Page 3 of Where the Wicked Reign

Plans that involved a whole lot of destruction.

“Such hubris, principessa,” he spoke, looking me up and down like he usually did, yet in far more up-way-too-close-and-personal detail, his gaze trailing down my closed blazer to my black mini skirt, lingering on my thighs for a while, before taking in my studded knee-high black leather boots.

He clearly wanted to make me squirm. The lust sparking in his eyes couldn’t be genuine. All we’d ever done was butt heads. He hated me, and that feeling was most definitely mutual.

I refused to give him the reaction he desired, gritting out instead, “Don’t call me that.”

“I’ll call you whatever I like,” he rebutted, reaching out and fingering my green tourmaline bar necklace, something given to me as a protection charm and a source of peace. “Levi’s doing, yes?”

I started. How did he know that? How did he know about my close friend, Levi Knight, at all? We’d been very careful to keep our friendship hidden from the outside world.

Despite me pulling away from the Family, I was still watched, and men coming into my life were in particular—a holdover from old, misogynistic customs that my father enforced when he saw fit, when it suited him. So I’d made sure to keep my thing with Levi off his radar as a means to protect him. He didn’t need the bullshit of my world infecting him. He’d had enough darkness from other sources to last him a lifetime.

Not to mention, as the son of tycoon, Roman Knight, and heir to the massive Knightsridge Engineering, whose base was located here in the City of Tolhurst, any move against him risked starting one hell of a war. His father could be just as dangerous as mine when provoked.

There was also another reason I didn’t want my connection to Levi disclosed. It was our mutual passion for what the uninitiated would refer to as hacking. That could not be known—not on my end. It would fuck up my other mission.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The corner of his mouth turned up. “I see. You barely know him, yes? You only met him once and briefly at that during that failed business deal between his father and yours? When Roman refused to allow him to buy him out of Knightsridge Tower when he’d desired the location to develop with Leone Realty?”

Why was he giving me a way out?

Because he knew he didn’t have solid evidence and he’d just believed the rumors that had stemmed from that one time we had crossed paths publicly during that business deal—something my father had tried to use me to close?

Basically, he’d tried to whore me out to Roman’s second at Knightsridge, but the guy hadn’t been the seedy type, and he’d been happily married. And, honestly, he’d taken pity on me too for being thrust into that position when I’d been only eighteen years old—shortly before I’d gotten the hell out of here for a time and gone off to college.

“That’s right.”

“That’s good that he’s out of the picture. Keep your focus on what you’re trying to build here.” He gestured around the space. “Just not literally here at this factory. That’s off the table, I’m afraid.” He released me with a self-satisfied smirk. “Now run along.”

“The hell I will.”

“He’s being hella diplomatic with you,bellezza,” Emilio warned me.

I kept my eyes on Nico. “What do you even need this space for? It wouldn’t be conducive to your operations. It’s too far out from your drug routes to be useful as a storage facility. And there are no businesses around for you to extort protection money from either.”

“Our business isn’t your concern. Butyourbusiness could be Santino’s concern.”

I scoffed. “He wouldn’t care.”

A nasty grin spread over his face. “You don’t think so?”

“I have nothing to do with Leone Family business. I don’t represent the family in any way. What I do has no bearing on him and he’s made sure that’s been well-established to everyone across the three families.”

“Thought you’d embarrass him by going out on your own, huh?” Emilio said. “So he disowned you in the public eye.” He winced. “That’s harsh.”

It was my punishment for wanting to be independent from the Family. He couldn’t understand the fact that there’d been nothing left for me there when he’d dismissed me as his heir. He couldn’t understand that an ambitious and driven young woman had no other choice but to go out on their own.

“It was my price,” I told them. “And, again, none of your business.”

Nico stared at me for a moment, and I thought I saw a glimmer of understanding.

But it was gone like it had never been with his next words. “I could make the entire thing my business if you don’t walk away from this. Especially the fact that you purposely outbid Leone Realty for a piece of land just outside the Entertainment District, because you wanted it for yourself for a part of this new empire of yours that you’re building. You made sure not to do it under your name and you even hid the fact of your ownership in the name that you did bid under. Camlann Corporation?” At my stunned reaction that he’d put the pieces together, he explained, “I know you have a thing for Arthurian legend. Camlann was the site of King Arthur’s final battle where he perished. I’m sure you intended to transfer ownership of whatever you planned to build here too to Camlann Corporation when the time was right.”

“Don’t do this.”

“It’s one thing to separate yourself from him, but a whole other thing to actively hinder his business. I can’t imagine how he’ll take to that, or what obstacles he’ll put in the way of your business aspirations, what favors he’ll call in to sabotage you.”

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