Page 36 of Where the Wicked Reign

“She also agreed to hear you out with the deal and she’s taking a shower right now while we’re both here, instead of actually kicking us out and telling us to go to hell, the deal idea be damned.”

She had been covered in Nico’s blood, but judging by the more than favorable way she’d reacted to that, and what I’d heard about their encounter atIl Fornothat time, I’d doubted that had really bothered her, that she’d felt like she’d needed to wash it away so quickly. I was wagering that it was more about giving an excuse so that she could take a beat and get her head on straight. Although Nico had been too far gone to notice as he normally would have, especially when it came to him very closely observingherreactions, I’d seen how exhausted and worn down she’d looked.

“That’s true, but it was just about the deal, just business to her.”

“That doesn’t matter. For now, at least. This marriage will put you in close quarters. No more watching her from afar. This might actually be the jolt both of you needed to make the next move. Instead of seeing it as a problem, see the opportunity in it.”

I watched him taking my words in and it became apparent that he hadn’t actually been able to see the good in it at all. He looked so surprised by my take on it that it was fucking sad, because that was how he’d been taught, how he’d grown to be. Somebody entrenched in pain and darkness. He never expected anything beyond that. His obsession with Caterina Leone had been a brief bright spark, but with the way he lived his life and approached things because of it, that had been steeped in a whole lot of twisted bleakness, too. Instead of just asking her out or going about it thenormalway, he’d been playing fucked-up games with her. Taunting and tormenting her. That was his version of flirting, or making a connection.

“Yeah, maybe you’re right,” he murmured, calming now, his breathing leveling out.

“You’re gonna have to work on your control issues, though. Open up a little.”

“What?”

“She doesn’t trust easily. In fact, I’d say it’s verging on paranoia.”

“You’re saying it’s more than her just being that way with me because of our little war?” he asked, knowing how incredibly well I was able to read others. Hell, it was one of the reasons I was so successful in my career and at such a young age. I used that knowledge to my advantage and my competitors’ disadvantage.

“Yes, it’s more than that. It’s who she is, what she’s learned to be.”

“That makes sense with the way her father treated her.”

“It’s clearly not unfounded, because she thought she was free of it. Now, she’s gonna be pulled back into it all and used as a bargaining chip, traded like a piece of property with no agency of her own. You and I both know how that feels.”

I heard the elevator ding in the distance, and the next thing we knew, Milo was striding around the corner.

He pulled up short when he saw me against the wall with my hand still grasping Nico’s cock.

“I thought you were going to use your infamous schmoozing skills to stop him. Not yourotherset of skills.”

Nico jerked away from me, and I pushed off the wall.

“Relax, big boy. Just trying to help him calm down. He needed a jolt.”

He looked at Nico worriedly. “This is worse than it’s ever been for you, then.”

Nico shoved a hand through his hair. I could see his concern too, as he acknowledged the truth to it. But then he blew it off as he tended to do when his control and judgment was being called into question in any way whatsoever—his defense mechanism—and told us, “I’m fine. Relax.”

Milo and I exchanged a look, but didn’t speak to it. Now wasn’t the time, especially when I’d only just managed to calm Nico down.

“I was about to head down now he’s okay.”

“You should,” Nico told me. “It’s not a good idea to have all of us up here in her apartment when she comes out.”

“I’d be right there with you on that too,” Milo said. “Ifshe hadn’t just texted me and invited me to come on up.”

“She did what?” Nico asked.

He lifted a shoulder. “She obviously gets that the three of us are a package deal.”

Interesting.

Milo caught my eye and shook his head. “Not like that, nympho.”

Or maybe exactly like that.

I mean, I could see why Nico was so fascinated with her.

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