Page 116 of Nico

“Nico, what’s done is done,” Cassio said for the tenth time.

“We have to kill Benito,” I croaked. “Otherwise, with that property being in Bianca’s name, he’ll never give up.”

“Why did it skip her mother and go directly to Bianca?” Luca asked.

Her mother wanted to keep it out of Benito’s reach, but she never thought it through. She counted on Bianca being left alone since she traded places with her daughter. She should have known Benito didn’t keep his promises.

“It was her mother’s request apparently. She let him believe it was transferred to her per her mother’s will, but she had it directly transferred to Bianca. She didn’t want Benito to force her hand. By doing that, unknowingly, she put Bianca back on the market. She counted on Benito to play fair, but that bastard never plays fair. He was going to sell her to Vladimir through the Belles and Mobsters arrangement and the two agreed to split the property.”

But why share when he could take it all now that he knew Bianca was his daughter!

“Is it really that large?” Cassio questioned.

“The largest. It can accommodate twenty cruise ships easily.”

Chucking my cell onto my desk, I took the seat at my desk. I leaned back in my chair, kicked my heels up and lit up a cigar. Luca and Cassio were already on their second. It was a relaxant, but Bianca hated the smell so I’d been avoiding cigars. I’d have to take a shower before I even touched her.

“Any of your contacts have any information on what happened to her mother?” I asked Cassio.

He shook his head. “She still hasn’t spoken?”

“No. She’s in bad shape,” I told them. Her bruises were healing but something about the way her eyes stared empty, dead. I wasn’t sure if that woman would ever come back from the hell she’d lived through.

“Anything on the attacks?” Cassio asked, switching to the subject of recent events.

“I have a theory, but there aren’t any facts to support it,” I finally said. There was a thought brewing in my head for days.

“What is it?” Cassio asked.

“The attacks on the warehouses,” I started. “They were too sloppy and too easily pinned on Vladimir’s men. What if Benito tried to use us to kill Vladimir to break off the agreement he made with him once he learned Bianca was his daughter? Why share if he could have it all to himself, as her father.”

Cassio leaned onto his elbows that rested on his knees, processing what I just said.

“Possibly. It kind of sounds like the way he thinks,” he murmured. “He’s a greedy bastard and probably wants it all for himself.”

“Does it even matter?” Luca questioned. “Neither one of those two bastards would get their hands on my sister.”

“We can use it to our advantage,” I told him. “Get Vladimir to turn against him, bid against him at the gala. The fact that his men didn’t know that Bianca was married nor Benito’s daughter tells me Benito is manipulating him to get his way.”

Cassio was still processing it all. “I have a contact amidst the Russians. Sergei, one of the Russian Sinners. I’ll ask him to see if he can find out how much Vladimir knows.”

I blew out a smoke ring, the nicotine swimming through my bloodstream. “Yes, let’s do that. Fast.”

I was eager to obliterate Benito and all his allies.

ChapterThirty-Six

BIANCA

Iwas getting antsy. I couldn’t pinpoint what drove it, but I couldn’t stop the feeling that something important was brewing, and I was willingly burying my head in the sand. Maybe it was Nico’s request not to leave the compound, to keep the kids within the perimeter of the house. Maybe it was that I still haven’t found the right way to tell him the dangers surrounding my mother, daughters, and me with the belles’ arrangement. We had gotten closer; we talked, but there were certain areas we never delved into.

His sister. Benito King. And our feelings.

We even talked about John, and he agreed to help him out. I was certain I’d have to remind him since the agreement was given after I gave him a blow job, but the next day, John’s text came, thanking me. He was rebuilding his company with Nico’s input and help.

The days were getting colder, so instead of playing outside, I parked myself in the playroom Nico had created for the girls. The windowsill seat was comfortable and big enough to seat two adults. I stretched my legs out and read the same page for the hundredth time, then finally gave up.

Glancing out the window, all I could see was the vast estate that became a gilded cage. I didn’t fight Nico when he told me to remain on the compound. After all, Mom said that Benito learned I was his daughter. Staying here, behind the safety of these walls, seemed the only option. But for how long?