Page 56

Fourteen
LEON
Iason perched on the edge of the worn leather couch in my office, his shoulders tense, jaw tight, and fingers tapping a quick beat against the armrest. The afternoon sun filtered through the blinds, casting stark stripes of light over his angry face. Outside, fluffy white clouds drifted across a steel-blue sky, completely oblivious to the turmoil brewing within these walls.
“We can’t let this go on,” he ground out.
“Fuck no, we can’t.” I stood, shoving my palms flat against the cluttered desk. “This is the fourth restaurant in a month that’s been destroyed! I thought I’d made my point clear with Polus and Manolis.”
Iasonexhaled, shoulders sagging. “Honestly, boss, I thought you did too. They looked like they’d been chewed up and spit out. I was sure they’d keep their distance?—”
“Do I need to fucking kill them?” I slammed a fist against the desk. A pencil rolled off, clattering to the floor. “Why do they keep pushing me?”
He lifted a brow and leaned forward. “Have you considered it might not be them?”
“Who else is stupid enough to fuck with me like this?” I whirled around, pacing in circles.
“Maybe it only takes arrogance,” he said with a shrug.
I stopped pacing. “What are you thinking?”
He didn’t answer at first. He just folded his arms and watched me, the afternoon sun gilding the edge of his jaw.
Then, he suggested, “Lucianos, maybe?”
A cold twist gripped my gut.
“Fuck.”
Dominic Lucianos was arrogant. He also leaned toward stupidity. Everyone knew this. That was why his brother was the one truly in charge of his family’s empire. It was widely known that if Dominic was calling the shots, they would have lost their fortune years ago.
“I don’t know.” I ran a hand through my hair and stared out the window. Below, a jagged cargo ship lumbered across the harbor, its rusted hull cutting slow arcs through the water. “What does he have to gain by ransacking my restaurants?”
“Think about it.” Iason stood and crossed to the window beside me. “You humiliated Dominic at that charity gala.Humiliation’s his kryptonite. Then Calista snubbed him in front of half the city. Pride like that? It doesn’t heal on its own.”
I put this back in--I like the metaphor. If you do want to delete it, I noted the continuation of the metaphor below.
I hadn’t considered that getting engaged to Calista would upset more than just our personal lives. Like that ship, our announcement had carved a new wake—one that rocked the underworld balance in ways I hadn’t foreseen.
I had been thinking of protecting Calista. I’d been contemplating revenge on the man who’d harmed her. But I hadn’t for a second thought about the problems our marriage would cause for my business.
What Iason was suggesting made sense. I’d pissed off a lot of people in my day, but most of that was in the past or had been resolved. There had been a bit of a truce between me and my enemies of late.
“We might have a fresh enemy,” I murmured, my chest tightening, adrenaline pumping hot and violent. “All this time, I thought Polus and Manolis were the only ones left with a grudge.”
“I heard some rumors.” Iason leaned against the worn leather couch and scanned the room as if ensuring no one else could hear. “After the charity event, Dominic was in a local bar, swaggering like a peacock and mouthing off loudly about Calista. He was insulting your name too, for getting involved with her. I won’t repeat the vile words he used to describe her, but I’m sure you can imagine.”
“That prick,” I muttered, my hands curling into fists at my sides, the knuckles turning white. “He’s trying to strike back at me. I sure wish he hadn’t targeted my most profitablerestaurants. They’ll be shut down for weeks, and we were getting the first mess cleaned up. The timing couldn’t be worse.”
“Yeah, it’s gonna hurt,” he replied with a resigned sigh.
“It’s so fucking stupid,” I spat, pacing the room. “There are plenty of other families with daughters ready for marriage. Cali might be smarter than most, but some less discerning women would jump at a chance to marry into the Lucianos family. It’s not like she’s his only option.”
“He’s simply a sore loser.” Iason crossed his arms as he leaned back. “He’s not used to getting rejected. I wouldn’t worry too much about his words, though. Most people see right through his narcissistic bullshit.”
“Maybe.” I shrugged, though my mind was racing with the possibilities. “I can imagine what he was saying about Calista, though. There are a lot of pricks out there who would agree with him and his archaic beliefs about women.”
“A few were agreeing with him,” he admitted. “Said Calista was probably asking for the rapes. He said she was worthless now, and they all chimed in like a pack of hyenas. I wasn’t there, but I would have torn them all new assholes if I had been.”