Page 111 of Ruthless God

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

“They never came back to Chicago after the wedding. It seemed they had packed up a lot of their things for their trip to New York. Their house is nearly empty, and most of the servants had been dismissed beforehand.”

“He knew he couldn’t come back,” I said. “Even if I hadn’t shown up with Elio, word would have gotten back to Emilio in some way that Andre and a group of Emilio’s men had betrayed him.”

Valentino scoffed through the line. “They think with the Bratva’s backing, they can overthrow Emilio from his throne.”

And that would be a stupid,deadlymistake on their part.

“Emilio had agreed to give us backing should we get into a full-out war with the Bratva,” Valentino said.

“He’s only doing that because he knew he’d need our help should the Bratva and Andre turn against him.”

Valentino chuckled. “True. What should I tell him?”

“Tell him I would appreciate the help should the time come.”

“Got it,” Valentino said. I hung up the phone and looked back to the front door, letting out a small sigh.

The house wasn’t quiet when I walked in.

Not how it used to be.

I could hear a woman crying. Anger fisted at my heart. If Lina had already made Luna cry, that bitch was gone.

I rushed to the living room where the sound was coming from, pulling to a stop when I realized it wasn’t Luna crying, but Lina.

Annoyance stabbed at me from the sound. I moved to turn, afraid Luna might have seen me and would ask me to help comfort her sister, but it was too late.

“Massimo,” Luna called out.

I paused, closing my eyes and praying for patience to a God I didn’t believe in.

I turned around to see Luna standing up and making her way over to me.

Lina was watching us with red-rimmed eyes.

“You’re home,” Luna said, grabbing my hand. And like every time she touched me, I could feel electricity jolt throughout my body.

She looked at me with guilty eyes. “Can I talk to you?”

I raised one eyebrow at the statement. “You could have talked to me this afternoon,principessa, when you decided to go on your little adventure.”

She bit her bottom lip nervously. I pulled it away with my thumb, running the pad of my finger over the plumpness of it and taking in her face. My heart pinched.

Fuck, but what was I supposed to do with her?

“Come on,” I said, grabbing her hand and leading her out of there, away from Lina’s imposing gaze.

We came to a stop in the kitchen. I turned around and grabbed her hips, lifting her up on the counter and crawling in between her legs. “Talk, baby.”

“Massimo,” she mumbled. “How am I supposed to talk like this?”

I shot her a half-smile. “You’ll figure it out. But I’m not having this conversation without touching you in some way.”

Fuck, but my knees still felt weak over the thought of anything happening to her.

I ran the tip of my nose over the side of her face. She let out a stuttered breath, drawing a smile from me.

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