Page 46 of Vengeful Reign

“That’s what I was going to suggest. There’s no damn way I’m in the mood for it. I’m already tired.”

“Too much partying?” He’s been busy with helping me with John and running the empire, including the nightclub. He has no time for shit, not even to walk his dog who is probably chewing up his Italian loafers.

“No, I had a run-in with that dickhead governor,” he grunts.

“And you didn’t tell me?”

“You’re in your own happy little world and have enough on your plate. Besides, I’m a big man. Dad hates that prick and keeps picking fights with him, so his people pulled a raid on the club last night and had it shut down for no reason. I was able to get it taken care of, but it cost us about ten grand. I’m going to sue them, but it will probably cost as much as we lost in just the legal fees alone.”

“That prick knows what he’s doing. We need to have a talk with Dad again and tell him to quit it with the asshole. The war has to end because it serves no purpose. Two old bastards going head-to-head, and the only ones paying for it are us.”

“So damn true. Send me the address, and I’ll take care of it.”

“I owe you one, Connor.”

“That you do, but I’m not doing it for you. I’m doing it for my favorite sister-in-law. I owe her,” he says, and that makes me wonder what they aren’t telling me.

“Why do you owe her?” I asked, wanting the details.

“You’re not an asshole anymore,” he laughs.

“Fuck off.”

“Maybe I don’t owe her.” I could kick him in the balls. Sometimes I miss beating my brother’s ass. When we wereyounger, we would spar and wrestle while training and I’d always kick Connor’s ass even if he tried to cheat. Fighting with Ian was a little rougher because he was always angry, and that temper drove him to go wild. He was the enforcer for a reason.

“Just do it for us,” I snarl.

He chuckles and ends the call, so I pull up the information Nora sent me on the wedding cake designer and forward it to him.

Now I can finish what I planned, and Nora can meet with the instructors that will see John on a regular basis at the house. As much as she can do, it would be better if she had help. I refuse to leave him in her care alone. That’s why she was drowning before. I’ve vetted them before I allowed them to come to my home and there is extra security, but each of the women come from a professional background with no ties to our worlds.

Finally, I’m off to deal with these fuckheads. With several of my men, I enter my special warehouse on the Northside with the two Fieri men. “Mr. Fieri, thank you for seeing me. I heard you spoke with my fiancée two nights ago.”

“Yes, and she wasn’t very agreeable.” The audacity of the old fuck pisses me off. I could snap his neck right now. He has no idea what I’d do for my sweet Nora. Every enemy she has is now mine. If I could have destroyed Giles, I would have. It still pisses me off that I missed it. At least I got to him in the end. It destroyed him to know I was fucking her.

“Well, what would you expect since you treated her as a commodity and not the precious child she is?” I reminded the bastard that was my special guest.

“She’s a daughter, and that’s what she’s good for,” he scoffs, tugging on his ropes. There’s no way he’s going to get out of them. Shamus is an expert at tying them.

I fist his hair and hold a blade to his skinny, pencil-neck throat. “Watch your tongue before I cut it out of your mouth.” I hated this man and every word he uttered was a waste of my time that took me away from Nora. She fled her life because of him and had to start all over in a whole new state just to avoid his wrath.

“Why am I here? I didn’t do anything against my sister?” Massimo Fieri says.

I smile at him which immediately unnerves the elder Fieri. “No, you didn’t, but I want to broker a deal. I’ll let this fucker live, if you deal with Espinosa. I want him out of our lives for good.” Espinosa is a problem, and I don’t have time to devote to hunting him down personally without leaving my family behind, but I also can’t risk him living and running around ready to strike again.

“It’s not that easy. He’s a piece of shit, but he’s got the cops on his side and I don’t know who else is helping. He’s slimy and slips through everything I’ve tried to get him on,” Massimo says.

I know. Fucking hell, don’t I understand that. “I know. I should have put a bullet in him when I had a chance.”

“You should have because he’s going to come after you and my sister. Now I’m going to have to hunt him down.” Enrico Fieri is staring at us with greedy ears, listening too much, but that didn’t matter because he wasn’t leaving this building with a pulse.

“He already sent that fucking boyfriend after her. The one you knew about.”

“I didn’t know she had a boyfriend. I was just trying to deter you,” Massimo says. “The last time I spoke to my sister, she’d just started her first year of teaching and I let her be.”

“Well, Daddy here said he found her because you gave him the details.”

He shakes his head and lets out a harsh scoff. “I wouldn’t give him a thing on her.”

---