Page 37 of The Enemy of My Enemy: Pt. 2

“It also brings more credit to how one of her assailants had made that remark about not raping her,” Santino added.“Only someone who’s emotionally invested in this would have cared.”

“So what the fuck are we supposed to do now?”Stefano asked, the news hitting him hard.“Kill every Marchetti that’s ever met Aurora?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Santino drawled out.

“We were betrayed, Santino,” Stefano snapped.“Don’t you get that?”

“Yes!”Santino yelled.

“Okay, calm down,” Roman ordered.“Everyone just needs to calm down a bit.”

“Someone from our camp tried to kill my sister, so I think I’ll have to pass on calming down,” Stefano practically snarled, and the only reason that Roman wasn’t putting a bullet between his eyes was because he was standing in this room as their father, not their Don; I was sure of it.

After a moment, Roman said, “So, are we all in agreement that the objection is Aurora’s marriage to a Korolev?”

“Of course,” Santino automatically replied.“What other reason could there be?”

“Well, since Aurora shot the only person with any information, what the fuck are we supposed to do now?”Stefano asked, clearly annoyed and not handling any of this well.

“Yeah, every man from that night is dead and no good to us,” Santino agreed.

“While that’s true, Armen had a sister and a niece that we can still question,” I informed them, knowing that they were our last and only lead.

Santino shot me a look.“Are you seriously suggesting that we torture two women who could possibly be innocent in all this?”

“Are you seriously suggesting that those two women matter more to me than my wife?”I countered.

“Okay, stop,” Aurora ordered.“We are not going to be torturing Armen’s sister or niece.However, what we can do is question them and search their home.If nothing was found at Armen’s, then it’s possible that he may have hid something significant at his sister’s house.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Roman replied, aging right before my eyes.“Though I’m not against torturing them if we have to.”

“There is no we,” I clarified.“We will handle whatever needs to be handled on the Korolev side of things, and we’ll leave you guys to handle whatever comes of the Marchetti side.”

“You can’t honestly expect us to just stand by and do nothing,” Santino said, and it was hard not to feel for the men in this room, enemy or not.“That’s not how this works.”

“Listen, Marchetti, someone from your camp conspired with someone from ours to kill my wife, and until I find out which Marchetti it was, I’m not lettinganyof you near Aurora if I can help it,” I bit out.“She will never be at risk again.Ever.”

Then Stefano said something that almost had me pulling my gun out.“Why do you care so much?Isn’t there a blonde already waiting on the sideline to take her place?”

My chin went up, and it ate at me how I had to take the hit, Aurora not speaking up on my behalf, letting her family think that I was cheating on her.Did I deserve it?Yeah, I did.Nevertheless, I’d lost my opportunity to be good enough for this woman in their eyes, and I couldn’t lie and say that it didn’t sting a bit.Especially, when you considered that I wasn’t a cheater, nor did I have any desire to be.

Reining his youngest back, Roman said, “Let’s focus on the situation at hand, Stefano.This isn’t the place or time for personal grievances, and Aurora has already made it clear that she doesn’t expect fidelity from her new husband.”

That was it.

“Are you really not going to say anything?”I asked her,

Aurora looked at me, her dark gaze unwavering.“What would you like me to say, Viktor?”

“You know that I didn’t cheat on you,” I replied.“Why are you letting them believe otherwise?”

Then, as a reminder that I really didn’t know who the fuck I was dealing with, she said, “I only know that youtoldme that you didn’t cheat on me.However, where’s the proof that you didn’t?Your word?Sorry, it’s still too early in this marriage to take your word as gospel, Korolev.”

Incensed, I nodded, letting her know that I’d heard her clearly.“Okay, if that’s how we’re going to play this, then I’m game.”

Before she could say anything to that, Roman was back to taking control of the situation.“Again, that is a conversation for another time and for you two only.We need to talk about what our next steps are, and we need to know who all knows about this.”

Turning from me, Aurora said, “Unless Kasimir is telling people, then only Aleksei, Kasimir, Viktor, and you three know what’s going on.”