His Stolen Princess - MINK Page 0,31

it out yet?” He leans down over me. “I’m Antony Lantino. The son and heir to everything my father built. And I’m here to claim it.” His gaze flicks down my body. “To take everything I’m owed.”

I clench my jaw as I start to see red. Now I know why he looks familiar. He has his father’s eyes. Black with no soul behind them.

“You killed my family.”

He smiles, almost looking gleeful about it. “Cato killed my father and brother.”

I’m sure it was a slow painful death. I’m sorry I missed it. “That was after your family killed mine. My mother did you no wrong. And you killed her.” I can’t keep the tremble out of my voice. “And Carter? Was it you?”

He shrugs. “It had to be done.”

It’s like another gut punch, one that knocks the wind from me.

“I tried to talk him into seeing things my way. But both your parents and Cato’s bastard father agreed to a union that would make the Davincis unstoppable, and Carter refused to listen to reason.”

“What does that mean?” I have a feeling I already know.

“They were going to give you to Cato. The Simonettis and the Davincis. It would bind you by blood. We couldn’t let that happen.”

Still, somehow I ended up with Cato. Or maybe he knew the whole time? He took me to honor his word to his father. More tears spill free. Thinking Cato is only with me to uphold his father’s bargain is a dagger to my soul. It had felt so real. I’d planned to break his heart but instead he broke mine.

“Those Davincis are always snatching up pretty wives. As if they own all the good pussy in the world.” He shakes his head and stands back up. “Take her to my room. We’re going to have a little fun.”

I scream when Nico grabs me by my hair and pulls me to my feet. My whole body goes numb before a loud boom shakes the whole house. The window shatters into a million pieces.

“Cato’s here,” I whisper.

“How did they find us?” He shouts and runs over to his desk to pull out a gun. He’ll need a lot more than that to stop Cato.

This time it’s me who gets to give the wicked smile.

18

Cato

The once-resplendent villa crumbles along the edges, and warning signs are posted along the cliff road of the danger from collapse.

I ignore those warnings as I speed along the winding lane, my headlights off, my car giving off nothing more than a low purr as I approach.

When I’m close enough to the estate, I park and jump from my car, then skirt the rusted iron fence along the side until I find a tree close enough to scale. Once I’m up and over, I creep through the cypresses while the cicadas sing overhead.

The house is mostly dark except for the office and a few rooms upstairs. But I’m no fool. They expect me to come for her. How could they not?

I creep closer and find a guard at the edge of the swimming pool, its water green and fetid as a large crack runs between it and the house. It’s on the verge of falling into the sea below just like everything else on this precarious perch.

The guard takes a few steps toward the pool, and I creep up behind him and slit his throat. He doesn’t make a sound as I pull him behind a tangle of roses, the unkempt bushes thick and wild.

I creep closer, then drop low and pull two grenades from my pack. Pulling the pins, I toss them into the crack beside the pool, then take off at a run into the cypresses along the front of the house.

The boom shatters the night, silences the cicadas, and sends up a plume of smoke and debris. I still behind a tree and pull my rifle around to my front as several men run from the house to check the noise.

Once a contingent of them passes, I rush through the night and steal into the kitchen. It’s filthy, a few old meals still sitting half-eaten on the counter. I find another guard, and he sees me at the same time. He starts to yell and raise his pistol, but I slice out hard with my blade and sever his vocal cords. He falls, his neck gurgling as blood pools on the dirty tile floor.

Stepping over him, I ease deeper into the house. I remember every room, every bit of Lantino’s