The Mafia's Stolen Bride

Chapter 1 Lexi POV “I don’t know about this, Charlie,” I whined to my best friend, looking nervously around the busy nightclub lit with strobe lights. Charlotte - or Charlie, as I liked to call my five-foot-nothing best friend - sighed and hugged me before holding me at arm’s length, looking very much like the teacher she was. “We’ve been through this already, Lex. If your father can force you into a marriage then he can’t stop me from throwing you a banging bachelorette party,” Charlie lectured me in the same tone of voice I was sure she used on the kids in her class. “Besides, we’re already here so you can’t back out now. Do you even know how hard it is to get into Skyline? It’s practically an exclusive club and I had to kiss arse to get us on the list!” I sighed loudly and tugged on the minidress Charlie had somehow convinced me to wear. “I know, I know. It’s just that Hector…” “Don’t you dare even mention Hector,” Charlie cut me off with a raised eyebrow. “Babe, you’re twenty-one years old for crying in a f*****g bucket. Your uncle shouldn’t be able to dictate to you where you should go and who you should be with.” Only, he did. As the head of our family, I knew that I had to listen to his every command - or else. That’s just how it worked in the mafia. Hell, I wasn’t even meant to be friends with Charlie and had sworn that she wouldn’t ever know the secrets of the family… but it was impossible to keep things from my best friend. Luckily I could trust her with my life. Charlie grabbed my hand and tugged me toward the bar, neon lights illuminating the alcohol on display behind the barmen dressed in black. “Two shots of whatever you suggest,” Charlie ordered, slapping her credit card on the counter. The barman winked at her and poured four shots, sliding them our way. “On me, Miss Henderson,” he said loudly over the music as he read her name on the card before he passed it back to her. Charlie blushed and smiled brightly at him before she passed me a shot. “Drink up, Lex. It’s your last night of freedom and I’m going to make sure it is one you never forget!” I bit my lower lip before I downed the first shot, only to have the second thrust into my hands to follow the first. The alcohol tasted like caramel, but burned its way down my throat and dulled my senses immediately. What can I say? I’m a light-weight. “I can’t believe I won’t even get to watch you walk down the aisle,” Charlie sniffed dramatically as she sank into the booth we'd managed to nab, her eyes shining with unshed tears. “This whole private ceremony thing is bullshit, you should have your best friend there for support instead of being surrounded by those vultures. It’s just not fair!” I snorted and took another sip of whatever the cocktail was that she had passed me. “You don’t get to be upset,” I told her stiffly. “I’m the one who should be in tears about this. I’m being forced to marry a guy twenty years older than me who smells like raw fish and has more gold in his mouth than actual teeth!” Yep, my father had quite literally scraped the bottom of the barrel for that match. Charlie wrinkled up her nose in disgust, “that’s just gross! Your father is a jerk for even expecting you to do this. f**k his business! If he loved you he wouldn’t force you into this marriage in the first place.” That hit a nerve and I took another gulp of the cocktail. My father didn’t love me. Hell, he didn’t even like me! I was a commodity to him, my value lying purely in the fact that I could be married off to the highest bidder. And that was who I was marrying - the man who offered my father access to smuggling routes in exchange for me. Screw how I felt about the whole deal. “You know what, Charlie,” I declared, holding up my glass and inspecting the blue liquid. “I think you’re right. Tonight is my last night of freedom before I get shackled to that old bastard, and there is no f*****g way I’m leaving this club without doing something wild and carefree.” Charlie squealed and clapped her hands excitedly, “oh definitely, babe! You need to at least be kissed by someone else before that creep lays his lips on you.” Just the thought made me want to gag. I’d always secretly been jealous of Charlie’s carefree lifestyle, and lived vicariously through her stories of wild one-night-stands and secret relationships. Now that I had one last chance to actually do something for myself, I was going to jump at it. We surveyed the club carefully, feeling like some sort of secret agent on a spy mission to find the most eligible man for my last hit at freedom. “Ooh! There’s a guy leaning against the wall there who looks pretty cute,” Charlie nudged me. I followed her gaze and felt a shudder run down my spine. “Nope, he’s giving me Ted Bundy vibes, and I don’t feel like dying tonight.” Charlie snorted and rolled her eyes. “Live on the edge a little bit, babe,” she moaned, turning to where the DJ was just finishing up his set. “Ooh, I know! The DJ! They’re always keen for a one night stand, and I’m pretty sure he will be the best f**k of your life!” I raised an eyebrow at Charlie and she giggled. “Well, you don’t have to screw him, but do you really want Old-Fish-Man to be your first?” I wrinkled my nose in disgust, bile rising in my throat just at the thought. “Exactly,” she prodded with a wink. “Besides, who better to lose your virginity to than a man who has more experience between the sheets than brain cells?” She had a point. “Fine! I’ll go and say hi, and see where it goes. Okay?” I agreed, swallowing what was left of my drink in one gulp. “Go get ‘im, tiger,” she laughed, spanking my backside as I walked past her. I swallowed hard, trying to push through the blurry haze of people on the dance floor. Fueled by the alcohol induced courage, I walked straight up to the DJ booth spying the most gorgeous man I had ever seen in my life, grabbed him by the front of his black shirt, and kissed him. There was a brief moment of hesitation before I felt his arms wrap around me, pulling me closer to him as he deepened the kiss, and it felt as if my soul melted into his as my fingers thread through his pitch black hair in an effort to anchor myself to him. Cue the fireworks. “Ahem,” someone coughed, and the guy broke our kiss, his eyes locked on mine. “Sorry Boss,” the man who interrupted said in a voice which seemed somewhat nervous. “Your grandfather is on the phone for you.” I glanced at the man - a huge bouncer who seemed somewhat terrified of the guy I had just kissed for some weird reason. But then again, he had called him “Boss” so he was probably scared he was going to lose his job for interrupting. Mr Gorgeous sighed and nodded to the bouncer who slipped quietly away - well as quietly as a man of his immense size could. “You wait right here,” Mr Gorgeous said to me, cupping my face in his hands as his thumb ran along my lower lip. I blinked a few times as my brain tried to process his instruction, and watched him walk to the stairs which lead up to a closed door with the word “office” written on it in fancy writing. A few girls stood nearby staring at me with disbelief on their faces, and I started to question my actions entirely. There was no way in hell that the man I just kissed was merely some halfwit DJ. Panic filled me and I gripped my trembling hands together, fully aware of the girls who were now whispering loudly behind their hands, their eyes still returning to me often enough for me to be certain that I was the subject of their discussion. “Does she think Ryker Valentos would actually sleep with someone like her?” I heard the one girl half shriek, her eyes narrowing as she glared at me. Valentos? Ryker Valentos? No. Absolutely f*****g not. Chewing on my bottom lip, I moved as quickly as I possibly could back to the booth where I had left Charlie. “We’ve got to go,” I told her, pulling her from the grip of the guy who was draped all over her like a cashmere coat. “Hey!” he objected, but I didn’t care. I had to get out of the club before my childhood enemy came back. Luckily, Charlie seemed to sense my urgency and didn’t make too much of a fuss as I dragged her across the dancefloor toward the door. Together, Charlie and I made our hasty retreat, passing the bouncer who had interrupted my kiss with Mr. Gorgeous as we left the club. A taxi was waiting a short distance down the street and Charlie opened the door and climbed in, calling for me to get into the car. I’m not sure why, but I looked back at the club and my heart thumped in my chest as I saw Ryker standing there in the doorway to the club, a scowl on his gorgeous face and his fists clenched at his gorgeous sides. I’m not sure what possessed me to wink at him and blow him a kiss, but that’s what I did before I got into the taxi, my heart beating against my ribcage as the car drove away. The whole way home, Charlie pried me for answers, and yet there was only thing my alcohol impaired mind could think of as a response. “It doesn’t matter. I will hopefully never see him again.” Ryker Valentos belonged in my childhood, along with the rest of the ghosts.