Page 143 of A Beautiful Crime

“Which is why your father forced upon you an arranged marriage. He knows without you he will never hold power. What exactly are you getting at, amore mia?”

“Savio and Luca used me as a pawn in hopes to gain power, this is true, but they both despise the fact that they had to use a woman to get it,” she informs all of us. Neglecting the others she keeps her focus on me. “You heard it from their lips yourself,Constantine. You forcing them to thank me for this union was more strenuous than pulling teeth. They’re a part of The Sicilian Outfit. How do you think it will look to their elders that a woman was the one to make The Donati Famiglia fall?”

We all fall silent. One can hear a pin drop.

If what Carina is saying is true then she has dropped more than just a bombshell on all of us; she’s dropped an atomic bomb.

Rico tries to rationalize with facts. “Arranged marriages have been used to gain power in The Sicilian Outfit plenty of times. And a woman was used in order to gain such power.”

Carina turns to face him and she does so with proud shoulders and a strong spine. She would have never been as assertive as she is now. “Yes, but take a closer look at who those women married.” Rico tilts his head to the side as his eyes go frightening blank. If what Carina is insinuating is true then for the first time Rico will be wrong.

He’ll take this as an insult to his intelligence. And he’ll scour his brain for hours, pick each neuron apart until he finds out how he missed this fine detail.

For him, this will be an inexcusable failure.

Not deterred by his alarming position she carries on strong. “Senators. Police Chiefs. Mayors. Commissioners and judges. And don’t forget the highly profitable business men to launder their money. All were used to gain immunity from being behind bars, never was a woman used to overthrow a throne.”

If Carina wasn’t my woman I would be afraid for her life.

She has just proven Rico wrong.

Corrected him in front of an audience.

For all his calculations and strategies it was this very one detail that managed to slip free.

A miscalculation.

And if Carina hadn't mentioned it, it could’ve proven to be a fatal one.

The room drops several degrees as Rico remains uncharacteristically still.

He blinks once, twice before locking those unreadable eyes upon me. “My deepest apologies, Constantine. I will not fail you again.”

I nod my head. “Forgiven, Rico. Please do not dwell on it.”

“I won’t,” he assures me and I can’t help but laugh. Give it to the man who can’t feel to apologize for making a critical error and then within the same breath act as if it had never happened. But I do know Rico. He’ll now do whatever it takes to make his error right. To prove his loyalty to me. And better, to remind himself who he is. A man who does not overlook details. “But this does prove a hypothetical I had right.”

“I’m always left out,” Pietro whines as a knowing look crosses my face. “What are you talking about, Rico?”

“Before Constantine had agreed to take Carina’s hand I had warned him of the possibility of Carina being a Trojan Horse to gain sensitive information about Constantine and his empire.”

“That could have never been a possibility,” Carina softly tells us.

Gino confirms. “They only ever saw Carina as a pawn. In order for her to be a Trojan Horse and gain intel as you said, Rico, Savio and Luca would have had to acknowledge her intelligence. And where Carina is concerned they’ve never once thought of utilizing her mind. They only saw her as a piece they could move and manipulate.”

I promise the death of Savio Fiore will be a tremendous great deal of pain. He will count each day of torture, begging for his pathetic life, while all that will be left with him by the time I am done is ash and bone.

As for Luca . . .

I can only imagine the suffering he will face at the hands of Carina.

“But they did use you as a Trojan Horse just not the one with the intentions of gaining intel, rather the perfect distraction.”

I’ve never been shy of acknowledging my obsession with Carina to my three most trusted men. To the outside world I’ve only been a shadow in Carina’s life. Out of sight. Out of reach. Always there but never to be seen.

But if what Rico is suggesting is to be true then Savio and Luca must have known of my obsession with Carina.

And Savio acted by offering her hand in marriage.

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