Page 22 of Bones of Revenge and Reckoning

She’ll see this as a way to exact revenge on me.

In reality, she’ll simply fall into a trap I’ve already baited.

I’ll be waiting for her.

She won’t be hard to catch, but she’ll be hard to tame. To truly own.

I can’t wait.

She emerges from the store, and I sink into the shadows of an alleyway.

I haven't been following her today. I do sometimes. For kicks. Today, she just happened to be here. Right where I am. Fate.

I know she has a meeting with her mother and father soon. I bet they’ll present their idea to her. Their scheme. A way for the Andrettis to subdue an ancient enemy and try to strike at the heart of our family business. They’ve been fed false intel for some time now. Intel I’ve designed.

Their information paints Clifford and me as weak. It looks as if our family legacy is crumbling. We’re ripe for a takeover, and what better way than to have their daughter become my wife and pull my strings? A friendly merger, except they will think they’ll ultimately be the ones in charge.

Except, that’s so far from the truth. Clifford and I have consolidated the family power and increased it. Our wealth is massive. Clifford is a sadist. A sick, fucked up kid, but it works for me, as he does all the very dirty work we’ve needed to do to get where we are.

Not that I shy away from violence. I simply don’t relish it the way he does.

Renata isn’t the young girl she was when I first fell for her, but I’m not the boy I was then either. Last time she saw me, I had floppy hair, skinny arms, and pretty features.

Now?

I weigh two hundred and fifty pounds of pure muscle. My broken nose changed my face, making it harder, and the ink I’ve covered myself in crawls up my neck, peeking out of my shirt. Only my eyes look the same. Everything else about me is rougher, harder, more powerful.

I’ll take my pretty beauty. My Mafia princess. The girl who got away and played games with me. I’ll take her back and claim her as mine, and then I’ll break her.

Chapter 10

Renata

I stare at my parents, my jaw hanging open in shock. I expected at some point they’d pressure me to marry again, but my mother has just suggested something so insane, I think she might need a health evaluation.

This cannot be real. I’d have given anything to hear this when I was sixteen, before Matteo proved he was a piece of shit. Now, I am disgusted at their suggestion.

“You want me to marry a Mancini? Our enemies? The people you swear are the devils?” I laugh. “Oh my God, this is priceless.”

“They are weaker now in some ways.” Mamma shrugs. “More powerful in others. They are legitimate and not the criminals they once were.”

The criminals we were too, I think. God, Mamma and Babbo are such hypocrites.

“Now, they present a good image. When the world looks at them they see a successful and upstanding family. We have intel, however, that suggests some areas of their business are ripe for input or even a takeover. You are strong, and you want something more than marriage, respectability, or even children.”

I don’t correct her. She’s not wrong. I do. I want my fucking share.

“You want power.” She smiles at me.

I let out a derisive snort. “Mamma, I don’t want the kind of power you settle for. Running around after a man.”

“Don’t talk to your mother that way,” Babbo snaps.

“It is okay.” Mamma smiles. “Our daughter is fierce. A fighter. We never saw her true potential.”

“I’m not sure you are now,” I point out. “Seeing as you simply seem to want to marry me off again.”

“No, darling, this is much more than that. We want you to get into the Mancini camp and take over their family by manipulating Matteo. He’s lonely, our informant says. You can snoop into their business affairs. Get information. Fill Matteo’s head with ideas … our ideas. You can build them in our image, or take them and ruin them, until they need us to rescue them. This will be beautiful. The Mancinis taking help from us. Do it. For the Andrettis.”

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