Page 88 of Vicious Little Princess

I honestly didn’t want to bring that fucker’s name up in front of Julian at all. I didn’t want him to have to hear it, nor deal with any of this involved in tracking the asshole down and then eliminating him.

But Nico and I had discussed it on the way home and agreed that it was proving more detrimental to Julian all the while he was being kept out of things. He felt like he was isolated on the periphery. And that was a very dangerous thing after what he’d been through. Unfortunately, keeping him informed of what was going on meant discussing Angelo Simone, because he was one of our targets, an ongoing mission in effect. Not to mention, he was tangled up in all this, even irrespective of the kidnappings. Especially now that we knew from the intel that Dante and Matteo had given Caterina, that Santino hadn’t renounced him after all and instead had him working on a big time business partnership with Shawn Price.

The sick fuck was protecting the asshole who’d kidnapped his own daughter and tried to sell her into the flesh trade, who’d tortured and assaulted Julian—from their perspective, a valuable business asset—who’d clearly lost whatever shred of his sanity had been left remaining.

Nico walked beside me as we followed Julian into the kitchen as he moved along with his cane clacking on the floor.

The sight that greeted us had me taken aback and judging by Nico’s curse of surprise, he was right there with me on that too.

There, on the island and even covering the kitchen table, was a massive spread of food.

A feast, really.

“What’s all this?” Nico asked, inspecting the island, then zeroing in on the table too, taking everything in.

“I had my penthouse staff come by and put this together while you guys were gone. I figured you could use it after the back-to-back meetings you were embroiled in all day long.”

“I bet Tony wasn’t happy about allowing all that insanity on through.”

“Nah, he was fine. Well, once Cat worked her magic and convinced him.”

Nico chuckled. “I can only imagine.”

“Sunshine, this is fucking perfect. Thank you,” I said, walking to Julian.

But, as usual, since he’d woken up in the hospital that night, I pulled up short just in time, fighting against my instinct to touch him, to embrace him. It always left me with a sickening feeling, both because of the reason I had to keep my distance from him and because I fucking missed touching him, showing affection, and just being our normal selves together. I missed that there was a hole of sorts now between all four of us.

This time, though, something different happened.

He didn’t take a step back to enforce that distance and lack of physicality.

And he even went further than that, shocking the shit out of me when he looped his free arm around me and pulled me in close.

He stroked my back and even nuzzled against me.

“It’s okay now,” he breathed. “I’m okay.”

When he eased back, I stood there staring at him.

He merely grinned at me, then turned to Nico and slap-shook with him.

“Did you have a breakthrough with Doctor Williams today?” Nico asked him.

“I actually canceled the session for today.”

He lifted a shoulder like it was no big deal.

“You didwhat?”I asked.

Actually, it came out more like a harsh demand. That was how concerned it had me.

“We need to focus on the here and now. Priorities, right?”

“So, your recovery shouldn’t be a goddamn priority?” I shot back.

“Cat filled me in on everything. Where you guys were today, the whole deal with Carlo Benzino. I know exactly what we’re up against and exactly how things have shifted—or escalated—because of the price that Nico paid to get me out of that hellhole. So, yeah, I think all of that takes priority over me having a fucking therapy session.”

“It’s more than that and you know it, Julian.”

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