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“I’ve got you, sweetheart. I’ve always got you,” I whisper into her hair.
I let her have this moment, while the doors are shut and no one except Dom and me can witness this. Because I know she will hate anyone seeing her ‘weakness’.
And when her body begins to calm, I sit back, framing her face with my hands.
“I swear, I’ve only started crying since I met you, Colten. I’m starting to think you’re a bad omen.”
“You know that ain’t true.”
She wipes her tears ferociously away from her face and lets out a growl under her breath. “What the fuck do I do now, cowboy?”
I take her hands in mine. “You rule over LA. That’s what you do. You’ve earned your spot on the top and no one can take that from you now.”
She frowns, her glassy eyes searching mine. “Not today, I don’t. I can’t be here. I want to go home.”
I nod, wiping away her tears with my thumb. “I’ll drive you back to your place; Dom can take your car.”
She shakes her head, squeezing my hand. “No. Home,” she breathes out.
My heart gallops into my throat as the meaning settles. Relief washes over me. I thought giving Gianna her dream would mean that, in the process, I lost her. That she didn’t need me anymore because she got everything she wanted out of our marriage.
“To Sterling Ranch?”
She rolls her eyes.
“Jesus. Do you need me to spell it out? S—”
Grabbing the back of her head, I slam my mouth over hers to stop her from talking. I break away. “We can go home, regroup, and figure out what this all means. Okay? Together?”
“I like the sound of that.”
Dom clears his throat from behind us, and she looks up at her brother, leans over me, and takes something from him.
She holds her father's gold signet ring between her fingers.
“This was always meant to be mine,” she says, staring at it. “This is the key to the throne, Colten.”
She squeezes it in her fist and pushes herself off the ground, wincing as she stands. “Dom, I’m heading back to Arizona. I need you to speak to our uncles, tell them about his death and that I am now in charge as next in line.” She takes a deep breath.
I stand beside her, and she leans some of her weight into my side.
“My first order is to fire that bastard Tomasso. And anyone else you think worked with Fabio. I only want the ones we trust. I’ve got a red book in my nightstand back at my house of everyone we work with or have ties to. Sever the ones highlighted.”
I bite back a grin; of course she already has an extensive war plan. Her father’s empire would have crumbled years ago without Gianna.
She was always the key to this.
“Tomasso isn’t going to take this well,” Dom mutters.
She huffs. “I don’t give a fuck. Pay him the usual amount and take his keys and phones. All of it. Change all the security codes, and I’ll get some guys in from my company to take over that. If he kicks up a fuss, kill him.”
“Or kill him anyway, if you don’t trust him?” I add.
G chews on her lip, contemplating it. “I need to let the dust settle. I sliced the leader's throat. We have some formalities to deal with, then once that’s in place with my uncles, I can do what I want. So, then we can kill the asshole.”
Dom shoves his hands in his pockets and nods. “Anything else?” he asks.
Gianna freezes as she looks down at her father's body. “You’re going to want to call our uncles and see what they want to do with his body, he isn’t being buried with Mom and Max. And I’ll get rid of Levi and his street rats,” she says, coolly.
