Page 13 of The Lost Kings
I turned and raised my brow. “And you trust that?”
It was dangerous that the young head of the Adesso family was able to reach out in the first place, although I wouldn’t pretend to understand how vast or deep my uncle’s connections went. He’d worked in a few different crime families throughout his life and had made more allies and enemies than I cared to keep count of.
“I trust you. If you were to go into enemy territory, you’d be fine. You’ve been taught how to withstand whatever he throws at you. We need an ally, Presley, and he’s the most powerful one we could ever hope to get.”
I shook my head, unsure why my uncle was suddenly acting so stupid. “We can’t trust him, which means there’d be no alliance that we could create that would ever last.”
Scotty stared at me.
The silence grew and suddenly it clicked.
“You think I can win him over, make him like me.” My tone was unsure because of how embarrassed it made me feel to even say that out loud.
My uncle didn’t reply right away, but I knew that was his plan.
I ignored him, digging back into the rotted wood. Anger stirred like a dust storm in my chest, clogging my airways and tear ducts. Why did I have to be the one to clean this up? I knew I’d been training for it my whole life, but I signed up to shoot and kill whomever threatened our family. I never agreed to go play dress-up and smile at the enemy.
It only proved as a reminder of why the twins had been so upset that night when?—
“I’m not asking you to do anything that you don’t want to do. Maybe you go and you meet him and he’s not horrible. You inspire loyalty in people,lánya. Even if you merely become friends, that could ensure we have him as an ally.”
Friends.
Didn’t he realize that I was incapable of keeping those? My only friends left me. They abandoned me, and without so much as a goodbye.
I began focusing on the house once more, but the thought of doing this, of helping my father kept creeping back into focus. The longer we drew all this out, the less of my life I’d get to live. I had made a promise that I would help set things right and end the threats. Then I could have my farm and start my life.
I could get my dad an alliance and make sure he would be okay. I could help end this war that had been waging for all these years, and then I could settle down.
“Where is this guy?”
Scotty’s eyes flicked up while his dark brows rose. “Italy.”
Of course he was in Italy. I’d always expected to be sent away to fight for the family; I just assumed it would be with my gun, and maybe a knife at my rival’s throat. I didn’t think it would be to meet with the head of a family and play nice. “I will travel to Italy for one week, and only a week. One of those days I will meet with your guy. That’s all I’m offering.”
“Fine. Would you like to take any backup with you?”
I assumed he meant his dog Reaper but was shocked when I sawhim pull up his phone and show me the string of texts. A vine on envy and malice twisted around my heart and squeezed.
They were texts from the twins…and they were meant for me.
My voice was so small as it squeezed past my lips. “How come those are going to your phone?”
They’d been texting me.
All these months, they’d been reaching out, and I hadn’t known.
Scotty acted blasé, as if this wasn’t earth-shattering information. “I had our tech guy set it up…whenever they text you, it forwards to me. Same with calls. The only thing I can’t control is if they find you on social media.”
I wasn’t on social media.
My uncle had been doing things like this my entire life, so it shouldn’t have been a surprise. I shouldn’t have felt the bone-deep pain of betrayal scraping along my veins, reminding me that this man who had a hand in raising me would never hesitate to ignore how badly my heart would take the hit. “Scotty, what the fuck?”
He shrugged and pocketed his phone. “They were a weakness, and you needed the time to get past your infatuation with them.”
My chest felt like it had caught fire with how easily he’d dismissed what I had felt for them, and how he acted like he had any real clue how deep it went. “I wasn’t infatu?—”
He scoffed and spun around, about to leave. “You forget that I have eyes everywhere,lánya.”
