Page 27 of Wrathful King
“Dante, put the gun down,” I told him calmly.
“Are you sure Hana would betray you?” Romero questioned, mirroring my own doubts. Something didn’t feel right. Something I was missing. “She might betray the Omertà, but you and Dante…” He shook his head. “I don’t know why she would risk you after hiding your identity for years. You’re her golden egg.” Romero’s eyes fell to the pendant I twisted between my fingers. “Where—?” He swallowed. “Reina never takes that damn necklace off.” He was right; she didn’t. I’d always wondered why he let her continue to wear it.
Romero said flatly, “It was Hana’s.” His eyes were glued to the necklace. “I don’t know how my wife got her hands on it, but Reina convinced herself it was Grace’s and refused to part with it.”
My mother’s betrayal.The secrets she’d kept from me for the past two decades weren’t doing her any favors.
The timing of everything that transpired didn’t line up. Or maybe I should say, it all lined up too well.
I returned my attention to the group. “We’ll get confirmation whether she’s involved or not. Right now, we need a plan on how to get Reina out of Perez’s clutches. Then we look for Phoenix. While we’re in Brazil, Romero can touch base with her grandma again.”
Romero nodded and I met Kian’s eyes, knowing he was our best bet of getting into Brazil.
“Be prepared to find a different woman,” he stated, his expression darkening. It spoke of the ghosts he’d seen. “Reina’s my brother’s prize. That never bodes well for any woman.”
“How bad?” Romero asked, his voice cracking.
“My brother is a sick son of a bitch. He enjoys breaking his women,” Kian declared. Romero’s façade slipped. “There’s a reason he refuses to give up human trafficking. It gives him control and access to women he likes to toy with. And they all have one thing in common.”
My heart pounded against my rib cage. The bars of my cage rattled and threatened to drag me under.
“Which is?” I said, but I knew the answer. I knew it in the pit of my stomach. It was the reason they never backed off from Reina.
“Blonde hair, blue eyes,” Romero answered in Kian’s stead. “The fact she’s an illegitimate mafia princess of an enemy is an added bonus.”
Kian nodded his head. “Angelo Leone used to be knee-deep in the auctions until he himself had an illegitimate daughter.”
“I feel like I’m in a soap opera and there is a major love triangle going on,” Darius remarked dryly. “So, to summarize it, Amon is Tomaso Romero’s. Phoenix is illegitimate because the annulment of his marriage to Amon’s mother never came through. Who’s Reina’s father, or did I miss that part?”
Everyone’s eyes landed on me. Fuck, we didn’t have time for this.
“None of your business,” Romero answered before I could. Everyone’s eyes whipped to Romero’s. It felt like watching a tennis match, tracking the ball left and right between each new speaker, each with a more shocking tale to tell. To everyone’s credit, they kept their reactions masked. “All that matters is that Amon is my son and I want all three of my children, Reina included, safe and sound.”
“That makes him your heir,” Illias pointed out. “In the eyes of the Omertà, Amon is your heir. Line it up before your dying breath.”
“That he is, but I want his assurances that he’ll protectbothmy daughters. I don’t give a shit about their illegitimate status. I don’t care whose blood runs through Reina’s veins. She’s mine.”
And just like that, Romero earned my respect.
“You have my word, but right now, the only thing I care about is getting my wife out of that psychopath’s hands. Now, let’s get on to it.”
We all shifted our attention to Kian.
“The moment my brother gets an alert of our presence, he’ll end her,” Kian warned. “He’d rather kill her than let anyone have her. He’s always been like that, and the years have only made him crazier.”
“What’s his deal with blonde hair and blue eyes?” Dante questioned. “We found a warehouse full of trafficked women—all dead—who might as well have been replicas of Reina.”
A muscle worked in Kian’s jaw. “My brother is Hitler reincarnated, or at least believes himself to be. He believes the Aryan race is superior, the way of the future. He got pulled into some fanatic, cult-like group and never came out of it.” With every passing second, the impatience was suffocating me. I hadn’t seen her in a whole month. I needed her back in my arms. “Perez is a depraved lunatic, and he found plenty more lunatics to join his cause.” Kian’s eyes locked on me, then on Romero. “Death is a kindness when Perez gets his hands on you. He thrives on degradation and exploitation.”
“The sick son of a bitch,” Dante said through clenched teeth.
“Don’t I know it.” Kian shook his head, as if chasing his ghosts. “The Leone family became a target the day Angelo broke his business arrangement with Perez. Reina being his daughter was the easiest retribution.”
“How would Perez Cortes know?” Romero questioned. “I didn’t even know she was his daughter.”
“Someone did,” Dante said, flipping his knife back and forth. “It couldn’t have been Father, since he thought Phoenix was his, not Reina.”
Dante’s words sunk into me, spreading like poison.
