Bound by Love novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: The Forfeit

They came into the dining room with their coats still on.

My father walked first, small and gray, with his hands folded in front of him.

Fabiano walked behind him, thick through the shoulders, with his gold watch flashing.

He had four of his own men at his back, and they filled the doorway.

The rest of the forty waited outside, in cars along the Corsini drive.

Adriano had told his captains to be at the table by seven.

Twenty of them sat in a long row, silent, with Osvaldo at the foot.

Adriano sat at the head with me on his right, in a plain black dress, with my wrist still smelling of his soap.

He had not looked at me since the phone call.

Under the table, his knee was an inch from mine.

"Benedetto," Adriano said. "You're early."

"I'm a father," my father said mildly. "A father has no schedule."

"Sit."

My father sat.

Fabiano did not.

He stood behind my father's chair, looking around the room.

"Where is my fiancee?" he asked.

"Not here," Adriano said.

"Then your wife knows where."

All the heads turned to me.

I kept my face still.

"I know that she's safe," I said. "That's all you'll ever know."

Fabiano's smile came slowly.

"Seventy-two hours was a courtesy, Adriano. The girl belongs to me."

"Her father signed her over, and by the old law, the woman who steals a bride pays what the bride owes."

"And what does the bride owe?" Adriano asked quietly.

"Her body, and her years," Fabiano said.

His eyes slid over me, from my face to my waist.

"The sister will do. I'll take her to Buffalo and keep her until the girl comes home."

The table stirred.

I heard a chair creak.

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