Page 55 of Forbidden Deception

I run a hand through my hair. I could call her back, demand her to work on some project or draft a new plan, or even compile a list of new investment properties, but I am bound to my chair.

How the fuck did my brothers manage to arrive here together? What is so important that they decided to show up here and not my home?

Minutes later, I watch them all walk in, one after the other in crisp dark suits. Eiran, Mikko, and even Khyros, who is back from London, and they all look ready to kill.

I stand up, not knowing how to take this, but ready to support them no matter what.

Khyros slaps a paper on my desk with a picture of London’s mayor, followed by Eiran showing me his screen displaying an email where Hayes Lonan is very clearly stating he may cause harm to the Gustav name if he isn’t given authority over the ballroom we own, which is used for many social Elite parties.

Mikko crosses his arms, and his suit stretches across his muscles. He looks downright murderous. Out of all of us, he is the one who gets his hands dirty the most. He is the one who likes to get physical, and given his body strength, he causes quite the damage.

No wonder Liya fell for him when he beat up a thief who stole her purse in Milan. She’s a model, and they look perfect together. She has a fiery personality, and he’s ready to kill anyone who upsets her.

“I hope you know that you will be attending the next party,” Eiran grits out, the usual softness around him now gone. Instead, the Gustav anger that is instilled in every man with the surname darkens his face.

A smirk plays across my lips while I pocket my hands, my eyes running over the evidence and very clear threat against us.

“Oh, I sure will.”

Khyros nods in approval, his sharp features quite similar to my own. He has a lean body despite his successful boxing career.

“Do you have any news?” I ask Khyros. He nods silently, his eyes still fixed on Haye’s picture.

What is he thinking? I swear I never know with this man.

“Just a little whisper about the upcoming party and Remo’s confirmed attendance. You should take your assistant. It’ll be a good test of her loyalty. If she fails, Mikko can just take care of her,” he mutters, looking around the office, then settles his gaze on me.

“Who? Venezia? Are you doubting her?”

Mikko’s brows rise, and it even prompts Eiran to look at Khyros, who shrugs.

“Just being cautious.”

Mikko and Eiran look at each other, having a silent conversation about Venezia’s loyalty, and that halts my thoughts. In Greece, I asked her to trust me. I wanted her to truly know that she can count on me, but to be testing her like this?

It doesn’t escape me that Khyros has been right about my previous assistant. He leaked the location of the party I made him attend, a party that was for the inner circle of London, and Mikko had to take care of him.

I stiffly nod.

How will she feel if she finds out that she’s being tested when I am the one who wanted her to give us a chance? Give me a chance?

My two brothers may like her, but Khyros has always been hesitant around outsiders, and they haven’t met each other yet.

It puts me in between two parts of life, Venezia and my family, that I am trying to join.

22

Ahumourless laugh spills out of me while I watch everyone go crazy over the released sex tape of the current head mayor of London.

He was destined to end up destroyed after he so bluntly threatened my family. All of this mess over a simple breach of contract that wouldn’t happen if he just kept his end of the deal.

Being in my position, material for blackmail is bound to end up in my hands, and every single video ever used for threats, to toy and play with those in power, will always remain hidden from everyone’s eyes. In the safest place on earth for me. In my home, guarded by my highly trained security team, with the best AI technology protecting my safe, and instant combustion technology to burn everything from within the safe the second it is threatened.

While the public may not realise this, I am the most heavily protected person in the country after Remo Cainn, the centre of the Elite society. I am intensely protected out of all the corrupted people that hide their crimes, in attendance tonight, in this ballroom.

They all make me sick.

And they think I will fall for their little games.

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