Page 57 of Legacy

“What about them? They are going as planned.” I knew because my men kept me informed every day.

He smirked, scrunching his face. “Thought you were off honeymooning and fucking your new wife. Too busy to stay in the loop.”

I held in my irritation at his vulgar reference to Avra. My protectiveness for her would give the fucker ammunition.

“I’m always working. One of us has to keep operations going,” I stated without inflection.

He narrowed his gaze, leaning forward in his chair, and tossed a pen on his desktop. “Well, things would be different if they were willing to work with someone other than you. They’re not interested in meeting with me.”

“You tried to meet with them?” I couldn’t hide my irritation. “Why the hell would you do that? They made it clear I was their point person. Do you want to fuck this deal up?”

The need to strangle him with my bare hands pulsed in my veins. Nearly a year of work would fall down the drain with this idiot’s antics.

Ozias snarled as if his anger had any effect on me. “I thought you’d be too busy having your dick sucked by your new wife. I reached out, and they fucking shot my offer to talk down.”

One more disrespectful comment about Avra, and father or not, I would punch him in the face.

“Why are you getting involved now? This isn’t your negotiation.”

He scowled. “I have a right to be involved. Plus, I don’t like how they operate. Deals are made based on the level of power structure.”

I furrowed my brow, suspicious of his wording.

“Then what are you complaining about? You need to sit back and let me do the work. As with the Italians, the father is the figurehead. The son runs things. Don’t fuck with the process.”

Ozias gritted his teeth as the jab hit his ego directly.

I waited for him to argue, but he knew he couldn’t. All the families in the territory knew the truth. Even his cronies were aware of how things worked with the Xenos Empire.

Ozias sat on his throne because of me. If I walked away, it would all fall.

I intended the jab to burn.

Ozias mumbled something, dropping his glare to his desk. Then, a calculating gleam entered his gaze right before he switched subjects. “Your marriage to Avra puts us in a better position in the hierarchy. Her family’s power might have dissipated, but Vitalis’s influence didn’t just vanish.”

I stiffened. What the fuck was Ozias doing? And what the hell did he mean by that? Shifting from the Italians to Avra meant he planned to strike at me somehow.

I saw it in his focus. And the way the hair on the back of my neck prickled, I prepared myself. I held my temper in check, refusing to give him any reactions.

“What do you mean by that statement?” I asked in thecoldest voice I could muster. “Wasn’t the plan for me to marry her to legitimize the territories?”

Deep inside, my temper flared, building with it a rage demanding that I stalk up to him and pound my fist into his face until he revealed what the fuck he was up to.

He nodded. “That was part of it.”

He continued to watch me, cocking his head to the side.

“And the rest?” I asked, lifting a brow, aiming at boredom but feeling anything but.

A sea of emotions churned inside me, all telling me he aimed to hurt Avra. I saw it in his demeanor and the calculated confidence written all over his face.

I refused to give him the slightest inkling of what Avra meant to me.

He’d used Mama against me. I would kill him before he touched another woman in my life.

He smiled, smug and sure of himself, as he steepled his fingers and pressed them to his lips. “I’ll reveal the answer to that at the right time.”

You fucking asshole.

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