17. ~Caterina~
17
~Caterina~
“Wake up, Caterina. Time to get to work.”
The voice blasted through my subconscious, and my eyes snapped open.
“That’s it.”
I jolted as the voice sounded again.
Right next to me.
Blinking hard and trying to get my bearings after just waking up, and extremely groggily at that, it took me a moment to realize that it was coming from my tablet resting on its stand right next to me on my bed.
Nico was there on the screen, smirking at me.
“Fuck,” I choked.
“Good morning to you as well .”
“What’s… oh, right… we were on a video call last night.”
“And you fell asleep shortly after the pain meds kicked in.”
I frowned. “So, you stayed on the call watching me sleep all night long?”
I’d thought his creeper ways had been moving into the background now that we weren’t warring at a distance anymore, now that we were seeing each other up close, and now that we’d been together in the way he’d wanted for so long. All right, in the way I’d also wanted, but had denied to myself for so long.
“I dozed off for a couple of hours.”
I shifted closer carefully, mindful of the stitches in my side as I did. I could feel the painkillers had almost worn off, and the ache was more than just a little noticeable.
“The meds are on your nightstand,” he told me.
I must have failed to hide my grimace as I’d moved.
I took him in. He was sitting up in bed, propped up against a wealth of black and silver pillows, black silk sheets across his waist and his chiseled chest on display. His thick, black hair was all wild from sleep and his eyes also looked a little glazed from obviously having just recently woken up.
I zoned in on the bold artwork of the swirling black tattoos stretching down his right arm that converged into a fearsome dragon’s head on the back of his hand. My gaze traveled to the vulture wings wrapping around his neck, then to the beautiful and intricate sword tattoo spanning the length of his left inner forearm with the words Si vis pacem, para bellum. If you want peace, prepare for war. That was certainly apt for both the life he’d led and with what was coming for us. I caught sight of the gunshot scar a few inches over his heart. I knew that had happened four years ago when the families had been at war during a shootout with Benzino soldiers.
I’d seen more scars the night we’d gotten carnal at Nocturne. Stab wounds, one on his lower back and another through his right thigh. Rumors were that the latter had been inflicted almost ten years ago during a particularly brutal battle with a traitor to the Marchetti Syndicate, the night Nico had officially become a Made Man.
As if he didn’t have enough scars, there was also the one through his left hand that I’d caused when I’d crucified it with his own steak knife at Il Forno.
Regret pierced me and I caught myself, the reaction bothering me and worrying me a whole fucking lot. He’d deserved what I’d done, and I’d had to make my point, to make it clear that he couldn’t fuck with me and walk away scot-free. Hell, I’d wanted to do more than that at the time—and for a long while afterward, too.
The fact that I was having this reaction to it now, though, this regret, rammed it home to me just how much things had shifted, how much they’d evolved. It was a heady realization, and one that would definitely take some time to absorb.
Actually, something I needed to take the time to absorb in a more objective way. That objectivity couldn’t be achieved while I was around him, Julian, and Emilio.
And, as much as I hated that I’d taken a hit last night, perhaps it had come at the optimal time, forcing this downtime from them, this break in things.
As I continued studying Nico, it was apparent and a little startling that he wasn’t giving off his usual devious vibe at all. He actually seemed calm and almost easygoing as he looked back at me through the screen, sitting up in bed and just chilling.
The non-devious vibe was just like during breakfast at Julian’s place the other day and last night when he’d helped me back to my apartment. He’d even apologized for having to sneak me in the roundabout way, which had involved him carrying me up several flights of stairs before we’d then taken the elevator from a few floors up as part of our covert path to my place. Apologized? Nico Marchetti? And for something that wasn’t his fault while he’d also been busting his ass to carry my injured body up all those stairs.
“You’re staring,” he said, amusement lifting his lips.
I jolted. Shit, I was. “I just woke up. My eyes are still focusing.”
He chuckled. “Is that right?”
I settled onto my side and propped my head up on my pillow. “No.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “Really? You’re actually admitting to putting on a front?”
“It’s not a front. But something a little like that. Don’t be an ass.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, resting his head back. “I’m used to being on the defensive with everything and everyone.”
My gut twisted at his words, his naked confession. “I get how that feels.”
He smiled. “I know you do.”
“That was why I was staring, by the way… thinking about you apologizing last night and trying to figure out what to make of it.”
“I see.”
“Well?”
He scrubbed his hand over his stubbly jaw.
“I don’t like this development between us being kept a secret.”
“You mean no longer being at war?”
“It’s much more than that and you know it.” He challenged, “Unless you’re going back to your denial bullshit?”
“I told you I wouldn’t, and I’m not.”
“Good.”
“And I don’t think I’m your dirty little secret, if that’s what you’re worried about. This is part of the plan. We can’t let them know that we’re on amicable terms. Your father wants you leashed and mine wants me punished. They need to believe that’s what this coming marriage will be to the both of us. It gives us an advantage and an opportunity.”
“I’m all for logic, reason, and puppet mastery. But with this… with you… it’s accompanied by a bitch of a burn, too. You’re finally with me, finally open to that part of you that you tried to deny and bury for so long. And it fucking enrages me that it’s still got to be kept on the down low, that we’re both forced to pretend we’re those two distanced enemies that we were for years on end.”
“But we’re not. That’s all that matters. The rest is just a necessary facade.”
He blew out a breath. “Yeah. It is.”
I shifted my weight on the bed, groaning as the movement pulled at my stitches. “Last night was a success. Both the operation itself and how the four of us conducted it, that we were able to come together and work as one, as an allied force, a team. It solidified trust between us all that we need to continue in this vein and move beyond one operation, to working on the big picture of taking the power that’s owed to us. You came to me that night in my apartment to get my cooperation on the marriage directive in return for making me a deal that would bring their entire world crashing down around them . I told you that couldn’t happen until trust was earned. Now it is. It’s time to fully engage in this alliance.”
“We’ll start with an exchange of intel and data. Are you prepared to reveal and relinquish that, Caterina? I know that information is a great source of your power to you.”
“Like you said, if I want true power, doing this is the way forward.”
“With us.”
“With you,” I confirmed. “The whole crazy crew of you.”
“Then send me what you have today and I’ll do the same, then we’ll come together and review, take it from there.”
I frowned. “Where’s the usual urgency?”
“I said today.”
“Still. The apologies? You treading more carefully than usual? What’s going on?”
He ground his jaw.
“Nico,” I pushed.
“I got word a couple of hours ago.”
“Word on what?” That could mean any number of things, given his role as Capo. He was stalling. Knowing the way he strategized as well as I did from our long war, it was likely he’d move onto redirecting next.
“You said you had a meeting at the crack of dawn. I woke you up early, but you don’t have all the time in the world. Especially when factoring in how long it’s going to take you to get ready in your injured state.”
And there it was. Redirection.
My initial reaction was to tell him not to concern himself with my business operations. But that felt too harsh now we were… where we were at. Somewhere that I wasn’t exactly sure of or able to define—or sure if I should define—beyond us having solidified our alliance.
So, instead, I said, “I have time. Now give it to me.”
“Give it to you? Is that a challenge ? Because I’m more than happy to oblige. Even with you injured, there are still many filthy things I can do to—”
“Nico, spill it.”
He shifted his weight in bed, sitting up all rigidly straight and intense. “There’s a covert meeting taking place between key figures in the Marchetti and Leone families. I’ve been asked to come ahead of the rest by my father. He’s given me a heads up because he wants my outward support and me falling in line, but coming early is due to our engagement, Caterina. Contracts have been drawn up, arrangements made, and I need to be briefed, so I show nothing but my support for such a move in front of everyone when this summit gets underway.”
“Oh,” I murmured.
“It feels different hearing about it in concrete terms, doesn’t it?”
“It does.” I sucked in a breath. “But we knew this was coming. And it still doesn’t explain why you’ve been… off… this morning.”
“You’re being pulled back into the Leone Family bullshit against what you’ve wanted, despite all that you’ve done to build a life separately from it all, but last night also hit me with the brutal realization that you’re also being pulled into my family, into my darkness.”
“Last night was my mission. If anything, I pulled you into it.”
“You put you getting hurt last night down to being distracted by having allies during combat, but I know you were dancing around the truth. It was because your head wasn’t clear. Due to me and my boys. It compromised you. It’s taking its toll.”
“I can handle it.”
“I don’t doubt it. But you need time. Time, as much as it’s a bitch for me to even utter, without me and the boys in your face. So focus on Camlann Corporation and the expansion you were so excited about. For the next couple of weeks until the Tolhurst Annual Business Forum. As we know, that’s when your father intends to reveal this marriage directive to you. That means you have just these few days of peace and savoring being on the outside before you’re pulled back into it all.”
Color me shocked.
“I don’t understand. You, of all people, offering this up? Keeping your distance?”
“Like I said, last night was a brutal wake-up call. So take some time.”
“If this is some sort of test or manipulation, I really thought we were moving beyond that and—”
“No test. No manipulation. I need your head clear, need you focused. But a whole lot of processing needs to occur first. It’s been a hell of a mind-fuck lately, and you need to take a beat.”
“And you obviously do, too.”
He nodded. “I need to handle this shit at the summit, be at my best, focused. Too much is at stake not to be thinking clearly. I’m doing something I normally don’t do, outside of Milo and Julian. I’m trusting you. Trusting that you won’t use this space and downtime away from us to pull away or entrench yourself in a shitload of denial again.”
The war taking place within him was playing out all over his face.
He didn’t need to worry, though.
The fact he was giving me what I’d also realized that I’d needed without me having to put my foot down meant a great deal.
“We’re beyond that now,” I assured him. Way beyond.
“Good,” he said, smiling out at me. “Very good to know.”
His phone started ringing somewhere in his vicinity. He turned from the screen to snatch it up, then he looked back at me, telling me, “I need to take this. And you need to get ready for your meeting. Be well, Caterina. And if there are any complications with that injury, let me know. I’ll send assistance.”
“I’ll be fine, but thank you.”
“Of course.” He grunted as his phone continued ringing. He was clearly looking to delay our goodbye. “Fuck, I need to go.”
“It’s okay. Be careful at the sketchy covert summit.”
“Always,” he said with a wink. “Soon, principessa.”
“Soon,” I returned, before he ended the video call.
I put my laptop down and breathed out a heavy breath.
So, it was back to normalcy.
For a few days at least.
Before everything was altered in irreparable ways.
And as much as I’d craved that when all of this had first started, now I found the prospect of it—to going back to my life without Nico and the guys there getting up in my space and mind-fucking all over it—heavier that I had expected.
This new reality was clearly already engraving itself deep under my skin.
They were.