Page 96 of Where the Wicked Reign

“Oh,” I murmured.

“It feels different hearing about it in concrete terms, doesn’t it?”

“It does.” I sucked in a breath. “But we knew this was coming. And it still doesn’t explain why you’ve been… off… this morning.”

“You’re being pulled back into the Leone Family bullshit against what you’ve wanted, despite all that you’ve done to build a life separately from it all, but last night also hit me with the brutal realization that you’re also being pulled into my family, into my darkness.”

“Last night was my mission. If anything,Ipulledyouinto it.”

“You put you getting hurt last night down to being distracted by having allies during combat, but I know you were dancing around the truth. It was because your head wasn’t clear. Due to me and my boys. It compromised you. It’s taking its toll.”

“I can handle it.”

“I don’t doubt it. But you need time. Time, as much as it’s a bitch for me to even utter, without me and the boys in your face. So focus on Camlann Corporation and the expansion you were so excited about. For the next couple of weeks until the Tolhurst Annual Business Forum. As we know, that’s when your father intends to reveal this marriage directive to you. That means you have just these few days of peace and savoring being on the outside before you’re pulled back into it all.”

Color me shocked.

“I don’t understand. You, of all people, offering this up? Keeping your distance?”

“Like I said, last night was a brutal wake-up call. So take some time.”

“If this is some sort of test or manipulation, I really thought we were moving beyond that and—”

“No test. No manipulation. I need your head clear, need you focused. But a whole lot of processing needs to occur first. It’s been a hell of a mind-fuck lately, and you need to take a beat.”

“And you obviously do, too.”

He nodded. “I need to handle this shit at the summit, be at my best, focused. Too much is at stake not to be thinking clearly. I’m doing something I normally don’t do, outside of Milo and Julian. I’m trusting you. Trusting that you won’t use this space and downtime away from us to pull away or entrench yourself in a shitload of denial again.”

The war taking place within him was playing out all over his face.

He didn’t need to worry, though.

The fact he was giving me what I’d also realized that I’d needed without me having to put my foot down meant a great deal.

“We’re beyond that now,” I assured him. Way beyond.

“Good,” he said, smiling out at me. “Very good to know.”

His phone started ringing somewhere in his vicinity. He turned from the screen to snatch it up, then he looked back at me, telling me, “I need to take this. And you need to get ready for your meeting. Be well, Caterina. And if there are any complications with that injury, let me know. I’ll send assistance.”

“I’ll be fine, but thank you.”

“Of course.” He grunted as his phone continued ringing. He was clearly looking to delay our goodbye. “Fuck, I need to go.”

“It’s okay. Be careful at the sketchy covert summit.”

“Always,” he said with a wink. “Soon,principessa.”

“Soon,” I returned, before he ended the video call.

I put my laptop down and breathed out a heavy breath.

So, it was back to normalcy.

For a few days at least.

Before everything was altered in irreparable ways.

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