Page 39 of Vicious Little Princess

The corner of his mouth turned up, indicating that he actually liked it.

That was the last thing I wanted. “Let me go, you fucking maniac!”

“We both know how much you worship my dick. You’d never risk that.” He stroked my cheek. “Nice try, though.”

I jerked my head away. “You’re being absolutely insane. This is an extreme overreaction!”

He ignored that and eyed Milo. “Turn the TV on. Not too loud. Just enough where she can focus on that and fall asleep to it. Put thatMerlinshow on that you downloaded for her.”

They’d downloaded a show for me?

As Milo set that up, Nico walked into the bathroom, then came back with the small garbage can. He put it down on one of the nightstands. Then he took the chair from the desk and pulled it up to the bed. He gestured at the bucket and told me, “If you feel like you’re going to throw up again, let me know. That’s what this is for.”

“Fuck, Nico. I need to be downstairs working the leads, following the many trails we’ve identified regarding Angelo.”

“You’ve set everything up. We’ll take it from here. I’m almost done untangling the financials. Milo will handle your side of things.”

“I can’t just sit this out, I can’t… I can’t… fail.”

“Fail?” Milo uttered, after getting the TV show on, and coming to the bed.

“I’m good at what I do. Excellent, in fact. I should’ve been able to find him and Julian by now.”

“He’s off the grid, away from any tech, cameras, the whole nine,” Milo reminded me. “You’ve done everything you can. More than anybody else would actually be capable of.”

“We’re close,” Nico told me. “Because ofyou,Caterina. We’ll find him.”

But what state would Julian be in by then?

I knew how fucked-up Angelo could be and what he’d done, coming at us in the way he had, setting up the despicable things that he had… it indicated that he’d taken that to another level, that he’d completely lost his fucking mind.

And because of that, the things he could be subjecting Julian to… I could barely even imagine. But what Icouldimagine was bad enough.

I looked out at Milo, seeing his need to focus on the mission of finding Julian and not the other stuff, not what could be happening to him right now.

I doubted he could even bear to hear it.

So, I didn’t speak to it.

I sank down in the bed and blew out a breath, murmuring, “Okay.”

As ridiculous and overwrought as Nico tying me to the bed to get me to rest was, if I continued to fight it right now, it would only cause more stress and take the two of them away from focusing on the search for Julian.

That was what mattered right now.

It was all that could be allowed to matter.

Besides, maybe Icoulduse a little bit of sleep.

I would awake with my mind sharper and maybe that would make the difference in our search.

“I’ll call the doctor,” Nico told Milo. “Bring me the laptop with the financials on it, then get some rest, too. I’ll take the first shift.”

When Milo went to argue, Nico held up his hand. “If anything happens, if any of the alerts Caterina’s set up go off, I’ll wake you both up. You have my word.”

“Okay,” Milo agreed, albeit clearly reluctantly. He came to me and planted a soft kiss on my forehead. “Please rest up,bellezza.We need you with us. With Julian gone, I can’t also worry about—”

“You won’t have to. I’ll get some sleep, I promise.”

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