Page 155 of Vicious Little Princess

She stilled.

And then she shot to her feet and blasted him, “I’m sorry, should I have sat there and let those bastards torture me, then bury me in one of Santino’s construction sites, as was his stated plan before I turned the tables?”

“You could have responded with a little less fucking force than a massacre!” he bit back, finally blowing up about it after containing it for the last few hours since we’d arrived home, wherein she’d showered, changed, been checked by the doctor, and calmed completely.

“He didn’t just threatenmethis time! He was going to break all of you! He would have killed our child too!”

Nico started at her revelation.

That was what the extra trigger had been, which had made her take it as far as she had.

“We would have found a way through. Together! Fucking together!” Nico smashed his boot into one of the patio chairs, sending it crashing through the broken patio doors and into the kitchen. “First Julian risked compromising our overarching mission and now you with this! I mean, fuck! You want this? You all want to be free, I need you to fucking workwithme, not against me!”

“Nico, I already apologized for what happened,” Julian said. “And I fell in line tonight too, even when I was freaking about Caterina being missing.”

Nico was too worked up now he’d finally let it out to pay that much mind and he went on, “Do you think Milo doesn’t want to rage at Leo for what he did? Years and he hasn’t had proper justice! But here he is workingwithme instead of tearing down to the Marchetti mansion and executing a fucking massacre all to get to one fucking person! I promised him his justice, and he knows he’ll get it!Whenthe time is right! And do you thinkIdon’t want to burn the whole world down for what happened to you tonight, Caterina? What Julian suffered through? And what was taken from Milo? Of course I fucking do, but I’ve had to leash myself latelyallso we can do this!”

There it was.

Where some of this was rooted.

Hehadn’tbeen able to unleash for a long fucking time.

He’d had to keep hisferalside checked.

First, because of the rational and systematic approach needed to carry out our overarching mission, then because he’d now be taking power, and also because of the baby.

And now, it had all clearly come to a head, with Caterina being taken tonightandthen the mission being fucked up because of Santino’s untimely murder pushing it over the edge for him.

He’d taken a lot on the chin and Nico Marchetti could handle a lot.

But everyone had their limits in the end, even him.

His phone rang in his hand, cutting into the fiery intensity he’d been letting loose a little. He grunted, then sucked in a calming breath and turned from us as he took the call.

“Rocco, yeah, what’s the word on them? They’re what? You’re certain? When? No. Leave it until you hear from me. I’ll pick up the trail on my end, then we’ll send out scouts.” He hung up, then told us, “My father is MIA.”

“What? You mean running scared with news of Santino’s murder?” Julian asked.

“We don’t know at this juncture. But those Rocco and I have doing recon have reported that Leo is at the Marchetti home gathering forces.”

“Leo is Boss?” I ground out.

“It hasn’t been officially stated,” Nico responded.

“Come on,” I said. “Like it was never officially stated that you weren’t considered Capo by them anymore? That’s how they are. Ambiguous with their intentions. They do that to unnerve everyone. They wait and then they pounce on those who’ve fallen out of their favor.”

“You think that’s what Leo is doing now with gathering forces and all that?” Julian asked worriedly.

“Yes,” I stated simply, eyeing Nico.

“What forces?” Caterina asked. “You’ve taken control of the majority of the soldiers across the board. All that’s left is Marco and Leo’s personal forces, which amounts to maybe a hundred, yes?”

“The same fuckers who broke into our home tonight and took you away,” Nico revealed. “You were right, they are connected to the Marchettis too. It was a joint venture.”

“They’ll come for us,” Caterina said.

“They’ll try,” Nico ground out.

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