Page 100 of Accidental Alliance

“Consider it done.”

19

ISABELLA

We work through the morning and into the afternoon.

At first, I tell myself I am only listening to absorb the details Davide lays out.

There is no sense in overstepping and taking control of a plan when I do not yet know where the mess lies, which men have betrayed him, and which parts of his territory have already changed hands.

I write everything down because my hands need something to do. If I stop moving them, I might reach for Matteo even though he is sitting only a few feet away, curled against the side of the couch with a tablet balanced in his lap.

One of Davide’s men brought it to him after breakfast, along with headphones and a soft blanket folded over his lap.

It comforts me just a little to see him being taken care of.

However, what doesn’t is that the longer Davide talks, the less I can pretend the old rhythm does not come back to me. By the time his second cup of coffee has gone cold beside him, I am no longer simply taking notes.

I am moving pieces across the board in my head. I am already seeing which men will fold under pressure and which will bend beneath money and who will smile while selling both sides to the same bidder.

The realization makes my stomach twist because it feels too natural to fall into these old habits.

For years I tried to convince myself that whatever my father taught me had died with Isabella Russo. Apparently, sometimes, those traits simply hibernate, patient as winter, until the world demands for them to rise again.

Davide leans back into the couch, his expression tight from fatigue and restrained fury. “The Contis are the ones who have been pushing their way into my territory. I am unsure when they began to view my syndicate as their enemy. But over the last two years, I have been doing everything I can to stop their advancement.”

Even though I knew it was coming, my hand tightens around the pen, hard enough that the plastic creaks softly between my fingers.

Vittorio Conti has always been dangerous. I knew that even when I was still a girl listening from the shadows of my father’s study.

He trusted few people fully, but there was a special kind of stillness that washed over him whenever Vittorio’s name came up in conversation. On the outside, they were allies working toward a common goal. But behind closed doors, my father always told a different story.

Vittorio, he once told me, is not the type to betray you to your face. He will do so with a smile on his face and an arm behind his back. When he reaches for you with that hand, it will not be for a handshake.

I was sixteen when he said that, old enough to understand what he was implying and also too young to understand the depth and gravity behind his words. I had been under the delusional impression that our family could never be on the receiving end of the Contis’ desire for infinite expansion.

Now I know firsthand how naive I had truly been back then.

“I doubt they see you as an enemy,” I say.

Davide’s brows draw together.

I force my grip on the pen to loosen before it snaps in my hand and betrays more than I want him to see. “I would wager they are viewing this as an expansion opportunity rather than punishing your syndicate for something.”

A complicated look passes over his face. Not surprise, exactly, more like something he did not want confirmed and now has no choice but to accept. I do not blame him for feeling troubled.

If there is one thing to worry about in a situation like this, it is unpredictability. If something had happened to give the Contis reason to incite violence against the Bianchis, then at least their actions would have merit.

Not moral merit, of course. A strategic one.

That kind of violence can be negotiated because it wants something specific, whether that be payment with money, blood, or an apology for whatever slight has been deemed worthy enough to burn bridges.

But expansion?

That is a hunger that does not negotiate with the hand it intends to bite.

Davide sits forward slowly, elbows resting on his knees. “You think this is ambition.”