“Don’t lie to me, Mia.” Her father cut her off with a bark of anger. “You’ve taken advantage of my absence to whore yourself out to the Toscanis yet again. And by the time I’m done with you, I’m certain you won’t be glad of anything.”
Well, at least he didn’t drag things out. She stiffened her spine and met his glare with one of her own. “I’m doing work for his company.”
“Enough.” He thudded his fist on his desk. “The guard who went with the Wolf to your office after you refused Dante’s requests for help told me what happened. Nico Toscani was with you. He attacked the Wolf, and now the Wolf is dead.”
“It was work,” she insisted.
God, oh god. Please don’t let Nico have killed him.
“Is this what you call work?” Dante closed the distance between them, and held up his phone. She grimaced when she saw a picture of Nico and her kissing outside her apartment building in a way that could not even remotely be construed as businesslike.
“It started off as business,” she said quietly.
Red-faced and shaking with rage, Dante rounded on her. “You betrayed the family with the enemy. He wants Papà dead.”
“Technically, he wants you dead,” she murmured, quietly enough that only he could hear, annoyed that Dante would dare to give her a lecture. Yes, she’d crossed the line, but it was her father’s line, not his.
Dante lifted his hand as if to strike her, and anger flared through her. If he dared to touch her, she would unleash a hell like nothing he’d ever experienced before. She had suffered through years of abuse from her father; she was not going to accept it from him.
“No, Dante,” Papà said. “She’s too stupid to see that he’s using her to get to me. Hitting her isn’t going to teach her anything.” He motioned to Rev and the guard nearest the window. “Put Kat over the table.”
“What?” Mia made a move toward her sister, not realizing two guards had come up behind her. They grabbed her arms, holding her back.
“You are done with Nico Toscani,” Papà growled. “You won’t see him again. I promised the Toscanis a Cordano bride and I won’t have the family honor smeared by going back on my word. You will marry Tony, as we agreed. And then Nico will pay for what he has done.”
“I’m not marrying him.”
Papà laughed. “Oh, I think you will. You’re a strong girl, but you have a weak heart.”
Mia watched in horror as Rev and the guard dragged Kat to the large meeting table at the side of her father’s office. “Leave her alone.”
“Dante.” Papà’s gaze didn’t leave hers. “Remove your belt. Beat Kat until Mia changes her mind.”
“No!” Mia struggled against the guards holding her, realizing too late why her father had so many in the room. “She doesn’t have anything to do with this. This is between you and me.” She looked to her brother. “Don’t do this, Dante. You can say no.”
“No, I can’t.” With grim determination, he unbuckled his belt and tugged it off while the two guards pinned Kat face down on the table.
“Dante!” Kat’s soft voice rose to sob. “Please. No.”
“Hurt me.” Mia thrashed in the guards’ arms, kicked and twisted to get away. “Whatever you’re planning. Do it to me. Hurt me.” She struggled, tried to reach her knife, but the guards were too strong, their hold too firm.
“That’s the problem.” Papà leaned back in chair and sighed. “I can’t hurt you. No one can hurt you. The more I beat you, the stronger you got. Even when I broke your fucking arm, you packed your bag with one hand and walked away. So I thought to be done with you. Leave you to the wolves. And what do you do? You bring dishonor to the family. You spread your legs for a man who issued a vendetta that has cost us many lives. A man who wants to kill your father. And when I tried to end the war, arranged a good marriage, you refused to obey. You refused to do your duty to your family. Until I threatened Kat. That’s when I realized I was giving you the wrong kind of pain.”
He nodded his head, and Dante whipped his belt across Kat’s thighs, striking just below her floral cotton skirt; the crack of leather on flesh as sharp as the shot of a gun.
Kat’s scream echoed through the room, speared through Mia’s heart.
“No.” She stared at Dante aghast. “Dante, don’t do this.”
Dante’s face tightened, and he turned away, but not before she saw darkness in his eyes. If there had been any bit of goodness left in her brother, it was gone now, destroyed just as her father had destroyed so many.
Dante struck Kat again and again. Her screams filled the room, her calls for Mia, their mother, for mercy. Bile rose in Mia’s throat, anger and frustration and hatred twisting her insides, but she couldn’t say the words to bind her to Tony for life, because if Kat was now fair game, who would protect her if Mia was gone?
“Stop.” Her father lifted a hand and Dante dropped his belt, chest heaving, a sheen of sweat over his brow. “I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this but Mia obviously needs another form of persuasion. Rev, give Dante the poker from the fire.”