Dante raised his glass. “I couldn’t have chosen better myself,” he told him before taking a drink.
Fuck, even his boss was happy, which was sometimes a hard thing to accomplish.
But why wasn’t he? Even after getting his revenge…
His boss could see he hadn’t stopped watching her either. “Why don’t you go dance with her?”
Taking his eyes off her, he finally scanned the room seeing only happy, drunk faces. “I’m not leaving you unprotected.”
“I’m not unprotected. I have Todd and enough of my men around me.”
Todd and the other Caruso men standing around the boss protecting him weren’t Drago.
“Go dance with her,” Dante ordered this time. “It’ll make me and the families happy.”
His eyes moved around the room once more seeing no threats, so he nodded telling himself that he was going to dance with his wife, not because he wanted to but because he was following orders.
Men. They could be so stupid.
* * *
“May I steal her?”
She heard the words for the second time tonight, except this time it didn’t come from her brother and instead from someone she didn’t expect.
“I guess.” Reluctantly, Leo let him have her to dance with.
“I think he wanted to finish the song.” Kat laughed while she watched a sad Leo walk away.
Drago grabbed her waist before the kid could come back to take her away. “Too bad. He’s not the one married to you.”
Deciding to play along, she smiled as she raised a brow. “You’re not jealous, are you?”
“Might be, if he were older.”
She was stunned for a second. Hearing him say that didn’t sound like the little game they were playing pretending to be husband and wife. That almost sounded real. And why is he being nice again? What in the hell is in the air tonight? Everyone in this whole damn room was getting along too nicely; it wasn’t making sense. “Why is everyone so happy?” She didn’t even realize the question had passed her lips till Drago answered her.
“Because it’s a start to a new world, Katarina.”
This time when she looked around, she could see it for what it really was… the beginning of peace. The Carusos had really called it; mixing their bloods could stop the possibility of war forever. With Angel and Adalyn, she and Drago, and the families safely interacting with each other, it opened up more relationship possibilities to a point where the families wouldn’t dare to touch the other in fear their own could get hurt in the crossfire. It was genius.
Kat bit her lip. “I guess it’s not so bad… marrying you, then.”
“Yeah.” His fire eyes stared down at the lip she’d just bit. “I suppose so.”
“Kiss!” someone yelled out so loudly you could hear it over the music.
Her eyes now fell to his lips at the request.
“Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss!” More and more people started to chant with a clap of their hands until everyone in the whole room was chanting and watching them, waiting on the edge of their seats for their first kiss.
Kat didn’t know if it was the magic in the air, or if it was the excitement of the new world, but when Drago lifted her chin up with a finger, she parted her lips, closing her eyes. The lips that took hers were ones of possession, not of an equal marriage. That should have scared her, but there was no time as real fear was soon about to set in.
BANG.
Hearing the first shot sent the room to a quiet standstill.
It was only when a shrilling scream filled the room that people realized what they feared they’d heard was real. The second gunshot that was going to sound out soon enough was only going to confirm it.
With everyone in the room either screaming or running to take cover, it sent what was a lovely night of celebration to a twenty-first-century arranged marriage… straight from hell.
BANG.
Eighteen
The End to a Beautiful Beginning
Two would be shot.
One would survive.
One would be killed.
Both might just be the end to a beautiful beginning.
Nineteen
Making Their Marriage the Shortest One in History
The second the first shot rang out, Drago pulled his lips away from hers, hearing that shrilling scream that sent goose bumps up everyone’s back. Before she knew it, he used the speed of a bullet dropping them to the ground.
His tall body lay over hers, protecting her as people started running and trampling over each other. “When I lift off you, you’re going to crawl to that table in the corner.”
Feeling her heart pumping, she didn’t have time to answer before the pressure of his large body was lifted off her and she was forced to turn over and begin crawling with Drago’s help with her heavy dress.
Once they reached the corner, Matthias found them, keeping low to the ground himself.
“Cover her,” Drago ordered her brother.