Page 4 of Ruthless King

“I know Nico Mancini was responsible for this,” she continues. “I want him dead for killing Giovanni.”

“Shouldn’t we stop the killing?”

Beatrice turns to me. “You really are so innocent. That needs to change.”

Apprehension fills every part of my body. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about doing what we have to do. Nico Mancini, or someone close to him, killed your father. There would be no one else.”

“What if it was just a burglar?”

“Was anything stolen?”

I know she’s right. I checked while Jack was digging the grave. None of mine or my mother’s jewelry was taken. Not the TV. Not the laptops. All the money my father kept in the safe was still there. Nothing was stolen, which meant someone wanted to kill my father for either revenge or punishment.

“Exactly,” Beatrice says when I don’t reply. “I know this was Nico. No one in LA would dare cross Giovanni or me. We were too powerful. But no one is as powerful as the Mafia of New York.”

“Should we tell the police? About Nico?”

“Aren’t you getting it, girl?” She pinches my arm, making me gasp. “We can’t go to the police. We need to handle this ourselves.”

“How? What are you going to do?”

“No. It’s whatyou’regoing to do.”

Dread settles like a pit in my stomach. “What?”

“I know Nico likes young women. Actually, I heard he’s looking for a wife. A pretty young thing he can parade around. You’re going to get close to him.”

“Why?”

Beatrice shrugs. “So you can kill him.”

All the air is pushed out of my body, and I double forward. Beatrice pulls me back upright. “I can’t kill him. I can’t kill anybody.”

“Yes, you can.”

“I didn’t even know my father was in the Mafia until an hour ago! And now, you want me to go to the most powerful Mafia man there is and kill him? Are you crazy?”

Jack glances at us. “Beatrice, leave Aurora alone.”

“No,” Beatrice snarls. “Just do your job.” Jack hesitates, then goes back to shoveling dirt onto my father. “You can do this, Aurora. Don’t you want justice for your father’s death?”

“I mean, yes?—”

“Ok. So, what’s the problem?”

“I can’t kill anybody,” I hiss.

“Not even the man who killed your own father?”

“You don’t even know it was him.”

Beatrice digs her fingers into my arms and speaks in a low voice. “I know it was him. With every fiber of my being, I know it was Nico Mancini. And I know there’s an opportunity to get close to him. You’ll marry him.”

“How? He doesn’t even know me. And won’t he find it suspicious that I share the same last name as the man he supposedly just murdered?”

“You’ll use a different last name. I can get the paperwork ready. And Nico will be interviewing women to marry later this week. We have a short window of opportunity.”

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