Page 116 of Vicious Little Princess

It hit me then.

She must’ve told him.

About the intel I had for Milo that I hadn’t wanted to reveal until after tomorrow’s assaults, so it wouldn’t impact his focus. We were on extremely dangerous ground right now, and what Julian had done tonight had already been enough of a risk.

I really didn’t want to entertain more.

But Caterina’s words, about the puppet mastery, the secrets being kept that impacted other people’s lives… it hit me beyond the rational, beyond the mission.

And I couldn’t let her reveal it.

It had to be me.

I owed Milo that much. Hell, I owed him a fuck of a lot.

“You’re right,” I said, coming up on her side.

She eyed me in confusion. “About the secrets?”

I nodded.

“Right, so, in the name of that—”

I stroked her arm. “No. It has to be me.”

“What are you—”

“Carlo handed me information that concerns you, Milo.”

The room fell silent, and I pushed from Caterina and walked to Milo, pulling my phone out as I went.

“Me?” Milo asked, as I stopped in front of him.

“It’s about your parents.” I grimaced as his face fell. “Specifically, the night of their murder.”

“That’s what he wouldn’t let me lip read that night? He was offering you intel about that?”

“Yes. With everything that happened that night, then our search for Julian, it put it on the back burner, but a few days ago, he sent it through.”

“He knows what happened, who was really responsible?”

“He’s known for a while. Under the terms of the alliance, he had to keep it buried.”

“Which he’s obviously no longer bound by,” Julian commented.

“It’s more than that, though, isn’t it?” Milo put to me.

“Yes.”

“He offered it up now to reinforce that he’s with us. That means it can’t have been collateral damage caused by the Benzinos.”

“Correct.”

His eyes darted between me and Caterina. “So their murders were either Leone or Marchetti kills.”

Honestly, it would be easier if it had been the former.

But there was nothing fucking easy about the world we currently found ourselves in.

---