Page 111 of Where the Wicked Reign

“You know that fucker?”Angelo demanded as he slid into the limo beside me. He snapped his fingers, and the driver got moving, the limo peeling out of the side street it had been parked down.

I brushed down my dress and placed my purse beside me by the door. “He’s just an acquaintance. We’ve crossed paths a couple of times in the business world.”

“He was up real close when I walked out there.”

I lifted a shoulder. “He’s a known flirt. Relax.”

He shifted on the seat to face me. “Watch the attitude. That’s not gonna fly from now on.”

“We haven’t seen each other in years and that’s all you have to say to me? Asking about Julian, then threatening me?”

He stared at me, shooting daggers in his usual way. “If you hadn’t turned down my marriage proposal, things would be different.” He sank back into his seat. “And this isn’t the first time we’ve seen each other in years. I’ve been watching over you.”

I knew he had.

And I’d screwed with all his efforts, feeding false information and covering up other truths.

“Been spying on me for my father, you mean?” I asked, acting clueless like he and my father believed me to be, like they needed to believe for a little while longer.

“He wanted to make sure you remained untouched.”

Eww.“That makes no sense, seeing as though I left the family.”

“You’re an asset to him, one he knew he might have to use one day. Like now with this marriage to Nico Marchetti. Couldn’t be offering damaged goods now, could he?”

“You’re despicable. Both of you.”

He grabbed my thigh. Hard. Even digging his nails in.

I swallowed down my reaction and glared out at him. “Let go.”

Ignoring me, he went on, “I told you to watch the attitude. You’re gonna need to when you marry that monstrous fucker. Your father wants you broken. And, honestly, I’m looking forward to witnessing it. You thought you were too good for us, something special, that you could do better. Now, this is what you get. Back to what you always should have been… a forced bride being used and abused like a fucking whore.”

I reacted, unable to stop myself, slapping him across the face.

It was damned lucky it hadn’t been a punch, or I might have given my combat expertise away.

His head snapped to the side, and he grunted, a sick satisfaction taking me over as my red-raw handprint marred his fucking cheek.

“You fucking cunt.” He raised his hand, clenching his fist.

“I don’t have makeup in my purse. There’ll be no time to cover up your marks or a black eye,” I warned him.

He gritted his teeth, then dropped his hand.

“No matter, you’ll get what’s coming to you. And it starts tonight, mafia princess whore.”

“So sore about being rejected by me.”

“You’ll see soon enough that it was the biggest mistake you ever made.”

Hmm… no.It was a narrow escape.

Unfortunately, I had to step back into this twisted nightmare now.

As we fell into a tense silence, Angelo focusing on his phone and me staring out the window watching the city go by, it hit me just how far Nico had gone to help me. He was still a part of this world and in a way I couldn’t be because I was a woman, so he would have known what it would be like to walk back into it for me, especially in this way, with thisdutyforced upon me. And he’d come to me to ensure I had an alliance to fall back on when it did come to a head like this, to ensure I had some comfort in that.

He most definitely was a formidable manipulator, but he’d used it for good in this case.

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