Page 146 of Only Fools Rush
“Come on, bodyguard, I just got back,” Ryu ground out. “You didn’t get your fill while I was gone?”
I smacked his chest and rolled my eyes. “You can wait two more seconds. Go over there.”
“Fine.” With a sigh, he smacked my ass, and walked away to embrace Ciel. He ruffled Ciel’s hair, and the gesture was so much like what an older brother would do, that the side of my mouth kicked up.
“Okay, Cas, tell me?—”
A commotion drew my eyes to the entrance, where Giulio came into the room, followed by a group of Italian men I instantly recognized. “Alessio! Romolo! Daniele!”
The three rushed over, throwing arms around me in a giant hug. All these men were my father’s personal drivers and guards. They’d taken me to school when I was younger, sat with me in the kitchen while I did homework, and teased me as I pined after Max. Whenever Cas wasn’t with me, one of these three was.
“It’s so good to see you,piccola!” Romolo said. Extra wrinkles creased at his eyes, with more gray streaking his hair than usual.
Alessio pulled Cas into a hug. “We thought you were dead.” Alessio had taken Cas under his wing when he first came into the Family. He’d personally handled a lot of Cas’s training. “Caspian!Come sta?”
“Bene,bene,” Cas responded, matching their grins with one of his own. “It’s good to see you. We’re relieved you came.”
Daniele clasped him on the back of his neck and pulled him in for a hug while Giulio made some joke. Daniele had been the gatekeeper of our estate for longer than I could remember. He’d been one of the men who stopped the kidnapping attempt against me when I was twelve.
I couldn’t stop the smile that spread across my cheeks at how they chatted. Hope swelled in my chest. These menwantedto be here. They still cared about me.
Giulio lifted my hand and kissed my knuckles. “Principessa. I’m glad you’re alive.”
I blushed. “Me too, Giulio. How many men have you got for me?”
More men filtered into the space, glancing around at the abandoned office furniture, before their eyes went wide at the sight of the Shadows huddled around an old conference table. My guys watched every single person carefully, despite how they were supposed to let Cas and I handle the main discussion tonight. We weren’t sure exactly how they’d respond to our partnership.
“I’ve got almost forty that came to hear you and Caspian speak—a couple ofcapos, even. They’re taking a big risk being here tonight.”
Forty. I sucked in a breath.
They were taking a huge risk. That many men off the front lines would draw Max’s attention. Ciel had set up a signal jammer to stop any outgoing messages, and we just had to hope that was enough to prevent snitching.
“We don’t have a lot of time,principessa,” Giulio said, looking at his watch. “If you want to address them, you better start.”
I nodded, glancing at Cas. Whatever he needed to say would have to wait.
First, I needed to convince these men to switch to my side, and then we all needed to get out of here as soon as possible.
“Hey!” Giulio shouted. “Over here, now.Ascoltala!”
The office space was a large, open floor plan that was clearly gutted, yet remnants of the furniture—chairs, tables, a ripped-up sofa in the corner—and old equipment remained. I grabbed Cas’s hand as I climbed on top of the conference table so I could get a good view of everyone.
Suddenly, the space felt so small. Almost a hundred eyes scrutinizing my every move.
Cas stood beside the table, glancing from face to face. The rest of my men stood somewhat off to the side, trying not to make people nervous. Wynn still hadn’t arrived. Should we wait?
Giulio cleared his throat.
We didn’t have time to waste.
“First, let me say thank you for coming here tonight,” I began, clasping my hands in front of my stomach. My hands were sweaty. How the hell did this make me more nervous than stabbing Kofler through the heart? “I know the risk you’re taking, and regardless of your decision, you have my gratitude.”
Some men nodded at my words, while others cast awkward glances toward Obi, Ryu, and Ciel. I didn’t recognize a lot of these faces, but most of them I knew. Even if I didn’t know theirnames, I had seen them plenty of times. They knew me. But would everything I’d tried to do be enough?
“I’ll jump right to the chase,” I said. “I claim ownership of the men of the Vero Family. It’s mine by right as Don Luciano’s daughter. Max stole it from me when he murdered my father in cold blood.”
I thought I’d see some sort of anger at Max or pride at me being here, but as I looked through the group of men, all I saw was controlled indifference. None of the men seemed particularly surprised—they had to have guessed why I wanted to speak with them—but I didn’t expect so passive of a response.
