19. ~Emilio~
19
~Emilio~
Today had proven to be the day for people coming out of the woodwork and pledging their loyalty to us.
Honestly, it was about damned time. Nico had long deserved this deference.
And he wasn’t the only one anymore.
The moment we’d stepped back inside the Manor, Julian had been there getting us up to speed on an impromptu meeting that had taken place here involving Dante and Matteo from the Leone Family. Basically, the two of them had pledged their loyalty to Caterina. They wanted her to take Santino’s mantle. They’d also given her intel on Angelo’s supposed location.
“Where’s Caterina?” Nico asked Julian as the three of us made our way from the entrance way toward the kitchen. I hadn’t eaten all day with these meetings and my stomach was fucking rumbling fiercely.
“She’s up in her room working on verifying the intel that Dante and Matteo gave us about the owner of Wharton—and a whole lot more than that.”
“And concerning Angelo’s location,” I spoke, wanting to see his reaction.
No. Needing to.
“Yeah, him too,” he answered without even flinching. And saying it strangely casually.
I shot a look at Nico, seeing the same worry from him that I was trying to conceal, given that text Caterina had sent us earlier.
I honestly didn’t want to bring that fucker’s name up in front of Julian at all. I didn’t want him to have to hear it, nor deal with any of this involved in tracking the asshole down and then eliminating him.
But Nico and I had discussed it on the way home and agreed that it was proving more detrimental to Julian all the while he was being kept out of things. He felt like he was isolated on the periphery. And that was a very dangerous thing after what he’d been through. Unfortunately, keeping him informed of what was going on meant discussing Angelo Simone, because he was one of our targets, an ongoing mission in effect. Not to mention, he was tangled up in all this, even irrespective of the kidnappings. Especially now that we knew from the intel that Dante and Matteo had given Caterina, that Santino hadn’t renounced him after all and instead had him working on a big time business partnership with Shawn Price.
The sick fuck was protecting the asshole who’d kidnapped his own daughter and tried to sell her into the flesh trade, who’d tortured and assaulted Julian—from their perspective, a valuable business asset—who’d clearly lost whatever shred of his sanity had been left remaining.
Nico walked beside me as we followed Julian into the kitchen as he moved along with his cane clacking on the floor.
The sight that greeted us had me taken aback and judging by Nico’s curse of surprise, he was right there with me on that too.
There, on the island and even covering the kitchen table, was a massive spread of food.
A feast, really.
“What’s all this?” Nico asked, inspecting the island, then zeroing in on the table too, taking everything in.
“I had my penthouse staff come by and put this together while you guys were gone. I figured you could use it after the back-to-back meetings you were embroiled in all day long.”
“I bet Tony wasn’t happy about allowing all that insanity on through.”
“Nah, he was fine. Well, once Cat worked her magic and convinced him.”
Nico chuckled. “I can only imagine.”
“Sunshine, this is fucking perfect. Thank you,” I said, walking to Julian.
But, as usual, since he’d woken up in the hospital that night, I pulled up short just in time, fighting against my instinct to touch him, to embrace him. It always left me with a sickening feeling, both because of the reason I had to keep my distance from him and because I fucking missed touching him, showing affection, and just being our normal selves together. I missed that there was a hole of sorts now between all four of us.
This time, though, something different happened.
He didn’t take a step back to enforce that distance and lack of physicality.
And he even went further than that, shocking the shit out of me when he looped his free arm around me and pulled me in close.
He stroked my back and even nuzzled against me.
“It’s okay now,” he breathed. “I’m okay.”
When he eased back, I stood there staring at him.
He merely grinned at me, then turned to Nico and slap-shook with him.
“Did you have a breakthrough with Doctor Williams today?” Nico asked him.
“I actually canceled the session for today.”
He lifted a shoulder like it was no big deal.
“You did what?” I asked.
Actually, it came out more like a harsh demand. That was how concerned it had me.
“We need to focus on the here and now. Priorities, right?”
“So, your recovery shouldn’t be a goddamn priority?” I shot back.
“Cat filled me in on everything. Where you guys were today, the whole deal with Carlo Benzino. I know exactly what we’re up against and exactly how things have shifted—or escalated—because of the price that Nico paid to get me out of that hellhole. So, yeah, I think all of that takes priority over me having a fucking therapy session.”
“It’s more than that and you know it, Julian.”
“J, he’s right. Last time—”
“This isn’t like last time. I have the tools now to handle this. And, yeah, when I first woke up in the aftermath at the hospital, I might have doubted that, and it’s why I had you call in Roslynn immediately, but I’m more settled now. I’ve managed to get a handle on it. In fact, Cat and I—”
“We know you skull-fucked her,” I cut in. “She told us. And it was dangerous. Too early by far.”
“If it had been too early, I wouldn’t have been able to handle it. I certainly wouldn’t have been able to get off.”
“This is like piling on the pressure and weight upon already unstable foundations,” Nico warned him.
“The truth is, neither of you really knows that. You’re not me. You’re not inside my head.” He shoved his free hand through his thick blond hair. “So let me do this my way. You questioning it and treating my like glass really isn’t helping.”
“Because you’re trying to retreat into denial,” I pointed out.
“No. I’m moving forward.” He gestured between the two of us wildly, anger sparking. “Do the two of you want me curled up in the corner, rocking back and forth and crying about it like a little bitch? Or do you want me up and about and living my life again, being me like I always have been?”
“I just want you to feel better, Sunshine.” I closed the distance between us and stroked his arm, noting that he didn’t flinch, not even a little bit.
I wanted to believe that it was because he was actually feeling better, but given the limited time that had gone by and the brutal extent of what he’d endured, it was much more likely a case of him delving deep into denial. Goddammit. “That’s all any of us want.”
“I get that and obviously I want that, too. So, please, let me do this my way, all right? That’s what I need from you.”
No, it was what he wanted.
For us to back off, to let it be for now.
For now was all I could do.
“Okay,” I murmured, stepping back. “If that’s what you truly think you need.”
“It is, yeah. Thank you,” he said, smiling out at me, so close to the way my Sunshine was known for—bright and charismatic and full of hope and vigor.
“You can’t stop your therapy sessions altogether,” Nico said. “Less often, yes. At least for now, and we’ll see how it goes from there.”
“Fine,” Julian reluctantly agreed.
“Are you hurt?” Nico asked him.
“Hurt?”
“After what happened between you and Caterina? She loses control, and that’s become a lot more pronounced lately, that vicious edge of hers.” He smirked. “ Sexy vicious edge,” he mused to himself. “Our vicious little princess. She’s bringing that out a great deal more.”
“Uh, no. She didn’t hurt me at all. Not even a scratch or any nail marks.”
“What?” Nico questioned. “That doesn’t seem feasible.”
“She submitted to me. That’s how it happened that way.”
Both Nico and I did a double take, exclaiming in unison, “What?”
Julian lifted a shoulder. “She just wanted something different, and she was still in the zone of treading on eggshells with me.”
“Sounds like more than that,” Nico uttered, worriedly.
Before anything more could be said on the topic, the formidable woman herself burst into the kitchen, her phone in her hand.
She brightened as she took in the three of us standing there, all of us in one place again. That only intensified when she saw the feast that Julian had made his staff prepare for us.
Instead of focusing on that for long, though, she gestured at her phone, and reported in that business tone of hers, “I just received confirmation on the Carlo Benzino situation.” She declared, “He can be trusted.”
“As confirmed by Joseph Stover?” Nico asked.
“He finally got back to you then,” Julian spoke.
“He did.”
“And what did he say that has you sure Carlo is to be trusted with this alliance?” Nico pushed.
“ Excalibur.”
“One word and that confirms everything for us?” I questioned, skeptical, while Nico looked on intently and Julian raised an eyebrow.
“We established several code words before we parted ways, in case we needed to transmit covert messages to one another,” Caterina told us. “He’s deep cover. It’s been necessary. Each word carries a specific and often deep meaning. In this case, Excalibur was more than a mere sword in Arthurian legend. It was a symbol of hope and justice. It was about upholding a moral code, possessing honor and living up to those ideals, especially for Arthur, via his leadership.”
“I get it,” Julian said.
“Yeah,” I confirmed.
“If you’re willing to put your trust in this guy over something as vital as this, then I’ll accept that as gospel,” Nico announced.
I’d normally play devil’s advocate, but this time I didn’t find it necessary. I’d come to trust her implicitly now, and there was also the fact that the stakes had been raised substantially, so we could no longer operate so cautiously.
Caterina stepped up to Nico and pressed her hands to his chest. “You trust me that much now, huh?”
“I do .”
“We all do,” I told her.
She smiled at us as she stepped back from Nico, then scrolled on her phone for a few moments, before telling us, “As much as I appreciate that, I do actually have more than just that one word. It’s something Joe sent along with it.”
“Wow, you really tested us with that, huh?” Julian jested.
Some sort of strange look passed between them that I couldn’t decipher, before the focus went to Caterina holding out her phone to us and playing a video.
“It’s body cam footage that Joe had rolling during a meeting with Carlo,” she told us, just a moment before all of us gathered around to see Carlo, himself, stepping into a clearing in a forest somewhere and looking at the camera—Joseph Stover, really, and uttering, “You’ll send this footage to her when the time is right?”
“I will,” the guy who we couldn’t see, but was obviously Stover, answered.
Before it went on further, Caterina told us, “I’ve also run the voices and the footage through my security to verify its authenticity, just as an extra precaution.
Of course she had. She was amazing when it came to all of this.
We focused on the video as Carlo stepped right up to Joe, coming into full focus, that distinctive, trendy ash gray hair in that Pompadour style and one of his designer pinstripe suits filling the screen.
“You took a risk reaching out to me, let alone revealing yourself in this way, Joseph.”
“Unfortunately, it was necessary.”
“How so from your perspective?”
“You’re gauging my true intentions. Smart.”
“Ensuring that our agendas align. A safe alliance cannot be formed without that being the case.”
“I agree. As you’ve said, this is a risk to me too. However, the tide is turning. It’s putting those I care about in danger.”
“Bianca and Caterina?”
“Correct.”
“And how does that concern me? You want me to step in, get them out?”
“If that was my goal, I would simply do it myself. No, if I go that route, it will destroy everything they’ve both worked for, their careers. It’s time to deal with the threat directly.”
“You want us to work together to wipe Santino off the board?”
“You have your ear to the ground more than most, just like me. You must know what he’s planning.”
“I’m aware, yes. He wishes to dissolve the three-families alliance and push me out. He wants unchecked power and his rule to become completely unrestricted. With the Benzinos being the voice of reason, that cannot come to pass for him with us still involved, and him still bound by the alliance. Furthermore, Marco Marchetti is also taking rash actions that risk us all.”
“Yes, the two of them are becoming unhinged. They’ll come for you. And as part of that, they’ll come for Caterina too, use her as a bargaining chip and pull her back into that which she worked so hard to escape. I also have intel on Nico Marchetti’s disillusionment with his father’s rule. You’ll be able to use that to assist you, bring him to your side, take him under your wing. But you need to hurry.”
“You believe he’ll cut and run?”
“I believe he has the means to do so, yes, but he doesn’t want to leave Caterina.”
“Ah, you’re referring to their little war? More like a mating dance, really.”
“Indeed. There’s interest there on both sides. Things point to him allying with her. That would be your window to do the same.”
“I’d need to see where things fall first.”
“Understood. But don’t drag your feet. It’s hard to see the forest through the trees where their true allies among Marchetti and Leone soldiers are concerned, so their resources will be limited. If you join forces, though, that will all shift. Your resources, them in key positions within the families to deliver damage.”
“When I’m ready to approach them, they’ll need proof that I can be trusted. You’ll be ready to forward this video you’re making at that time? It won’t work without it. Taking the risk of allying with an opposing family, which is what it will be viewed as when Santino and Marco carry out this plan to cut me out, would be a death sentence to them if I was proven untrustworthy. They’ll most definitely need verification.”
“As I’ve already said, yes, I’ll provide it when they’re ready to reach out. I would also advise you to give them a gesture of good faith.”
“Suggestion noted.” Carlo shoved his hands in the pockets of his suit jacket, then gave a chin lift to the camera—Joseph Stover. “That concludes our business, then.”
“For now.”
The corner of Carlo’s mouth turned up. “Indeed. Until then, Joseph.”
“Be well, Carlo.”
With that, Carlo turned and walked away through the forest, fading from view.
And then the video ended.
“Shit, that was a hell of a thing,” Julian commented.
“Particularly the fact that Stover is as plugged into things as you are,” Nico told Caterina.
“Even with that video being made for our benefit, it’s clear he cares about you. His words, his tone, the vehemence… that wasn’t faked in the least,” I said. “Plus, the fact that he risked himself to do this in the first place.”
Nico nodded along, taking in everything in that usual shrewd way of his. “I’ll set a meet with Carlo.” He eyed Caterina. “I’ll need you there with me.”
“From this video and seeing what was going on with the two of them, how they’ve obviously being working close together, it’s clear now how Carlo knew so much about Cat’s skills,” Julian pointed out.
“Yeah,” Caterina said. “That’s how much Joe believes Carlo can be trusted.”
“It’s more than trust,” Nico countered. “It’s something much more stable than that. Need. Carlo needs us to work with him in order to do this. He might have the resources, but he’s currently on the outside. He needs us to bridge the gap there.”
“Basically, we can’t do it without him and vice versa,” Julian noted.
Nico fired off a text. Caterina had secured all our devices over the last few days, so we didn’t have to worry about that end of things, and it wasn’t a risk for Nico to reach out to Carlo. It couldn’t be intercepted by the Marchettis or Leones.
The actual risk would be meeting in-person.
But when it came to both Carlo and Nico, they needed to have it that way, wanting to gauge each other, read each other face-to-face over every little thing. Plus, there was certain business that shouldn’t be done over the phone.
I’d take care of sorting out the precautions for the meet on Nico and Caterina’s end of things and, knowing what I did about how well Carlo’s men operated, I now had no doubt that he’d do the same on his end.
And that was what I was holding onto in order to look beyond my personal distaste for working with the Benzinos in the first fucking place with the bad history there.
As in tune with me as he was, Nico eyed me and said, “I can’t have you there during the meet.”
“I’ll be fine. I’ve been fine with it every time his name has come up, haven’t I?”
“Because you’re taking a dangerous leaf out of my book and compartmentalizing it all.”
“Nico—”
“It’s not the only reason I can’t have you there. I need you on something else.”
I cocked an eyebrow.
His gaze darted to Julian, before he told me, “I want you to move on the location that Dante and Matteo gave Caterina.”
“To take out Angelo?”
“Yes. But the operation will also involve eradicating Shawn Price and his entire base of operations. We can’t risk Santino and my father gaining more power or more dangerous allies to back them.” He eyed Caterina. “So long as you’ve confirmed the intel beyond a shadow of a doubt?”
“I have,” she said. “Matteo and Dante were correct. The information is solid. The location they gave us of a string of warehouses two hundred miles outside the city function as Price’s home base. I’ve since tapped into the security there and confirmed Angelo’s presence.”
I looked over at Julian, who was standing there staring into space, while now clutching his cane in a death grip. “Sunshine, are you okay?”
He blinked and looked out at the three of us. “Yeah, sure. All good.”
“You understand that you can’t be a part of the operation, yes?” Nico put to him. “You’re not field-ready.”
In more ways than one there.
“Yeah, of course. That’s fine,” he answered all too easily. He flinched when he saw our reactions and added, “So long as you get the bastard and put him the fuck down, I can make peace with not being an active part of the takedown.”
“He will be put down,” Nico assured him.
A growl left me as I said, “There will be no fucking mercy. I guarantee you that.”
“I know there won’t be.”
“ Principessa,” Nico spoke, reaching out and stroking Caterina’s arm. “We need to discuss what we called you about on the way home.”
“You mean, Marco and Santino wanting to use Camlann Corporation as their front for their despicable activities? Yeah, that’s not happening. Not under any circumstances.”
“I agree, but I’m concerned about what they might do to force that upon you.”
“We’ll keep our ears to the ground.”
“We need more than that.”
She pulled from his touch and folded her arms across her chest. “I know what you’re getting at. You want me to join you in taking power. To rework our strategy not just to destroy, but to go about it in another way that ensures Leone assets and business ventures will remain intact so that the empire can become mine, instead of us merely burying it.”
“Along those lines, yes.”
“I don’t want the Leone Family to be my legacy, Nico.”
“I understand that wasn’t how you saw things going or—”
She threw her hands up in the air, cutting him off, as she yelled, “Do you really understand? I mean, yes, when I was younger, I wanted it, I thought I’d become his heir. But when he cut me out, it shifted everything. Irreparably. And I’m glad that it did, because I’ve worked my ass off to build my own empire, something I’m still doing—or trying to do with all this other shit going on and not being able to be there physically running things. That’s already killing me as it is. And now you’re actually asking me to reconsider everything, upturn my plans and become the Boss of the Leone Family? To have that toxicity taint what I’ve been building?”
Goddamn.
“Caterina—”
“ No,” she ground out at him. “I won’t allow this. Not for Dante and Matteo. Not for the big picture of the mission. Not even for the three of you. I can’t. A line needs to be drawn somewhere. And this is it for me. We can win out without me taking power.”
“And how does that play out in your mind?” Nico asked.
“Simple. We decimate all the power players in the Leone Family, destroy all illegitimate aspects of their business, and incorporate the rest into the Marchetti Syndicate under you . That way, you’d already be on the road to steering things toward a much more above board approach. Maybe just keep the coke operations during the transition or share them with Carlo Benzino. The rest isn’t necessary. The Marchetti Syndicate can succeed and prosper as a legitimate empire.”
“Simple? No. It’s much easier said than done,” Nico told her. “It would require completely reworking long-established processes and approaches that have been deeply ingrained into the Syndicate.”
“Change has to begin somewhere, and it often comes right along with unsettling and upturning what came before,” she argued.
“Why this insistent need to legitimize? You’ve crossed lines before. Recently, even.”
“Those actions were a result of forced circumstances. Of survival. The only way I could thrive while my fucking father—and now yours—is still standing tall and commanding so much power. I’m talking about when that’s done, when they’re finally fucking gone. I’m talking about our futures, our legacy, too.”
“Legacy? That’s the second time you’ve used that word tonight. Why that specific word? Is it something Dante and Matteo said that you might have neglected to report to me and Milo?”
“No, I—I’ve just been thinking a lot about it the last few days while things have been in a calm-before-another-storm state.”
Julian stepped up to her and draped his free arm around her. “She’s always been ambitious. This is just obviously another facet of that.”
I frowned. Something was… off.
She’d texted us earlier that everything had been fine with the doctor and the tests that had been run, so it couldn’t be that. Maybe having Dante and Matteo show up here had triggered her then.
“You know the amazing feast I prepared is going to be ruined all too quickly if we don’t start digging in, right?” Julian interjected.
Nico snapped out of his deep staring at Caterina and swung his head toward the food.
I wasn’t above it either. Neither of us had eaten all day. While Nico had been known to skip breakfast before, that really wasn’t my thing, and I was definitely feeling the hunger pangs from it now.
Nico rubbed the stubble on his chin that was a lot more pronounced than usual with everything that had been going on. “You’re right, let’s eat. I’ve reached out to Carlo to arrange a meeting so we can formulate a plan to counter the proposed attacks. We’ll finalize that after dinner and also strategize the operation against Shawn Price.” He reached out to Caterina and took her hand, softening as he said, “Right now, though, the four of us will just take a beat, be together, all right?”
“With all this happening, we can’t just—” Caterina started.
“Can’t just what?” Nico cut in. “Take some time for the four of us? To be together? To have a brief reprieve from it all? Things are about to get a fuck of a lot worse, so moments like these should be taken where they can .”
“They remind us what we’re really fighting for,” I added.
“They sure as shit do,” Julian affirmed.
With her still hesitating, Nico explained, “This is what it’s like to be a part of a team. The burden falls on all of us. It’s spread between the four of us. It’s not all on a single person’s shoulders, as you were always used to. We share the load, Caterina.”
The corner of her mouth turned up at his words.
And then she looked out at all three of us in turn, smiling as she said, “Okay, yeah, that would be nice.”
With that, we all settled at the table, Julian taking a seat beside Caterina on the one side, then me opposite him on the other, leaving Nico next to me and opposite Caterina.
“Dig in,” Julian said. “Take whatever you want. There’s also seconds and a whole wealth of desserts on the counter.” He picked up a plate with two egg white omelets on it and set it down in front of Caterina beside her empty plate that needed to be filled. “Had this made especially for you.”
She beamed at him as she pushed one omelet onto her plate with a fork. “Much appreciated, cutie.”
“He even had a bowl of berries prepared,” Nico said, gesturing at the massive thing over on his end of the table and then pushing it toward her.
“That’s really sweet. Thank you.”
I slid a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice into her orbit.
She grinned out at us. “You do know I can feed myself, yes?” As she was in the process of saying that, she almost subconsciously lifted a plate of chocolate pancakes in front of Julian.
Pancakes with dinner? Yeah, that was him.
“You were saying?” Nico teased, as he drew attention to what she’d done.
It had her chuckling and the rest of us joining in.
“I guess we are a team, huh?” she mused.
“Sure are,” I said.
Julian laid his hand on hers for a moment and told her rather intensely, “This is how it will always be. Us taking care of you, and vice versa. Taking care of each other. You won’t ever be alone again. Trust us where that’s concerned.”
Nico and I exchanged a look. Had his need to emphasize all of that to her come about from the kidnapping and what he’d suffered through?
It was hard to tell.
And before I could analyze it further, the subject shifted as Caterina told Nico with a whole lot of curiosity, “All our years warring and checking into the other and I still don’t know what you like to spend your time doing outside of Marchetti business and, of course, hanging with your boys.” She smirked. “Well, my boys now too.”
“Something you don’t know about me? I like it,” he teased, as he scooped some risotto onto his plate.
“Nico,” she pushed. “I mean, Julian’s got his social media hobby and his adrenaline-junkie thing, Milo has his fantasy figurines. What’s your thing? What would you be doing if there wasn’t all this three families bullshit going on?”
He smirked. “You, principessa.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m being serious.”
“So am I,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows at her suggestively, which had the most innocent little giggle escaping her.
Julian and I grinned at each other.
“That Ducati you saw in the garage when we were heading out for our ride is Nico’s,” Julian told Caterina.
She raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
“You thought it was mine?” Julian asked her.
“Yeah. I know Milo is all about his Harley. Although he rides for the freedom and peace of it, not the adrenaline or thrill like you do.”
“Precisely,” I said, impressed that she’d read that so well. “By the way, that also goes for the hot tub in the backyard.”
“He sneaks in there when all is quiet and everyone’s gone to sleep,” Julian told her. “It’s kind of like a meditative experience for him. Fucked in there a couple of times, too.”
“Just a couple?” Caterina queried.
Nico glared between me and Julian. “They tend to prefer the shower when they do go there here. Namely, my fucking shower.”
“It’s a porn shower, N.”
“That was once, and I apologized profusely, Nico,” I cut in.
“It was actually twice,” Julian informed me. “Remember the time I did that thing with the shower nozzle that—”
“Not while we’re eating,” Nico cut in.
Goddammit, I did remember that. Holy hell. I must’ve blocked it out with how pissed Nico had been about it when he’d found out. “Was that when Nico walked in to see—”
“Stop,” Nico grunted.
Julian burst out laughing. “It was, yeah, big boy.”
Caterina wrapped her arm around Julian and squeezed him to her, then planted a kiss on his cheek. “Little troublemaker.”
I chuckled. He certainly could be sometimes.
I watched him beaming out at her, and it was incredible to see.
I just hoped it was all real.
That he wasn’t shoving down all the rest and fooling himself into thinking that it would stay there, and that he’d be able to actually operate that way for long.
The way he was discussing sex so easily and so soon after what had happened concerned me.
“Yeah, the Ducati is mine,” Nico spoke. “I don’t get to ride it as much as I would like.”
“Marchetti business?” Caterina asked. “Or something else?”
“Mostly Marchetti business. I was focused on earning for the Family.”
“Big time,” I cut in. “Being the top earner consistently isn’t easy. Especially not when so many things can go wrong with the types of businesses we’re running.”
“All the more reason to go legitimate,” she said.
Nico paused on taking another bite of his risotto. “Can we not? We agreed to take a beat.”
“All right,” she muttered. “It’s not going away, though.”
“Yes, you’ve made that abundantly clear.”
She glared at him for a moment. Then I saw Julian slide his hand under the table and give hers a squeeze. It had her drawing in a calming breath, then focusing back on the other conversational track. “Is the other reason to do with you being worried about feeding into your reckless side? That part that links too closely to your feral state?”
Nico nodded, his eyes lighting up at her understanding. “Uh huh,” he said, between chewing his food.
As I continued piling my plate high, Julian spoke, “It’s one of the things I’m most looking forward to doing when I’m fully healed. Riding again. We should all do it together.”
“I’ve never ridden a motorcycle before. You know, except for that night on the back of yours,” Caterina said.
“I’ll teach you,” I told her. “Don’t even think about letting Julian do that.”
“Hey!” he cried. “I’m a fantastic teacher.”
“Not with that. Stunting comes way down the road, Sunshine. Not right up front.”
He winked at Caterina.
“What was that for?” Nico asked.
“There might’ve been a tiny bit of stunting from our sexy woman that night.”
Caterina smiled proudly. “I guess I have a knack for it.”
“ Or it brings out your reckless side, too,” Nico countered.
“Perhaps,” she admitted, with a glint in her eye. “Do you think you’ll get back to riding once all this is over?”
He smiled. “I think I’ll be able to enjoy a lot of things. We all will.”
“And what about our living arrangements then?” she asked.
The question had all of us stilling.
“What do you want them to be?” Nico put to her.
She looked down at her plate. “I guess I have some thinking to do where that’s concerned.”
“I guess you do.” Nico leaned forward in his seat. “But just so we’re clear, the choice is in your hands.”
“What? I thought we’d be butting heads over this majorly, that you’d be insisting—”
“As much as I would be overjoyed if you chose to remain here in the Manor, albeit without the separate rooms situation we’re all currently operating under, it needs to be your decision. You’ve been through a lifetime of suffering from others trying to control you and infringe upon your freedoms.” He gestured at me and Julian in turn. “None of us will allow that to befall you again. You’re safe with us, Caterina. Free.”
“I know,” she said, smiling out at us. “I know I am.”
“With that in mind, we should also start the process of getting divorced.”
All of us stilled to stare at Nico putting words out there we’d never thought we’d hear.
It had taken him years to have Caterina here with him. And she was even bound to him through their marriage too. For him to give that up, it was a hell of a thing.
Off our looks, he eyed Caterina and said, “I told you when the marriage was first put on the table, I didn’t want it like that with you. I wanted it to be on our terms, especially yours. It’s also creating an imbalance between the four of us, with you and me being married and Milo and Julian on the outside of that.”
“Thank fuck,” Julian spoke. “I thought me and Milo would have to be all over you to push this issue, Nico. I figured we’d really have to bring the pressure to convince you to get it annulled, or whatever needs to be done in this strange forced-marriage situation.”
Caterina looked between Julian and me. “The two of you really kept your disapproval and upset about this situation on the down low.”
I lifted a shoulder. “There was nothing to be done about it at the time, so there was no point airing our thoughts about it and only serving to further antagonize an already sensitive issue for you. We know how hard it’s been on the both of you, particularly you, Caterina. But now, with Nico already taking a stand against things via Leo outside the hospital that night, and other things ramping up in that respect too, it can be dealt with. That’s all that matters.”
She smiled at me and Julian. “Thank you for doing that.” She eyed Nico. “I’ll get the paperwork started for us then.”
“Perfect,” Nico said. “When this is done, when this war is won, I don’t want anything of them tainting us. We need to be free of it completely.”
I reached for the champagne in the ice bucket and went about filling four glasses. When I was done, I cried, “ Facciamo un brindisi!”
Julian pushed Caterina’s orange juice in front of her instead.
Off my look, he told me, “She’s not a fan of champagne.”
“That’s me and wine, Sunshine.”
He eyed Caterina. “I thought you were the same there. Right?”
“It’s bad luck to toast without alcohol,” Nico reminded him.
“It’s fine,” Caterina assured Julian. “It just requires a sip.”
“You don’t like champagne?” Nico queried. “I thought that was wine, that this was the exception?”
“I guess I’m not a major fan, it depends,” she answered.
“Huh, that’s another small thing I didn’t know about you. I thought I had it all covered.”
“I’m full of surprises.”
Julian chuckled and nudged her. “You certainly are. Keep us on our toes, don’t you?”
I ignored all the chatter and raised my glass. “ A noi!”
They joined me, the four of us clinking glasses and making the toast.
To us!
That was what mattered through all of this.
It was everything.