25. ~Caterina~
25
~Caterina~
I closed the door behind me and stepped into one of the smaller conference rooms at the Opulent Grand Hotel, one that was located in the heart of the city and one which did the best out of the entire chain of Julian’s.
I took in the lingerie, stilettos, bold costumes, a whole lot of glitter, and other random clothes strewn all over the place.
I’d discovered—perhaps from briefly accessing the hotel’s surveillance system—that this particular conference room was being used as a dressing room for the entertainment tonight, said entertainment that was already performing and wouldn’t need the space again for a good couple of hours. All right, I might have done a little more than briefly breaching the security system. Well, I’d needed to know what I was going to be walking into, and I’d also needed to determine the most optimal way to approach so that I wouldn’t be seen by the attendees of the big, over-the-top bachelor party.
A party for Nico.
Aside from Julian and Milo, the rest of the attendees were all political. His soldiers, Leone soldiers, Capos across both families. Even that shithead, Leo Marchetti, was in attendance. Friends of the families were also here. It was all show and about the alliance.
All a high-stakes game for them all.
Little did they know that they were playing our game now.
It just killed me that we had to settle for making smaller, strategic moves currently so they didn’t know that we were to be feared, that we were to become their fucking downfall.
It was a whole lot of acting and kissing the ring.
Well, worse than that for me.
I just had to keep my eye on the prize and not let being thrust into all of that again during the nearing wedding day nightmare impact me like it had the last time I’d been in the presence of my father—and Angelo.
And, somehow, I also had to contain my rage at something else.
Nico had lied to me.
During the time that the guys had been giving me space, at the tail end of that, I’d received a text from my old friend.
Levi: I know you’re not going to receive this well and I’m sorry. It needs to be done, though, Rina. I finally have a clear path to destroying Lynch. That path involves intel that Nico Marchetti has on a deal Lynch is trying to broker with the Marchetti Syndicate. I need to use that intel and make a deal with Nico. Just wanted to give you a heads-up so you’re not blindsided. Love and respect, Lev.
That had explained why the intel Nico had given me on those deals had been sorely lacking. He’d withheld the truth and the fact that Malcolm Lynch was the person Marco Marchetti had been dealing with.
I’d thought Nico would come clean and tell me the truth, giving me the whole deal, the morning after the four of us had been together when we were set to begin our strategizing session.
Instead, he’d gone the other way. He’d lied.
As if that hadn’t been bad enough, I now knew that he’d snuck out of this bachelor party to actually meet with Levi behind my back.
Levi’s text a half hour ago had said it all.
Levi: Just heard from the pain in your ass, Nico, that you’re marrying the dangerous motherfucker? What’s going on? Are you in trouble, Rina? Truth, sweetheart.
Caterina: It’s a long, complicated story. Arranged marriage, business alliance, that sort of thing. The sort of thing I’d thought I’d escaped. But here I am. Don’t worry, though, it’s mutually beneficial and I’m handling it. I promise. Concentrate on your own mission, but call on me if you need anything. I want this victory for you. I want you at peace after all these years and I know that ending Lynch is the way to that for you.
Levi: I trust in you, so if you say you’re handling it, I accept that. Still, call on me if things go south, or you need a steadfast ally in your corner. I’ve got this mission handled, but thank you. FYI, he ordered me away from you, so beware of that, a worrying attempt to control you. Be careful.
We’d left it at that, but I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Nico’s actions.
It made me sick.
I’d given him my trust. Hell, I’d given myself over to him, Milo, and Julian that night.
I’d thought we were in a good place.
Solid.
Honestly, I needed us to be with what was coming.
But now there was this stain on it all.
Not telling me about something this major that Levi was involved in? It was unfathomable. I understood why Levi hadn’t. He was in the thick of it, getting close to the goal he’d had for years of ending that fucker. He had tunnel vision right now, and he was focused on the immediate.
For Nico, it was a completely different thing, though.
He fucking knew that I didn’t give my trust easily.
The fact that I had to him, and knowing he’d done this, it made me feel like a fucking fool.
More than that… it hurt. It fucking hurt.
The three of them didn’t keep secrets from one another, so Julian and Milo had to know about it as well.
And they’d just sat there and—
The door flew open and Julian walked in, looking nervous and swinging his head every which way outside, before locking the door behind him and coming to me, urgency radiating off him. “Got your text. What are you doing here? To say it’s dangerous right now is an understatement. The place is filled with Marchetti and Leone personnel and—”
“I’m well aware. I know exactly who is here. I also know who isn’t here.”
My gaze drifted to the red lipstick mark on the collar of his white shirt, tarnishing the rest of his impeccable appearance from his sharp Brioni suit to his perfectly styled dirty-blonde hair.
“No,” he said, quickly, noticing where my gaze had wandered to. “It’s not what you think. One of the strippers tried to give me a lap dance, and I declined, then she tried to kiss me and as I shifted, she got the collar of my shirt instead.”
Before I could absorb that, let alone get a word out, he read me well like he did with everyone and told me assuredly, “It’s not a sham. This thing developing between the four of us is very real. Despite what you may—or may not have—found out about a certain other thing happening tonight.”
So he did know.
Of course he did.
All three of them knew.
Clanging sounded behind me and I turned just as Milo suddenly threw open the door I’d come in through and stepped inside. His focus went to Julian. “You came in through the main way? Why? We’re trying not to draw attention to the fact that Caterina is here. Come the fuck on, Sunshine.”
“So if we’d both escaped out through the back alley access, that wouldn’t have drawn attention?” Julian challenged.
Milo blew out a breath. “Fine. Fuck.” He came to me and looked me over with a whole lot of concern. “You texted that you were here, and it worried the hell out of me. Why? Why would you risk coming here, of all places, tonight?”
“I needed to discuss something with Nico.” I glared between the two of them. “When he gets back from his meeting with Levi, of course.”
Julian scrubbed his hand over his face. “Yep, she definitely knows.”
“Fuck,” Milo cursed. “I didn’t want this kept a secret and—”
The door he’d come in through burst open again, and we all tensed until Nico came through. “I saw you come in here, pulling your stealth routine. What’s happened?”
“And I’m the security risk,” Julian said, before Milo could respond. “ You didn’t even lock the door, big boy.”
As the two of them got into it more intensely than they normally would have, the current situation clearly impacting them as much as it was me, I blew past Milo and stormed up to Nico and thrust my knee between his legs.
As he choked and doubled over, I slammed my fist into his gut.
It had him staggering back and painfully lowering himself onto one of the stools by the makeup mirrors. “You know about Levi,” he rasped, reeling and grimacing.
“You’re lucky it wasn’t your fucking face!” Unfortunately, him being visibly injured would invite too many questions and raise suspicion all over the place. “Or harder on your dick!”
“Well, so long as you’re taking it easy on me,” he bit out sarcastically.
I blew out a breath and stepped back.
That burst of violence had certainly helped to cut through the rage that had been building up over the last few days and had then spiked to a whole new level tonight after Levi reaching out, resulting in me putting the pieces together and realizing Nico had stepped out of his own bachelor party to meet with him.
“Let’s try to take it down, all right?” Julian said, coming over to my right side.
“Agreed,” Milo added, settling on my left, and wincing as he watched Nico adjusting his dick in his pants with a grimace as he pushed back to his feet off the stool.
“I was planning to tell you about Levi once Malcolm Lynch was dealt with and the arms deal was thereby killed—literally, really.”
“You’re using and manipulating my friend into doing your dirty work and you were only going to tell me after the fact?”
“Yes,” he hissed. “Because I know what that friend means to you. And what you’re prepared to do for him. It would have endangered you, compromised your focus here and—”
“You don’t know any of that. You made assumptions on what my reaction and my actions would be. You went around me and decided for me.” I gestured at the main door back into the hotel. “Like they would have, Nico.”
He started. “No. It’s not the same.”
“It is. And I’m sure a lot of this was also out of your possessiveness and you hating the fact that Levi and I are close.”
“Undeniable,” Julian said, rolling his eyes.
“Don’t antagonize him when we’re trying to have cooler heads prevail,” Milo told him.
“You didn’t want this secret kept in the first place.”
“Stop,” I said, holding up my hand. “We’re still revealing things to each other. Me to the three of you and then vice versa. I understand that. I still haven’t told you everything. That will come in time. But, Nico, this concerned my friend. You know I don’t make heartfelt connections easily, so when I do, they become very important to me. Doing this, involving Levi, manipulating him, even though it’s working in his favor too in this case… you can’t… you just can’t do that. Not when it comes to him. You know what he means to me, so doing this, it called my trust in you into question. Going behind my back… it didn’t just worry me from an alliance standpoint, it hurt me. I opened up to you, to all three of you. It meant something to me—a lot, actually. And now this has—”
“I’m sorry.”
I jolted at his easy apology.
Milo and Julian looked more than a little surprised too.
“What?”
“I didn’t see it that way, and I’m sorry that it undercut what we’re building between us. It’s the last thing I want, the last thing any of us would ever want. I didn’t intend to disrespect you or break your trust, nothing like that. I just wanted the situation dealt with without complicating it or pulling you into yet more insanity and danger.”
“I’m pulled into whatever the three of you are. We act as one, right? Like we agreed. No lone wolf bullshit?”
He nodded. “It was because it’s Levi. I guess… I am… there is possessiveness involved, yes.”
“Off the table, going forward. Are we clear?”
He walked to me and held out his hand. “I give you my word.”
We shook firmly and then he gave my hand a squeeze and told me, earnestly, “The other night meant a lot to me too. To all of us.”
“Okay, good.” I eased my hand away. “And to be clear, as my fake husband, or my boyfriend, you don’t get the right to order my friend to stay out of my vicinity.”
He ground his jaw. “What didn’t he tell you?”
“You said that?” Milo asked. “I thought you were going to keep things to business?”
Nico lifted a shoulder. “A slight slip. Nothing more.”
“Goddammit,” Milo muttered.
“You know he’s in love with Brianna Walker, yes?” I said. “As in, the love of his life? The woman he was kidnapped alongside? Their connection runs so incredibly deep. She’s his only obsession, the only one he sees where romantic sentiment is concerned. Believe me, there’s just friendship between him and me. We were together sexually one time years ago, and that was more solace and therapy than anything else. It was off the table afterward because we didn’t want to ruin our friendship after that… glitch in the matrix.”
“Glitch in the matrix,” Julian chuckled.
“If you need Levi’s help in the future, it all goes through me. In fact, I’ll take point. It will be beneficial to us all, anyway. Are we clear?”
He stared at me for several moments as he absorbed all that I’d said.
As he struggled with it, I realized what was missing from my assurances and me putting my foot down. I stepped up to him and linked my arms around his neck, making him frown in confusion at the intimate gesture given the dicey subject matter being discussed.
“You should also know that while she’s his obsession, and I know I’m yours, you are also mine now.”
He sucked in a breath. “Say that again.”
I smiled. “You, Julian, and Milo are my obsession now.”
“We are?”
As he asked the question and looked so caught off guard by it too, it hit me just how much it had been one-sided for him all of this time, how much he’d been fighting for the connection he felt toward me to be reciprocated, how much he’d struggled to blast away my denial and reservations.
Sure, he’d gone about it in an obsessive, dangerous, and stalker-like way for a long time, a really fucked-up way. But he wasn’t alone in that. It was how all four of us were, the world we existed in and who we were at heart—twisted, depraved, and most definitely unconventional. There was nothing normal about it at all. And I was more than fine with that now, fully able to admit that it was how I needed it.
It was just one of the reasons why the four of us fit together so well.
“Do you really think I just came here to lay into you? I could’ve done that over the phone, via video call, and got my point across and my voice heard just as effectively. I could have definitely waited until this bachelor party was done with if it was just about that.” I dropped one of my arms from around his neck and stroked his cheek instead, then traced his stubbly jawline. “But I didn’t just come here for that. I was being a little possessive too, maybe even a little jealous. About this fucking bachelor party, the strippers all over the three of you. Sitting at home on one of my rare nights off from work with terrible thoughts running through my mind about what awaits me in a few days with the wedding when I’m surrounded by my family didn’t really appeal to me either. And beyond that, most of all, I missed you all. Normally, going back to work and immersing myself in that for the last few days since we spent that night together at my place would have been fine with me. It would have held all my focus. But something has shifted for me. I’m missing the three of you now. I need to be around you more than just one night here and there, or a strategizing video call.”
I stepped back as he just stared at me intently. “I’m rambling, I guess, and I’m not exactly used to putting my true feelings out there, so—”
He had me gasping in surprise as he grasped my hips, jerked me into him, then crushed his lips to mine.
The kiss was hot and out of control, lips, tongue, and teeth clashing in a passionate fury that happily stole my breath and had me sinking into it within mere moments.
When he pulled back, we were both gasping.
Before I could fully catch my breath, Milo was there stroking my hair and gazing at me in wonder. “Goddammit, bellezza, that was one hell of a heartfelt confession.”
“Music to our ears,” Julian said, coming up behind me and sliding his hands down to my hips.
Nico cupped my face, his sapphire eyes burning into mine. “I’ve waited for you for a long fucking time, but this confession, it’s more than I ever could have imagined.”
Each of them moved in closer until they were enveloping me wholly with no space between us. The intensity was off the charts, the need building to an unbearable state.
“We can’t… not here… not now.”
Julian groaned in protest.
“She’s right,” Milo said, easing back a bit, but still stroking my hair.
“The wedding night it is then,” Julian spoke.
Nico smiled. “A wedding night unlike any other.”
“Nothing like what my twisted family had in mind.”
“Never,” Nico all but snarled.
“Damn straight,” Milo vowed, just as worked up by it.
“We’ve got you,” Julian assured me.
“This is what it means to be ours, principessa.” He pulled away then and reached into his inner jacket pocket. “While we may not have time to devour you, there is time for this.”
The next thing I knew, he was dropping down onto one knee, then holding out a ring.
A stunning and amazing engagement ring with turquoise gemstones surrounding the central big diamond. It was modern and edgy, just my style.
“Originally from Tiffany’s and then upgraded by Milo’s contact with what we discussed.”
I held out my left hand, and he slipped the ring onto my finger, then rose to his feet and kissed it. “This marriage may be forced on us both, but this ring represents what the four of us now share together.”
“It’s amazing,” I breathed, staring at it in wonder. “Thank you. Thank you for doing this.”
The three of them enveloped me then.
Warmth radiated through me, and I sank into them, wanting to feel the full effect of it.
This was what it meant to not be out in the world fighting alone.
I’d never imagined I’d know what that felt like, never imagined I’d be fortunate enough to have it for myself.
Now I did have it, there was no way I would let it go.
Not for anything.
Not for anyone.
No matter what came our way.