Page 70 of Broken Mafia Prince
“I have to go,” I tell Serena.
She raises an eyebrow. “Performance anxiety? Don’t worry, I can get you up if you want.”
“I’ll call you sometime.” I step forward, brush a kiss against her temple, and hightail it out of the room. My shoulders are tight with frustration, and I’m furious.
I don’t know what she’s done to me, but whatever it is, I need to cure myself of it. The first step to doing that is getting to the bottom of this thing with my father and the Syndicate. I need to find a way to expose the fact that the Syndicate is playing us all like pawns on their master board, and our fathers are blindly playing along.
I know what I’m about to do is dangerous. They’ll never let me get away with exposing them like that. Whatever their plot is, they’ll never let anyone stand in their way. Which means if I’m going to do this, I have to find a way to do it while still keeping her safe.
I drag both hands through my hair and raise my face to the sky outside the club, feeling like my entire anatomy has been rearranged. How have I gone from only caring about my survival in this world to caring about hers, too?
I shouldn’t care about her at all. I really fucking shouldn’t.
And yet, I do.
23
GIULIA
I’m not wearing lipstick for him.
I’m wearing lipstick because I want to. It has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I’m going to see Raffaele. I’d never make such an effort for him. I’m not trying to catch his interest or get kissed again or anything. That would be crazy.
The only reason I’ve agreed to see him again is because I need him to get to the bottom of all this and make it out alive. I’m only following Isa’s advice to use him. That’s all.
Say it with a little more conviction this time, a voice in my head taunts.
“Shut up,” I hiss.
“Who are you talking to?” a deep voice asks.
I let out a startled squeal, jumping a foot into the air and whirling around to see Raffaele peeling out of a dark corner of the warehouse.
“What do you think you’re doing?” I snap at him. “You almost gave me a heart attack!”
He glances over my shoulder before his eyes meet mine. “Who were you talking to?”
“That’s none of your business.” Heat rises to my cheeks, and I cross my arms over my chest, staring him down with annoyance.
His mouth quirks up at one corner, and he hums. “It’s my business to know if you’ve brought someone else along for our private rendezvous or if you have a microphone on you and someone is listening in.”
I roll my eyes. “This isn’t a James Bond movie. Stop being so paranoid.”
Too fast for me to sidestep the move, his hand flies out and grips my arm, dragging me into his body. I gasp as I’m pressed against his hard body.
“You think this is a joke, Giulia?” he hisses. “The Echelon Syndicate doesn’t fuck around, and they won’t hesitate to end every single last one.”
I swallow nervously, my stomach clenching. “I know that.”
“Do you?” He scoffs, eyes searching mine. “This isn’t a game. I called you here to talk to you because I don’t know if I can trust any other Montanari. Our fathers don’t want to listen to the voice of reason, so it’s up to us to protect our legacies. We have to fight for our futures.”
“How?” I ask the million-dollar question.
Raffaele lets me go and steps away, and I find myself missing the innocent contact. I resist the urge to rub my hands over the spot on my arm where it feels like he’s left a handprint on me.
His jaw clenches, anger sparking in his eyes. “My father is collaborating with the Syndicate. They’ve promised him an immense amount of power and control of major cities, and all he has to do for it is raze your family to the ground.”
My jaw drops open, and I stare at him in horror. Of all things I expected to hear when he called me out here, I never thought I’d be hearing that Edoardo Gagliardi is so desperate for our blood that he’s gone into an alliance with the evilest group in the world.
