“He died the week before Lucia was born.”
The skin around Iacopo’s eyes is tight.
“You think it was someone in your family, don’t you? You think that they wanted to take over her side of things once her father was gone. They were going to use your heir. But Lucia is a girl.”
“Ariana knew what it was like to be married off against her will. She wanted to prevent that for Lucia.”
“But you’d never do that to your own daughter…right?”
Iacopo just looks at me. “You have to do what’s right for the family.”
It’s so foreign to me to think of arranged marriages. Power marriages, I guess. It’s as if we’re back in the Middle Ages and Princess Ariana was forced to marry Prince Iacopo for no other reason than to join their families.
“What was the noise I heard?”
“There’s an SUV trying to ram the gate in.”
“Most SUVs could probably break gates.”
“Not my gate. It’s reinforced steel. It’s what they use for military compounds. You’re safer here than anywhere else.”
“She’s not that great at strategy, is she? Because there are better ways to kill you than ramming your gate.”
“It’s a diversion. She’s probably sending someone around the back.”
“Ariana has to be working with someone.”
Iacopo looks at me as if he’s seeing me for the first time. “My father’s second-in-command, Mateo. He knows this place like the back of his hand. He thinks that he should’ve been the don when my dad died.”
“But that’s crazy. It’s the Genovese family.”
“He’s a cousin or something. It’s a lot of degrees removed.”
“You’re the heir. Your father’s heir.”
“I don’t have any male children, just Lucia. He has three boys.”
“How would that even work? Ariana wants to take over everything. Mateo wants to take over the Genovese branch.”
“Enemy of my enemy is my friend. They’d probably stab each other in the back at the end. Ariana doesn’t think ahead.”
Our conversation is interrupted by an explosion.
“Fuck,” Iacopo curses. “Stay inside the house.”
I watch as he begins to run to the back house, where the sound came from. I know that his security team is on it, but I don’t know what to do with myself. I’m confused about what’s going on and there’s nothing really for me to do. Sorting through all of his stuff is just busywork. But I guess that’s what I get to focus on. If Ariana tries to burn down the house while I’m in here, there’s not much for me to do. I don’t know how to steal a car. Even if I did, I’d run into his security team. They’re everywhere.
Chapter Fourteen
Fire
Iacopo
My men are in a formation that we’ve practiced dozens of times. Problem is, Mateo knows how we operate.
“Keep your eyes open,” I bark. They are waiting for whatever is coming. They have guns in their hands. The safeties are off.
“Incoming,” one of my men shouts. There’s a ball of flame heading straight for the house. We watch as it crashes into a second-story window.