He chuckled as he shook my hand. “Oh no, I don’t hold that title any longer. Nico is fine.”
“Where are the children?” Leda asked as she came to stand beside me, tucking her arm into mine.
“We didn’t know what to expect,” the woman stated, holding out her hand. “Rory D’Agostino. Nice to meet you, I think.”
I liked her immediately. She was like Leda, no nonsense and not afraid to meet my eye. “Lucas,” I told took her hand. “Congratulations.”
Rory followed my gaze, and she smiled. “Oh! Thanks. I forget that I’m pregnant sometimes.”
“You forget?” Nico asked his wife, sliding his arm around her waist. “You remind me all the time that you are pregnant. How the fuck do you forget?”
She socked him in the shoulder. “Because I’ve forgotten what it feels likenotbeing pregnant. That’s what I meant.”
Leda’s hand tightened on my arm, and I looked down to find her watching her brother and sister-in-law with a soft expression on her face, full of love for them. Would we ever be like that?
Did I want that with her?
“Well,” Nico said after a moment, his wife pressed to his side. “Shall we get to business?”
“Let’s,” I answered, careful not to touch Leda in any way that would be perceived as her being my possession. I needed Nico to trust me, and claiming his sister wasn’t going to earn that trust.
Leda had different plans, though, and as soon as we moved inside, she brushed her lips over mine. “Rory and I are going to take a tour, guards included,” she answered as I tried to process what she was doing. “Please don’t kill my brother.”
“I heard that,” Nico mumbled. “We will be fine.”
“Go,” I told her softly. “Your brother is safe.”
She winked at me before linking arms with her sister-in-law, and they moved down the hallway, giggling as they did so.
“Tell me you have something to drink in here.”
I turned to Nico. “Plenty.”
Chapter 35
Lucas
It didn’t take us long to each have a glass of whiskey in our hands, Nico seated in one of the chairs before the desk. I opted to take the other, not wanting him to think I was trying to exert any sort of dominance over him, and after a long sip, he sighed. “Thank you for not harming my sister.”
I wasn’t expecting him to lead with that, but I gave him a nod all the same. “She’s safe with me.”
“She looks happy,” he remarked, tapping his finger on the glass. “And I would bet that you don’t usually walk around with a shit-eating grin that you are desperately trying to hide, do you, Lucas?”
Well, fuck. “Thank you for not bringing the cops with you,” I said instead, not wanting to discuss my relationship or my feelings with him.
“I’m a man of my word,” Nico replie. “Tell me what is happening with the Cavazzo Mafia then.”
I gave him the ten-minute rundown, watching as he frowned and then shook his head. “That fucker,” he said once I was done. “I hate those that betray others.”
“I still intend to take over the Cavazzo Mafia,” I told him. “It’s my right. Cosimo wanted me to be their leader, not Adrian.”
“Fair enough,” Nico replied. “Are you sure that’s whatyoutruly want?”
Surprised, I arched a brow. “What do you mean?”
He set his glass on the desk before us. “It’s clear that you have feelings for my sister. Hell, I had already considered giving up my birthright way before I had met Rory. But you are still at that crossroad, Lucas, one where you actually have a choice. You could walk away right now, let Adrian have the Mafia, and live a life, a good life with Leda.”
His words burned a hole inside of me. He wasn’t wrong.