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I felt nothing—because I couldn’t feel anything right now.
She stopped beside her father, right in front of me. A breeze moved through her hair and ruffled it. The lampposts behind me reflected in her bright eyes. She always appeared confident in her skin, but not tonight. Now she looked like she couldn’t string two words together.
It was the first time she’d met me—therealme.
Her eyes flicked back and forth between mine, like she was scared of the man who stood before her.
She should be. “Make your plea, sweetheart.”
The endearment seemed to pull her back together. “Let this go, Bartholomew.”
“No.”
“You have France. You have Croatia—”
“And now I want Italy.”
“But you don’t need it—”
“Don’t tell me what I need.” I kept my voice low, but she still flinched when I cut her off. “Your father is a fucking asshole who doesn’t care about you or anyone else. Despite your estrangement, you would still do anything for him—but he wouldn’t do the same for you. I couldn’t care less about dismantling his business and his legacy. Regimes rise and fall every day—and now it’s his time.”
Her eyes hardened when she didn’t get the answer she wanted. “Please—”
“No.”
“Not even for me? Not even because I’m the one asking?”
I gave a subtle shake of my head. “I wouldn’t do it for anyone, sweetheart.”
She sucked in a breath like that was a slap in the face. “This isn’t going to make you happy, Bartholomew. More money…more power…it’s not going to change anything.”
“The only people who say those things are poor because they don’t know any better.”
“Bartholomew—”
“We can continue to waste our time arguing, but it’s not going to change anything. Your father will submit to me and become my distributor for a small cut, or he’ll be slaughtered in this square along with all the people who are stupid enough to stand by him—except for you. Now get back in the car and drive away, Laura.”
She seemed to have finally given up. Now she understood she knew a very different version of me, one that kissed her shoulder when she slept, one that held her close as the morning sun crept across the bed, one that would kill anyone who fucked with her. But that version wasn’t here right now. He only existed in the shadows. Only existed behind locked doors.
She stepped back and turned away.
I looked at Leonardo, ready to destroy him.
He moved fast for a man decades older than me. He snatched Laura by the hair and threw her down to the cobblestones. The gun was cocked then pointed at the back of her head.
She screamed so loud that I knew they hadn’t rehearsed this.
Laura tried to fight his hold, throwing out her arms then trying to get to her feet. “What the fuck are you doing?”
He smashed the butt of the gun into her head—and then the blood came.
I sucked in a breath through my clenched teeth, traumatized by his brutality.
She turned quiet and slumped over slightly, stunned by the hit.
Leonardo had his eyes locked on me, no remorse whatsoever. “Release the embargo with the distributors in Morocco. Now.”
It was the first time in my life I was too stunned to react. My eyes kept glancing to Laura on the ground, the blood darkening in her hair then dripping down onto her sweater.
