I parked my bike and sat looking out over the park. People milled everywhere and the smell of food from the grill made my mouth water. It was early evening and there were still a few hours of sunlight left.

The Giuliani family was attending a birthday party for a cousin—or something like that—and Celia had insisted this would be the perfect place for me to get to know the girls better. I was going along with her to keep the peace—for now. Something told me my future mother-in-law was going to be a pain in my ass.

My brothers in arms got off their bikes, and I sighed. Steel and Gunnar had volunteered to come with me—and since he could never pass up a free meal, so had Riggs. The big man eyed me as I sat there, debating on just backing my bike out and leaving.

“You could just flip a coin,” Riggs commented.

I glared up at him.

Gunnar walked over, looking thoughtful. “That could work. They’re all hot. It’s not like you’d get stuck with an ugly-” He broke off on a grunt as Steel plowed his elbow into Gunnar’s gut.

“Leave the kid alone. He’s got enough to deal with today.”

I shot Steel a grateful look. Riggs and Gunnar were just trying to lighten the mood, but I didn’t fucking date. I had too many issues stemming from my childhood. They all knew I couldn’t stand being around large groups of people either. There were at least seventy plus people in this park right now.

Quit being a fucking pussy. I was more sick of my quirks than my brothers were. Somehow these men got me. Knew what I needed, sometimes better than I did. Mind made up, I swung my leg off my bike.

“Let’s go find-”

“Viktor!”

I winced at the squeal. It was Celia Giuliani. A grown woman shouldn’t make sounds like that, if you asked me.

Celia hurried up, arms extended out. I neatly side-stepped her hug. It hadn’t taken long to figure Sal’s wife out. She was all about image. She’d hug you in front of a crowd, then pull the knife she stuck in your back out later in a more private setting. She frowned slightly then let a bright smile take over her face.

“Thanks for having us,” I muttered, shoving my hands in my pockets.

“Come! I simply must introduce you to everyone.”

Horror washed over me. I’d never get out of here if I had to meet everyone. I didn’t give two fucks about most of these people. I was on a mission—one Cade had ordered. Get to know the four women who were my bridal prospects, then get the fuck home.

Gunnar stepped over and brushed his hand over Celia’s arm. He stared down into her startled green eyes as a smirk formed on his lips. “I’d love to meet your guests. Maybe we could let Rat—uh, Viktor—spend some time with your daughters so that we can have some…alone time?”

Fuck me. Bridget was going to be pissed at both of us later when she found out about this, but I couldn’t find it in myself to care right now.

I was going to owe Gun big time for this one. The fact that he was willing to not only deal with Celia for the next few hours to give me time to get to know her daughters in private—well as private as this could be—but risk the wrath of his fiancé? He was really doing me a solid.

“Go with him. Make sure the cougar doesn’t drag him off somewhere,” Riggs muttered to Steel.

We watched as Celia looped her arm around Gunnar’s and dragged him off through the crowd. Steel followed after them shaking his head.

It didn’t take us long to find the Giuliani women. They were standing around talking. I let my eyes sweep over them as we approached. Gunnar hadn’t been wrong. They were all attractive women. Each was wearing a sundress and strappy heels. Summer was on its way out, that is to say, straight past fall and nearing winter. It was still warm enough for sundresses, though.

God bless Texas.

There was so much tanned skin and tits on display around me it was hard to focus. Riggs elbowed me with a grin, and I realized we’d stopped next to the girls, and they were staring at us.

It took me a moment to figure out that the oldest had said something to me. Having no clue what it was, I tried to cover. “Hey ladies.” I’d watched the other guys hit on women often enough that I wasn’t completely hopeless.

Alexandria giggled and scooted closer to me. She looped her arm through mine and started talking a mile a minute. I nodded at whatever she was going on about and took stock of her sisters. I’d been about to research them when Ming had found me and talked me out of it.

She’d told me to let it be organic and go into it not knowing everything about them right down to their social security numbers. The sarcasm had all but dripped from her voice, but she’d been right. At least this way I’d have questions to ask and it might not be so hard to talk to them.

I motioned to the girl who looked the youngest. “Want to get a drink?”

One of the others made a kind of strangled sound in her throat and stepped protectively toward her sister. I knew from the dinner that her name was Arianna and the sister I’d asked to go with me was Ada.

“Sure,” she said quietly, giving two of her sisters an unreadable look. Alex was the only one who looked thrilled to be here, although less now that I was going off with Ada instead of her.

We walked over to tables laden with food and drink and I filled two plastic cups with whatever they had in a crystal punch bowl. Handing one to her, I walked with her off to a quieter area.

Had I thought—even for a minute—this would be easy?

“Ada, right?”

Her head shot up and she gave me a tight smile. “Yeah. Nice to meet you…officially.” We shook hands then both looked away from each other.

This wasn’t fucking awkward at all.

“How old are you?” It’s something I’d been dying to ask. She looked young and that was the reason I’d asked her to go off with me first.

“Seventeen.”

For fuck’s sake! I choked on the punch I’d taken a swig of. “Your father is offering you up for marriage and you’re not even eighteen?” The horror and disgust in my voice had her meeting my eyes for the first time today.

“Messed up, huh?”

“Hell, yes. No offense, but I don’t date—or marry—minors.”

Her face broke out into a smile. “None taken, and I hope you don’t get offended, but I don’t want to marry you.”

We both laughed, relieved to have that out of the way.

“Well, you’re safe from that,” I told her, more relaxed now that the pressure was off. “Why don’t you tell me about your sisters?” A thought occurred to me. “They’re not under eighteen are they?”

“No. Although, Antonia is eighteen. Ari is twenty-one and Alex is twenty-two.” She bit her lip and scrunched her nose as she thought about my request. “I probably shouldn’t tell you anything about them since we don’t know you, but you seem like a nice guy.” She craned her head, looking around. “Toni and Ari are awesome. They’re a lot of fun and always look out for me.”

“And Alex?” I prompted, taking a drink of the sugary-sweet liquid in my cup. It was fucking disgusting, and I longed for a beer.

Ada rolled her lips between her teeth and bit down on them. That look told me a lot about her older sister. “Alex is…”

“Viktor!”

My name was squealed for the second time that day and I watched as the woman we’d been discussing hurried up. That wasn’t any better coming from her than it’d been from her mother. It was like nails on a chalkboard.

“It’s Rat,” I told her and watched her brows pull low over her eyes.

“I prefer Viktor,” she said with a toss of her head.

“Doesn’t matter, it’s still Rat.”

“I’m going to go back to the others,” Ada said and hurried off before Alexandria could say anything else.

Facing Alexandria, I tried not to cringe. She had a wild smile on her face and was eyeing me with obvious interest. She seemed to have had a change of heart from the dinner last week and I wondered why. Or maybe she was just embracing the inevitable. It was something I needed to do as well.

“Let’s go over to the shade,” she suggested and grabbed my arm. She tugged me over to some trees and I let her. The sun was still high in the sky and I was starting to sweat. Then again, maybe it was the way Alex’s hand had suddenly left my arm and was sliding down over my abs that was causing the bead of moisture to slide along my spine.

I caught her wrist in my hand. “What’re you doing?”

She gave me a provocative smile. “What do you think?” She licked her lips and her eyes dipped down to my dick.

Jesus. She was like a fucking wolverine. Dangerous. This woman was the kind of danger that you knew the minute you dipped your dick in her she’d find some way to trap you with her forever. I tightened my hold on her wrist, preventing her from grabbing my cock. I didn’t need her wicked looking nails anywhere near my junk when I told her I wasn’t interested in that right now. Most guys I knew would let her jack or suck them off whether they planned on marrying her or not. She was offering it and they’d happily use her. I wasn’t interested in doing that. Without knowing which sister I’d choose, I didn’t plan on touching any of them.

That wasn’t the way I was going to start a marriage. I may not have grown up with parents showing me what a happy relationship looked like, but I’d seen a couple of the guys fall in love with their women and now they had eyes for no one else. I figured there was something to that. I wanted to do this right. Another thought nagged at me too, she was putting on a big show, willing to blow me at a party. But this was an arranged marriage, it had to be a show. Right? That’s not how our marriage would be. What would she be like when she dropped the facade?

Alexandria pouted up at me. “No one has to know.” She started to drop to her knees, but I used her wrist to drag her back up.

“Maybe some other time,” I told her in a bored, slightly cold tone. She didn’t seem offended at all. It was almost like my disinterest made her want me more. I sighed inwardly. Now that she was back on her feet I led her back to her sisters. I didn’t want to give her any more of an opportunity.

Glancing around, I found Riggs at a nearby table chowing down on a plate of food. He grinned at me and took a long pull from a beer bottle.

Where the fuck had he found that?

Alexandria started babbling on about wanting to become a stylist for celebrities, pulling my attention back to her.

I frowned and interrupted her spiel. “You want to buy clothes for people?” Arianna snorted, trying not to laugh out loud.

“Famous people,” Alexandria corrected.

I wasn’t sure if we had any of those around here or not. I nodded and listened politely as she outlined her five-year plan.

“That’s only if my husband wants me to work, of course,” she said with a giggle.

Her mannerisms annoyed me. I couldn’t figure out why she was suddenly so interested in me—in an arranged marriage. She wasn’t trying to hide her interest in any way. That should’ve been a good thing.

It was almost too good of a thing.

The other women didn’t look thrilled to be here and I was pretty sure they didn’t want an arranged marriage. Which meant, I should seriously consider Alexandria, but she bothered the shit out of me. She was constantly giggling and fluttering her lashes. I hadn’t missed the way she stuck her tits out and then leaned into me so they brushed my arm. My head started a dull throbbing.

Laughing green eyes met mine and the headache faded into the background. Ari bit back a grin, fully aware of the games her sister was playing and knowing that I knew, too. The corner of my lips kicked up in an answering grin.

“Arianna, want to go for a walk with me?” Any excuse to get away from Alex would’ve been enough, but now that I was focusing on Arianna, my interest was piqued.

Like her sisters, she had long dark hair. These women were so similar if you didn’t look closely you’d think they were carbon copies of each other. Arianna’s eyes were the biggest difference, though. Instead of an emerald green like her three sisters, hers were softer. The color of a glass bottle, broken and worn down by sand, sea, and time. A soft green glinting in the sun and they drew me in.

We walked quietly, ignoring the looks we were getting from her family. Vaguely I wondered about the family I’d just found out about. Did Enzo and I have this many relatives? I sure as fuck hoped not.

“Ada told us you said you weren’t interested in her,” Arianna said from beside me. “Thank you for that.”

I looked over at her in surprise. “It’s not a problem. Like I told her, I’m not into minors.”

She laughed, and it was a warm, light sound, not the harsh grating giggle her sister kept giving. Technically, Antonia was of age so I could consider her, but she was still a bit younger than I was interested in. Which left me with Alexandria and Arianna.

I side-eyed the woman walking next to me. She was staring down at the ground. “Are you in school?” I asked.

Her eyes darted over to me before she looked down again. “Yeah, I’m going to the University of Texas.”

She fell silent again, and I hated the fact that I wasn’t good at small talk. “What for?”

“Computer Software Engineering,” she said with a self-conscious smile.

My brows shot up and I stopped walking. “You’re into computers?”

She’d stopped with me and she tucked a piece of hair behind her ear as she nodded. She was beautiful, but not overt about it like her sister. I bet she had all the guys in her college classes wrapped up in knots every time she walked in a room. Men who were into computers usually weren’t used to seeing women who looked like her.

“What’s your setup?” I asked her.

Her eyes narrowed on me as she started rattling off a setup that was very similar to mine. We fell into an easy rhythm talking about computers as we walked.

By the time we made it back to the group I was surprised to find I didn’t want my time with her to end. “Arianna-” I started, grabbing her arm to pull her to a stop before we were within hearing distance of her sisters.

“Ari,” she corrected, then smiled.

I opened my mouth to ask her if this was something she wanted. I hated the idea of forcing one of these girls into a marriage with me. It didn’t matter that I was being forced into it, too. Before I could ask, Alexandria was back and chattering.

Irritation shot through me and I wanted to drag Ari off to the nearest secluded spot and stay there with her. Right off the bat, we had more in common than I did with any of her other sisters.

“Rat,” Riggs said. He, Steel, and Gunnar all walked my way, faces grim. “We need to go.”

I shot an apologetic look toward the sisters and left with them. Alexandria scowled while folding her arms over her chest and tapping her foot. I was grateful to be leaving her behind. As we jumped on our bikes I caught sight of Ari watching us leave. A grin split my face and I nodded to her. I was too far away to tell for sure, but I thought she might have blushed.

“There was some kind of mix up with one of our gun shipments,” Steel explained. “Sorry to pull you away, but we need to go sort it out and Cade would fucking kill us if we left you there alone.”

“Not that you can’t handle yourself,” Riggs said. “We wouldn’t fucking leave anyone alone with Sal.”

“Or his wife,” Gunnar said with a mock shudder.

I barked out a laugh and shook my head. “It’s fine. I was ready to go anyway.”

Riggs paused in the act of backing up his bike. “The one in the yellow wanted to wrap her lips around your dick.”

I choked on the laugh that burst out of my chest. Leave it to fucking Riggs to say that shit. “Fuck off,” I told him and started up my bike, cutting off his response.

As we pulled out onto the highway, my thoughts drifted back to the women. I had a tough decision to make, but—as usual—Cade had been right. It’d been the right call to come here today.