Page 20 of Deception & Desire

“If you want to blame anyone for this, blame Teo,” Cas counters. “Better yet, blame Amos Rubio for forcing the alliance in the first place.”

I sniff into her lap, and the hair stroking resumes.

“I know you don’t like him.” There’s no need for me to ask who she’s talking about. “But I don’t think he’s so bad, really. You remember he saved my life once? His sister speaks quite highly of him, too. Plus, he’s not the worst-looking guy in the world.”

I groan a little. “You’re seriously comforting me by saying, ‘at least the guy you’re forced to sleep with is hot’?”

“Silver linings?”

“He threatened my father’s life, Cas,” I explain bitterly. “He can parade about his glowing reputation to everyone else, but he lied to my face so that we would consummate our marriage.”

This is news to Cassandra, who immediately sits me up and demands the full story. So, I tell her. I tell her about my father’s words, the night in the penthouse, and my conversation with Teo. By the time I’m finished, Cas looks absolutely furious.

“I could kill him,” she seethes. “Iwillkill him.”

“He’s integral to the alliance,” I point out, suddenly feeling utterly exhausted.

“I’m going to think about killing him really, really hard.”

This makes me laugh for the first time in what feels like days.

Cas watches me with a new kind of determination in her eyes. “You need to take back control.”

I lean back on the couch. “How the hell am I supposed to do that? This is already so out of my control. I’m already drowning.”

“He might have won the first match, Mia, but this is a long game, and you still have a chance to win the upper hand. You still have me and Rocco and Teo on your side.”

“I don’t know if I can do it,” I whisper. I thought I was out of tears, but one drips down my cheek anyway.

“You can,” she leans in to wrap her arms around me. “You’re going to be amother.Youwillbe a mother on your own terms, and he will not take that from you. Do you hear me?”

I feel something in me break a bit at her words. “What kind of mother lets something like this happen?”

“You, Maddison, will be an incredible mother. How many times have you been there for me? Hell, you walked into that wedding willing to put everything on the line for your father. Your child will be so, so lucky to have you. So fight for them.”

Not for me, not for Leon. For my child.

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Let’s take back control.”

6

LEON

The celebrations of signing the alliance all too quickly fell away to the actual work involved with said alliance.

I’m not entirely sure when the light began to fade and the moon began to rise. I only stopped to switch on my desk light once the documents on my desk became too difficult to read.

At one point, the casino’s manager—Simon—had arrived with dinner and coffee. It was a habit he’d picked up after years of my sister chastising me for staying on top of meals when I was working late.

There was a stack of emails in my inbox pertaining to the merging of forces, borrowing of specialists, and access to resources. Sharing and caring from one mafioso to another.

However, the documents I was currently perusing were all intel-oriented. They were slowly allowing me to piece together a full picture of the Cartel’s influence over the last few years.

Amos Rubio was a drug kingpin who operated in Brooklyn. Interaction with the Prince’s Hand’s Manhattan casinos had been limited until recently.

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