Page 95 of King of Wrath

“Gris,” he answers back. “Sorry to interrupt your workout time.”

I don’t answer. There is no need. He wouldn’t be calling if it wasn’t important. “I’ve got news on the Kincaid front,” he starts with a sigh.

My stomach tightens. “I’m sure I already know what you’re going to say?—”

“Did you talk to Roman?”

“Roman?” I stare down at the phone. What the fuck is he talking about? “I thought you said you knew. Why would I have spoken to Roman?”

Tris is silent. “I think we’d both better start talking.”

“Go,” I answer. “You called me so it must be important.”

“Toni Carcetti is dead.”

“Fuck,” Yeah, that is important. “How?”

“Jake Kincaid shot him in self-defense.”

My eyes close as I sit down on the weight bench behind me. “Tell me more.”

In clipped tones my brother explains how Toni attempted to kill his own daughter, the daughter I sent to the Kincaids, and how Jake defended her, not once but twice.

“He’s marrying her, Gris.”

My stomach clenches. “Who is marrying whom?” I already know, but it’s bad enough that my head falls into my hand.

“Jake is marrying Nia. Can you believe that? From kidnap victim to queen.”

Fuck. Me.

“Any chance we can break them up?” I know it’s a shit thing to say but I am the man who set Nia up. I played her like a fucking pawn and now she’s the queen on the board, free to come at me with whatever moves she chooses.

“I heard them fuck on the plane. You’d have to kill Jake and then the rest of the Kincaids would take all their might and power to come after you, after us.”

I draw in a deep breath of air, trying to clear my head. Think. “So…what happens next?”

“Fuck if I know,” Tris sounds as tired as I feel. “But she’s really pissed, and she claims that Jake has paid his debt to her, but you…”

I stare down at the phone. “And what about Mason? He’s going to let her dictate these kinds of things?”

“Yeah. She’s delivering the entire Italian empire to him without a single law broken or another drop of blood spilled, from what I can tell. She’s far more useful than us, honestly, and I could hear in Jake’s voice that even if she wasn’t, he’ll back her to the death.”

“Fuck,” I rumble out, my fist driving into the padded bench I sit on.

“You hand-delivered a beautiful woman, a mafia princess, into the arms of the Kincaids. You had to know this was a move that could backfire. She used her God-given gifts to outplay you, Gris.”

He’s not wrong. Nia is a looker, and unlike her sister, Nia’s clear blue eyes shine with intelligence and fire.

“So what is she demanding?”

“I don’t know yet, but if I were to guess, I’d say castration of one kind or another.”

I punch the bench again, my fingers near breaking as pain shoots up my arm.

Then I draw in another long gulp of air. Because this game isn’t over yet… “Ready for my news?”

“You don’t want to keep talking about Nia?”

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