Shattered Vows: An Arranged Marriage Standalone Romance (Tarnished Empire)

A large part of the business deals we were tying up required both of us working together. Dante, my security and a distant cousin, could reach out to him continually for intel but it wasn’t as smooth.

When your father was the head of a dirty mob family, cleaning it up took precision, finesse, and fucking attendance.

Cade knew this was a team effort. Five years ago, we’d put out a hit on our father, brought him down, and made the conscious decision to clean the family up. One painful business at a time.

Every one of them was a mess. Drug imports and sex trafficking and illegal money laundering.

I wouldn’t leave a legacy of filth, though. My empire would know a different type of power. But I needed my team. I relied on them and built trusted partnerships with each of them. That included my brother working alongside me so I didn’t stumble through communications with a company. I needed Cade to be running checks, giving me background information, and confirming dealings as I shook hands with businessmen. Today, instead, Chet had waited for Dante to sift through information, making our communication stilted.

The deal wasn’t done. With all that waiting, Chet didn’t trust me enough to sign those papers yet.

So here I was, drinking at the boy’s night Chet had proposed when I could have been back on the jet, flying home.

The only silver lining was that it would be done soon and maybe I’d find a woman to relieve some of my stress before the night was over.

But it certainly wouldn’t be this one.

This one was a train wreck waiting to happen.

But one I would glance back and stare at, maybe tell the person on the phone about because of how ridiculous said train wreck was.

Quite frankly, the whole city of Miami was full of ridiculous people with ridiculous needs.

And hobbies.

And beliefs. Like crystals.

I worked night and day in my city to close deals. Here, they partied and read their horoscopes.

Morina checked every one of those boxes, I was sure. Her eyes lit up like Santa was coming to town when I’d shown interest in her sign.

Did she think that shit was real?

Absolutely absurd.

“Nope.” I cut our conversation about astrology off. “Don’t even know what my sign is.”

Now, those big blue eyes fell like a wounded doe’s. She did have that going for her at least. They were a dark blue, like the color of the sky at midnight. Unique, honestly.

She scoffed, “Figures.” Her gaze scanned the room again and landed on Dante.

For some reason, her picking Dante over me felt ridiculous too. Why want someone who believed in hocus pocus? Were stars what really matched people?

I couldn’t begin to fathom that someone would write off a whole person based on the day they were born. “Do you intend to ask my friend his sign?”

“Well, not if you know his birthday… was he born in–”

“I don’t know his birthday,” I cut her off.

“Well, that’s rude of you.” She hmphed.

She could think I was rude or a liar. I knew Dante’s birthday because we all made it a mission to never celebrate them. His had been a few months back and he’d been away. Probably on purpose.

“Do you want another cocktail?” I asked, changing the subject.

“Not a good idea.”

I nodded. I’d had too much already and she definitely didn’t need any more. “Drink enough on the way over?”

She studied me again, like she was sure I was judging her. “How much have you had to drink tonight? Or was it just this one?”

“Would it matter if I had more?”

“I happen to think you didn’t have much at all.”

“Why not?”

“Because, like I said, you seem older. Wiser.”

“Morina, don’t you know that just means I could show you a thing or two?”

She stared at me for about five seconds before answering. She took in my suit again, my shoes, probably even my hair before she mumbled to hell with it. “I’m kind of in the mood to see if you can really do that.”

“Meaning what?”

She sighed. “It means, I want to get out of here with you. This isn’t my scene. This”–she waved in front of me and then around the room–“isn’t really living. It’s a boring second to a lot of what the world has to offer. Linny of all people should know that. She’s a travel blogger, you know.”

“Linny is also a woman in love. That seems to trump a lot of things to most people.”

She looked her friend’s way and winced. “Right and I hope it works out. But I’m not here for love. Just a good time and maybe to forget life a little.”

I wouldn’t tell her that I hoped it didn’t work out, that Chet wasn’t a man to be associated with, that I wouldn’t really be associated with him after this deal, whether I closed it tonight or tomorrow.

It wasn’t my place. I was getting out of this town and moving on to tie up the rest of the deals in the state.

She sighed and turned back to her glass. “Maybe I do need a drink to pass the time.”

She was so damn bored.

And she’d lumped me into the boring category with the rest of this club where people thought they were somebody.

Truth be told, I was bored too.

Bored with my life and the fact that I was probably living the same damn life my father had before he died. Sure, I was trying to clean up the dirty businesses he’d invested in and make a better name for the family, but maneuvering numbers and partnerships wasn’t of interest to most.

It wasn’t even of interest to me.

“Do you think Dante knows signs?” she asked quietly, probably more to herself than me.

“He knows just a little of everything.” My friend and security traveled the world, claimed it centered him.

I needed centering too but I didn’t really believe in any of the bullshit that came with deep breathing and yoga and star signs.

“How did you two meet?” she asked, like I was going to sit there and give her tips on how to date my friend.

“We’ve known each other since birth. Our families are distantly related.”

“Huh.” She narrowed her eyes at me and scanned my body. “I don’t really see it.”

“See what?”

“You’re so…” She waved at me like it was obvious. “Unapproachable and… broody, maybe?”

He rubbed at his strong jaw and stared at me like he was trying to figure out how I saw that in him. “I’m neither of those things.”

“In your line of work do people come up to you and talk like they aren’t scared of you?”

“No, because they are scared of me. I’m the boss.”

“Well, then my perception of you stands. Unapproachable, broody, and I’ll add that you probably don’t frequent clubs like this unless you’re working.”

“And you do frequent clubs like this?” I eyed her again. Her outfit downplayed her figure but she wasn’t hiding that she was good looking. Admittedly, if you got past her belief in horoscopes, she was probably one of the better women in here tonight, lower maintenance with a body that was real, curvy, and appealing to most.

She shrugged and turned, leaning her elbows on the tall bar table behind us. We both stared at the clubbers buzzing around. She tapped her boot on the ground. “I probably shouldn’t wear shoes like this in VIP, especially when I’m standing on glass that overlooks two floors of people.”

“Are you concerned that we’re on glass?”

“Maybe more concerned that we think we have the right to be standing on others.” She shrugged and scuffed her boot back and forth. “I’m just wearing cheap shoes and I have a good friend who has a connection. What makes me so much better?”

Her words shot through me. I’d said it time and time again to my father growing up. I was just like everyone else. Yet he’d reminded me that I wasn’t. I was an Armanelli and I’d take his place one day. That made me much more important in his eyes.

In mine, I’d wanted equality. Always.

Yet here I was, standing over Miami, ready to take on another business deal. This one would solidify a power shift that I already knew was coming. I’d become the most powerful man, equaled only by my partners and I wouldn’t be mixing with people like her. I frowned at the physical discomfort I felt as my gut twisted thinking about it.

“Your shoes are fine.”

“Your shoes probably cost more than my car.” She pointed to my Italian leather Oxfords.

They’d been custom made and shipped directly. “They’re just shoes.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Come on, how much did they cost you? More than five grand?”

I scoffed at the small number and her eyes widened.

“Oh, my God. They do. Why? What is wrong with you?”

There wasn’t a reason for me to be defensive and yet… “Most women in this club would be happy to hear I’m well dressed.”

“Most women in this club are looking at you for just your money.”

“And what are you normally looking for at a club like this, Morina?” My eyes narrowed on her, not because I questioned her identity anymore. Dante normally reached out to our tech guy and my brother who was able to hack into any criminal database. I knew she was clean and a real person.

Still, I couldn’t pin down her motives for being here or her intentions in talking to me. She didn’t fit the mold of the normal woman out. She was beautiful in a unique way with her wavy hair askew and not properly brushed. Her curves were real and I knew her ass would barely fit in my hands if I gripped it now.

My dick stirred more than it had with the women who’d made their way over to me earlier tonight.

Interesting.

And she was interesting in a weird, ridiculous way and yet, I guess, hadn’t been interested in much in a long time.

Her gaze darted around the club though, like she was looking for Dante again. “I’m looking for a nice guy who gets me to have fun for a night. Nothing more and nothing less.”

“A one night stand?” I murmured, surprised.

“So?” Her head snapped back to glare at me with cold fire in her blue eyes. This look on her was straight out of a fucking magazine. She was one of those brilliant-when-being-fucked-with types.

“And you think Dante is going to do that with you?” I pushed her to see where this was going.

“He seems laid back enough to have a good time. And, frankly, I have every right to a good time. Don’t I?”

She didn’t know my friend whatsoever. “You realize he’s my security, right? So he has to be trained to fight someone if they were to approach me aggressively.”

“So he’s got a banging bod?” She shrugged and then took a deep breath. When she breathed it out, the fire in her eyes had extinguished. She hit me with a big smile and waggled her eyebrows at me. “I could get down with a good bod.”

Why did I suddenly want to prove to her that I worked out too? “You do this a lot?”

“One night stands? Well, no. Not really.” She shrugged. “Linny’s my friend so I said I’d come out with her but honestly I don’t think there’s anything out in this world that will bring me much more happiness than what I’ve already found in my own town.”

“Not even a miraculous one night stand?”

She looked me up and down, trying to act like she didn’t see anything appealing. Yet I saw the shiver and the way she licked her lips. “If you’re insinuating that I’d find that here, I don’t think so.”

“Really?” I lifted a brow. “You’d be surprised the things I could show you.”

“What? With you being older?” She crossed her arms. “I find that just affects stamina.”

I chuckled at her indirect slight. She looked younger, but only maybe 10 years younger than me. This girl wasn’t someone I would normally entertain but her words, the way she dismissed me, and the way she pegged me so quickly was the last straw on my shitty day.

“Let me show you then.”

“Show me what?”

“Just what you’ve been missing staying in that small town of yours.”