Page 18 of Deception & Desire

He swiftly picks up the thin file again and pushes it between us. “I will rip this contract in two?—”

I snatch it from him. “Don’t be so fucking dramatic. You said it yourself: this is a momentous occasion.”

Teo only stares at me, unwilling to back down until I give him something more.

“It’s worth it, isn’t it?” I remind him. “This fight against the Cartel, Amos Rubio…you need the Prince’s Hand. It’s memarrying him, or it’s the lives of everyone else. I’m not comfortable having their blood on my hands.”

Slowly, his gaze softens. “I didn’t want to ask this of you.”

“But the Guild was already asking you to do something about me, right? It makes sense,” I allow. “I hate it, but it makes sense. Your hands were tied.”

He runs said hand through his hair in exasperation. “Speaking of…”

I sit down heavily in one of the armchairs, already bracing myself for the worst. “Oh God, what?”

“You’re not a part of the Guild anymore. Not that you were before, but now that you’re on the more…Manhattan side of things, we think it’s best you step down from your position here.”

“You mean…”

“I will write your recommendation personally. Anywhere you want to go, I’ll put a word in.”

Something horrendously numb threatens to swallow my entire body. I’ve worked at theCandelabrasince I was old enough to serve a drink. Now, even that was being taken from me.

“Right.”

“Word of adVitale? Stick to something managerial. The Guild barely tolerated your more mercantile activities, even with your father always there to defend you. I doubt the Prince’s Hand will take so well to it.”

Through the fog of numbness, a single dreadful thought pushes to the forefront. “How am I supposed to afford rent?”

Teo gives me an odd look.

I suppose it would have never really occurred to him that I would everneedmy job in that way. My father remains Teo’s master of finance and loans, supplementing Guild activities with the generosity of his own vast estate.

But living on the blood money of a mafioso was never something I wanted. Working as a server, a bartender, and a manager was my sole source of income. It was enough to keep me afloat, to lead an honest life.

Well…

Except for those moments when that wasn’t exactly true.

Dire moments when my father asked me to collect on a loan. Or there was a particularly interesting job listed on the dark web that required someone with my particular skill set.

That was where the money I had used to get myself through college had come from. I promised myself that after I graduated, I would stop.

And I had, for the most part.

Only now…

Teo interrupts my thoughts with a confused sort of expression. “You understand that Leon Natali is your husband, right? Even if you didn’t want to live with him, he’s a billionaire, Mia.Youare a billionaire now.”

Like that’s any better than accepting blood money from my father. But it’s not a discussion I felt like having right now when I could feel the dam crumbling more and more by the second.

I changed the topic entirely, suddenly very eager to leave before I fell apart. “Leon said he’d send you his new address.”

To his credit, Teo doesn’t ask why he didn’t send it to me himself as he swipes up his phone to forward it to me.

I nod as my cell pings with the notification and turn to leave. “Sorry for threatening to kill you,” I murmur over my shoulder.

Teo begins to say something, then stops himself. Then pushes through anyway. “I’m sorry that it was you. I hope…I hope you can find something good in all of this.”

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