Page 70 of Coercion

“We should reach out to Gunnar.” I state, hating the fact that we need to.

“Yes.” Nico agrees but I can hear from the tone that he hates it as much as me. “We need to offer our assistance, play the game.”

“And if anyone else is going up against him?” Jace asks.

I look at him. “Find out first. We need to know options.”

“This could be an opportunity...” Nico says quietly.

“An opportunity for what?” I ask.

Nico shrugs, telling Jace to piss off and get on with his orders. I watch the man go, knowing that Nico clearly has something he wants to talk about for my ears only.

When the door shuts, Nico sits down pouring out a glass of whiskey for both of us. “Gunnar has no blood connection to the Holtz Family.” He states, before taking a sip and watching my face with interest.

“If he’s the strongest candidate, you know that won’t be an issue.” I reply, taking a sip myself.

Nico smirks. “He may look like the strongest candidate but what if there was another, someone with a blood link, someone with power, someone who could offer them a lot more than what they’d get with just his contacts.”

“Who?”

“You.”

I blink. What the fuck?

“You’re married to Frank Holtz’s daughter. You have the power and influence of the Morelli Family behind you, not to mention you have the support of numerous other families.”

“Are you talking about taking over his business?” Fuck if we did that, the possibilities are endless. At its height the Holtz diamond industry was worth hundreds of millions though we all know Levi has squandered it, mishandled it, halved its value while he was trying to establish his rule.

Nico smiles. “Like I hadn’t thought of that from the moment he proposed marriage. Levi has no sons. He has no viable heir. Gunnar may have shoe horned his way in but how much weight will that really hold when Levi isn’t there?”

And yet we still don’t know why they wanted this alliance so badly. What the hell did they have to gain from this? It can’t just be Jett’s reappearance, he doesn’t have enough power to be a real threat.

“What about Ruby?” I ask.

“What about her?”

“She’s my wife, Nico.”

He fixes me with a look. “You’ve been stating that a lot of late, Preston.”

“Meaning?”

“Nothing has changed on that front. She’s your wife in name only. That was part of the agreement.”

“You think I’m going to remain celibate forever?” I growl.

He throws his head back and laughs at my words. “No, Preston, you’re fine to get your dick wet, you’re fine to fuck whoever you want. But you touch one hair on my goddaughter’s head and I’ll cut your dick off and shove it so far down your throat, you’ll never find it again.”

I shake my head. “She’s my wife.” I snap.

“And she is off limits.” He says, slamming his hand onto the table.

I don’t know why he’s still insisting on this. Why he even cares. It’s not like he’s squeaky clean when it comes to women. He effectively stole Eleri from this very bar, told her under no uncertain terms that she was his plaything from then on. He’s just lucky that she was happy to go along with it and, as it turns out, is even more into public sex than he is.

“If you want the Holtz business, if you want to step up and become the Head, then that’s the deal.”

“Why?”