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Someone chuckles lowly. I think it’s Adrian but I don’t turn to look.
“I know, which is why I propose we marry you off as soon as possible to the next available man.”
“Who?” I ask curiously.
She stares meaningfully behind me and I whirl around and find Adrian with his eyebrows raised.
“Are you kidding me? Him?” I question.
“Way to make a man feel special, Lucia. Thanks,” he grumbles.
“No offence, Adrian, I think you’re amazing. But marrying him would probably be worse than marrying Volkov.”
“Hey! I have feelings, you know,” he complains.
“I don’t mean it in a mean way. I just mean you’re more of a brother to me than anything else. It would be weird.”
“Agreed. Terrible plan, Rory. But I’ve got a couple candidates on retainer for her to choose from if we decide to go this route,” he suggests.
Nico, who had been otherwise silent, shakes his head firmly.
“Unfortunately, that’s not going to work. If you get married behind Volkov’s back, after he’s publicly made a claim on you, we wouldn’t be able to avoid bloodshed.”
“So you’re saying this war is happening no matter what,” Aurora says disappointedly.
No one says anything to the contrary. I stay silent, the pit in my stomach growing with every minute that passes.
“Right. As my wife as previously stated, we’re not agreeing to Volkov’s demand. However, he’s not a man to be trifled with. His reputation precedes him, as I’m sure most of us in this room are aware. He has enough money and resources to pursue a fight with us. And that’s not to mention the might of the Bratva behind him.”
“We can take him,” Camila says confidently.
I feel a swirl of warmth at that. Camila used to be close to my sister and me when we were growing up. She practically adopted us as sisters of her own. She even took me to my first party, a fact that she’s made me swear to secrecy.
“I would have preferred if this issue could have been solved without going a violent route,” Nico states, his gaze sliding over to Camila’s husband.
Lukas meets his gaze with a blank one of his own. “I told you. Mr. Volkov has no weak points you can take advantage of.”
“Everyone has weak points. You’re just too far up his ass to tell us his,” Adrian says.
He and Lukas decidedly don’t get along.
“Cool it, Rossi,” Camila snaps.
He crosses his arms before looking away. There’s a certain tension surrounding him and he keeps glancing at me like he has something to say. I arch an eyebrow, trying to catch his eye, but he simply shakes his head.
“Anyway, we’re going to wait for him to make the first move. I still don’t want to believe he’s going to risk losing everything over something as trivial as this. If he does come after us, we’ll fight back. On that note, I’m making arrangements for Lucia and Aurora to leave the country with Alejandro. You’ll be going to Milan.”
My mouth drops open, and from the way Aurora falls still beside me, she wasn’t expecting it either.
“You can’t be serious,” she exclaims.
He fixes her with a cool look. “Did you really think I’d let you stay in this city with our baby during a war? What if you get caught in the crossfire?”
“I’m not leaving you,” Aurora states.
Nico huffs out a breath. “We’ll discuss this later.”
“We’ll talk about it now,” she says, standing up.
