Page 44 of Revenge & Ruin

It had been so very very foolish of me to challenge him at cards. The casino might have been in my family for generations,but the interlude where it been stolen by the Vitale family had somehow slipped my mind.

Of course, he was good at poker. He likely grew up wandering the very floor we had played on.

It was my own foolish arrogance that allowed me to underestimate him. I wouldn’t make the same mistake again.

“I think I’m about done with thisnegotiating,Issy,” Leon snaps down the line. “It’s clearly not going anywhere, and if that fucker thinks he can get you alone again?—”

“I just need more time,” I argue back. “He’s slipping. I can just feel it.”

Can I? Or can I just remember the way he licked my ear? Crazy for crazy.

“I won’t risk your life like this anymore,” he barks.

I pinch the top of my nose. “That’s not your decision to make.”

“I don’t care what Mammasays, I won’t let you.”

“It’s notherdecision!” I shout back. “Leon, we need this to work. We need him to back down.”

“You’re going to get yourself killed. He’s insane.”

“He won’t hurt me,” I reply with a sureness that I don’t entirely know I feel.

Teo Vitale isn’t like any man I’ve ever encountered or tried to control before. He sees through me, straight to who I am and what I’m trying to do. But he lets me do what I want anyway, as long as I let him do the same.

It’s like the most dangerous game of chicken, pushing the other to see how far they’ll go before they put a knife to your throat.

“You have one more week.”

“Leon—”

“After that, I’m pulling you out.”

“You can’t be serious. You need more time to figure out how to take down the Guild.”

I can practically hear Leon tugging at his hair with frustration. “It’s enough. It will have to be.”

“Please, Leon. Don’t do this. As my brother, I understand that this might be?—”

“I am your don first,” he snaps with a cool authority that sends a shiver down my spine. “You might have Mamma’s favor, but I’mrunning the family now, do you hear? You do not have the authority to disobey me.”

With a shaking hand, I hang up the phone, unable and unwilling to listen to any more of his bitter words.

It’s always been like this, us both always fighting to be on top. I might have brushed it off as your normal sibling rivalry once, but I know it runs deeper than that.

Leon always knew he would inherit the Prince’s Hand.

Mammaalways knew I would control it.

I all butfall into bed when I return home, slipping out of my red dress and showering under the most scalding water I can stand as if somehow I can burn the memory of his lips against my skin away.

But the heat only seems to set my anger alight.

Past the shock of the last twenty-four hours, a growing seed of fury seems to have taken root within me.

I pace my room, remembering every word, every touch in that closet.

I’d hate to ruin those pretty little hands.

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