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“Fair enough.” I keep my voice level and cast my right-hand man a side-long glance. I’ve got this. With Maisy in the mix, the situation has changed anyway. If I can keep things status quo with La Sombra, I’ll only have to deal with Qian. “Will you allow me a minute to escort my brother to the jet?”
She nods. “Cierto.”
One of her men removes Marco’s gag, and he mutters a curse as he stalks toward me. “About fucking time you got here,” he grumbles.
“You’re lucky I came to save your ass at all,” I whisper-hiss as I turn him toward the jet and shove him forward. “What the hell were you thinking fucking around with her?”
“Please, she wanted it as bad as I did, and she’s a liar if she claims otherwise. You know I’ve never had to beg for pussy. And she must be the best actress on this goddamned earth because I had her moaning my name all night.”
“Cazzo, Marco, you know the rules, business before pleasure, you coglione.”
He spins at me as we reach the steps to the jet. “I’m sorry, okay? I was all riled up with the commissioner shit, and I ran my mouth when I shouldn’t have.”
And he hasn’t even heard about Qian. My brother’s really going to lose his shit when he finds out about that. “What does she know exactly?”
He shrugs. “I offered her the deal we’d discussed, ten percent of our take on all future development projects in Lower Manhattan in exchange for cutting all ties with the Kings. Then she found out we lost the commissioner’s bid. That’s when things turned ugly.”
“Fine. I’ll tell her the truth and walk away.”
“What? Why? Just offer her a better deal. We need La Sombra?—”
I lift my hand cutting him off. “I’m done here, Marco. We’re taking a step back. We’ve made significant gains in Lower Manhattan, Gemini Corp has more projects in the books than we can handle, and once I straighten things out with Qian, I’m hitting pause on this trajectory of mutual destruction.”
Marco’s brows slam together, his mouth twisting. “What the fuck are you talking about, Nico? We’re nowhere near done. Dante and Luca still rule Manhattan, the Kings reign supreme. What happened to bringing them to their knees? To stealing King Industries out from under their stuck-up noses?”
“Things have changed,” I roar, frustration gnawing at my insides.
“Holy shit. This is about that redhead, isn’t it?” His mismatched eyes lock on mine, fury raging below the crystalline surface. “What the fuck happened?”
“I don’t answer to you, brother. I don’t have to explain myself after the mess you’ve made with La Sombra.”
He jabs his finger in my chest, digging the button of my shirt into my skin. “The mess I made? You haven’t been right in the head since the moment you kidnapped that girl. Who the hell cares about Jasper? You’ve got all our men trying to hunt down that rapist, and everything else is crumbling around us. This isn’t over, not by a long shot. Go to Qian, marry his fucking sister and fix this.”
“No,” I growl.
Marco rakes his hands over his face and lets out another string of curses. “I can’t believe you’re doing this for a piece of ass.”
My hand juts out and wraps around my brother’s throat. “Don’t fucking talk about Maisy like that. Ever.”
His eyes widen, the brilliant blue one and dark brown both turning murderous. “Cazzo, Nico, you’re going to completely fuck us over for this girl? Everything we’ve worked so hard for?”
“It’s not just about her,” I snarl. The lie tastes bitter in my mouth, but I continue all the same. “I’m tired of this bullshit, Marco. You’re right, we’ve fought our whole lives to achieve this success, and now I just want to enjoy it. We have everything we need. Can’t it be enough?”
His head whips back and forth, jaw clenched tight. “It’ll never be enough. Not until Dante and Luca are on the streets without a penny to their names. Just like we were when we came to this godforsaken country and our father rejected us. Or did you forget about that? Did that fiery pussy erase all the shit Umberto Valentino did to us?”
“He didn’t do shit, Marco,” I shout. “He just didn’t want us.”
A rueful grin tips up the corners of his lips into a chilling smile. “Oh, I get it now. So now Maisy wants you, so that’s it? You’re wanted and loved by the perfect woman, and now everything that was so important to you before doesn’t matter? I don’t matter?”
“It’s not like that, damn it.”
“Fuck you, Nico.” He whirls on his heel and marches up the steps to the jet.
I grit my teeth, searching for something to say, but anything I can think of sounds hollow. Because he’s right in a way. All this time, I sought to fill the void in my chest, and I thought revenge was the only way to satisfy it.
But I was wrong.
It was love.
