Page 129 of Where the Wicked Reign

“Exactly.” He told Cat, “I know you can handle yourself unbelievably well, but as you know, we can’t expose that fact. Not yet.”

“You’re our secret weapon,” Milo said.

I leaned back against the couch and mused aloud, “Mmm, I can’t wait until she gets to unleash in all her glory.” I winked at her. “You know, in a very different way than how you did last night. That was a fucking treat, by the way.”

She chuckled. “Understatement.”

“Yeah?” I pressed. None of us had even brought up what had gone down last night.

“Definitely.”

Nico shifted his weight. “All right, let’s keep that locked down for now. I need to concentrate.”

I laughed. “Never seen you so affected before by a little sex talk.”

His eyes burned into hers. “It’s different now.”

“Yeah, it is,” Milo uttered, staring at her intensely, thoseteddy bear eyesout in full force again.

I smiled to myself. This was definitely a positive development, but it sure was going to take some time to get used to.

“So, depending on how the wedding reception shitshow lands will determine our strategy going forward. I’ve laid out several to account for every eventuality. Suffice to say, part of it will need to be luring some of my soldiers to our side. That can’t be attempted until we’re certain their faith in the Marchetti Syndicate has waned, or it will expose what we’re doing.”

“Resulting in all of us being tortured and killed brutally,” I said.

“Sounds about right,” Milo grunted.

“What people project and what’s real are often two very different things, especially in our world,” Cat said. “I can keep watch over your soldiers, look for anything that signifies them planning to exit, to run, building up nest eggs to do so, monitor their communications, everything.”

“Perfect,” Nico said.

“Now, we can’t simply take out the Bosses—and Underbosses—and be done with it. Especially with this new close-knit alliance in effect. There are always those beneath ready to move up and take control. We need to destabilize first, then move while they’re vulnerable, to rot the families all the way down to the fucking roots.”

“The human trafficking ranch takedown combined with what’s going to happen at the wedding reception are a good step toward that destabilization,” Cat said. “What about the military-grade weapons deal that Marco Marchetti is involved in? The intel you gave me, Nico, didn’t have much on it at all. I was expecting a lot more, given the severity of what would occur if the deal went through.”

“Due to the severity, it’s been like pulling teeth to get the intel.”

My gut twisted at his response.

I’d thought he was going to tell her the truth where that was concerned, to use thisstrategizingdiscussion to actually do it.

But he’d gone a whole other way.

I looked at Milo and saw his jaw clenching, not liking it either.

The thing was, neither of us could call him on it. Nico always had his reasons. He wasn’t telling her for a specific purpose and as much as we clearly didn’t like it with us growing close to Cat now, it could be for her wellbeing, to protect her. She was already in enough danger as it was because of her father and Angeloanddoing this with us. She certainly didn’t need more.

But he’d better fucking explain exactly why he’d gone this route ASAP.

“Fine,” Cat said, frustrated, but getting it and seemingly buying what he’d just told her.Hmm.“Well, we have a lot more to go on now that we’ve pooled our intel. I’ve identified several key weak spots as well as resources we can draw on as we go along. We just need to determine the optimal time to deploy said resources and coordinate a systematic and inconspicuous set of assaults.”

“We also need to tell her about Reincourt Construction,” I spoke.

Nico stilled.

Milo shook his head at my brazen way of suddenly revealing something so secretive between us.

“She gave me Brimbank Waterfront. One of her secrets,” I explained.

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