Page 144 of Where the Wicked Reign

“Your father made you a deal. He said he’d leave her alone if you committed to this marriage, which helped him foster the alliance with my family.”

“He’s a dishonorable bastard. He obviously either lied or changed his mind.”

As we saw them drag her struggling body around the back, I started forward.

“No,” Nico said, grabbing my arm and holding me back. “Not like this. It will ruin everything and it’ll get you killed in the process.”

“Then we’d better come up with an alternative ASAP or everythingwillbe ruined. I won’t leave my mom to suffer Santino’s wrath.”

28

~Emilio~

The last few hours had been the biggest load of bullshit I’d ever borne witness to.

The forced marriage.

All the humiliation forced upon Caterina, all in Santino’s clear, desperate bid to reel her in.

He was afraid of her.

That had to be it.

It wasn’t just about this alliance to him, he’d made it personal when it came to her.

I wanted to knowwhyhe was afraid. What was it specifically? It had to be more than her burgeoning success and doing everything on her own without him, more than the perceived shame it had brought to his family by her leaving and now being a public and renowned figure in the city.

It was a sensitive subject to her, so none of us had broached it directly, and we’d been concerned with getting through this nightmare first and foremost.

But once it was done, I wanted to know the answer.

I knocked back another glass of brandy as I stood in the corner keeping an eye on Nico as he held Caterina tight to him while making polite conversation with the new business associates that this revised alliance had brought with it, including an owner of a major brothel chain just outside the city. I figured that had been Santino’s idea, trying to make up for the human trafficking shit we’d destroyed of his.

They were trying to diversify and that would make our job a lot harder.

It would have been even more so if Caterina hadn’t already been on top of it, identifying and looking into all these new players coming onto the scene and desperate to work with the Marchetti-Leone alliance now that previous rules had been thrown out the window, now there were no limits basically with the Benzinos forced out.

I couldn’t wait until this reception was torn apart by the coming attack.

Unfortunately, that also meant that I had to be on the ball, so I had to limit myself to two glasses of liquor, nowhere near enough for me to take the edge off.

As I finished the last drop and placed it down on the makeshift bar, turning my nose up at the wine everywhere—I hated that shit—I caught sight of one of Angelo’s guys leading Julian away from the living room.

I tracked their movements and tensed as I saw him being guided upstairs.

I scanned the immediate area, rapidly taking everyone in, and that was when I was able to confirm that Angelo was no longer around schmoozing.

I was aware that he’d had a confrontation with Julian, something my Sunshine would consider nothing, but something that a fucker like Angelo would see as a much bigger issue.

It all indicated that Julian was being led into the lion’s den.

That bastard was likely intending to confront him here tonight.

Goddammit.

I discreetly slipped away and followed their path up the stairs.

There were dozens of rooms when I reached the landing, but fortunately, I caught sight of Julian’s gray tux—matching with Nico’s with him acting as his best man today. That was another thing I hated about this event—wearing a restrictive suit.

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