Page 36 of Ruthless King

What I don’t get is that Giovanni supposedly had a daughter, but when researching Giovanni’s life, there are no signs he ever had a daughter. Something doesn’t add up.

I didn’t tell Nico or his new wife about Giovanni being dead. No reason to stir up more suspicion. Better if more people think he’s just missing.

I’m keeping my eye on Nico and his wife, Aurora. She’s an enigma I can’t figure out. A young woman who marries Nico in an arranged relationship. It’s unusual.

One thing I know for sure: I’m not letting Nico Mancini or his unusual wife out of my sights.

AURORA

“How stupid are you?” Beatrice asks me.

The moment I showed up at her hotel, I told her about the police interviewing me.

“I didn’t tell them anything.”

“No. But you cried! You don’t think they’re going to find that suspicious?”

“I made it work. I said my own father passed away a while ago, and I was hit with emotion. They didn’t press hard. They don’t think I’m involved.”

“Of course they think you’re involved, Aurora! Your husband is involved! That puts a target on your back.”

I resist the urge to shove her back. “You put that target on my back!You!”

Beatrice scoffs. “You’re delusional.”

“No. You’re the one who made me marry Nico so I could get close enough to kill him. You put me in this position. You made me complicit in burying my father in the backyard. It’s all your fault, Beatrice.”

Her eye twitches right before she backhands me across the face. The pain of it is so intense, I stumble back against the wall, clutching my cheek.

Enzo knocks on the door. “Is everything all right in there?”

“Stop screaming,” Beatrice scolds me, even though she’s the one who started screaming at me the moment I stepped through the door. “Do you want your own guard to kill you for the truth?”

“You’re impossible. I’m doing all of this for you.”

“No. You’re doing this for your father. You have undeniable proof now that Nico was involved. The contents of Andrew’s briefcase proves that.”

I also told her about that when I arrived, but now I wish I hadn’t. Because now that I admitted to the truth—Nico was involved in my father’s murder—I can’t pretend he wasn’t. Beatrice won’t ever let me forget.

“You know what you need to do,” Beatrice continues.

“But how can I kill Nico with the police watching him? I could get arrested. I’m not going to spend my life in prison for your own vendetta, Beatrice. If you want Nico dead, then you need to kill him yourself.”

Beatrice has her hands wrapped around my throat before I can even react. “I will kill you right here if you don’t do as I say.”

I see the anger in her eyes. I know she means what she says.

I shove her back, jerking away from her. “Then you’d still have to kill Nico yourself.”

“You do your job, Aurora. You kill him.”

“And then, what? Do you have a way to get me out of that house in one piece? Do you have a way to protect me from the police?”

“I gave you a fake identity. I can give you another one. You’ll be safe.”

But my aunt’s words are hollow because she just threatened me with death if I didn’t comply.

“I’m trapped,” I say.

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