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CHAPTEREIGHT
“So why did you come to find me at the club?” I asked, as I took a large bite out of my pizza. My grandmother would have slapped the slice out of my hand, reminding me that I needed to be able to fit into my wedding dress. It made me want to eat another slice, even if I was not hungry.
Andrea had already had two slices, and he had yet to explain why he came to the club. I was getting impatient. Though the pizza was delicious, especially considering the amount of alcohol that I consumed, I wanted to know why Andrea had sought me out.
“What makes you think that the two of us did not simply run into one another?”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t let my blonde hair confuse you,” I snapped. “I am not a moron.”
“That’s what I have heard.”
I knew that he was baiting me, and it took a great amount of effort to keep myself from biting. Instead, I shoved another bite of pizza into my mouth to keep myself from asking what he had heard about me.
I swallowed the piece in my mouth and focused on Andrea. It was disgusting how handsome the Blanchi men were. Andrea had dark curly hair that was long and messy. His viridian eyes gave him a softness that I suspected was misleading. The green was startling against his olive skin, and his arms looked as though they were bigger than my waist.
“Is there a reason that you are dodging my question?” I asked. “After all, you are the one that brought me to this dump.”
He smirked. “Don’t play the proper princess with me. You just housed half a slice.”
“Just because the food is good doesn’t mean that this place isn’t a shithole.” I scrunched my nose in disgust as I lifted my water cup. It stuck to the tabletop. The pizza was top-notch but given the hour the place was full of drunks, and there was not enough wait staff to keep the tables clean.
“I heard that you had quite the mouth on you. Given how your family views women, I am surprised that your father hasn’t beaten that out of you.”
I bit my tongue as I recalled the way that my father grabbed me at the party. “My father isn’t a barbarian like yours.”
Andrea’s green eyes hardened. I had hit a nerve. He did not like that I was willing to give it back to him.
“I did not come here to argue with you about whose family is more barbaric,” he snapped.
“I would not know since you have not explained to me why you came to find me, or how you knew that I was going to be out alone” That made me nervous. Normally, my father’s men swarmed me, reporting back to him half of my misdeeds.
Andrea leaned back in his booth. “Don’t look so freaked out. We aren’t tailing you.”
“Oh?”
He shrugged. “Well, not normally. I saw you from across the street, and I followed you.”
I swallowed heavily, trying not to show him the fear that was on my face. I had not noticed anyone was following me, which was unlike me. The events of the party had thrown me off my game, and if Andrea had really wanted to do me harm, he could have. Easily.
“Don’t look so freaked out,” he said. “I can assure you that we aren’t interested in you.”
I snorted. “Really? I’m the heiress to the Bratva. I would make a hell of a victim.”
Andrea gave me a sad look that took me aback. “No,” he said. “You aren’t.”
I tensed.
“We’ve suspected for a long time that your father would be choosing a successor, and that it wouldn’t be you. Too bad because I think that my father might struggle with the idea of trying to murder a woman. He’s not quite on board with feminism.”
There was a lot to unpack there, but I was too angry to think about what Andrea was saying. I was also embarrassed. I really thought that it was only a matter of time before my father named me as his successor, but apparently, I was a moron, and even our enemies knew that he was not going to name me as Pakhan.
“What do you want?” I asked again, as I became more and more frustrated. “Did you just find me to rub in how I have been passed over?”
“No,” he said. “I wanted to talk to you about who is slated to become the new Pakhan.”
I stiffened. “Why? What do you know about Leo Petrov.”
Leo’s name caused a darkness to overtake Andrea’s face. “What would you say if I told you that I wanted to help you to get rid of Leo Petrov.”
