Page 206 of Money Reigns
He cuts in, voice iron steady. “I’ll level with you. How long did you plan on paying off the Amatos for us? A year at a time? Forever? For as long as you and Olivia stayed together?”
The name slams into me like a freight train.The Amatos?
My grip tightens. “The Amatos are who you pay for the Inn?”
“You didn’t know?” Logan’s voice is flat, edged with disbelief.
“No.” My pulse spikes. “How?How the hell didyour familyget tangled with them?”
“It’s been generations,” he says. “Ronnie is who we deal with. He takes quarterly payments. They used to usethe place as a hideout back in the day. Now it’s our curse, passed down. Always has been.”
My chest hammers.That’s why Olivia was secretive. That’s why she hid it. She knows how I feel about the Amatos.
“I’ll handle it,” I snap, cutting him off. I hang up before he can say another word.
The silence after the call feels heavier.
I start listing my options.
Call my lawyer?
A lawyer against the mob? What the fuck would I even do with that? Draft a contract that sayslet my fiancée’s family go?They’d laugh me out of the room.
A harsh breath tears out of me.Fiancée. I never even got to ask her. Never put the ring on her finger. She just… left.
The memory slices through me. She was hesitant sometimes, just a flicker, quick, like she didn’t quite trust the ground under her feet. I told myself it was nerves, told myself she’d settle into me, into us.
She listened so well. Alwaysso fucking goodfor me. But maybe… maybe she only listened because I forced it. Maybe she didn’t really want any of it.
The thought rips at me, jagged, unbearable. I shake my head hard, rejecting it. No. That’s not true. She wanted me.She was mine.
Was.
I grip the edge of the desk until my knuckles go white. There’s only one way to handle this.
In person.
But which Amato?
My stomach turns, fury and disgust burning up my throat. I don’t want to deal with either fucker.
Both brothers are pieces of shit.
But if Olivia’s family is tied to them, if they’re the reason she slipped through my fingers—
Then I’ll face whichever bastard I have to.
Chapter forty-three
War
Ihate walking into NovaRael.
Outside, it’s freezing. Inside, it’s worse.
Santo Amato’s technological empire. Bought with a marriage contract like it was still the fucking Middle Ages.
How archaic.
