Page 81 of Nico

“I wish you told me she was my sister before I called her mother Benito’s whore,” Luca muttered. “She probably hates me now as much as she does you, Nico.”

“She doesn’t hate me,” I snapped.

“Okaaay,” Raphael rolled his eyes. “Lie to yourself, man. Bury your head in the sandbox.”

“Jesus, Raphi,” Sasha shoved him. “You are acting just as immature as your half-sister.”

“Don’t fucking call me that,” Raphael told him, glaring at him. “Or I’ll shoot you. And she’s my sister. Your sister-in-law. Alexei’s half-sister.”

“Fuck. You. Raphael.” Alexei spat. “When I kill you, you’ll be her dead brother.”

Yeah, the common theme on my wedding day was kill or be killed. I waited forty years for this.

“Babe,” everyone’s heads turned. Not sure why we all looked. There were only two men that were currently happily hitched. Grace and Isabella to their men. It was Grace calling Luciano. “Bianca invited us to stay here instead of driving back home tonight. Are you up for it?”

Luciano’s eyes surveyed the place. It was exposed, but I had men watching the property like it was a military compound.

“It’s safe,” I told him. “I have the place surrounded. Men are watching from the bay too.”

“Tell me you won’t be spending your wedding night under the same roof as us,” Luciano muttered, smirking. “There is only so close I want to be to you when you and your new bride-”

“Would you shut the fuck up?” Cassio stopped Luciano’s comment. Bianca’s brothers would take overprotective to turbo mode.

Luciano chuckled, completely unfazed. “Nico, take your wife to your place, and we’ll meet you there tomorrow. Or you come here. Just please don’t fuck her here.”

“Didn’t I warn you to shut up?” Cassio hissed, his brows scrunched and his lips tightened.

“Have her invite us to stay too,” Luca muttered under his breath. “I barely talked to her daughters. I want to be a good uncle.”

“Me too,” Cassio added, taking a deep breath. He was a hothead, like Bianca. But he cooled off easily, just like his sister. “I’m probably better uncle material than Luca.”

I groaned.

Here we go.

ChapterTwenty-Seven

BIANCA

As the evening came, so did the sweet cool breeze off the bay. The sound of the waves crashing against the shoreline in a rhythmic motion, and glowing moon rising over the water made for a beautiful, calm scenery. It helped my state of mind.

What have I got myself into?

Nico Morrelli… my husband, I thought wryly,is a master manipulator and a liar.

A hot, sexy liar that made my body melt under his gaze, but a liar nonetheless. He would be my sweetest demise. Or my most bitter one.

“You better?” John asked, sitting beside me while Nancy sat on the other side of me.

“Yes, all good.” It didn’t matter whether I was or not, the only thing that mattered was that I stayed focused and my girls were safe. Nancy was wrapped up in her discussion with Ella and Grace. Something about a place in Sicily, and I turned my head to John.

“John, how much money was in that bag?” Nico’s words rang in my ears on repeat. I couldn’t let it go. Did it matter at this point? No, probably not, but I had to know.

“Six hundred thousand.” There it was, my confirmation.

“How come when I went through it,” I asked, “there was only three hundred thousand in it?”

Silence ticked like a time bomb. I knew the answer and so did John. Nico was a liar, but he had no reason to lie about the money owed to him. He had his own agenda, but it wasn’t related to money. He didn’t need it.