Nico (Ruin & Revenge #1)(66)
He heard the bolt slide and chains rattle. The door opened and he pushed his way through with Luca and Frankie behind him. “Let’s go. If I could find you, your father won’t be far behind.” He spun around, startled when he saw her gun. If he’d expected a broken, tearful, terrified woman, he was sorely mistaken. He had come to rescue a kitten and found a tiger instead.
“Put that away.” He waved a dismissive hand. “We have to leave right now.”
“Jules called and told me you were coming. Get out.” She backed up, pushing a girl behind her. Taller than Mia, and slim, she shared Mia’s long dark hair and dark eyes, but her face was more oval than heart-shaped, and she wore light, floaty clothes covered in flowers, a decided contrast to Mia’s black outfit—all leather, chains, and laces.
“We don’t have time for this,” he said impatiently. “I’m here to help.” Nico scraped a hand through his hair. It had taken all day to track them down using his network of contacts and calling in favors.
“Come.” He gestured again to the door, and Mia shook her head.
“Thanks for the effort, but I’m not going with you. I’m done with the mob. This is a family matter, and I’ll deal with it my own way.”
Damn stubborn woman. “You asked for my help,” he gritted out. “I’m giving it to you.”
“I asked, and you refused. I realize now I didn’t need your help. We’ll be fine on our own. I hacked my father’s phone. I’ll be able to track them and keep us safe.”
Cristo mio. “I came to marry you, Mia. You can’t get safer than that.” Once he had the marriage certificate, he would use the threat of the alliance to oust Tony. He would take over as boss of the family, get close to Don Cordano and whack the fucking bastard. He figured Mia would no longer have any objections. Although, he didn’t know what Don Cordano had done to her sister, it was bad enough that she had thought to offer herself up to him as a mob wife to save her, and when he refused, to take her sister and go on the run.
After Don Cordano was out of the way, Nico would make Dante the notional head of the Cordano side of the family, cement the alliance, and Mia and her sister would be protected. Everyone would live happily ever after. Aside from the Scozzari family agreement, which he had yet to address, and the small matter of a few grumblings from New York, it was the perfect plan.
“Married?” Her beautiful face twisted in a scowl. “I’m running away because I don’t want to be married to the mob. Maybe you didn’t pick that up when you mentioned you were engaged.”
Nico frowned. Obviously the engagement was no longer an issue since he was here offering to marry her. He was a good-looking man. Fit. Wealthy. Powerful. Very skilled in bed. He hadn’t expected her to find the idea quite so distasteful, especially since she had come up with it in the first place. “It’s the only way. We’re not strangers, bella. You’re not an unattractive woman so it’s no hardship for me. And we get on fine.”
“I’m not unattractive? We get on fine?” She threw the words back at him, her voice rising in pitch. Sensing a heaping dose of disrespect coming his way, Nico ushered everyone out of the room with instructions to take Kat to his Escalade and guard her until he and Mia were ready to go.
“Those aren’t reasons to get married,” Mia snapped, after the door closed. “And what about the part where you told me you were engaged? All this time you’ve been lying to me, leading me on.”
Dammit. How could he get through to her? “Your alternative is getting married to a man who means to break you, who will take everything you own, and destroy everything you are, a man who plans to start a war with all the families in the city. Dozens of lives will be lost.”
“Or I could run away with Kat.” She put her hands on her hips, clearly not appreciating the gravity of the situation. “And then I can hack into all his accounts, and destroy him financially. He’ll be too busy worrying about his money to come after us.”
Nico closed the distance between them. “Mi bella,” he said softly. “We still deal in cash for that very reason. Your father is desperate for an alliance, and you and your sister are his best way of securing one. He will not let you go easily. You will always be looking over your shoulder. But I can keep you safe.” He reached for her, and Mia slapped his hand away.
“I don’t trust you anymore, Nico. I’d rather take my chances on the run than forever with you.”
“If a divorce is what you want, and the time is right, I will be willing to break with tradition and petition the New York bosses to let you go.” It was an easy promise to make because he knew they would never say yes, but he could see in her eyes that it was a deal breaker, and if he’d learned anything in this life, it was how to close a deal.
“Let me go?” Her eyes flashed, and despite her bitterness, it just made him want her even more.
“It is the man’s prerogative.”
She bristled at his words. “And that right there is the problem.”
“Would it help if I told you I have never met or spoken to the woman I am engaged to? That my father arranged the marriage when I was six years old? I have been in touch with the family only sporadically over the years. But she means nothing to me save for an alliance that I would need only if you marry Tony.”