Aria trained with the best, and while my father was hard on me because I would one day inherit the empire, he was even harder on her because he knew what she would be up against one day. I hoped against all hope that she wouldn't choose this path, but Aria was determined, and my father could never say no to his little princess.
I just wished she behaved more like a princesssometimes and less like a little psycho, but I wouldn't change a single thing about her. My wishes had more to do with the fact that I didn't want to see her hurt rather than me being threatened by her power.
And Aria Moretti was powerful. Seeing this poor bastard and his reaction to her had confirmed everything I needed to know. Aria could take care of herself, and I was only stopping her from reaching her full potential.
"So," she stepped right in front of him, pressing the tip of her knife to his cheek. "Are you going to talk, my little mouse?"
"P-Please," he trembled. "I told you everything."
"See, now I know you're lying to me. And," she looked back at one of our soldiers. "Jake, what do I usually do with liars?"
Jake visibly shuddered, covering his crotch. "You cut off their balls, ma'am."
"Ding, ding, ding," Aria laughed. "That's the correct answer." She turned back toward the trembling man. "I'm only going to ask one more time, and that's it. What were you doing trying to enter our warehouse?"
Time seemed to slow down as he looked at her, and as Aria pressed harder with her knife, he finally openedhis mouth.
"It was a decoy," he whimpered. "A fucking decoy to get you all away from the house."
"The house?" I asked, moving toward them. "What house?"
It was as if he was finally seeing me, focusing on something other than Aria. And I hated the smug look on his face. I hated the fact that he knew something I didn't.
"Your house, Capo," he mocked. "Our boss had heard that your father is hiding there, and he wants to end this once and for all. He wants to kill you all for all those men of ours you have killed. He wants us to avenge Enzo."
"Enzo?" Aria asked. "What the fuck are you talking about?"
"He told us," the idiot laughed. "He told us you killed Enzo. He told us you started this and then your father faked his own death. We know it all and we're ready to die for his cause."
"Then you will die for nothing," I bit out. "Your boss," I mocked this time, "had killed our father."
"That's a lie!" The maniac started laughing. "But you're too late now. You're too fucking late."
"What do you mean?" It was Aria this time, pressing the blade of the knife to his throat. "Answer me!"
"They're already at the house with the boss," hegrinned. "And they're not leaving until everyone is dead."
My blood froze, and before Aria could even stab the knife through his neck, I was moving toward the exit, pulling my phone out and dialing Gio, who had stayed back at the house with Ajla.
No response.
No. Fucking. Response.
"Nico!" Aria called after me, but I couldn't slow down. "Wait up!"
She's all alone there. Yes, with Gio, but if the old Mancini had really lost his mind, he wouldn't bring just a couple of soldiers. He would bring an army, and the amount of our own security at the house wasn't enough to fight them off.
It wasn't enough.
"Jesus fuck, brother, slow down." Aria finally caught up with me, but when she stepped in front of me, when she saw my face, she quickly understood how serious the situation was. "What is it?"
"I have finally found her, Ari," I mumbled, dialing Gio again and again and fucking again, but still no response. "I found her and she's at the house and she?—"
"Hey, hey." She cut off my rambling and grabbed my bicep. "Slow down, big man. Who's there?Who's she?"
But I couldn't tell her. Not yet.
"I'll tell you all about her, but I need to get back to the house. I need to make sure she's safe."