Page 120 of Only Fools Rush

“May I come in?”

I pulled the door open. “Uh, sure. But Leona is in Ciel’s room.”

“Yes.” He stepped inside. “I wanted to speak with you.”

I raised an eyebrow. I didn’t think we’d ever had a conversation one-on-one, besides that short exchange this morning.

HadRyujitattled like a little bitch? Was Obi here to reprimand me for our fight?

I crossed my arms over my chest. “Are you here to talk about Ryuji?”

He shook his head, a frustrated look on his face. “No. What happens between the two of you is the least of my worries.”

“Excuse me?” I scoffed.

“Caspian, you must secure the Vero Family army through marriage to Leona.”

I blinked, then recoiled. “What?”

Had he overheard me on the phone with Giulio this morning? I should have gone downstairs. Why did I take that phone call in the hallway?

Then my brain caught up to what he was saying. Why the hell did he think he had a say in the matter?

“The Italian Criminal Families will not pass leadership to female family members. However, if you get engaged to her, you both can claim ownership over the Family.”

“I understand how it works. I grew up in it. I’m asking why you’re saying this.”

“Is that not what Giulio advised you?”

My eyes narrowed. Wynn had agreed not to say anything. He must have told him anyway, the dick. “How did you know that’s what Giulio said?”

He looked at me like I was an idiot. “Because it is exactly the same thing I would have said. It’s what you’ve been thinking—and what I’ve been thinking—since we first spoke about going after the Vero men and stealing them out from under Volpe’s control.”

“You’ve been thinking about it that long?”

“Leona’s engagement has always been a play to consider. If not you, then someone else?—”

“Someoneelse?Who the fuck?”

“—But engagement toyouoffers the greatest reward with the minimal amount of risk.”

My mind raced as I tried to latch onto what he was really saying. “You’re talking like you have always wanted to use her marriage.”

“She is a mafia princess of one of the strongest Families in New York,” he said calmly, levelly, as if he was simply speakingfacts. “Her marriage, and what can be gained from it, has been debated since she was a child. This is no different.”

“It’s so much fucking different now. She’s not a pawn. She’s not something to use.”

Not something to use for me, and certainly not something to use for anyone else. Who the fuck else did he want to marry her to?

His gaze hardened. “This is not personal. It’s the easiest way for us to get what we want.”

“Leona deserves the opportunity to show them,” I insisted. The whole reason I hadn’t told her yet was because I believed that. I didn’t want her to be forced into one decision or the other. I wanted other people to see her value as so much more than just a game piece. How the hell was Obi insisting that was all she was? “If she shows them how strong she is, the Vero army will follow her.”

“That is naive, Caspian,” he said, clasping his hands behind his back. “This decision is not about Leona proving herself. It is about making strategic moves that further our goals.”

My hackles raised. Defensiveness turned my shoulders tight. “You don’t believe she could convince them? You don’t believe in her?”

“Ineversaid that,” he snapped. Then he took a deep, slow breath, unclenching his fists. “I believe in her completely. This is not about belief. It is about business.”