Page 60 of Where the Wicked Reign

Milo had wanted to make sure that Nico was taking the edge off and relaxing, so he’d be ready for the upcoming mission. He was worried that Nico’s head wasn’t clear because of the mind-fuck he’d endured from Marco, Leo, and Caterina.

Not only wasn’t he relaxing and playing voyeur as people got it on in the space opposite, he was smoking up a storm. When he finished a smoke, he’d bring his Zippo back out and start flicking it on and off rapid-fire, one of his stress reactions.

“This is bad,” Milo muttered, still pacing like crazy.

“I’m sure it didn’t help with you coming down so hard on him.”

He stilled, then swung his head toward me. “What?”

“Well, he’s got enough people doing that to him at the moment.”

“I was protecting him. Warning him.”

“Yeah, giving him warnings he’s already well aware of. Worse than that, warnings he’s clearly tormented by.”

“Fuck you, it’s not me who’s causing this, it’s her. The fucking Leone princess.”

“Treating her like a threat isn’t going to help anything, Milo.”

“It’s already bad enough that we’re being pulled into this fucking job with her.That’salready a threat to us.”

“It will also be a massive blow to Santino Leone, which fits in with our overarching goal of weakening the three families and upending the current status quo that’s fucking us all over. Nico didn’t do this for Caterina. There’s a larger strategy here.” I frowned. “You must recognize that, so why is all the blame on her for you?”

“Because!” he cried, tugging at his sexy spiky silver hair.

“Because?”

“She’s… she’s in his head.”

“She has been for three years.”

“That was different. Now she’s in his vicinity and she’s going to be for good once this wedding happens.”

Hmm.It didn’t take much to put the pieces together now he’d thrown that out there. “You’re afraid of losing him.”

“I’m not afraid of anything.”

Bullshit.

“Worse. You think she’ll take your place?”

“She’s his weakness. That’s what this is about.”

More bullshit.

“She’s a threat to him and to us all, Julian. Why am I the only one who sees that?”

I sipped at my vodka, then crossed to my white leather couch and relaxed back with my glass in hand, crossing my legs on the coffee table. I patted the cushion beside me. “Come sit with me.”

“I don’t feel like sitting right now.”

“Look, I agree that we need to tread carefully with her. She needs to prove herself to us, just like we do to her when it comes to trust. But she’s also going to be Nico’s wife. As fucked-up as it is of how that’s going to come about, it’s happening. She’s being forced into it just as much as Nico is. She’s probably scared, Milo. She won’t be in total control of the situation and from what I’ve observed recently and heard from Nico over the years, she’s a control freak. I really doubt she’s going to be making moves against him or us closest to him when it would make much better sense to seek support instead, to work with us.”

“You forget that she’s Santino’s daughter.”

“Like Nico is Marco’s son?”

“That’s different.”

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