Pleasure’s Fury by Mari Carr

Author:Mari Carr [Carr, Mari & Dubois, Lila]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Antonio snarled silently at Vico’s back. The knight had insisted on escorting Antonio to his father, rather than just telling Antonio where Giovanni was.

He needed to be with Karl and Leila, not only because they were his to protect, but because there were things they needed to figure out, clues as to Ciril’s motivations and identity that they might see, whereas Grigoris and the task force would miss them.

Why did they need to go to Dublin? What was there? It was the first thing Antonio was going to ask Karl after he was done dealing with whatever it was his father wanted from him.

Vico led him into the central hall of the villa.

The sun was at just the right angle to shine in the windows on the back wall, filling the space with golden light. He blinked against the sudden brightness, pausing for a moment to let his eyes adjust.

“Antonio.”

He blinked and turned, surprised to see his father standing near the windows, backlit by the sun so he was nothing more than a dark silhouette.

There were two people with him—women, from their outlines.

Vico took up a position along the wall, his shoulders back, his posture stiff and formal. It was only then that Antonio took note of Vico wearing a three-piece suit, when normally he opted for a more casual shirt and slacks.

Saverio, his back to the opposite wall, was also dressed formally.

Antonio stiffened—and had to fight the urge to take a step back.

This wasn’t simply his father wanting to talk to him.

He’d been summoned by his admiral.

“Ammiraglio.” Antonio bent at the waist in a shallow bow.

With his father, formality was a form of defense. His sister never approached their father unless she was dressed as if she were attending a state function. The worse the news she had to give—or anticipated receiving—the more elaborate her ensemble.

Antonio had just shaken his head at her, instead putting up a wall of silence around himself like the curtain wall around a castle. Now he wished he’d taken time to put on something other than a uniform of shirt and jeans.

“Come,” Giovanni commanded. “It is time for you to meet.”

Antonio walked into the sunlight streaming in the windows.

Once he was closer to them, he was able to make out his father’s face, and that of his companions. Both were lovely dark-haired women. One he recognized.

He had known Rosa Romano since they were children. Her father had been the security minister before Lorenzo. Her younger brother Marco was in training to be a knight, and her older brother had, briefly, been engaged to Sophia. His father had used marriage to Sophia as a political bargaining chip, though he had never actually gone through with calling his sister to the altar.

But his father had been saying for years that it was time to unite the Starabba and Romano family lines.

Antonio’s stomach clenched, and he had to force himself not to show any outward physical reaction.

The other woman looked familiar, which didn’t mean much, as he liked to periodically read over the files of everyone in the territory, just in case.

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