Page 112 of Vicious Little Princess

Jeez,the guy was intense. An oddball too, no doubt.

And I couldn’t determine whether I was pissed that he’d intervened in my mission, or if I was grateful.

I couldn’t determine a lot of things right now, all the while Julian was in this broken state.

Coming up here, especially when he definitely wasn’t field-ready… the risks had been off the charts. His desperation to get to Angelo was another level, beyond what I’d already perceived from him, beyond what me, Nico, or Caterina had even realized.

This was bad.

So fucking bad on too many levels.

And all I could do as he continued to break down in my arms was hold him to me.

It’s not enough.

Nowhere near enough.

24

~Nico~

“I need to be involved in the hunt for him!” Julian yelled.

Yet again.

It had been virtually non-stop since he and Milo had walked back into the house.

I’d even heard him in the car as Milo had driven him back, Julian arguing the whole time as Milo had reported everything that had happened earlier tonight.

I’d taken some time to debrief with Tony and those of my soldiers who had been on mission tonight after they’d had their injuries seen to by my on-call doctor. Fortunately, all of them had been mild, especially considering what they’d walked into with all the surprises tonight that hadn’t been a part of the original plan. Fortunately, being able to pivot when things didn’t go to plan was something Milo and I had learned well over our years involved in this fucked-up life.

A fucked-up life I’d have to continue on with now that I’d committed to taking power over the Marchetti Syndicate. Unless I could overhaul things and take the organization completely legitimate like Caterina had made abundantly clear that she wanted.

My soldiers had been unsettled and morale had clearly taken a hit despite the fact that the mission had technically been a success. Because of them witnessing Julian breaking down. It wasn’t an easy thing to bear in the least. Fortunately, I’d managed to raise their spirits with commendations of how well they’d handled things tonight, bonuses I’d wired to their accounts for them and their families—with the help of Caterina moving money around within Santino’s accounts—and by laying out how things would play out once we were through this fight, to keep them focused on the endgame and the light and relief it would bring to us all.

But while I’d managed to keep my soldiers on track, Julian was another case entirely.

For one, he wasn’t a soldier of mine.

Nor did he possess that sort of mindset. Not close to Milo’s either.

Julian didn’t just fall in line because I commanded it, or because he recognized the sense in doing so, or implicitly trusted in me to the same depth that Milo did because we’d worked together under high pressure circumstances for so long. No, there was more of a disconnect there when it came to Julian. He questioned more; he pushed back more.

And, unfortunately, that was one of the worst things right now when he both needed to be reeled inandto recognize that it was the case.

“Can you avoid talking so animatedly for a few more moments?” Milo beseeched him as he stood before Julian, who was sitting up at the island as Milo tried to dress his battered knuckles. Self-inflicted fucking injuries.

Julian glared at him, then shot another fierce and challenging look my way as I leaned against the kitchen door, my arms folded across my chest as I regarded and studied him closely. “Well? Are you gonna answer me or just stand there with that disapproving look blazing my way?”

“The fact you showed up there without authorization is what led to thehuntingpart of the mission being unsuccessful.”

Milo swung his head my way, his espresso eyes wide with disbelief.

He’d wanted me to sugarcoat it. That much had been clear from the careful and dancing-around-the-severity-of-it way he’d reported everything to me on their drive back. Of course, I could read between the lines when it came to him.

“What he did tonight was beyond dangerous. It can’t be brushed aside as a mere mistake or a miscalculation,” I told Milo.

He blew out a breath and looked away, focusing back on wrapping the knuckles of Julian’s right hand, the left he’d already taken care of.

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