A pause.
"Yes, Harper is pregnant. The baby is fine."
Another pause. Longer.
"If we agree to create an alliance, it will be with thenewMilano family. Me, Dominic, and a few of my trusted men. Thesnakes will be cleared out. And the alliance is to be made official with a wedding."
My mouth drops open.
She frowns at whatever Hunter says. "No. Thomas Graves is not good enough. I hate repeating myself. I know you’ve been hiding Max’s killer; that was a test you failed. But now the stakes have gotten higher. You'll give me Gravesanda marriage to Colten."
I swallow. Hunter is going to be furious. Colten, even more so.
"Yes, Hunter. This is how we do it. This is the only way my father will approve and give me the authority I need over this family. Colten marries me. I live on Sterling Ranch. We become the most powerful organization in the country, together. In return, you’ll get your brother back, and LA will become half yours."
My heart races. The monitor starts beeping faster.
"If you go against me or try to take me down, I have Harper. Don't make me do something I really don't want to do. You should have let me in at the first opportunity. Think about that."
Nausea rushes over me. There it is. The friend who held my hand. The woman who saved my baby. Turning me into a bargaining chip mid-sentence, without blinking, without even looking at me.
That's Gianna Milano. Both things at once. The hand that strokes your hair and the hand that holds the knife. And you never know which one is reaching for you until it's already touching you.
"Then get on your jet. I'll text you our meeting point. Come as armed as you can. We're going to need it. I’ll return Harper as soon as Colten gives me a ring."
She mutters something in Italian.
"Have you had proof of life?" she asks.
My stomach sinks.
“Forward it over to me,” she says.
She ends the call and braces her hands on the windowsill, dipping her head. Her shoulders rise and fall.
Of all the versions I've met of Gianna Milano, this is the one the world doesn't get to see. The woman alone at a window, carrying the weight of a family that wants her dead and an empire that doesn't believe she deserves it.
For one second, she looks small.
Then she turns around, and her war face is back on, and the second is over like it never existed.
"Hunter accepted. We're going to get your man back."
"Yeah. Using me as fucking leverage."
She hands my phone back.
"I'm doing what I need to do. I told you to trust me. So do it. You know how you killed Hudson to survive? I’m doing the same thing."
I roll my eyes. "Yeah. And we might become sisters-in-law too."
She laughs. A real one. "No might about it. Colten is mine."
I don't have the energy.
"Just get my Ace back. Please."
Her face softens as she places her tattooed hand over mine.
