“No fucking your virgin bride up against the wall, remember?” Remo said with a laugh.

I jerked, my pulse doubling. Nino’s fingers tightened against my wrist.

“Remo,” Nino growled in a voice that sent fear into every fiber of my being.

“Have fun!” Savio shouted with a grin.

The Falcones were going to feel cheated. A sacrificial virgin was to be given to the monsters in Las Vegas for a promise of peace. I was never given the chance to be a virgin. That choice had been taken from me. Painfully ripped from me. as a young girl

Fear, acute and raw, clawed at my chest as my husband led me into our room for the night and closed the door to the grinning faces of his brothers. Nino released me, and I quickly created distance between us, moving toward the bed.

Six years had passed, but the memories still woke me at night. I was scared of being close to a man, to any man, especially this man – my husband.

Standing a few steps in front of the bed, my eyes swept over the white sheets—sheets my family expected to the see stained with my blood in the morning.