Connor loves exactly two things in this world: power and Emma.
I couldn’t take his power without starting a war that would cost too many lives, but I could take Emma.
I could make him live with the terror of not knowing if he’d ever see her again.
Dante asked me that exact question about twenty minutes after we got Emma secured at the safe house, and I didn’t have a good answer then and I still don’t have a good answer now.
Do I keep her indefinitely? Eventually return her?
Use her as leverage for something else?
Kill her?
No. Again, that’s not happening.
I’m not that type of person, plus I do fear my mother on some level.
Gianna Santoro has very strong opinions about honor and innocence, and “I kidnapped her to hurt her father” would not qualify as an acceptable excuse in her book.
But keeping Emma here long-term isn’t sustainable either.
The longer this goes on, the more complications arise.
The Brennans are already threatening war.
The Lombardos are furious about their ruined wedding and alliance.
Every day Emma is here is another day Connor has to plan retaliation.
I should have thought this through better.
I should have had an exit strategy, an endgame, something beyond “make Connor suffer.”
But I was so focused on revenge and consumed by half a decade of grief and rage, that I didn’t think past the kidnapping itself.
Fuck.
My phone rings and I already know who it is before I check the screen.
Dante has called me six times in the last three days, each conversation some variation of “what the fuck are you doing” and “this is going to blow up in your face.”
I answer on the third ring. “I know what you’re going to say,” I tell him without bothering to say hello.
“Then you know you’re being an idiot.” Dante’s voice is clipped, which is the tone he uses when he’s trying very hard not to call me a fucking moron to my face. “Connor Brennan is losing his fucking mind. He’s called in every favor he has, contacted every family on the East Coast, and is currently threatening to wage war if we don’t return his daughter unharmed.”
I roll my eyes and lean back in my seat. “Let him threaten.”
“Leo.” Dante’s patience is clearly wearing thin. “The Lombardo family is also pissed. Tony Lombardo was supposed to marry Emma and seal an alliance that would have given the Brennans significant shipping advantages. That alliance is now dead, and the Lombardos are blaming us for the embarrassment.”
“The Lombardos can suck my?—”
“And,” Dante continues loudly, talking over me, “we’re getting pressure from our own allies who don’t understand why we’d risk a war over something that happened five years ago. They think we should return her, apologize, and try to smooth things over before this escalates further.”
I grip the phone harder, incensed. “They can think whatever they want. Emma Brennan stays here until I decide she doesn’t.”
There’s a long pause on the other end of the line.
When Dante speaks again, his voice is quieter, more concerned than angry. “What’s the endgame here, Leo? What are you actually planning to do with her?”