Pride (In Wilde Country Book 1) Read Free

voices.
    Men’s voices. Women’s. People talking over each other, the sounds strident despite some deep-in-the-heart-of-Texas softening of vowels and consonants.
    His steps slowed.
    The Wilde clan was meeting, no doubt to discuss what to do with the Sicilian interlopers.
    He considered making a quick trip into the room on his right. A glance told him that it was the dining room and, si , they were all standing around, not sitting at, a big cherrywood table.
    One detour and he could tell them exactly what they could do, not with the Bellinis but with themselves.
    But why would he do that?
    If they wanted to pick apart the Bellinis, let them. Nothing they said would change the facts and he was not the least interested in making them see the truth, that they were in the wrong, not he and Matteo, Alessandra and Bianca.
    The Wildes were the offspring who had commanded all their father’s time and energy, not the Bellinis. They were the ones he had spent holidays with, the ones who had celebrated birthdays with him.
    Not that he gave a damn about any of that. Sentimental nonsense, all of it.
    It was the principle that mattered, the fact that the general had created two families and had ignored one in favor of the other, ignored one woman in favor of the other.
    Luca snorted.
    The man had been a bigamist, and Angelica Bellini had deserved so much more than that…
    “You going to stand out here and eavesdrop the rest of the morning?”
    Luca blinked. The three Wilde brothers stood glowering at him from the entrance to the dining room faces hard, arms folded over their chests, legs apart.
    He glared back.
    He could feel his heart pumping.
    They looked angry as hell, ready for a fight, and that was fine with him. He was ready to take them all on, beat the crap out of the men, tell off the women, brush off his hands and walk away.
    “Why would I eavesdrop?” he said coldly, “when you do nothing but talk nonsense?”
    Three pairs of eyes narrowed.
    “The man has a nasty attitude,” one Wilde brother said.
    “Maybe he needs to be taught a lesson,” said another.
    “Maybe. And if he does, who better to give it to him than us?” the third said, or would have said, but a voice behind Luca cut his words short.
    “Big talk,” Matteo growled. “But then, that is what Texas is all about, is it not? Big talk. Little action.”
    The Wildes stepped forward. Luca tossed his overnight bag into a corner. Matteo’s shoulder brushed his as he moved up to stand beside him.
    “Oh, for heaven’s sake! Grow up, all of you, and try to act like adults!”
    The five men looked at the woman who had just spoken.
    Blonde. Blue-eyed or perhaps green; it was difficult to be sure at this distance. She was a Wilde, Luca knew, although from the way she looked, she could as easily have been a Bellini.
    It was a strange thought to have in the middle of what was clearly going to be war, but there was no denying that the Wildes and the Bellinis resembled each other. The men were tall, dark-haired, lean and muscular, their eye color ranging from green to blue. The women were slender, fair-haired, their eye color also ranging from green to blue.
    The similarities made Luca feel…uneasy.
    “Keep out of this, Jaimie,” one of the Wildes—Travis?—said.
    “The hell she’ll keep out of this,” a second Wilde sister said.
    “Emily. We know you mean well—”
    “Do not,” the third sister said, “ do not take that tone with us, Caleb!”
    “Jesus H. Christ! Lissa, you sound just like a woman. We’re talking about honor and you’re talking about tone.”
    The three sisters stepped forward, faces flushed, eyes flashing.
    “She’s talking like a what?” the first sister asked. “Like a woman? Is that what you said, Travis?”
    “Come on, James. You know what I—”
    “And what, precisely, does this have to do with honor, Jacob?” the second sister asked.
    “Don’t you get it? These—these Italians—”
    “Sicilians,” Luca heard