Page 4 of Where the Wicked Reign

“Don’t threaten me with this, of all things.” He would not like the outcome.

“The threat’s already laid down, Caterina. We could have done this nicely, but you clearly don’t like nice, do you?”

“You know nothing.”

“I know a lot more than you think.”

“You piece of shit.”

Emilio stepped forward at my disrespect to his best friend and Capo, but Nico held up his hand, willing him to be still.

Then Nico stepped up to me again, making me tense as he leaned in, his hot breath fanning over the side of my neck, that minty scent of his cologne enveloping me. Damn him. “Keep that fire, tough girl,” he whispered in haunting words at my ear. “You’ll need it.”

With that, he stepped back and demanded, “Do we have a deal?”

I gritted my teeth. “Fine. I’ll stand down. The place is yours.”

“Smart decision.” He turned away then and threw up his hand behind him as he strolled back to Emilio. “Nice doing business with you, Caterina.”

I growled low in my throat and watched the two of them walk out.

“This isn’t over,” I hissed under my breath.

In fact, it was just the beginning.

They really shouldn’t have crossed me.

A red hazeplagued my vision.

Not mere anger, or even rage.

It was beyond even that.

The thirst for blood.

My hands shook with the need to deliver pain and punishment.

My blood heated at the promise of the satisfaction that it would bring.

Tonight would mark the moment that they all learned I wasn’t someone to trifle with, that I could give back as good as I got.

That I was no pushover, not a victim of anyone’s designs.

I stared out atIl Fornoacross the street.

It was one of the only restaurants that the Marchetti Syndicate actually operated. All the rest they were involved with were businesses that they extorted. They being Nico and his soldiers in this area of the city, as this was considered his territory to manage.

As for this restaurant in particular, it was actually owned by them and it was where Nico was known to take his dates. As per orders, those dates were socialites and It-Girls handpicked by his father as a means to maintain Nico Marchetti’s most-eligible young bachelor image. The façade that people in the city either really believed, or kidded themselves into believing for fear of reprisals from the Marchetti Syndicate if they didn’t. It made me sick that they were essentially marketing him as a legitimate individual when he was anything but. He really was a monster. The things he’d done… they were beyond fucked up. And what made it worse was that he enjoyed it. I’d witnessed that for myself once. One twisted night when I’d happened upon something that I shouldn’t have.

Little did he know that he wasn’t the only monster.

Sometimes you had to fight fire with fire.

Just like I was about to do now.

I looked through the floor-to-ceiling restaurant windows, spotting Nico sitting at a booth in the far corner with a blonde beauty in a pink mini-dress with a stunning Prada clutch on the booth beside her. Nico was dressed to the nines in a black pinstripe Armani suit.

I was going to stick out like a sore thumb in my turquoise leather jacket and black jeans ensemble. I was usually a stickler for dressing to impress, knowing how to put together an impeccable outfit for any given occasion, known for my sophistication. But tonight wasn’t about sophistication. In fact, it was about to be a far cry from it.

---