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He shakes his head. “A prayer, probably.”
“Please don’t.”
“I won’t. Under one condition.”
Drago quiets. I’m waiting.
“You give her your life,” Corrado says.
“Severio will not allow it,” Drago answers.
“Severio is not holding a gun to your head, is he now? My wife saved your life.”
“Severio ordered me to program the 911 trigger into her phone.”
Corrado doesn’t seem surprised that his brother ordered this.
“Why did you save me, then?” I ask.
Drago looks at me for the first time since he recovered from drowning. “Because Corrado might’ve come to harm.”
I huff. “What a gentleman.”
Corrado chuckles. “See why I’m not psycho? You think he gives a shit about you? He doesn’t. He’s a soldier executing orders. Which is why he must die.”
“Take the offered life,” I say to Drago. When Drago shakes his head, I push on. “I forgive you. Just take the life, and we’ll sort it out later.”
“Fuck, Michela,” Corrado says. “He’s Severio’s hit man. The finest in the world.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me. A hit man? Like a serial killer?”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Drago drawls. “The family gives me names, and I check them off my list.”
“I’m family, aren’t I?” I look at Corrado.
Clearly taken aback, Corrado pauses, then nods. “You are my wife.”
“Then I have leverage. As a family member, I should have leverage.”
Corrado runs a hand through his hair, then walks away.
I’m left with Drago, who stands and pats my head. “You’ll get used to it.”
Get used to what?
41
LITTLE CHAT WITH MY BROTHER
CORRADO
Drago disappears while Michela retreats into the bedroom. I wait a few more hours for Severio to wake up and receive Drago’s incident report, which will prompt him to call me while he’s still running on the treadmill. He won’t wait until he gets into the office because he knows if he waits, I’ll make a move he might not like.
If there’s anything Severio loves more than me and my sister, our money and our Order, it’s power and control. When situations like this one threaten to tip the power in my favor, Severio’s feathers are ruffled.
Usually, I give in to his demands because I don’t care enough to disrupt our family dynamics. This is different. He almost killed my wife. Fake wife or real, he crossed the line when he didn’t tell me about the trigger he put in her phone.
When Severio and I come to a crossroads, the resulting clash is a threat to the harmony of our kingdom, never more so than now. While I’d probably react the same way if he shacked up with a bird nobody knew anything about, that’s neither here nor there right now.
