Page 70 of Princes of Carnage

“I hope that’s true.”

He chuckles, a wry smile softening his harsh features for a moment. “Listen, there are still days where I second guess the decisions I make. Where I wonder if I’m being too harsh or not harsh enough. If I should be trying to expand more or worrying about keeping the territory we have safe. I’ve been doing this shit for years, and it still happens. It’s just part of the job.”

I purse my lips, hiding a smirk. “That’s not exactly reassuring.”

This time, he outright laughs. “Yeah, I guess not. But you know what I mean.”

Honestly, I do know what he means, and knowing that he struggles with the same pressures of leadership that weigh so heavily on me sometimes eases something in my chest. For the first time since our tenuous alliance formed, I start to wonder what it might be like if the two of us became true partners. If this thing between us became more… real.

It’s a heady thought and a terrifying one, all at once.

“So, what are we going to do about this?” Shifting back to the problem at hand, I jerk a chin at our surroundings, indicating the remnants of the fight and Cabby’s broken-down car, which Killian and Atlas are now inspecting. “We can’t focus on finding out who’s been attacking us if we’re too busy trying to keep our gangs from killing each other.”

“We’ve bought ourselves some peace for the moment,” Nico says. “Our people aren’t gonna start any more shit for a little while, at least. We just need a plan to keep it that way.”

I bite my lip, turning the issue over in my head. I’d been hoping that even though our two gangs don’t like each other, they’d be motivated enough to keep the mystery attacker from destroying us to at least try to work together. But maybe that’s not enough.

“We need to focus their energies away from each other, I think,” I say after a while.

“How do you mean?”

“I mean… right now, we’re united in name. But we’re still thinking of our territories as separate, in a way. We’re still going about our business, and yeah, we’re helping each other, but that still makes it easy for them to think of each other as enemies. They need to focus that anger on the real threat.”

“The attacker,” Nico says.

“Right.” I chew my lip thoughtfully. “Maybe we need to start having our people team up for jobs. It would force them to work together—give them a chance to have each other’s backs. And it would be an added level of protection against whoever’s been coming after us. There’s safety in numbers. You said your last drop went okay after Killian and I scouted out the new location for it, but we can’t count on that as our only defense.”

He chuckles humorlessly. “As long as you think we can pair our people up without them killing each other, I’m all for it.”

“We got married, and we haven’t killed each other,” I point out.

The sun is just starting to rise, and Nico’s mismatched eyes glint in the golden light as he cocks an eyebrow. “No. We haven’t. Yet.”

His pointed addition of that last word actually makes me grin, despite the stress of the early morning brawl and the lack of sleep. I give him a faux-sweet smile as I say, “If you’re lucky, maybe we’ll find a way to neutralize this threat before it comes to that. Then we can end this whole thing and each go on our way.”

“Hm. I don’t know.” His eyes sweep over me, something shifting in his expression. “Maybe I’m not in a hurry to end it. I think I’m starting to like being married to you, mia cara.”

There’s a note of sincerity in his tone that I wasn’t expecting, and my stomach does a little somersault. But instead of giving any outward sign that his declaration caught me off guard, I just roll my eyes and snort derisively.

“Let’s deal with one problem at a time,” I say as Atlas and Killian stride back over to rejoin us.

I don’t know why Nico would like being married to someone who’s supposed to be his enemy. Someone he probably hated up until we had to form an alliance. Maybe it’s just the sex. The sex we’re definitely not supposed to be having. Or maybe he just likes being this close so he can throw me off balance with comments like those, just to try to get a reaction out of me.

Either way, it doesn’t really matter.

We may be husband and wife, but it’s in name only. It doesn’t mean I can trust him or let my guard down, and the very last fucking thing I should do is allow myself to develop any feelings for him. That would be a massive mistake.

He’s a good fuck, I can’t deny that, and his two friends have somehow managed to get under my skin, but that’s all it is.

That’s all it can be.

23

ATLAS

Over the next few days, I throw myself into work.

Nico and Quinn came up with a plan to keep our gangs from tearing at each other’s throats, and Carnage business and Enigma business are suddenly overlapping.

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