Page 90 of Ruthless God

I let my gaze sweep across the room, lingering on a few faces that I recognized as Lombardi associates. “You’ve made some interesting new friends. I hope they prove more loyal to you than they are to Emilio. We all know how easily the tides can turn.”

Andre’s jaw clenched, but he remained silent.

With a final nod to Anatoly, I gestured to Elio. “We’ll be taking our leave now. I trust no one will try to stop us?”

Anatoly’s glare could have melted steel, but he gave a curt nod. “Get out.”

Elio and I backed slowly toward the exit.

“Well, that went better than expected,” Elio muttered. He pointed at my chest, right where I had a camera in place. “Good?”

I nodded. The footage would be sent to Emilio. The head of the Lombardi Famiglia hadn’t attended the wedding, which told me this union was held in secret.

The only question was, what were Andre and Enzo planning?

What was their next play?

22

LUNA

Things were back to quiet.The household manager, Luigi, was like a ghost in this house, moving in and out to get things done quickly and quietly. I had only seen the man less than a handful of times. I nearly forgot he was here until I ran into him earlier this morning, when he told me Massimo had requested that I start looking for new cooks.

Only, I had never had to do anything like this. What did I know about hiring someone to work for us?

And with what Massimo did, it would have to be someone trustworthy.

Did I even have the eye to distinguish between someone trustworthy or not?

Massimo had only been gone for two days and one night, and already I missed him.

I looked down at the yellow dress he’d instructed me to wear this morning. Even when he was gone, he still found a way to pick out my outfits for the day, reminding me in little ways that he was in charge.

And I might be even more fucked up than I thought because I loved it.

He wasn’t home that often, but he was almost always consistent in coming back to me at night, even if the hours that he came home weren’t.

But now, he wasn’t even here at night, and there was just something about it that made me feel… unsteady.

I looked down at my cup of coffee. The liquid had long turned cold, but it was barely ten in the morning.

What was I supposed to do with my day?

I knew I had told Massimo I didn’t really leave the house, so there was no need for self-defense lessons, but that might have been a mistake because I could feel myself getting bored out of my mind.

Since that day with his brothers, I had lessons with Massimo—only Massimo—a few times. I still wasn’t confident in my ability to fend for myself or, at the very least, find a way to run away and wait for help to arrive. Massimo didn’t think I would ever get to the point where I would be able to take on a man trying to harm me, and I agreed with him.

But would I get to the point where I could stop my attacker enough to escape?

I shook my head just as movement flashed in the corner of my eye. I let out a startled scream and turned to see Matteo standing there, his usual charming smile in place.

“Sorry,” he said, holding out his hand as if to show me he wasn’t carrying any weapons as I tried to get my heart rate to slow down. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

I didn’t know what to say to that. I could say he didn’t scare me, but I was sure he would be able to tell I was lying. And I could ask him what he was doing here, but I didn’t know how to ask that without sounding rude.

“What are you doing, little sister?”

I looked around the empty house, suddenly aware I was alone with him. Not that I thought Matteo would do somethingto harm me, but there was just something so unnerving about him that brought out all my survival instincts. I wasn’t a fool. I knew the easygoing smile he put on was nothing more than a show, and beneath that was a man who had done things—terrible things—in the name of the De Luca empire and for his brothers.