Page 35 of Savage Enemy

New York families controlled all East Coast shipping. The families would rather slit every throat in the city before sharing lucrative Asian trade routes with outsiders like Moscatelli.

“What was in it for the Russians?” I asked.

“I believe Moscatelli was gonna help them with new transport lines moving south and west into Texas and Mexico. But the deal was broken the day of the wedding. When…”

He hesitated, then took a seat.

“When Valentina died.”

I blinked at him. I had to have heard him wrong, or maybe he’d misspoken.

“What did you say?”

Tony nodded. “Yeah, big story at the time. She was on her way to the church when someone hit the car on one of the bridges. The vehicle went into the river. When they recovered a female body, everyone assumed it was her.”

I understood Tony’s words, but the story didn’t make sense.

I looked at my son, his expression unmoved, as if he knew the story. This boy knew much more than his mother realized.

“What do you mean ‘everyone assumed it was her,’ Tony? There must be more to it than that.”

“No positive ID on record, boss. Authorities must have been paid off.”

“By whom? Are you saying she faked her death? And how the hell did she end up in New York?”

He shrugged. “It was eleven years ago. Had to be someone inside Moscatelli’s organization helping her, then she skipped town. It’s genius, really. Her family was too fucking dumb to look here in New York. Even if they wanted to, they would’ve had to risk their own lives for breaking the treaty.”

It all made perfect sense and still confused the hell out of me at the same time. So the sons of bitches would break the treaty now, eleven years later, to get her back?

“I agree. Coming here was a smart move, or it would have been had she told me the truth.”

Damn her. My beautiful little devil. So smart…

And stupid.

Still, Val had to be desperate enough to fake her death. Had to have known about Klimov, that she should fear for her life, which actually surprised me.

Princesses were usually kept in the dark.

Now I understood her panicked fury over our engagement announcement and why she left me in the first place.

If I had introduced her to my family, my father would have found out about hers. He would have dug into her background, and he would have sent her back to Chicago.

Val had known about the hatred between our families, that my father would return her to avoid a costly war, and she knew enough to keep herself out of Klimov’s hands.

Enzo’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts.

“Do you know where she is?”

I met his stare.

“Her father took her to Chicago. You said your mother had secrets. Secrets that weren’t yours to share, remember?”

He nodded.

“Now is the time, Enzo. I need to know everything.”

My son folded his arms.

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