Page 18 of Ruthless Sin
“There is no one else,” I say, looking him dead in the eye. “Renzo’s got Izzy and Sofia locked down. Marco’s too young to read a room this volatile. You know it, and I know it.”
“Then stop fucking arguing with me and tell me what you need to make it happen.”
The whiskey glass is empty. I set it down on the wood with a quiet click. “Time,” I say. “You’re asking me to put a woman who flinches at footsteps into a closed car in a few days.”
“I’m not asking.”
“I know.”
He pours himself a drink, drinking half of it down in one swallow. He looks at the port photographs one more time, his jaw working, before he slams the blue folder shut.
“She let you carry her out of that basement,” he says, his voice dropping. “She sits on the other side of the oak door whenyou read to her at midnight. Cassia says she came downstairs yesterday to sit in the library.”
“You just need to give her a reason to keep choosing.”
I don’t answer him.
He turns the signet ring on his finger. Once. Slow.
“Tuesday,” he says. “Eleven. You bring them home.”
“And if she refuses to get in the SUV.”
“She’ll get in the SUV.”
“You sound sure.”
“I am sure, Nico. Because you’re going to make sure.”
“Dante—”
His voice drops an octave.
I close my mouth. My jaw wants to keep going, but I swallow the anger.
The whiskey at the bottom of his glass moves when he sets it flat on the mahogany.
Cazzo. Fuck.
“All right.”
“Good.” He stands up, and I match his movement.
He walks around the massive desk, his hand gripping my shoulder until his fingers dig into my suit jacket.
“Don’t fuck this up, Nico.”
I look at him. My oldest brother, carrying Papa’s empire since Papa stopped being able to.
“I won’t.”
“I know.”
He lets go of my shoulder. I turn and walk out.
Gia is standing in the hallway directly outside the study, her arms crossed tight over her chest. Still in her green hospital scrubs. She has a ceramic cup of coffee in her hand that clearly stopped being warm hours ago.
“He tell you?”
