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“Of course.”
“What can we do?” Kat says as she ushers the two of us from the room so we can talk a little louder.
“I need you to distract your husbands tonight so I can sneak out. As long as one of you can open the gate, I could call an Uber or get Max to come pick me up down the street.”
“I’m in,” Anya says.
But Kat chews her lip, a deep frown on her face. “No,” she eventually says with a shake of her head.
I blink at her in shock. Kat Moretti is a freaking hellraiser. Dante is the head of the Cosa Nostra, but she has him eating out of the palm of her goddamn hand. She’s my biggest ally in this house. She always roots for me. I can’t believe she’s not going to help me now when I need her most.
“Kat?” Anya scolds her.
“This is not the world I want for my daughter. Sneaking out and having to lie about what she’s doing.”
“But Kat…” I whine, pouting, unable to fathom this new well-behaved version of my sister-in-law.
“You’re not sneaking out, Joey. You’re going to walk out of that goddamn front door.” She grabs both mine and Anya’s hands, and I grin at her. Now that’s the Kat Moretti I know and love.
Dante and Lorenzo are in their study as usual, and their shared shell-shocked expression when I walk in with their wives makes me giddy. We might just do this.
“Something wrong, kitten?” Dante asks with a frown, directing his question toward Kat.
“Yes,” she says with a sweet smile.
Lorenzo frowns. “Passerotta?” he says to Anya.
“We have something to discuss with you both,” Anya says coolly.
My brothers’ eyes land on mine next, and they glare at me, no doubt aware that my sisters-in-law are here to fight in my corner with me. Because it’s not just my corner, it’s theirs too. It’s my niece’s corner, and any other girl who ends up being born into this family.
“You should probably take a seat,” I say.
My brothers glance at each other, but then they each take their seats behind the huge wooden desk.
“If this is about Maximo, you can all save your breath,” Dante says with a deep sigh. “There is nothing any of you can say that will change what he’s done.”
I cross my arms over my chest and take a few steps forward until I’m right in front of the desk. Kat and Anya stand on either side of me, silent but ready to back me up when I need them. “This isn’t about Max. This is about the women in this family being treated like second-class citizens.”
They both scoff at that statement.
“You think this is funny?” I snap, my anger already boiling over.
“When do I ever treat you like anything less than a queen?” Lorenzo asks Anya. Trust him to go for the easy target. She’s his submissive as well as his wife, and ordinarily, she would never defy him in public, although she does it plenty in private. But he underestimated her today.
“Yes, you treat me like a queen, my love.” She gives him a saccharine smile. “I am your little bird in a cage.”
Lorenzo’s face turns beet red. “You think I keep you in a cage?”
“I do notthinkit, my love. You keep me in a cage because that is the life I want. The life I asked for when I fell in love with you. But I always thought that if I ever needed a little more freedom, you would give it to me.”
His eyes narrow. “I would give you anything, you know that.”
“So why is it that I’m not allowed any freedom at all then?” I demand, smacking my hands down on the desk.
“You are allowed to come and go as you please. You have every freedom that Lorenzo and I have,” Dante snaps at me.
“Oh really?” It’s my turn to scoff now. “Is there any way in hell that anyone would tell either of you who you could fall in love with?”
