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With the computer on my lap and my feet on the ottoman, I answered the call and put it on speakerphone. “This better be important, Marcello. I’m in the middle of crunching numbers for the settlement tomorrow.”
“Luca, you need to come home.”
I dropped the computer onto the couch and sat up straight. “Did something happen to Alex?”
Marcello breathed into the receiver. “Physically, she’s fine. Mentally, no. Alex needs you. She’s not okay.”
“I’ll be home on Saturday. She’s spent the last nine months without me. I think she can survive two more days until I finish this deal.”
I was about to close on a new shopping center in Milan.
“She’s having night terrors,” my brother told me. “Maybe it’s too soon. If we push her, you know what the doctor said.”
“She can handle it,” I assured him. “Her doctor agreed this form of therapy would work if done correctly.”
“Yeah.” He laughed. “If we don’t fuck this up. We’re not doctors.”
“You’ve worked with a lot of veterans who have PTSD.”
“That’s irrelevant,” he shot back. “Men are different. They don’t want to talk about shit like women do. They’d rather shoot something.”
“Well, don’t even think about giving her a gun. She’d sooner turn it on you than use it for target practice.”
“She needs a doctor,” he muttered. “I’m telling you, Luca, she’s not fucking okay.”
“I got it covered. We’ll have someone on the inside. Wait until the party this weekend. You’ll see.”
He released a sigh. “Is it who I think?”
“Yes. She’ll deal with Alex, make her feel welcome. Help us lower her guard.”
I had a contingency plan for my contingency plan. With Alex and her health, I covered all of my bases. I wasn’t a man who left anything to chance. We needed her sane and compliant, which would never happen in her current state, which required us to take drastic measures. The Devil’s Knights needed their queen, and it was time for Alex to serve her true purpose.
“Okay,” Marcello agreed. “I’ll work on a cover story so Alex doesn’t get suspicious. If she asks too many questions…”
“Alex has always wanted a friend, Marcello. Let’s give her one, okay? She could use some female companionship.”
“Yeah. Okay, I guess. But if this goes sideways, we’ll lose our status with The F Society. Carl Wellington is throwing us a life raft. We can’t screw this up.”
“Marcello, we will get her back. The girl we know is still inside of her confused body. We just need to pull her out.”
Alex was the key to everything, and we needed her back. Despite my colored past with her, there was an intense connection between us. I wanted her, but we couldn’t figure out how to make us work. We both sucked at relationships because of our shitty pasts. And knowing she would never belong to me, and me alone, I constantly pushed her away. I avoided the marriage so I could keep her to myself for a little while longer. The Devil’s Knights didn’t get to have their queen until I willed it into existence.
“She’s trashing her bedroom as we speak,” Marcello grunted. “Fuck. What am I going to do with her? She’s out of her mind.”
I opened the security app on my laptop and flipped through the cameras until I found her bedroom. “Jesus,” I whispered. “Has she taken her medicine today?”
“Yes, of course. I gave it to her this morning when she ate breakfast.”
“Give her a sedative, something to calm her down.”
Shaking my head, I watched Alex lose her shit. She threw a twenty thousand dollar vase across the room. Punted an irreplaceable Fabergé egg like it was a football. I won that in a game of poker from a Russian mobster.
“It’s like she’s possessed,” I muttered. “What did you do to her?”
“What you said. Locked her in the room without dinner.”
She deserved a spanking for trying to run from Wellington Manor. But I was halfway across the world, so I figured a few hours in isolation would sort her ass out. It would give her time to think about what she had done. But as usual, Alex was full of surprises.
“It’s not just the tantrum.” He sighed. “She’s like a cat in heat. I’ve had to push her away several times since I picked her up from Haven University.”
“If she needs someone, I’d rather it be you.” I cleared my throat and loosened my silk tie, letting it hang around my neck. “At least until I get home.”
Marcello wanted Alex and never hid his desire from me. None of the Knights did. They had waited a long time for my girl to accept her place among them. The Queen of the Devil’s Knights symbolized power in our corrupt world.
If Alex were mine alone, I would have been a better man. At least I wanted to believe I would have treated her differently. Instead, I made years of her life miserable. Fought a relationship with her every step of the way. But now, this soon-to-be king needed his queen.
