Page 22 of Savage Claim

I glared at Damian over the rim of my whiskey. “Vaffanculo.”

“I’m just saying?—”

“Don’t,” I cut him off. “I don’t want to know whatever you’re ‘just going to say.’” I took a long sip from my glass, but where whiskey usually left a soothing warmth in my belly, now it burned like I’d swallowed battery acid.

“Enzo, she’s been through the ringer,” Damien continued, as if I hadn’t interrupted him at all.Fucker. “Her sister is nothing to anyone here.”

“That nothing could end up a liability to Isabella. I can’t have her putting herself in danger recklessly; her life is going to be hard enough being in the position that she’ll be in.” I wasn’t going to even entertain the idea that she wouldn’t give in to me eventually. I had no intention of ever letting her go.

Damian glanced away from whatever he was doing on the computer to look at me. “She’s not going to end up like Sienna if you ease up the reins a little bit.”

I stood, tired of his mouth, and to his credit, Damian didn’t flinch. He knew that I could smash his face to bits with my fist, but he refused to back down. I admired the man as much as I wanted to crack his skull open in that moment. “Enough.”

He hadn’t been appointed to myvicecapowithout cause: Damian knew when to push, but he knew when I’d had enough. He nodded and went back to his work. “I assigned the men to help ensure that our and my uncle’s shipments got to their destinations in one piece.”

“Good,” I said, glad for the change in topic. “What do you think about our hosting the annual meeting for the minor families?”

Damian’s jaw clenched. “I can’t tell you it’s a good idea, Enzo,” he said. “You’ve never been to one of those meetings, but I have. On a good year, it’s boring. A stuffy dinner filled with politicking and kissing ass to snag future favors.”

“And on a bad year?” I prompted when he went quiet.

“People die.”

I had heard that, of course, from my father. He had aggrieved families come to him after such meetings who wanted his help in avenging their lost loved one. He almost never obliged because what happened during those meetings weren’t his business. They had to solve those particular issues on their own. He advised me to do the same, but so far, I had never had to heed that advice.

“Your uncle wants me to put the minor families at ease by telling them that the rumors that I am engaged are untrue.”

Damian’s jaw clicked. “You didn’t tell him that they were.”

“I may not be engaged now, but I intend to remedy that.”Once Isabella comes to her senses.“Either way, that information needs to come from me directly.”

He agreed, even if he didn’t like it. Damian understood what I did about information: who controlled what others knew had the most power. Right now, we controlled the narrative about Isabella. That would all be ruined if anyone untrustworthy got a look at her before I had a chance to release the news myself. “I guess I need to get started on the event planning.”

“Get Carbone’s to cater it. Ask Amalia for recommendations for desserts.”

“You got it,” he hummed, fingers already flying over the keyboard. I was halfway out the door when Damian called me back. “Talk to Isabella,” he said. “She deserves to understand thewhyof things. She still may not like it, but at least, she won’t have it in her head that you’re just a heartless bastard trying to take away the only family she’s got.”

I didn’t say anything in reply, but it was a win that I didn’t break his nose, and we both knew it. I hadn’t planned on bothering Isabella until dinner, but Damian’s words wouldn’t leave me alone.

I found her at the piano, plucking out a thin melody on the keys. “I don’t want to talk to you right now,” she said without looking at me. “Go back to work.”

“Lunch break,” I said. “Have you eaten?”

She nodded but didn’t elaborate. Her fingers missed a note, and she swore out loud, backing up to pick up the key that she didn’t hit. When I didn’t leave, Isabella closed the lid over the keys with a loudthud. She pushed herself to her feet and tried to go around me, but I grabbed her arm. “Let go of me.”

I didn’t. “So, is this the only way to get your attention?” I asked. “You were just going to pretend I wasn’t there?”

If she could have set me ablaze with her eyes, I would have been a walking inferno. “Let go of me,now.”

“We have to talk.”

Isabella tried to yank herself out of my grip, but I held firm. “I’ll scream, Lorenzo, I swear to God.”

“To what end?” She deflated at that, and I was able to lead her over to the couch. We sat, but I still didn’t let go. I wasn’t going to let her squirm away from me. “Damian pointed out that I didn’t explain myself well enough before.”

Her face scrunched inward. “I don’t care what the explanation is,” she said after a moment. “You think that I have to give up my life outside the Cosa Nostra.”

“You would have to give up that life,” I agreed. “That’s the price of admission here.”

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