Page 146 of Their Princess

I started to object, but the Prez held up his hand.

“Graff, then,” I suggested through gritted teeth.

Adelina knitted her eyes together, but I didn’t know what she was asking. Did she want me to tag along?

Since the Prez said no, I offered her a lame excuse. “Sas can’t go. He’ll see you in your wedding dress, and that’s bad luck.”

She smirked, finally breaking her hardened mask.

“Fine,” said Noemi, turning Adelina away from me. “We should go now and take whoever this Graff man is.” She shooed her daughters ahead of her like she had done a hundred times. Adelina and Caterina went, being good little dolls.

Adelina didn’t even look back at me as she got into the elevator and the doors closed, but Caterina was talking Adelina’s ear off. They had always been close, and Cat’s favorite topic wasboys. And I knew for a fact that they had been texting every day, almost all the time.

I stiffened.Would Adelina possibly tell Caterina about us?

With a sigh, Massimo walked over to the bar and poured himself another drink. “Now that the women are gone, why’d you think it was okay to bring my daughter into this office while we talked business?” Tension lingered in his tone.

Wilde explained, “She hopped on the bike and wanted to come.”

“You didn’t just throw her off?” asked Massimo, and I scowled.

“Is that how you want us to treat your daughter?” Wilde asked.

“Seemed logical with your kind,” said Massimo.

Surprisingly, Wilde held his own, not showing the anger that rumbled in his voice when he said, “We don’t disrespect our women.”

Caught between the two of them, I gritted my teeth at my brother’s audacity. If he thought the MC would abuse her, that really showed his complete lack of normal human feelings. And he sent me there too, thinking I was that kind of bastard as well.

“Is that so?” Massimo scoffed. “You have a clubhouse filled with whores. You hop some of them up on coke. Is that respect in your book?”

Wilde clamped his teeth shut, and I entered the conversation.

“Fratello”—I used the Italian for brother, because it always got his attention—“Adelina has been treated very well.”

“I know she has the necessities, Rafe,” he said, my name a sigh. He still sounded displeased. “But I’m not happy with her future husband. He’s crass. I suppose it’s too late to get another man since they’ve already fucked”

I hadn’t mentioned anything specific about Sas being such a motherfucker with Adelina. Or that she’d expressed interest and arousal in how he’d been treating her. I didn’t like Sas any more than my brother, but I was slowly getting a read on him.

As misplaced and clumsy as his actions were, he cared about the club and the brothers, which was more than I could say for Massimo.

The Don only cared for power.

And... after last night, Sas and I were connected through Adelina.

Wilde jutted out his chin. “Sas is the VP of our LA chapter. It’s the highest-ranking position we have available.”

Massimo rolled his eyes. Adelina looked so much like him when she did that.

“That’s nice and all,” said Massimo, sounding bored, “but I’m disheartened by his incompetence. Especially with how he has been dealing with the cargo and the cartel. I’m not happy with you either, president.”

“I don’t need you to be happy with me,” said Wilde, voice low. “This little arrangement was your fucking brainchild. Doesn’t mean I answer to you.”

“I’ve entrusted my daughter to you,” continued Massimo like he hadn’t heard Wilde. “You’ve given my daughter to someone who’s careless.”

“Sas isn’t as careless as you think,” said Wilde.

“He wouldn’t be, obviously,” I added, “to become the VP.”

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