Page 58 of Hidden Heir, Italian Wife

It wasn’t any less devastating, though. It felt as though she was being torn in half.

Jax helped Sofia into the car and stayed on the tarmac as they drove away. Bree didn’t have to look back to see him watching them leave. She felt the force of his stare.

“What happened?” her mother asked gently.

Bree took a shaken breath, eyes welling with hopelessness. “He didn’t say it back.”

“Oh, my baby girl.” Melissa took her hand and squeezed it.

***

Jax was encased in ice as he flew the final leg to New York. Bree’s refusal to accompany him had been a slap in the face, but he hadn’t argued with her. Now that he knew how susceptible she was to him, he feared hurting her even more if she came with him, especially considering his reason for rushing to see Nico.

He hadn’t had the foresight to distance himself from those he cared about when he first tangled with Tucker. A painful sense of deprivation had accosted him the moment she had said she wouldn’t come with him, but he refused to draw them into the line of fire.

In the years immediately after Tucker’s departure to Brazil, the man’s family of lawyers, politicians, and media personalities had targeted the Visconti Group in that country. Romeo had sold off their properties in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro since they’d become less profitable anyway.

It had been a tactical error, essentially giving Dom and his father carte blanche with that territory. Christo had moved to Hawaii to oversee the Pacific Rim, including some highly successful properties in Peru, Chile, and the Patagonia region, but Dom had taken over the larger share of South America. It became another foothold to bolster his position against the Visconti Group after his father died. Jax still felt responsible for that.

Now he had a new weight on his conscience. It had taken time for Tucker to learn about his aunt being kicked out of Dom’s wedding reception and put his revenge into place, but he was here and he was out for blood.

It began as a whisper campaign that Eve was pregnant and it was the reason for her quick marriage to Dom. She and Dom shrugged that off.

“Time will tell,” Eve said, but it was still infuriating that she was being targeted when she’d done nothing to Tucker or Paloma or anyone.

Worse were the planted stories of bedbugs and food poisoning that began to surface online. They were false reviews, but were picked up by influencers and reported in other media. Those rumors would be costly to quash and were liable to persist for years.

Dom didn’t say anything about the strain on his family relationships, including his marriage, but this had to be difficult for him. That ate at Jax, too.

“What the hell do I do? Pistols at dawn?” Jax paced before Nico’s desk.

“We do what we’re already doing,” Nico said flatly.

They were calling in favors with broadcasters and countering the negative publicity with friendly celebrities and promotional packages. Even so, they were seeing record numbers of cancellations including two weddings and a charity gala.

Eve walked in without knocking, closed the door behind her, and declared, “That’sannoying.”

“What now?” Jax asked through his teeth.

“He got the Department of Justice to open an antitrust investigation into the merger of our two companies.”

“It’s an alignment,” Nico said in a beleaguered tone.

“That’s what I told legal. They advised we put things on hold while they figure out if they have a case. I’m preparing a statement to the team, offering full pay for a month and a warning they might be furloughed indefinitely.”

“Including Bree,” Jax said with a wince.

“Do you want to tell her before the memo goes out?”

Things between them had deteriorated. Two days ago, she’d called to ask with frustration, “Why am I hearing throughEvethat Tucker is there?”

“Because I don’t want you drawn into it.” He was embarrassed that he was still causing his family to suffer. Having his wife and child affected would be unbearable.

“Is it dangerous?” she asked with concern. “Are you worried he would come after me or Sofia?”

“No, I don’t have any reason to believe he’d resort to violence, especially when he’s being so careful to keep his fingerprints off these other actions.” Legal was looking into a defamation suit, but had little evidence to tie the unfounded reviews to Tucker. It was incredibly frustrating. “But he would take any chance to treat you the way Odelia did. I’d rather spare you that.”

“I don’t care about snide remarks. Do you want us to come to New York?”

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