Page 50 of Where the Wicked Reign

Caterina:I have help.

Mom:What? From who?

Caterina:Best if you don’t know. Just trust me that it’s under control. It can be done safely now.

Mom:Promise me.

Caterina:I promise. How’s the vacation?

Fortunately, she’d taken my push to change the subject and gone along with it.

Mom:Relaxing and peaceful. Who knew I could actually enjoy it?

Caterina:LOL. Yeah, you’re always one for being busy.

Mom:Like mother, like daughter.

Caterina:So true.

Mom:Anything else going on?

Caterina:Not much. Focusing on expansion and this unsavory situation with Santino.

And that was where the guilt had come in.

Not telling her about the recent development with Nico Marchetti, about marriage being on the horizon for me.

It was something a daughter should tell her mother. Especially when we had a good relationship where that was expected.

Under normal circumstances.

But no one could know yet.

Iwasn’t even supposed to know.

Nico had taken a major risk by telling me in advance.

By priming me, basically.

I wasn’t fool enough to believe that he’d done it for my benefit.

At least, I didn’t think he had.

Not solely for my benefit, at least.

It had to be more about business, about him trying to protect himself and his boys and to make sure that I was ready to respond in a favorable way when it was finally announced to me by my father. He wanted to use this marriage arrangement to turn things around for himself, to regain control and power. And he wanted me to help him to do it.

Given that we were both about to be used as pawns in our families, I was obviously on board with that.

It also helped that we both knew how the other worked, following our crazy war over the last few years.

That didn’t go for Julian and Emilio, though.

I needed to get a handle on them as soon as possible.

So far, all I was getting from Emilio was a whole lot of cold-heartedness, him being solely focused on the business of it all, just being a good guard dog to Nico.

As for Julian, I’d basically met his upbeat and flirty persona that night, but then he’d offered to help me run things when I’d been exhausted, which had seemed like a sweet and selfless act, not exactly something the media whore and ruthless businessman beneath the surface was known for. He’d thrust a contradiction my way, and I didn’t like that. I needed to be sure as to where he was coming from and what his intentions and agenda were.

---