Page 130 of Where the Wicked Reign

“Brimbank?” Nico asked, even as he glared at me.

“It’s a long story. We’ll fill you in.”

“All right,” he muttered. “Reincourt is on the table.” He smiled out at Cat. “We’ll give you the lowdown.”

“I don’t know what it is, but I’m beyond curious now.”

Nico settled in, pulling his phone out. “Then, let’s get started.”

Here goes nothing.

24

~Nico~

It had happened.

Levi Knight was ready.

Primed.

In the perfect position of determination and desperation to do my bidding.

All the while believing that I was doing him a favor.

He’d reached out to me without any coercion on my part—well, not outright coercion, anyway, and none that he was actually aware of taking place. There had certainly been underhanded, concealed manipulation from me, though.

Something I knew Caterina wouldn’t accept.

It wasn’t the only reason I hadn’t told her about Levi’s connection to my father’s prospective arms deal.

I shook my head, chastising myself in the process for thinking about that right now when I needed to focus, as I was about to head out to meet with Levi. Not only that, but I had to ensure that I wasn’t tailed, that my leaving the city didn’t raise suspicion. With it being just days out from the wedding, that wasn’t easy to do. I had to throw up a fucking smokescreen just to accomplish it, and keep it off everyone’s radar.

Only Milo and Julian knew about my true destination tonight.

I shrugged on my designer leather jacket just as Milo burst right on into my bedroom, knowing how much I hated that. He was doing it purposely to display his distaste for the entire situation regarding tonight’sactivities.

He made that even more blatant as he said, “A lie by omission is still a lie, Nico. I’m not even sure that it was by omission, to be honest, and not just an outright lie instead.”

“It’s necessary. I’ve told you that.” I spun to face him as I secured my gun in my hip holster. “And you would normally take my word as gospel. Except now you’re so smitten with her that the proudly unaffected, steadfast and stoic powerhouse is faltering on his well-trodden, established path.”

“Maybe it’s not meant to be my path.”

“Normally I’d be glad to hear it—from a personal standpoint for you, anyway—but currently it’s pissing me the fuck off. Because I need you with me on this.”

“You know I’m still going to be with you, brother. I’m just not happy about it this time.”

I cursed and scrubbed my hand over my face. “Do you really thinkI’mhappy about needing to keep this from her? It took me an age to gain her trust, to pull her to me. And now tous.I don’t want anything to fuck that up. Especially with the connection we’ve all managed to establish between usandin light of what lies ahead of us with this war.” I shifted my weight and folded my arms across my chest. “Buther relationship with Levi is dangerous where this particular situation is concerned. Things need to happen the way they are tonight. He needs to take this intel and run with it. If Caterina is involved, not only will she not be okay with that, she’ll very likely want to involve herself in it and assist him. That can’t happen. It will put her in danger, which is bad enough, but it will also pull her focus from what we’re doing here and it could even out her true skills in the process.”

He shoved a hand through his spiky hair. “You need to tell her right after this meeting.”

“I just told you that—”

“It will already be in motion then. Besides, if you wait until Levi buries Malcolm Lynch andOsiris,the chances of her finding out about both that and your involvement will increase with every passing day. And it coming out like that won’t do us any favors.”

“I’ll consider it,” was all I offered, all I could offer right now.

“Look, are you actually going to be able to do this? Meet with him and focus only on the mission at hand and not the Caterina of it all?”

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