Page 83 of Vicious Little Princess

“We went over everything that happened that night.” He gestured at Dante. “The two of us examined it all, especially who was evacuated, who left when and where.”

“What? How? You weren’t even there,” Julian spoke.

“We weren’t supposed to be there. But we were watching.”

“Impossible. The surveillance system was cut really early on,” I told them.

“Human intelligence,” Matteo rebutted.

“You had control over some Leone security personnel,” I realized.

“Yes, but not just them.”

I frowned.

Dante stepped forward. “We’d developed afriendshipwith the Lone Gunners.”

Matteo actually smiled for once in his life. Although it was a sly smile. “Me and Dante have been working together for a while discreetly to counteract the damage that Santino has taken to doing to the Family—our reputation, our allies, our stability, and our operations in general. When the Lone Gunners received mysterious intel warning of an impending attack, we took advantage of it, Dante and I working with the president of the club. We gave them intel on the holes in security and the best approach to take the Leone Estate, while he agreed to try to take out Angelo and that maniac, Leo Marchetti, while keeping eyes on for us the entire time.”

“Jesus Christ,” Julian breathed. “That’s a hell of a thing.”

“Itwouldhave been if they’d actually managed to assassinate either of their targets,” I groused.

Matteo ignored that and went on, “A couple of the club members who retreated and received safe passage to do so thanks to us giving them a viable exit strategy, witnessed the two of you spiriting Bianca Leone away.”

“Human intelligence is fallible,” I pointed out.

“You don’t need to make excuses or cover it up. We’re glad she’s free, glad she’s safe and away from him,” Dante said.

“And we just admitted to orchestrating the attempted assassination of Angelo Simone and Leo Marchetti,” Matteo added.

Dante winced. “And Santino too actually.”

Matteo swung his head toward him. “I thought we agreed not to admit to that? At least not yet, until we’re certain about whereshestands. And the Marchetti heir for that matter.”

“The time for pussyfooting around is past, Matteo. You know that as well as I do. We need to go all in here. No more holding things back. It hasn’t helped anything and it certainly won’t help us now,” Dante told him.

“Show her then. Show her what Santino did to you when you went against him, even in just the small way he actually knows about of refusing to attend the wedding.”

Dante pinched the bridge of his nose, his distress clear.

“Dante,” Matteo pushed.

“Okay,” he acquiesced.

He turned his back toward me and lifted up his leather jacket and the back of his shirt.

Julian cursed, and I choked as I found myself looking at deep and very severe lashes from what looked to be caused by a whip all over the expanse of his back.

As Dante fixed his shirt and jacket back into place, Julian asked Matteo, “And you? Did he punish you also? We understand that you were banned from the wedding.”

“I was. I didn’t outright challenge him, though. I laid out my concerns for certain business partnerships he was intending to enter into. He humiliated me by banning me from the wedding and making me look like I couldn’t do my job, painting me as an ill-equipped old man who’d lost the plot. And he also had one of his tech-savvy security personnel wipe out my life savings and funnel it into one ofhishidden accounts.”

“So that’s why you’ve both come to me today? You know I’ve been abused by him too and you want to use that to join forces? To team-up? Is that it? And you’re offering me this Wharton lead on Angelo as an incentive to do that, to trust you with this?”

“This lead is more than just about Angelo,” Matteo informed me.

“What isWharton?”Julian asked.

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