I knew her father was a bastard, but I hadn't expected him to be that bold. "There's only you, Emilia. If there is ever anyone else, you can kill me. Understood?” She nodded slowly.
She sipped her coffee and stared at me. "What's the expectation for me working alongside you?"
"You won't be."
I watched her jaw tighten, and her eyes shifted from soft to hard, ready to kill in an instant. At that moment, she was the woman I'd seen in that warehouse. "And why not? Haven't I proven myself capable of doing what needs to be done?" She was adorable when she was mad. Sitting there with her arms crossed and her bottom lip painfully close to pouting.
"No wife of mine will be out doing the things I have to deal with." I reached for my coffee and braced myself for what was coming.
"No wife of yours? Well, isn't that convenient? The biggest threat to your power is now under your control." She stood and moved closer to me. "All that talk of respect, how I was beautiful, and what did you say? Sexy as hell was just a way to get me to spread my legs for you, wasn't it? It was all a ploy to get me to submit to you." Turning, she began to pace the floor. Her bare feet slapping against the tile, my shirt swirling around her thighs.
"Fuck, I'm so stupid. The first man who says nice things to me, and I let him in my pants." She stopped pacing and stalked toward me. "I won't be making that mistake again, so I hope you enjoyed your wedding night, because there won't be any more marital duties happening between you and me." She was inches from my face now. Her eyes burned with anger, and I was glad the steak knives were across the room.
"Good morning, newlyweds, what are your plans today?" My mother and Lorenzo walked into the kitchen smiling, unaware of the lion's den they walked into.
"Arranging an annulment," Emilia said as she stormed out of the kitchen. Her exit was dramatic, the shirt billowing behind her like a cape.
"Well, this is going about as well as I expected," Lorenzo said, smiling as he poured coffee for himself and my mom.
"Are you going after her?" My mother looked behind her before looking back at me.
"Nope." Grabbing my coffee, I leaned on the counter. She'd be back apologizing, making this right. Women always came back.
"Niccolò Dante Venosa, you do not leave your new wife seething mad. You go after her and find out how to fix this." She used my full name, the only thing that makes me worry slightly.
"Mother, she wants to work alongside me, run the organization with me; there's no fixing this. It can't happen." I said sharply, trying to convey that this conversation was over.
"And I'm sure you told her that in a way that made her feel valued and appreciated for wanting to take some of the stress off your plate." She narrowed her eyes at me and frowned.
"No, I told her no wife of mine would be involved in this business. Period."
"Boy, you might be the dumbest man on the planet." Lorenzo shook his head and handed my mother her cup.
"What? I don't want her involved in the danger anymore. She doesn't have to risk her life now that she's married."
"Maybe don't go talk to her, you're not doing yourself any favours." The man took a seat across from me and sighed. "The number one way to get a woman to do something is to tell her she can't. I would bet you a thousand dollars she's up in your office making calls and finding out what Carminatti men were involved in the failed attempt on you this week."
"She wouldn't, she vowed her loyalty to me." I leaned over the table and pointed to myself.
"Nothing to do with loyalty, son. Your wife's the only link to the control you have over that family. They don't answer to Vincent anymore; they sure as hell don't answer to you yet. They answer to her, and right now that organization is in turmoil. She knows they're volatile, and you just told her to be quiet because she's a wife now."
"Why didn't we go on a honeymoon?" I grumbled under my breath as I pushed away from the counter.
"Nico, where are you going?" My mother asked with a lilt of humour in her voice.
"To find my wife. If you hear shooting, bury me in the suit I wore yesterday." At least they waited until I was out of the kitchen to laugh at me. It was time to kick all my family out of my house.
CHAPTER 17
EMILIA
With my backto the door, I knew I left myself vulnerable, but here I wasn’t worried. “No, Mathias, I don’t accept that. This transition is on shaky ground as it is. Threats from inside waste our limited resources and people.”
“Emilia, I assure you we are more than ready for whatever comes our way.” The man on the other end of the line was getting increasingly irate. If he yelled at me one more time, I was going to take him out. An attack on my family would be imminent; it’s just how power exchanges went in our line of work.
“We lost three people to Nico’s men. I wish I could say their loss was for something, but it was because you stopped listening to the one person who makes decisions.” My voice was rising, which wasn’t how I did things. I was calm, dealt with people without emotion, and it shielded me from being discovered, until I got cocky and had to help carry out hits.
“Emilia, you don’t call the shots here anymore. I’m sorry, but we can’t abide by your decisions any longer. You’re a Venosa now.” His voice didn’t sound like him; it was mechanical, like he was reading from something. This was rehearsed, and my fatherwas behind it. Anger bubbled up in me, and if I weren’t careful, I’d be waging war on my own men.
