Hers to Love

by Talia Ellison

  My brother’s lips spread into a tender smile.

  “What are you saying?” Aaron asked.

  “Before I explain, there’s something else I need to say. I never really had a chance to apologize for what I’ve done to you. There was so much evidence that you were like...” Sebastian scratched his head. “But it was stupid of me to get involved in some things without knowing all the facts.”

  “Apology accepted.”

  Sebastian inclined his head. “I have a proposal for you. If I hand over the leadership to you, you’ll have a lot of trouble getting everyone to agree to that. Yes, you could tell everyone who isn’t satisfied to leave, but that would weaken our family’s legacy, and we don’t want to be replaced by someone else.”

  Aaron fidgeted in his seat.

  “I believe co-leadership would be the best solution. Those who prefer to follow you could do so, and those who prefer me would stick with me. It would be easier for us to control everything, and you wouldn’t need my permission to issue orders. What do you say?”

  “You’d do that?”

  “Yes, because that’s our best option to move this family forward. I want us to be greater than we ever were under Roberto. You’d only have to agree to two rules: no sex slaves or any kind of slaves and no unnecessary killing.”

  “I can agree to that. I already freed all of my father’s slaves.”

  “Yes, I found out about that after I took charge,” Sebastian said. “I wish I had known before that you were trying to free girls right under your father’s nose, but I understand you had to keep that a secret.”

  My brother leaned across the table toward me. “If someone had told me a year ago I would be dining with the Viteris and witnessing them striking up a deal, I would’ve laughed my ass off.”

  “Me too.” I grinned.

  “So we have a deal?” Sebastian asked.

  “Yes,” Aaron said.

  “I’m going to announce it tomorrow morning, and you can sign the necessary papers. Oswald’s execution will take place too.”

  Aaron frowned. “I don’t know if there’s enough time to...”

  “Don’t worry. Just tell me who to reach out to, and we’ll do everything in our power to get your mother back.”

  “Thank you,” Aaron said. Sebastian extended his hand to him and Aaron shook it. It seemed the deal was sealed.

  “I changed my mind,” I said. “I’m starving. Let’s order something.”

  “As you wish,” Sebastian said.

  Chapter 23

  “I need your help,” Lora said, as she stood in the middle of the living room in Aaron’s and my house. Aaron had just returned from the Viteris’ residence where Sebastian had announced that there would be co-leadership.

  I still hadn’t had the time to hear how that had gone, and Aaron and I also had to decide if we’d keep living at this house or move somewhere else. I’d joked that our perfect living space would be right on the Viteri-Ferrara border, so that half of the rooms belonged to one area and the other half to the other. Even though we’d been working together, our families weren’t ready to accept any kind of a merger, but merely a peace treaty.

  “I’ve already sent people to check if they can get to Yvette,” Aaron said.

  “The Norwoods know she’s in their area.” Lora wasn’t her usual calm, collected self. Her black hair was in disarray, her eyes red-rimmed.

  “Did they contact you?” There was an edge in Aaron’s voice.

  “No. I tried to reach out to them. As far as one of my most loyal men was able to find out, they won’t allow us or anyone else into their area, and they don’t seem to care about my sister, which means she should be safe for now.”

  “But they’re still going to prevent us from getting to her?”

  “Yeah, it would seem so. I believe they’re hoping we’ll go there without their permission so they can hunt us down. We’d be their entertainment.” She curled her lip.

  Aaron looked up at me. “Any news from your family about Yvette’s whereabouts?”

  Tony was still our best choice for tracking down Aaron’s mother. I checked my phone again to make sure I hadn’t missed any updates, but there wasn’t anything showing up on the screen. “The last update from Tony said Yvette was staying at a hotel.”

  “If we can’t go there, can she come to us somehow?” Aaron asked Lora. “Are you sure she wouldn’t answer to a call from you or a message to meet with you? Doesn’t she have some lucid moments too? Or did the Norwoods forbid you from contacting her too?”

  “I don’t know.” Lora started to pace. “I don’t think she’d respond to my messages, and I don’t know what the Norwoods would do. They’d probably attempt to intercept our calls or anything we sent, and my sister is sometimes extremely difficult to find.”

  “So what they really want is to force us to violate their rules so they can have some fun hunting us down. Does that mean they’ll stop Yvette from coming to us too even if we succeed in luring her out somehow?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. There’s a small chance they would let her go if she chose to do so herself, as they already made it clear they aren’t interested in her. They wouldn’t go back on their word. It’s how they function.”

  “Yvette joined the Ferlantes because she thought she would get close to Aaron that way, right?” I said, and Lora nodded. “Would she come here if she knew where to find Aaron?”

  “If she wanted to find me, she wouldn’t have gone far away from here,” Aaron said.

  “Are you sure? What if she’s confused? What if she doesn’t really know where you are?” I looked from Aaron to Lora.

  “She used to think of this city as Roberto’s,” Lora said. “It’s possible she believes Aaron is someplace else, especially if someone told her something she found confusing.”

  “Okay.” I clasped my hands. “So how do we let her know Aaron’s here?”

  “It’ll be difficult,” Lora said. “I could find a way to sneak a message to her, by someone the Norwoods wouldn’t see coming, but I think we can pull that only once, so that means we have to be certain our message would work. And it could take a while for the delivery if my sister gets spooked.”

  “Could we send an image of Aaron to her? Maybe with a landmark that she can easily recognize? All we need is for her to leave the Norwoods area and nothing else,” I said.

  “I don’t believe that would work.” Lora had a pensive expression on her face. “She confused Aaron with Roberto before.”

  “Should I send her a message that I know the truth and wish to see her?” Aaron asked. “Or a voice message, perhaps?”

  “She doesn’t know your handwriting or your voice. It’s very likely she’d believe it was a trick from Roberto, and then we’d never get her to come to us.” Lora slumped into one of the chairs, letting out a long sigh, then her body went rigid. “I have an idea.”

  “You do?” Aaron asked.

  “You two need to throw a wedding.” Lora’s lips spread into a wide smile as she looked at Aaron and me.

  “What?” I gaped at her.

  “Just think about it. If you announce you’re getting married, the news will travel fast and will be easy to verify. We can make sure the message gets to my sister. She’ll come for Aaron because she’ll know exactly when and where he’ll be.”

  I blinked. “How on earth did you come to that idea? Aaron and I...”

  “You don’t really have to get married.” Lora waved her hand. “All we need is to lure my sister here. You can say later that you had a costume party. Nothing will matter as long as she’s with us again.”

  “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea,” Aaron said. “A wedding, even a fake one, is a huge security risk.”

  “No one will dare to attack any of us now. Not yet,” Lora said.

  “We don’t want to cause riots among the Viteris and Ferraras now that things are falling back in place.” A lot of people might be okay with us allying to fight against
our enemies from time to time, or not starting wars among ourselves, but a wedding and a potential merging of the families would cause unrest again.

  “Then tell your men it’s a fake wedding. It doesn’t matter. My sister’s too far away. We should be able to get her as soon as she leaves the Norwoods area, and if she somehow reaches this city without us catching her, she’ll still come to see what’s going on and to check if Aaron’s going to show up,” Lora said. “If you throw a regular party, she might think Aaron won’t come, but she’ll want to see this.”

  “I don’t...” I shook my head, not even able to wrap my mind around that.

  “I’ll leave you two to discuss this.” She hopped to her feet. “I’m going to find someone who can deliver the invitation to her.”

  When she was out of the room, I turned toward Aaron. “Do you think we should really go forward with Lora’s plan?”

  “I don’t know,” Aaron said. “If it can lure Yvette out of the Norwoods area, it’s worth a shot.”

  “I guess it can’t hurt since it would be fake and all, but...” I hooked my finger into the collar of his shirt and pulled him closer to me. “Are you sure we should do it? Those who aren’t close to us could assume the whole thing’s real, and I don’t know how they’ll react to that.”

  Aaron shrugged. “Who cares? It’ll only make them think we’re a force no one can contend with.” A slow smile curved his lips. “Are you getting cold feet before we even announce our fake wedding?” He lowered his head, his mouth brushing mine.

  “That’s not funny. We don’t know what kind of repercussions that would have on everything. And yeah, it’s a bit weird to plan a fake wedding.”

  “Why? Too much commitment for you? I’d love to be your fake husband.” His arms snaked around my waist. “Will you be my fake wife?”

  “Fake yes.” I winked at him, wondering just how much fun it would be to go around the house the whole day and keep saying the word fake to describe pretty much anything. I was sure it would drive everyone crazy and I already liked it.

  “I don’t have a ring.”

  “Fake ring.”

  “Yeah...” He looked around the room, but there wasn’t anything that even resembled a ring or that could serve as one. “I’ll have to buy one.”

  “How about you get me a plastic one from a toy store? No, wait. A fluffy one.”

  “I’m not sure I know what you’re talking about.”

  “Doesn’t matter. I don’t like rings that much anyway.”

  “I can still get you one.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “You’re taking this whole fake wedding thing pretty seriously, aren’t you?”

  “If we want Yvette to believe us, then we have to make it look as realistic as possible.”

  “Do you really think she’s going to come all the way here just to check if I have an engagement ring on?”

  “Of course. She’ll hire a detective.” Aaron was doing his best to keep his face expressionless, but amusement sparkled in his eyes.

  “You’re teasing me.” I slapped him on the shoulder.

  “Yeah, I am.”

  I pressed my lips against his and gave him a scorching kiss. “Okay, fine. We’re getting fake married.”

  “Stop calling it fake.”

  I stuck my tongue out at him. “Never.”

  Chapter 24

  “Are we really doing this?” I asked as I twirled in front of the mirror. The good news was that Yvette was out of the Norwoods’ area, but that was not all. No one had been able to track her down after that, not any of the people waiting for her at bus stops and train stations or wherever we’d assumed she might pass. Not even Tony, who had been using every resource he had on his disposal, could find her.

  “Yeah. She might show up here,” Aaron said. “Lora said that Yvette might not be always sure what’s real and what isn’t, but she still possesses her skills and is trained to be able to hide herself and pass unseen.”

  “She seemed to have forgotten all of that when she entered the Norwoods’ area.” I glided my hands over the long plain silky white dress I was wearing. I’d never particularly cared for weddings. The love and connection people shared with each other was what mattered most, and not some ceremony.

  “Maybe she thought she was safe. Her moments of lucidity are unpredictable.” Aaron rolled his shoulders. “I don’t know how her mind works.”

  I turned toward him. He was incredibly hot in his black suit with a blue tie. His hair had been carefully combed and I had to curl my fingers to resist the temptation to ruffle it.

  His lips parted slightly as his gaze traveled my body. “You look beautiful.”

  “Thanks, but this dress is a terrible choice if someone decides to crash our fake wedding.” The thin, flimsy material might feel like a brush of a feather against my skin, but it definitely wouldn’t stop any bullets.

  “No one’s going to crash it, okay? Your family, mine, and my aunt’s will make sure that no one except for Yvette can get to us.”

  “I know, but I’d feel safer if I had gun. Where can I fit the gun now? Nowhere.” I glared at the dress. “If Yvette confuses you with Roberto again or someone unexpected passes through our guards...”

  “You don’t need one. I’ll give you one of mine if necessary.”

  “That could take too much time. I need a gun,” I insisted. Everyone could think that we were safe, but Aaron and I were about to fake our wedding, and while we were distracted with taking the vows, someone might decide it was a good time to attack. Our families would be there too, or at least that was what everyone would assume.

  Only Jason and Michael would be present, because I’d managed to convince the rest of my family to stay at home. We’d pissed off a lot of people, and we didn’t know if any of the Ferlantes’ or Paytons’ loved ones would seek revenge. We might have wiped out all of those closely related to the gang, but that didn’t mean there weren’t others working in the shadows, or families and relatives.

  Someone like that could easily slip the radar, and while we’d made sure to mostly clear out the park where the wedding was supposed to take place, we still wanted to make it accessible for Yvette, which meant other people might find a way to break through our security too. I wasn’t about to take any risks. Not anymore.

  “Are you going to hold your gun in your hand all the time?” The corners of Aaron’s lips tilted up.

  “Yeah, if I have to. What if she doesn’t show up at all?”

  “Nothing. We’ll have to find another way. At least she’s out of the Norwoods’ area.” His smile faded.

  Yvette being out of the Norwoods’ area was great, but it also meant she could enter another crime family’s territory or get hurt. It was probably a miracle she hadn’t gotten into trouble already, but I didn’t know the history of her illness or how she reacted to certain things. Maybe she kept to herself.

  “I think I know where you can put the gun,” he suddenly said, then dashed across the room to grab one of my holsters that I’d left on the dresser. When he came back, he knelt in front of me. “I can strap the holster to your leg. It might stick out a little under the dress, but if you insist...”

  “Okay,” I said, a little breathless, putting my leg forward. “Just don’t look at me like that.”

  “Like what?” A ghost of a smile traced his lips as he gave me that wicked look through his eyelashes.

  “Like you want me to get you out of that suit.” I bit down on my lip hard enough to taste blood, but we didn’t have time for distractions.

  Aaron could barely suppress laughter, and he lowered his gaze, grabbed the hem of my dress, and lifted it up agonizingly slow, the fabric caressing my skin. He strapped the holster with my gun just above my knee, then tugged the dress down. “It’s sticking out too much.”

  “I don’t care. It’s not a fashion show, and I don’t want to wear a wide gown. It would take me ages to get to it then.”

  Aaron stood up and took my hand i
nto his, bringing his mouth to my knuckles. “Stop worrying so much. It’s going to be okay.”

  “You should be the one more nervous about this than me. I mean, your mom might come here. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” Something beeped, and I realized it was my phone. “I guess it’s time to go.”

  We still had to get to the park, and I wondered if we’d have to proceed with the ceremony or if Yvette would show up sooner. Hopefully she wouldn’t just be happy with watching Aaron from afar, although the guards and spies pretending to be regular people should be able to spot anyone hiding in the bushes on our way there. We’d told them to put up a tent so Yvette would have to approach if she wanted to get a better glimpse of Aaron.

  Aaron offered me his arm and I took it, then we strode out of the room.

  ***

  “Jason!” I called, and my brother’s eyebrows shot up. “Will you walk me to the altar?”

  “What?” His mouth fell open. “Why me?”

  “It’s better if it’s a family member. How else is Yvette going to believe it?” Yvette probably wouldn’t have a clue who my brother was even if she saw him, but I really wanted to see Jason’s reaction.

  “Then Michael can do it.”

  “No, you’re the eldest. It’s got to be you.” It took a real effort to keep my face serious and not to burst into laughter at Jason’s discomfort about the whole situation. “But if you don’t want the honor, then I’ll get Michael.”

  “No, I can do it.” Jason blinked as if he couldn’t quite believe he’d just said that. Maybe he was hoping this would mean I was closer to forgiving him for what he’d done.