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“But I’m not entirely sure that’s what this is,” Phoenix cuts in. “I don’t know whether Ricci is working with Romano or against him.”
The silence between us all is heavy. After a second, Ari knocks his knuckles on the table beside him and signs with one hand. ‘Does it matter?’
Kane’s mouth twitches, and then he finishes his drink and sets it on the table before rising. He looks at all of us—a slow, lingering stare full of promises that don’t need words. “No. It doesn’t fucking matter. In three days, we will arrive on that boat, and before the month is out, Alice will be one of us in every way possible.”
I wait for a single sound of protest, but no one dares to try.
* * *
All of us are restless.The night before the party, I can hear the faint sounds of Ari in his playroom, though I’m not brave enough to fire up the screen to see what he’s doing. Phoenix has the audio on in the house—something he does when he’s worried, but it also means he’s awake.
Alice, who’s taken to sleeping with at least one of us each night, retired to her room just after dinner, and we all collectively agreed to let her have space. Now that we know she’s being targeted by at least one member of her family and that there were holes in our security that we’re trying to patch, it’s no wonder she’s losing her mind with worry.
Alice has yet to leave the manor. Not since the day she was brought here, and this is a huge ask Kane is resting on her shoulders. She’s gone MIA from the Romano family web, and he’s about to display her in front of every single one of Guido Romano’s enemies.
And some of Kane’s.
Rolling out of bed, I scratch my balls as I stretch my stump toward the ceiling, then open the door and peer down the hall. Kane’s door is shut, but I can see a light on underneath, and near that, Alice’s is sitting partly open and dark.
Maybe I should be worried, but I’m not. I know exactly where to find her, and I don’t bother trying to be quiet as I head down the stairs and toward the terrace door. I know Phoenix is listening anyway, so if something were really amiss, he’d already be on it.
A storm rolled in somewhere between dinner and now, so the sky is oddly light with thick grey clouds, even as they obscure the moon. The air is thick with the scent of rain, but it’s dry. I didn’t bother with shoes, so the small pebbles in the path bite the bottoms of my feet, but the pain is good. It’s grounding.
It’s more difficult to navigate the brush when I have to duck off the path, but I find Alice in the place where Ari first had her, curled up with her arms wrapped around her knees, back to a tree. She stiffens when she hears me approach, but she doesn’t startle as I crash over and drop down beside her.
“I’ve got ten bucks in my pocket if you want to share your thoughts.”
“Glad to know my value is increasing,” she says, her voice muffled by where she’s got her chin pressed to her knees. “Or is that just inflation?”
I smile and twist so I can brush her hair away from her forehead. I like when it’s like this. It’s thick and soft and free—slightly wavy from the braid she always wears, and it curls against my fingers when I push them into her locks.
“You’re worth Kardashian money, sweetheart,” I say, and then I stop. I know she needs patience right now instead of more banter, so I quietly stroke her scalp until she relaxes a fraction and turns to look at me.
“James?”
“Yes, darling girl.”
“I’m pregnant.”
My heart jolts in my chest. “Little princess, there’s not a force in thisuniversethat could allow me to forget that. Not for a single moment.”
She closes her eyes, and I can hear a faint tremble on her exhale. “I’m not sure I’m going to make a good mom. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to be a mom when I agreed to this.”
“Darling, why did you agree, then?”
Her gaze meets mine, and I see all her uncertainty and pain, but she doesn’t answer straight away.
I laugh softly and cup her cheek. “Come on, love. I think it’s a fair question.”
Her breathy sigh rushes along my cheeks, and it’s hard not to just pull her close and kiss her and touch her and fuck her until neither one of us is thinking about this particular…change. It’s only been a little while since we got the news, but it still feels surreal and abstract.
“At first, it was because I wanted him to hurt,” she finally says. “Because the longer I’m here, the more I think about how much he’s hurt me.”
Something crawls up my spine—white-hot and a bit like rage, but deeper than that. “Tell me where he touched you, and I will cut those pieces from his body bit by bit while he watches.”
She laughs and rolls her eyes, though I know she knows I’m not joking. “His heart,” she says.
I lift my chin. “I’ll cut it out and feed it to him.”
