettling of sensations. She’d been even more unsettled when she’d learned who he was. A Ranieri.
The decades-old turf war between the Espositos and Ranieris, triggered by the murder of her father’s oldest, closest friend, was a war that had gone down in Naples legend. It had decimated the Ranieris and left the few survivors penniless. For the Espositos, it had been the springboard to their wild success.
Siena had been born at the height of the war. Only recently had she and her brothers learned that their father, contrary to the story he’d fed them and everyone else, had started it.
She would admire Elio for the way he’d dragged himself from a child with nothing to a man with the power to challenge her family if it hadn’t all been done to destroy her family.
The death of Siena’s father had given their rivals the confidence to sniff around for weakness. Their legitimate public-facing media empire was safe, but it was their shadowed world that was coming under increased threat. Without the shadowed world, their whole empire would collapse.
The Esposito siblings had been fighting fires on so many different fronts since their father died that Elio Ranieri had slipped under their radar. Until they’d learned the truth aboutthe decades-old turf war, none of them had realised how seriously they should have been taking him.
It must have taken Elio years to accrue the power he now held in his hands. Bit by bit, piece by piece, building wealth, contacts and an army, and all done under the Espositos’ noses.
She’d known it from the first lock of their eyes. Deep in her bones, Siena had felt the threat Elio Ranieri held, but because of his terrible reputation with women and the way his presence unsettled her, she’d always thought it was personal to her. From the groups he mixed with, she’d known he was making something of himself, but had had no idea the extent of it.
Had her father known? Surely he’d kept an eye on him over the years? If he’d known Elio was building his own power base, then why hadn’t he told them? Warned them? Had he been uncharacteristically burying his head in the sand because of the skeletons that would be revealed in confronting it?
If he hadn’t known then that meant Elio was far more dangerous than Siena or her brothers had grasped, because their father had knowneverything.
The one person who would have known their father’s thoughts was their mother, but when it came to the Ranieris, Siena knew they couldn’t trust a word she said. She’d known the truth about the war and had kept it from her children for decades.
And now Siena was paying the price for it, and she couldn’t shake the feeling that this hellish union was only the first part of Elio’s vengeance.
* * *
Elio’s new mother-in-law was certainly the perfect hostess. She’d thrown her home open for the wedding party and spared no expense in the catering. Standing with what was left of hisfamily, the Espositos watching them like wary cats with their hackles raised, Elio relished every mouthful of the exquisite buffet and made no attempt to hide that he was soaking in every detail of Valeria Esposito’s magnificent home.
It was incredible to see what his family’s blood had paid for.
Elio had walked past this house more times than he could begin to count, but this was the first time he’d been invited inside it. He’d considered, many times, forcing his way in, but this was a gratification he’d deferred. Shooting his way in would be too easy. He wanted his revenge on the family who had stolen everything and everyone from him to hurt.Reallyhurt. Death had cheated him of his revenge on Lorenzo, so he would take it from his grave. Besides, Lorenzo was just one cog in the big Esposito wheel. The biggest cog, yes, but there were other cogs too, and he was going to destroy them all, most especially the queen bitch that was Valeria Esposito. He’d promised his sister that when the time came, she could put the bullet in the queen bitch’s head.
Did they really imagine, after everything they’d done, that his vengeance would be satisfied with marriage to the snooty princess bitch that was Siena? The Espositos were nothing if not arrogant. Decades ago, Elio’s father had underestimated the Espositos, and now the roles had reversed, and in their arrogance, the Espositos were underestimating Marco Ranieri’s son.
When Elio was done, this house, with its grand rooms, multiple bedrooms, indoor and outdoor swimming pools and landscaped grounds, would be his. All the apartments and villas owned by the Esposito offspring would be his. All their businesses and interests, legitimate or otherwise, would be his. If any of her children survived their coming fall, and it was a very big if, then they would be his, too.