Page 44 of Dark Prince

“Cordelia!” Axel snaps, his deep aggravated voice echoes through the van, “Please shut the fuck up. We need to go home.” Oh, he is upsetti-spaghetti. My little spicy burrito is serious right now.

“Fine. Mister grumpy gills.” I cross my arms and pout, he didn’t have to be so fucking rude about it.

“Do you have any idea what this means?” He asks, calmer than before.

“Nope.” I pop the p and don’t even bother looking up at him, because fuck him and his anger management needing ass.

“It means that we just killed him for no reason and-”

“Lemme stop you there. I killed him, for a very good reason.”

“Not what I mean.”

“Then say what you mean.”

“We killed him and we’re no closer to finding your fucking grandfather, which makes us one step closer to my mother using you as bait to draw him out.” He smacks his hand to the steering wheel.

“Maybe we let her?” I say, “I mean, if he even cares that I exist. Who’s to say he'd do or say anything after he found out I was still alive. I know Uncle Gabe talked about him, but other than that the man your mother is trying to find is a complete stranger to me. I wasn’t part of that family and the entire Romano lifestyle died out before I knew who they were.”

“His only sons are dead or in prison, he has no family left, except you. The Romano’s are still a proud family, even if there are only a few left.”

“No, they’re an old man on the run and a woman, i.e myself, in the back of a van with the enemy’s son as her husband.” I correct him, all matter of factly. “There is no one else, just the two of us left, right?”

“As far as we know.”

“Then maybe we set a trap, use me as bait, get the word out that the youngest Mazitti son has taken the only remaining Romano’s granddaughter as his forced bride.”

“That would never work.”

“Imagine the roles reversed. Your mother has lost everyone and the only family left has been found behind enemy lines. What would she do?” I ask, crawling up to the middle of the seats, and look up at him.

He reaches down and touches my cheek softly, “She’d burn the world down to get to them.” He replies.

“Exactly.” We ride the rest of the way home with me laying my head in his lap as he drives through the city at whatever time it is. It’s oddly comfortable and I’m not sure where we go from here, because if I know anything about him, it's that he’s not going to like what happens next. He’s not going to like having to give up that control he has, the need to protect me will kick in and I’ll have to make it clear that I’m okay with whatever happens. I’ve made my peace with this shitty life a long time ago, and if I follow my entire family into the grave, then at least I know that I’ve taken some of the world's scum with me.

?Chapter Twenty Four

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