Sleeping with the Enemy

“Ouch! Watch what you are doing!” I yell, pulling away as a sharp pain bites into my ribs. “Stand still, Siena,” Maria snaps. She does not apologize. She just pulls the thick lace corset even tighter. Another cold pin stabs through the fabric, scratching my bare waist. I gasp and flinch, grabbing the edge of my table. “I cannot breathe, Maria. You need to let it out a little. The corset is too tight.” “I cannot let it out,” Maria argues, her voice muffled around the silver pins in her mouth. “It needs to be tight. The Don said you must look absolutely perfect. Now, put your arms up and stop arguing.” I groaned and raised my arms. I looked at my reflection in the tall mirror, I was standing in the middle of my locked bedroom, wearing nothing but a very thin, we -looking silk slip. Three women surround me, violently pinning the heavy white wedding dress on my body. The tight corset pushes my breasts up high, making my cleavage completely exposed. I do not feel like a beautiful bride. I feel like a piece of meat being prepared for an auction. “Why is my father rushing this?” I ask, looking at the other two maids beside me. They are kneeling on the floor, pinning the heavy hem of the skirt. “I do not even have a fiancé. Who am I wearing this for? Whose wedding is tomorrow?” The women do not look at me. They just keep their eyes firmly on the floor. “Answer me,” I demand, my voice rising. “I am the daughter of the boss. You will tell me what is going on!” Before Maria could even speak, a loud, heavy knock sounded on my door. The doorknob turns violently. “Hey! You cannot come in here! It is locked!” I yell, crossing my arms over my exposed chest. The heavy oak door swung open after my last sentence .Two of my father’s armed guards stepped into the room. Their dark suits and large guns look completely out of place in my soft, pink bedroom. They stop and stare at my half-naked body for a second. Their eyes drop down to the tight corset and my bare legs before they quickly looking away. “The boss wants to see you in his office,” the taller guard, Marco, says. His voice is completely flat. “Right now.” “Get out,” I snap, pointing to the hallway. “Give me ten minutes to put some real clothes on.” “No,” Marco says. He steps further into the room, his hand resting on his gun belt. “The boss said right now. Do not make us drag you down the hall in your underwear, Siena. Come on.” My jaw tightens so hard my teeth began to ache. I turn around and grab a dark silk robe from the bed wrapping it tightly over my body , tying the belt around my waist in a hard, angry knot. “Fine. Let's go.” My bare feet slap quietly against the cold marble floors as I follow them down the long hallway. Men with guns stood at every single corner of the house. Marco pushes open the heavy doors to my father's office. The strong, bitter smell of cheap cigars and old whiskey welcomed me instantly. My father, Don De Luca, stands by his large office desk. He looks terrible like ten years older than he did last month. The mafia war on the streets is destroying our family, and I can see the heavy, dark stress under his eyes. “Close the door,” my father orders the guards. Marco pulls the heavy doors shut. And it was just me and my father inside. “Sit down, Siena,” he says, pointing a thick finger at a leather chair. “I prefer to stand,” I reply, pulling my robe tighter across my chest. “What is going on, Papa? Why are the tailors treating my dress like a medical emergency? Why won't anyone in this house tell me what is happening?” He did not answer right away. He walks over to his crystal liquor cabinet and pours a large glass of amber whiskey. “We are losing the war,” he says coldly, staring at the glass. “I know things are bad on the streets” “You do not know anything,” he interrupts,turning to face me. “You stay locked in your bedroom with your books and your dresses. Out there, we are bleeding. We lost three shipping warehouses last night. We lost fifty men in the last month alone. Our bank accounts are freezing.” I swallow hard. “I didn't know it was that bad.” “It is worse,” my father laughs bitterly. “If this continues, the De Luca family will be wiped off the map by next week. We will all be dead.” My stomach drops to the floor. “So what do we do? We call our allies. We ask the southern families for money or soldiers.” “There are no allies left,” he growls. “Everyone is too afraid of him to help us.” “Afraid of who?” I ask. “Luca Moretti,” my father says. He swallows the entire glass of whiskey in one gulp. “He is destroying us piece by piece. But I fixed it. I made a deal with him. The fighting stops today and we are calling a truce.” “A truce?” I let out a massive breath of relief. My shoulders drop. “That is good, Papa. If he agreed to stop shooting, then we are safe. We can rebuild right.” “The truce comes with a heavy price, daughter ,” my father says. He puts the empty glass down and looks right at my face. His eyes were dead. “To seal the deal, you are getting married tomorrow morning.” I freeze. The air completely leaves my lungs as I stare at him, waiting for the punchline of a very bad joke,But he does not smile. “Married?” I choke out. “To who? Which one of his men?” “Not his men,” my father says slowly, bracing his hands on the desk. “To the head of the Moretti empire. You belong to Luca Moretti now.” My blood turns to ice. Luca Moretti!!. The entire underworld calls him the Phantom Boss. He is thirty years old and completely ruthless. He kills people with his bare hands. He built his massive empire from ashes, and he does not leave survivors. The terrifying reputation of the Phantom Boss makes my skin tingle. The sudden thought of a dangerous, violent man like that claiming my body makes my breath hitch. I imagine his large, rough hands sliding over my exposed skin, his cold eyes staring down at me in the dark and It fills me with a heavy and unwanted curiosity that makes my chest very tight. “No,” I whisper, shaking my head violently to clear the thoughts. “No, Papa. You cannot do this. He is a monster! He kills our people!” “He is a businessman,” my father corrects me, his voice rising. “He is a butcher!” I yelled, stepping closer to his desk. “You are handing me over to our worst enemy! He will kill me the second the wedding is over! He hates us!” “He will not kill you,” my father says, crossing his arms. “He demanded you as the price for peace. He wants a De Luca bride to parade around the city to prove he won the war, And I paid his price. I gave him you.” “I will not do it,” I say. My voice shakes with anger, not fear. “I will not marry him. I will run away tonight. I will leave the city.” My father grabs his heavy crystal glass and slams it onto the desk. It shatters sending sharp pieces of glass flying across the wood. “You will not run anywhere!” he roars, his face turning red. “You belong to him now! I signed the contract. You will stand at the altar, you will say your vows, and you will spread your legs for him on your wedding night! You will do exactly what he tells you to do!” My chest was beating really fast. The thin silk of my robe slips off one shoulder, exposing the bare skin of my collarbone and the top of my breast. I did not even bother to pull it back up. “You are selling me,” I say, my voice dropping to a low, disgusted whisper. “You are selling me like a cheap w***e to save your own skin.” “I am saving this family!” “You are a coward!” I scream at him, pointing my finger at his chest. “You are trading your own daughter to a killer just to stay alive! You are not a boss. You are a weak, pathetic old man!” Smack. My father’s large hand hits my face so hard my head snaps to one side. The force sends me stumbling backward,I grab the back of the leather chair before I can fall to the floor. The room goes completely silent.“You will marry Luca Moretti tomorrow. If you try to run, my guards will shoot you in the legs and carry you to the church bleeding. Do you understand me?” “I understand,” I say quietly, my voice dead. “I understand that my father is dead to me.” “Get out of my sight,” my father growls, turning his back to me. “I will see you at the church.” I do not say another word,I just turn around and walk out of his office. I keep my spine perfectly straight as I walk past Marco and the other guards in the hallway. If my father is going to throw me to the devil, I am going to make sure the devil chokes on me. I am not going to be a quiet, obedient little wife. Luca Moretti will have to fight me every single day and I will make his life a living hell. I stormed down the hallway to my bedroom and slammed the heavy wooden door shut, and locked the deadbolt with a loud click. I let out a long, shaky breath and lean my back against the door. I am finally alone,safe inside my locked, heavily guarded room. Then, I open my eyes and stop breathing. I stare at the center of my room. Sitting perfectly in the middle of my neatly made bed is a small, black velvet jewelry box. It had not been there when I left for my father's office. Maria and the tailors are gone and My room is totally empty, The windows are locked, But the box is sitting right there on my perfectly arranged white sheets. My heart started pounding so loudly I can hear it in my ears. I slowly peel my back off the door and walk toward the bed. The black velvet is soft under my fingertips. I take a deep breath and flip the lid open. Inside the box is a single, shiny silver bullet. It rests on a bed of dark red silk and next to the heavy bullet is a small piece of thick paper. I pick it up with shaking fingers,There is a handwritten note in sharp, dark ink.. Wear this tomorrow, little bird. It is the only protection your father left you. L.M. Luca Moretti. He is not just waiting for me at the church. The Phantom Boss already has his men inside my seemingly impenetrable home. He bypassed all of my father's armed guards, walked right into my private, locked bedroom and left a threat directly on my bed.. He is already inside my cage, and the wedding hasn't even started yet.