Page 12 of Ruthless Reign

Ru turned to Saint and whispered something low that made him chuckle and drift his hands lower on her hips. KC grabbed Alba and led her away, while a tall guy with long dirty-blond hair stole Selene’s attention. Suddenly alone with nothing else to do, I went back to texting my cousin.

Della:What do you mean? You’ve been giving them information for years.

Of everyone in my family, Della had been the only one who knew what I was doing. She claimed to hate Gabriella as much as the rest of us. Somehow, the information had gotten out a few months ago and my dear favorite aunt had her men abduct me from my own home and beat me nearly to death. I still wasn’t sure how she’d learned of my betrayal. Perhaps I had been sloppy or perhaps she’d had my phone tapped. I’d never know for sure, but I did trust Della. Now that I couldn’t be physically in the mansion, listening and learning the way I’d used to, I had to rely on her and my other sources.

Me:The situation is confounding. Find out what you can, would you? I need some leverage.

Della:I think they’re planning an arms trade soon. Even though Gabriella stole that supply shipment from the Roses, she doesn’t think it will be enough.

Me:When and where? Can you find out for me?

Della:I’ll try. Invite me for a visit soon. I miss you.

Me:Miss you, too.

I switched gears. Della may not be in the right rooms at the right time, and being a princess, the bosses would stop any important conversations when she appeared. But the staff? Caputis barely noticed the people who worked for them, and most had NDAs preventing them from talking to anyone outside the family. But I wasn’t outside the family, and I had a few closeinformants on the payroll who would always answer if I was the one who asked.

I contacted Titus first, and when he didn’t immediately answer, I went for Hannah. They’d been servers for nearly a decade now, and if there was one thing that was true about Caputis, we lived to talk around the dining room table.

“Are you ready to head out?” came my husband’s voice, and I lifted my focus to see him standing in front of me with his arms on his hips, a blank expression of indifference on his face. To my right, Alba whispered sweet nothings to her husband, something that made him bite his bottom lip and smile. To my left, Hollywood was in the process of dragging Verona toward a back room. All these old ladies with their MC men, and here I sat, choking back my annoyance while mine deigned to talk to me.

“Sure.” Standing, I walked toward the front door, focusing on the sound of my heels click-clacking on the concrete instead of how his club members eyed me as I passed. Roman put a hand on my lower back, and I tried not to react to the foreign touch.

The stifling, humid air of summer in Virginia hit me in the face as soon as we walked outside, sweat immediately pooling at my hairline. Augusts in the mid-Atlantic were notoriously vile, but it was almost like the weather fates were mocking me, making my miserable circumstances all the more intolerable because I couldn’t be comfortable, no matter what I did.

He helped me into the passenger seat of his truck, and I checked my phone again for updates, dismayed when no one had responded. Would they change their minds about helping me now that I’d been “married” to a Rose? Or had something happened? Had they been found out?

No.Della would have mentioned something if Titus and Hannah were removed from service. Perhaps they were busy or?—

“Did my sister behave herself?” Roman asked, drawing my attention up to him.

“I’ve been invited to a girls’ night next Friday,” I told him. “I’ve accepted. I hope there were no other pressing matters.”

Roman raised his eyebrows. “You accepted?”

“Is that so shocking?” I rolled my eyes. “Perhaps I will get along with your extended family better than you.”

“I doubt that,” he said with a laugh. “V hates pretty much everyone except Hollywood and her friends.”

I took a deep breath, considering that perhaps Verona and I had more in common than I previously thought.

“How did yourchurchgo?” I said the word like it meant nothing because, in my opinion, they had nothing if I didn’t give them the information they needed.

He ran his fingers over his forehead. “Fine. There’s some dissent, but it’ll blow over.”

“Dissent?” That surprised me. “And here I thought you were all a bunch of mindless brutes set on doing whatever your little leader told you to do.”

“Hmm,” he said. “And why would you think that? Is that how things go in the Caputi household? All the king’s soldiers blindly follow commands until someone else steps in?”

I scowled at his incendiary tone. “And just how do you propose to deal with these dissenters?”

“We need to have a wedding. Soon. In the next two months.”

Laughter bubbled out of my throat before I could stop it, and when he snapped his insulted gaze to me, I realized he was serious.

“Why are you laughing?” He raised an eyebrow. “I would have thought you’d like something like that. A chance to spend a ton of money and wear an overpriced dress and be the center of attention?”

“You know nothing about me.” Sure, I looked like the type of woman who had been planning her wedding since she was in grade school, but I’d only ever wanted someone to love me…and someone to love in return. I had that with Vittori. I had that with Hugo. We were going to elope with whatever remained in my trust, run away, and hide from my family so no one would ever tell me how to live my life again. Then, Gabriella had snatched that from me, and I’d been out for her blood ever since.

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