Page 66 of The Forbidden Husband

“I have three men who told us about many of your recent machinations, Alonzo. I would rather keep this dialogue open and honest,” Uncle Giovanni said patiently. “We know the truth of your plans for us, and we don’t allow for such things here.”

He laughed hoarsely on the other end of the line. Unhinged. He sounded utterly unhinged.

“You think you have the power, but you have gone too long without staking claim to it. Your time has passed, Rissi. Yourfamily’s time in power is over. I have back my daughter, and we no longer have anything tying us together. I will no longer settle for your disrespect—”

“Disrespect?” I shot back. “Lying to your people about us—killing your soldiers’ women for the sake of pushing an agenda—is disrespectful. You’ve attempted to kill my uncle unsuccessfully, and it’s finally our turn to offer repayment foryourdisrespect. We are no longer sitting idly and allowing you to push the boundaries of this partnership. You have seen your final days, Alonzo. I will be the one to seek you out and kill you.”

Uncle Giovanni narrowed his eyes at my threat, but I had warned him that I was no longer waiting.

And now that we had definitive proof of Alonzo’s involvement, Uncle Giovanni was no longer interested in waiting, either. Diplomacy was long gone after the actions of the Bianchi family.

“I had hoped to speak with you, Enzo. My daughter has a lot to say about you. It seems your reputation doesn’t precede you the way I had once hoped. You have my daughter quite smitten. Enough that she turned her back on me and her sisters. He sighed. “It’s a pity I have to punish poor Evelina for her behavior. If she would have just followed my orders, none of this would have happened.”

There it was. The admission that changed everything. Aria had tried going against her father on our behalf. The pit inside my chest ached at the thought of her suffering beneath her father because she had chosen us—because she had chosen me.

“Keeping my wife in your possession is an act of war against us, Alonzo.”

“What about keeping your future child? Would you consider that an equal offense?”

I froze.

Everything around me went still as time seemed to stop. I turned over his words in my mind. I wanted to believe it was impossible, but…

We had never used protection.

“You’re lying,” I finally declared. She would have never told him something like that. It would only become more leverage to be used against her.

If she were pregnant, she would have told me.

Only… she had said there were things we needed to talk about.

“I had planned on using her to have an heir, but when she couldn’t go through with it, she told me the reason. She told me that she already carriedyourheir. Did you not know?”

He sounded so fucking smug that I wanted to tear out his tongue.

“It’s possible that if you hand over the position of capo dei capi, I’ll consider giving her back as a gift,” he mused. “I will have no use for her at that point.”

“We don’t negotiate with people like you,” Uncle Giovanni said before I could reply.

He must have seen the hesitation in my eyes. I would have given Alonzo everything he had ever wanted if it meant seeing Aria and our child safe. I would have burned down the fucking world. I didn’tcare.

“Then come and get them. See how well you’ll fare,” Alonzo said noncommittedly.

“You spent years refusing to come against us directly,” Uncle Giovanni reminded him. “What has changed, Alonzo? If we go down this path, there will be substantial bloodshed. And it won’t just be our people who fall.”

I didn’t particularly care about the bloodshed. Not when Aria was at stake.

“I am not asking for my wife again,” I declared into the line, sounding every ounce of the monster that Aria had once believed me to be.

“I’m not restating my demands again, either. If you don’t want to commit, come and get her.”

He ended the call without another word, and I walked toward my bedroom where there were still a handful of weapons that would aid me in what I was going to do.

“You need to think this through, Son. He’s taunting you. It’s a trap,” Uncle Giovanni said as he followed me.

I strapped on a bulletproof vest beneath a black long-sleeve T-shirt. Then, I got to work arming myself with everything that would fit on my body. Pistols. Assault rifles across my back. Knives and brass knuckles. Everything.

“I know it’s a trap, but I also know that he is keeping her in that house, and I don’t know what he’s doing to her.”

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