Page 163 of Where the Wicked Reign

“It’s nothing she has on him. He’s clueless where that’s concerned. Even I barely know much about it. She claims it’s so I can maintain plausible deniability, but you’ve probably realized by now that Caterina has extreme trust issues, so that’s where it’s rooted. Even toward her own mother. Because I am—was—connected tohim.The fact that she’s givenyouher trust says a great deal about your character and your intentions toward her.” She shifted her weight and folded her arms across her chest. “His fear of her stems from his paranoia that she will supplant him.” Off my raised eyebrow, she clarified, “Not just in business, but as head of the Family.”

“She has no intention of becoming the Boss of the Leone Family.”

“Paranoia and ego and actual megalomania can skew reality. It certainly has his. He sees her coming up in the city, not just establishing herself, but thriving, her empire growing. Although she left for many reasons, he believes it to be solely because he cast her aside as his heir. He’s zeroed in on that and, combined with her burgeoning empire, he believes she’s growing power to challenge him. He's become weak over the years, he’s flailing, he has no idea what direction to take the Family in to keep it strong, while Caterina is the opposite.”

“I see.”

“He’s been looking for an opportunity to reel her in. So he watched and waited until your father made that mistake of trying to venture into military-grade weapons and thereby violating the treaty of the three families. He whispered in his ear about how the Benzinos would respond, how he’d expose him and ally with Carlo to come for him and destroy the Marchetti Syndicate, unless he agreed to a partnership. Hence the new alliance that now exists, your father capitulating to him in ways he would normally never allow. He trapped him and he used him through you to put a leash on my daughter. Or so they mistakenly believe. Now that’s been achieved, and he thinks Caterina won’t be able to grow her empire now she’s under your control, he’ll work on taking power for himself. He’ll destroy the Marchetti Syndicate from within via their faux-friendly alliance, take the spoils of that, and then he’ll move on to eradicating the Benzinos.”

As I fought to absorb her revelations, something else became clear to me. “Santino doesn’t want you dead for your perceived involvement in the fall of his human trafficking startup. He’s afraid you know too much, like this that you’ve just revealed to me.”

“He won’t know for sure, but, yes, he does suspect as much. He doesn’t know how much I’m aware of, but I’m a loose end he can’t afford with all of this now in play. Even if I went to your father with this, or you did so on my behalf, it would just be tarred as the rantings of a scorned woman, or a desperate attempt to create trouble between them in order to save myself from his wrath.”

She wasn’t wrong about that.

“This is enlightening. Thank you.”

“Thank me by protecting my daughter.”

She didn’t need my protection.

Of course, she was absolutely going to get it, just like Milo and Julian always would. She was one of us. She belonged with us now.

But she was also far more capableandpowerful than people knew. Even her own mother, as had just been made apparent to me.

I merely nodded. Satisfied, she headed back over to where Caterina was gathered with Milo and Julian all over her, comforting her.

Thankfully, the goodbyes didn’t start all over again and it was wrapped up in moments, with Bianca walking over to the van.

She slipped inside, then it took off out of our vicinity, disappearing into the night.

Relief sung through me.

Finally.

As the three of them walked back toward the house, Caterina eyed me curiously. “What did my mom say to you?”

“A lot.”

“What does that mean?”

“I’ll tell you once we get to the home gym.”

“The gym? What for?”

“To spar,principessa.”

“Nico, I don’t think—”

“We need to keep our skills sharp. It’s been weeks since you were in the field. So go get changed into your workout gear and meet me down there in six minutes.”

She glared at me, challenge sparking in her eyes.

Normally, she’d bite back at me.

And I wanted her to.

I wanted her to defy me, bust my balls, give me shit, even kick my fucking ass.

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