Page 20 of Poison and Wine
I shook my head. “I need to get my fiancée settled first.”
“Kellan can do that,” Seamus suggested.
“She’s my responsibility, so I will see to her,” I replied.
“I’d rather have Kellan,” Caterina mumbled.
I chose to ignore her comment. Instead, I pointed to one of the men standing in the hallway. “Just in case you get the crazy idea to run away, it’s not just my brothers and I you have to worry about. There are guards set up throughout the house and grounds.”
Caterina’s face paled momentarily, but then she quickly slid her mask back in place.
“Are you hungry?” I asked. At the shake of her head, I asked, “Do you need something to drink?”
“No,” she whispered.
“Then I’ll show you to our bedroom.”
I didn’t realize I had said anything offending until Caterina’s terror-filled eyes snapped off the floor. “Our bedroom?” she questioned in a strangled voice.
“Don’t get yer knickers in a twist, Kitten. You won’t be performing any marital duties tonight,” I replied with a chuckle.
I started for the stairs when Caterina’s sniffle froze me. When I dared to look at her, tears streamed down her face. Just when I thought she couldn’t surprise me again, she sank to her knees in front of me. Her chest rose and fell with harsh sobs. “Please, please don’t do this. I’m begging you to let me go.”
For reasons I couldn’t fathom, her anguished cries had an effect on me. My blackened heart ached in my chest. I hated that I was the one inflicting her emotional pain.
At the same time, the fact that I felt sorry for her enraged me. I could practically hear my father sneering in my ear about my weakness. With an angry shake of my head, I snarled, “That’s not happening, so get off your fucking knees!”
“You could ransom me back to my family. While I’m dead to my father, my brothers would pay you a lot of money to get me back.”
While her offer was tempting, I shook my head. “We must have a marital alliance.”
The glimmer of hope in Caterina’s eyes vanished at my words. She then curled into herself to weep unabashedly. Her cries felt like tiny pinpricks along my skin. But with each jab, the angrier I became that she was emasculating me, especially in front of the others.
When I glanced at my brothers, their expressions revealed pure horror. From the way they looked, you would’ve thought something truly terrifying, like a banshee, had swept through the room instead of a woman crying.
To prove a lass couldn’t lead me around by the balls, I stalked back over to Caterina. “Enough!” I commanded. After grabbing her by the arm, I tugged her to her feet. When she wavered, I swept her into my arms. Although the added weight caused my thigh to scream in agony, I ignored it and started for the stairs once again. Each step was torture, but I wouldn’t falter. I would not allow any further weakness either physically or emotionally.
I didn’t know which room had been allocated as ours, so I took the first bedroom I saw to spare my leg. After opening the door, I went over to an elaborate king-sized bed and eased Caterina down on the mattress. She immediately rolled into a fetal position and continued crying.
Without another word to her, I stalked out of the room and slammed the door. When I came back downstairs, my brothers sat around the living room in silence. They weren’t drinking, watching television, or partaking in a midnight snack. They sat in an almost trance.
After eyeing them suspiciously, I asked, “What the fuck is wrong with the lot of you?”
While Kellan and Dare remained silent, Quinn gruffly replied, “Nothing.”
“You’re full of shite.”
He exhaled a ragged breath. “It’s just I feel sorry for the wee lass, that’s all.”
My eyes bulged. “My hearing must be failing because I’m sure my brother, the family enforcer, didn’t just say he felt sorry for a spoiled mafia princess turned novice.”
Quinn crossed his arms over his broad chest. “You heard me just fine.”
“You don’t have an empathetic bone in your body.”
“That might be true, but at the same time, I feel sorry for her.”
Turning from him in exasperation, I eyed Dare. After shifting the ice pack on his crotch, he said, “It couldn’t hurt to be a bit kinder to her.”