Page 162 of Where the Wicked Reign

I grimaced as Caterina hugged her mom tightly to her, burying her face in her shoulder, her body shaking with her sobs.

Fuck.She was reeling.

Everything had happened too fast.

Too much brutality.

Too much upheaval and changes.

Iknewher. And this wasn’t her.

She was more determined and fucking resilient than anyone I’d ever known.

She’d been shoving her reactions to everything down so much to keep moving forward that it was now catching up with her and this thing with her mom was worsening all of that.

As shitty as it sounded, Bianca Leone couldn’t leave fast enough for my liking.

I needed Caterina back on track.

All hell was about to break loose any day now that the fallout from the attack was waning. We had to be ready.

The next part of our strategy involved several hits against key Marchetti and Leone business ventures, as well as undermining faith in the new alliance amongst my soldiersandthen those of the Leones. All of that had to be carried out meticulously without any mistakes.

As Caterina and her mom finally broke apart, I tensed when Bianca looked my way, then started over to me. She held her hand up to Caterina, willing her to stay where she was.

And then she stopped in front of me, looking me up and down studiously, clearly trying to see into me.No chance.

I was expecting a lecture, especially considering I’d barely said more than a handful of words to her in the few days that she’d been here. A lot of that had been due to the damage control I’d been called in to handle for the family, my father surprisingly ordering me to take the lead with reinforcing our holdings, even on Cassio and Gio’s territory, schooling them on how I took care of my own territory where that was concerned.

But the rest had been because I didn’t want her here due to the impact she had on Caterina. The way she softened her. Weakened her, as far as I was concerned.

Bianca was no fool, and she’d clearly picked up on it.

However, instead of a lecture coming my way, she told me quietly but in a firm tone full of conviction, “Caterina will be okay once I take my leave. As regrettable as it is for me to admit as her mother, she’s not used to having me around due to circumstances with the family, her father’s rules that had been bearing down upon me. So what you’ve been experiencing from her, this version of her, is a result of that.”

“That’s already very apparent to me.”

“You’re her husband now, for better or worse, so I expect you to live up to it. Treat her well.” She glared hard at me. “As more than the phenomenal asset that she is in your dangerous war.”

“She’s much more than that to all three of us.”

She smiled. “Good. Remember that when you’re in the thick of it.”

“I will.”

“And… thank you. Thank you for ensuring this forced marriage was a façade, and not what my awful husband had intended for her.”

“He’s afraid of her. Do you know why?”

It wasn’t the human trafficking angle, because he had no idea she’d been involved in that.

Milo had mentioned it on the way home the other night from the reception. He thought that the pain of the terrible issues she had with her father had been why she’d never brought it up. But that wasn’t like her, to shy away from something like that when so much was at stake. I believed it to simply be that she didn’t actually know what it was. She knew a great deal, but whatheknew about that, about her reach, was a whole other thing.

One thing was certain, if he knew her full reach, he would have already tried to have her killed, forget the degradation and control route that this marriage was supposed to be functioning as.

So it had to be something specific.

Bianca was my best chance of finding out, save from torturing Angelo. Of course, I’d also have to murder the fucker, which would prove to be one hell of a headache to cover up and keep my involvement clean from. Aside from that sick bastard, Bianca was the one person in a close enough position to know just from living in that house with him, being around him the mostandknowing, as his long-time wife, where to be to learn what was needed.

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