Bound by Mafia's Vows

Sienna stood at the altar shaking her hands. and the cathedral chandeliers were stars overhead, cold and distant and inaccessible. This was a wedding she had never dreamed of in her life. And none was where she was a prize, a bargaining price, a debt to pay. The mutterings of the guests were knives. Her father was seated stiffly in the front row, and would not look at her at all. and then he looked round at Dante Morelli. The man she had been hearing all her life, the Ice King, the heir to the Moretti Famiglia, stood motionless. Black suit, white shirt, nothing betrayed feeling, nothing betrayed thought. His eyes were keen, steel-under-snow gray. And when they landed on her… Sienna caused her pulse to stutter. Not a wife, a contract, he thought, leaning near and talking to her in a low, commanding voice. Keep out of my bed and you keep alive. Sienna blinked. The language was stinging, atrociously practical. She was about to reply, when the priest coughed, and prompted her to think that this was, after all, legal. Final. Binding. Her father had rolled their shipping empire away like a nickel and dimed it. Now she was the currency. She had been a law student ten years, defender of criminals in mock court trials, and now she was helpless. She was surrounded by candles that were smouldering with irony. Sienna struggled to stare him in the eyes, since Dante was sliding the wedding-ring on to her finger, cold as ice against her flesh. Not with love. Not with submission. But with calculation. It was not a girl to fuss and he was not a man to believe. The vows were mumbled, near meaningless phrases, yet each syllable made a mark between them -lines she had no desire to cross. The terms of the contract were uncomplicated: follow the letter and live the life. That was her plan. That was all she could plan. The crowd clapped. They did not notice the slight change of posture in Dante, the manner in which he looked at the exit doors, with anticipation of trouble. Sienna did. She had never been a blind girl. Always alert. The welcome it had received was sparkling, stifling and fatal in its silent manner. Visitors were dancing, laughing, whispering, yet all their eyes shouted the same thing: she was a part of the Moretti family now. Dante remained quiet next her, an impregnable tower. No smiles. No greetings. Nothing human betrayed him. But then a scream broke in on the air. Sienna froze. Dante moved first. Faster than human thought. He grabbed her arm and she did not fall. Remain with me, he said, still quite composed, yet there was something hard in the word that caused the room to quiet down. A waiter had collapsed. One person screamed something about a knife. It was an indifference of details to Sienna. Only the instinct to survive. Dante gripped her hand not in affection, but in property. In protection. In warning. She did not know whether she was frightened at him--or at the world he had become. Not only were the Morettis rich, but they were untouchable. Dangerous. Deadly. And now she had fallen in their ring. Dante later on, after the commotion subsided, took her aside in the silence of the great hall of the estate. There was a darkness on his face, dimmed by candlelight. I told you so, he said, almost in a caressing manner. “You are not my wife. You are not my partner. Thou art the daughter of a man that owest naught to my family. Act accordingly.” Sienna’s jaw tightened. I am not your chess piece, you see, I said. Her voice did not tremble, but her hands shook in the creases of her dress. I am not afraid of your threats, I said. Dante’s eyes glinted. “You should be.” The conflict between them was an organism. Each move she made, each thing that she said seemed like a battle. She might struggle with him, yet he held every weapon in this house in this world. Money, influence, power, and eyes that had a way of right through her lies. Sienna on the night she unpacked her things in the guest wing, discovered that in her door was slipped a small envelope. In bold, black, her name is written. Inside was a single note: That is not the end of the debts of your father. Her blood ran cold. She believed that it was easy to survive. Survive, obey, and hope to get a chance to run away. However, this time, she understood that it was a bigger matter than money. Larger than the errors of her father. . The Moretti family was a secret. Dangerous ones. And Dante, he was her protector and her captor. Sienna is lying there in the dark, staring up at the ceiling, and she decided: she was not going to be a helpless pawn. Not even for the Ice King. Tomorrow, the real game began.