Page 151 of Dishonored

“SIMONE IS VERY angry,” Mae whispered as she slid into the kitchen. “And he’s got the rest of them in an uproar.”

Aria’s irritation level spiked higher, but she managed to keep her cool. “Is that so?”

“What is his problem?”

“Me,” she said simply.

What else?

Aria had always known that she was going to need to take care of Simone Bruno at one point or another—she had known it from the very first time he tried to act against her after her father had been sent to prison. She’d hoped she could hold off on removing his little problem for as long as possible. He was a good earner for their Camorra, and he controlled a great portion of the loansharking business that kept them in the green more often than not.

But that just wasn’t the case anymore.

His time had run out.

Aria had to handle him now—later was no longer an option—because if she didn’t, then Simone was going to continue to rally the rest of the Camorra men against Aria until he staged a fucking coup. And then there she would be … fucked.

Everything she worked for would be gone.

She would not let that happen.

Not for a man.

“I’ll bring in the food,” Mae said.

Aria shook her head—her sister-in-law didn’t need to see what was going to come next. Mae was still untouched by a lot of dirtiness in this life, and Aria wanted to keep it that way for as long as she possibly could for the girl.

Life would teach her soon enough.

It always did.

“How about you head upstairs, and just stay there until Nico or I call for you,” Aria suggested, not even posing it as a question. “That would be better.”

Mae shrugged. “You sure?”

“I might make a bit of a mess.”

Probably would.

Aria had her taste for violence, after all.

She couldn’t change.

Mae nodded. “Okay, then.”

Aria waited for her sister-in-law to leave the kitchen through the back entrance, and then she grabbed the paring knife she had been using to peel potatoes on the island. Slipping the blade up the sleeve of her blouse where it couldn’t be seen, she moved to the main entryway, and listened to the conversation happening just beyond the threshold.

“And she has no guards,” Simone barked.

“She has me, and Mae,” Nico returned. “One of us is always with her.”

“Always?”

“Are you questioning my intent with Aria? Or Mae’s standing? I don’t take kindly to that, Simone. Watch your step.”

“She acts like a free woman!”

“Because she is,” Nico snapped back.