“Well. . .thatis important.”
“It is.”
“But why doyouwant to know?”
“Because I want to know what is going on.” I stood firm. “I don’t want to be one of those wives who are kept in the dark.”
Gianni tilted his head slightly, studying me. “Sometimes it’s good to be kept in the dark. To take solace in it.”
“Being in the dark has only ever been terrifying to me.”
“Still, you don’t need to know.”
“Still. . .” I pointed a shaky finger at him. “No secrets. No lies.”
A wicked smirk spread across his devilish face, and he took a step forward. “Is that an order?”
I inched back. “Yes.”
He nodded, and he raked those eyes over me once more, taking in the lingerie that hugged every curve. “Then, I will oblige myqueen.”
“Now I’m your queen?”
“Remember.” He licked his lips. “On the outside, you are my queen. And what I just did, that wasoutsidestuff.”
I shivered. “And who did you kill?”
Gianni let out a long breath. “Three men. Joe Ricci, Marco Savelli, and Chiara Bianchi.”
I swallowed hard, recognizing the last names, but not the first names. Those were families of power, men who had long held influence within Obsidian Bay. “Why did you kill them?”
“Many don’t like my rise to power. No one expected me to take your stepfather’s empire right from his hands.”
Holy shit. Is that what he did?
“They wanted to be the next in power, but what they didn’t understand is that. . .one musttakethe throne. It is never handed over.”
I swallowed.
“So. . .those men betrayed me.”
“How. . .did they do that?”
There was a bitter edge to his words. “Joe tried to sell information about our operations to the police. He had several detectives in his pocket, but I have the Chief of Police and the Police Commissioner.”
I blinked.
“Marco wanted to break away from the family, start his own operation with an enemy crew—the Triads in China Town.”
Jesus.
I leaned my head to the side. “And what about Chiara?”
“He had hired two assassins to come and kill you and me tonight. He was the one that I’d been hunting. His death was the most important. It meantyoursafety.”
“And yours.”
“You are now my wife. I am not safe if you are gone.” This sadness fell over his face. “If you aren’t here then. . .I am nothing. . .”
