The Don's Bride

Chapter 5

Sonia spent the rest of the day trying to understand the “De Santis* mansion.

The place was too quiet. Not the peaceful kind of quiet, the kind that comes from control. Guards stood near certain doors without speaking, and nearly everyone dropped their eyes whenever Luca walked past.

Fear lived here, and Sonia could feel it.

She settled near one of the large upstairs windows and stared out at the iron gates surrounding the property, trying to make the reality of her situation sink in. Two days ago her biggest worry was tuition. Now she was sitting inside a mafia mansion watching armed men patrol the grounds while people spoke to her in half-answers and meaningful silences. Marco came carrying another tray of food.

"You people really think food fixes everything," she said.

Marco set it down. "You still look like you haven't slept."

"Because I haven't."

"Fair." He dropped into the chair across from her like he had nowhere else to be.

Sonia watched him. Marco was the strangest part of all of this. He carried weapons, worked for dangerous people, and didn't hesitate when things got ugly, but he was still somehow the most human person in this entire house.

"Are you always this friendly with girls you've kidn*pped?" she asked.

"You weren't kidnapped."

"Right. Because people who aren't kidn*pped usually have armed guards outside their bedroom door."

"That's for your protection."

"That word again."

Marco leaned back. "You really hate that word."

"I hate that nobody explains what I actually need protection from."

His expression shifted. The easy smile went away. "That's probably for the best."

Sonia felt her stomach tighten. "So there really is something."

Marco said nothing. But the way he said nothing was its own answer.

She looked down at her hands for a moment. "Did Luca actually kill that man last night?"

Marco was quiet for a beat. Then, simply said "Yes."

The honesty caught her off guard. "You just admitted it like that?"

"You already saw it happen."

She swallowed,"Doesn't that bother you?"

Marco looked genuinely puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"That people die around him."

He rested his arms on the table and seemed to actually think about it. "You think Luca enjoys it?"

"I have no idea what Luca enjoys."

"That's probably true," Marco said, almost to himself.

Sonia studied him.

The lightness left his face. "Luca saved my life once."

Sonia didn't say anything. Marco rarely dropped the easy humor, so when he did she paid attention.

"A long time ago," he said, "some people were trying to take over parts of the city. I ended up caught in the middle of it." He paused. "Luca got me out."

"He helped you?"

"He did more than help." Something dark moved briefly across his face. "If it wasn't for him I'd be dead."

Sonia leaned back slowly. That explained a lot, the loyalty, the way Marco followed without question, the way he seemed to genuinely care what happened to Luca even when Luca made it difficult.

Before she could ask anything else, voices drifted up from somewhere downstairs.

One of them was Luca. The other she didn't recognize.

Beside her, Marco went still.

"Are you expecting someone?" she asked.

"No."

That wasn't reassuring.

He moved toward the door. Sonia followed before he could tell her not to.

From the top of the staircase she could see down into the entrance below. Luca stood near the front door speaking to another man. Tall, dark-haired, well-dressed. There was a smile on his face that looked pleasant enough until you looked a little closer and realized it wasn't.

Luca's expression was the opposite. Closed off. Guarded in a way.

Then the stranger looked up and saw her.

He held her gaze a second too long. "Well," he said quietly, "that explains a lot."

Marco muttered something under his breath beside her.

Sonia kept her voice low. "Who is that?"

But she already had a feeling the answer wasn't going to be simple.

The man moved toward the base of the stairs. Everything about him was controlled, same as Luca, but where Luca was cold and blunt, this man was smooth. Warmer on the surface. Which somehow made him feel more dangerous, not less.

His eyes stayed on Sonia. "You must be Sonia."

Her stomach tightened. Another person who already knew her name.

Luca moved forward slightly. "Don't."

The man smiled. "Relax."

"I said don't."

The smile disappeared immediately, like he'd switched it off. Sonia looked between them confused. Whatever these two were to each other, it wasn't simple and it wasn't good.

The man turned back to her. "I'm Adrian."

Calm voice. Polite tone. Perfectly ordinary, which was exactly why it put her on edge.

"Do all of you know my name before we meet?" she asked.

Adrian laughed. Actually laughed. "I like her."

Marco looked like he needed a long rest.

Luca looked like he needed Adrian to leave.

Adrian glanced around the mansion casually. "You brought her here. That's a risk."

"She's under my protection," Luca said.

Something shifted in Adrian's eyes when he heard that. He looked back at Sonia with quiet curiosity. "You saw the shooting?"

"Yes."

"And you're still here by choice?"

"I wouldn't exactly call it a choice."

That got a small, genuine smile out of him. He seemed to find her genuinely interesting,

Luca's patience had clearly run out. "What do you want?"

Adrian slid his hands into his pockets. "There's talk already."

Marco swore under his breath.

Sonia looked between them. "Talk about what?"

Nobody answered.

She was really starting to hate these people.

Adrian glanced at her with something almost like sympathy. "They do that constantly," he said. "Talk around people instead of to them."

Sonia blinked. Finally, someone saying what she'd been thinking for the past twelve hours.

Luca's expression darkened. "You shouldn't be here."

Adrian shrugged. "And yet."

The air tightened. Marco shifted closer to Luca, just slightly, just enough for Sonia to notice he was positioning himself in case something happened.

Adrian looked at Sonia one more time. "You should be careful with this family."

"That's enough," Luca said.

Adrian kept going like he hadn't heard. "Trust means something different to them than it does to everyone else."

Sonia looked at Luca instinctively. There was something in Adrian's warning that felt like it came from somewhere personal. "Leave," Luca said. Just one word.

For the first time, Adrian's expression went fully flat. The charm cleared away and something harder showed underneath it. "You've always been good at making enemies."

"And you've always talked too much."

Sonia had been watching them both carefully. And slowly, quietly, it clicked.

"You two know each other," she said.

Silence.

Which was the same as a yes.

Adrian smiled again, slower this time, and colder. He looked at Sonia like he was about to give her something Luca hadn't.

"He didn't tell you?"

Luca said nothing. But the look on his face said everything.

Adrian's eyes stayed on hers. "Luca and I go way back.”