The Marriage Debt (De Vos Mafia #2)(4)

Fuck.

I wish I’d never left the house.

“JILL!” Luca’s voice echoes in my mind. “DON’T YOU FUCKING RUN AWAY FROM ME!”

I’ll never get him out of my head, no matter how hard I try.

What else was I supposed to do but grab Liam and drive off with him? I had to do something to stop them from fighting.

But when I look at Liam sitting in the passenger seat next to me, something doesn’t feel right.

Even though I saved him from Luca’s wrath, the pain in his eyes confuses me.

But there’s no time to think about what happened between us.

“I’ll fight it out with him, brother to brother,” Liam says.

“But what if you lose?” I ask, barely paying attention to the road anymore.

“Then I’ll lose, and he gets what he wants …”

The way he looks at me with those beautiful eyes of his unravels me. There is no darkness to be found.

Until he says the word, “You.”

Lightning suddenly strikes, blinding me. The car veers off the road.

It all happens so fast.

In a second, we hit the water. The crash is as loud as a gunshot.

Within a few more seconds, the car begins to fill with water and submerges.

Screaming is no use. No one can hear me.

The water is closing in fast.

I manage to break free from my belt, but Liam is floating in his seat, unconscious.

Why, why, why?

My fingers can’t find enough strength to free him, and my oxygen is fading fast. I search for the hammer, and I smash the window when I finally find it. I try to push Liam out one last time, but it’s not working. His clothes are stuck on the window. And with the last bit of my energy, I swim out of the car without him, despite the guilt eating me alive.

Despite the fact that I know he won’t survive.

But I don’t want to die down there with him.

I want to live.

No matter the cost.



Luca



* * *



Four days after Liam’s death



* * *



Goodbye, Liam.

It’s written on his tombstone, but there is no casket.

No body.

Nothing.

It’s as if he suddenly vanished into thin air after our messed-up fight.

Even though I know he didn’t.

Jill drove off with him and crashed her car off a cliff … straight into the water. His body might still be there.

I stand over the grave with my parents. There’s only a photograph of what was once my brother.

None of this feels real as I stare at the people around me. It was only days ago that I last saw him alive …

When he was kissing Jill.

My hands ball into fists as I gaze up at her, fury blazing in my eyes.

She drove him to his death. Literally.

All because she couldn’t handle me giving her the best orgasm she’d ever had, so she decided to kiss my brother instead.

Fuck.

Even though taking the crown from my brother, the perfect son, was all I ever fucking wanted, I won’t ever forgive her for killing him.



Present



* * *



All these years, I’ve waited until she’d finally fall into my clutches to pay for her crimes. I searched for her in vain when she disappeared, but now Jill Baas will be all mine.

I can’t believe she actually fucking came back to save her goddamn sister. Luck has never been on my side, but today, I own it.

Nothing compares to her hand locked in mine as I pull her closer onto the altar where I will make her my wife. Well, maybe one thing will … my cock locked in her wet, aching pussy.

But first, I’ll put my ring on her finger and make her submit.

Jasmine seemed like an easy win, but Jill? She’s a fiery one, and I can’t fucking wait to have a chance at taming her.

Her sister was just a distraction for me, a toy I could play with while my parents made more money off deals made by the Baas family. Of course they agreed to marry the girl off to me in exchange for the debt created when my brother died by Jill’s hands.

But I never expected Jill to show up and take care of matters herself.

What a fucking magical twist this wedding has taken.

Nothing, and I mean nothing, can steal this wicked smile off my face as I look her in the eyes, and say, “Jill …”

“Luca,” she hisses back so loudly it’s like she wants to bite my head off.

I know she hates me, but I don’t care. She destroyed my family and me, and now it’s my turn to annihilate her.

The notary my father hired, a mafia man who’s known to do marriages with unwilling brides, clears his throat. “Dearly beloved. We have gathered here today to celebrate the union of Luca De Vos and Jas—Jill Baas.” He clears his throat again. “To join this man and this woman in holy matrimony.”

Jill briefly glances to the back, where Jasmine is seated and crying her eyes out in silence.

But I want all of her attention.

All of it.

So I squeeze her hand, and whisper, “Look at me.”

She sneers, “I don’t want to.”

I lower my eyes. “Did you forget I’m carrying more than just a huge dick?”