Chapter 154
Victoria’s POV
The warehouse was cold, the air damp with the smell of rust and old betrayal. Nico stood across from me, arms crossedd, jaw tight. Still bruised, but walking, breathing and thinking. That was all I needed.
He’d come. That alone told me I still had a grip on him. I missed him. Having a young man by my side not my awful husband who gave me. Headaches up
on headaches.
“You said this would be quick,” Nico muttered, eyes flicking around the space. “You didn’t say we’d be hiding in some abandoned dump like hinted
dogs.”
I leaned against the metal beam, lips curling. “You’ve been hunted before, Nico. Don’t get delicate on me now?
He glared. “Dominic knows I betrayed him. He’ll come for me.”
I shrugged. “Of course he will. That’s why we strike first.”
He snorted. “Strike how, exactly? You forget–I was inside his circle for years. I know how he moves, how many men he has, how far he’s willing to go You’re underestimating him.”
“No,” I said, stepping forward. “I’m counting on you not to.”
Nico said nothing, but his jaw worked. That familiar flicker of doubt in his eyes. The same look he used to have when Dominic gave him orders like a loyal
dog.
“He left you behind,” I said, voice silk and smoke. “After everything. You bled for him, killed for him, and he still called you less.”
“I made choices,” Nico said tightly. “Doesn’t mean I want to be used again.”
“You’re not being used,” I said, moving closer, slow and deliberate. “You’re being freed.”
He looked at me now, jaw tight, expression unreadable.
“You don’t have to be second anymore,” I whispered. “You were always in his shadow. You’ve always been a man made for more. But you let loyalty cage you. And now? You have nothing to show for it.”
His silence was heavy like a cloud.
“I’m offering you a new kingdom,” I said, circling him like a wolf. “One where you’re not just a soldier or some discarded pawn. One where you call the shots. Where you get to break him from the inside out.”
Nico turned, suddenly tense. “And you? Where do you fit in that kingdom?”
I smiled. “I’m not interested in thrones. I’m interested in control just like you men.”
He nodded.
“And Aria?” he asked, voice low. “You still planning to take her out?”
My eyes sharpened. “She’s Dominic’s weakness. We don’t leave weaknesses alive.”
He looked away. Hesitating.
I stepped close enough that he had to look back at me. “You want power, Nico? You want what you never had under his name?”
He didn’t answer.
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Chapter 154
So I leaned in
Tay
“Or are you a weak man, Nico?”
He didn’t answer right away. His jaw clenched, eyes flicking away from mine as if trying to find some version of himself that still had the upper hand.
There wasn’t one. Not here. Not now.
I could see the war in his head–the loyalty he once had for Dominic, the shame of being cast aside, and that fragile ego I’d always known how to slice right down the middle.
He still wanted to win.
He just didn’t know how anymore.
“Why did you do it?” he finally asked, voice sharp but quieter. “Mikael trusted you. You planned with him. You slept in his house. Then you left him to die?
I turned slowly, walking toward the cracked window on the far end of the warehouse. The city lights bled faintly through the fogged glass.
“Mikael was useful,” I said calmly. “For a while. He had muscle, money, and just enough desperation to be predictable. But I was never going to chain myself to a brute who couldn’t control his impulses. He let his obsession with Dominic cloud his judgment.”
I turned back to Nico.
“And obsession,” I added, “makes men sloppy.”
He stared. “So you used him?”
I tilted my head. “I survived him.”
That shut him up.
“I knew from the start this would end with one of us in the ground,” I said, walking back toward him. “And it wasn’t going to be me. Once everything’s settled, once the vultures pick over Mikael’s corpse, I’ll sweep in and claim his inheritance. He had properties, contacts, safe houses across Europe. Things even you don’t know about.”
“And the Bratva?” Nico asked.
“They don’t care who holds the leash as long as it keeps tightening,” I replied.
He looked at me long and hard, and I knew what he was really asking.
“And Aria?”
Ah. There it was again.
Her name. That flicker in his eyes. That thorn in his side.
“She was never meant to last,” I said plainly. “But I couldn’t kill her outright not while Mikael still thought she was leverage. So I convinced y her close. To soften her. To make her trust you.”
Nico’s face didn’t change, but something behind his eyes did.
“She trusted you,” I said with a trace of mock pity. “And you use her. Right?”
“I didn’t touch her,” he snapped. “Not really. If I wanted to fuck her I will, but I am not like that.”
I smirked. “I see. How chivalrous of you. Regardless though, she hates you, so it doesn’t matter.”
Silence stretched between us. He hated himself for it, but part of him still wanted to believe he could fix it. He couldn’t.
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Chapter 154
“She was Dominic’s heart,” I said. “And now it’s cracked wide open.”
“And what?” he muttered. “You think that’s enough to break him?”
“No,” I said. “But what I’m about to do next is.”
He looked at me. “What do you mean?”
I smiled, slow and cruel.
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“There’s something about Dominic,” I said. “Something buried and trust men it’s filthy. His men don’t know. Aria doesn’t know. But I do. And once it comes to light, it won’t just destroy his throne. It’ll bury his name in the kind of scandal you don’t recover from.”
Nico didn’t speak.
He just stared at me like I’d become something even he couldn’t control anymore.
I stepped closer, my voice barely above a whisper now.
“Even kings fall, Nico. You’ll see.”
He swallowed hard, and for a moment, I thought he might back out. Thought maybe that last thread of guilt he clung to would tug too hard and send him crawling back to Dominic with shaky apologies and a bullet to the head as thanks.
But instead, he straightened.
And that fire returned to his eyes.
“How?” he asked. “You’ve got something on him, fine. But if we don’t hit precisely if we don’t cripple him with it he’ll recover. Worse, he’ll retaliate.”
“Oh, we’re going to cripple him,” I said, stepping back to pace slowly. “But not just with a headline or a scandal. We’ll need precision. Exposure. And timing.”
Nico narrowed his eyes. “What are we talking? A hidden lover? Dirty politics?”
“Worse,” I replied. “His past.”
He frowned.
I smirked. “You ever wonder how Dominic took over the De Luca family so quickly after his father’s death?”
Nico went still.
“You think it was just a turf war?” I continued. “That the old man got caught in the crossfire of some Bratva deal gone wrong?”
Nico didn’t answer. But he was listening.
“Dominic was seventeen,” I said. “Barely out of school. And yet he walked into that office the day after the funeral with blood on his slee his mouth. The council bowed to him. The soldiers obeyed. Why?”
Nico’s voice was tight. “Because he earned it.”
“No,” I whispered. “Because he orchestrated it.”
He looked at me, stunned.
and silence in
“His father wasn’t caught in crossfire,” I said. “He was put down. Clean. Quiet and within his circle. And Dominic made sure every file, every witness, every whisper about it disappeared.”
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Chapter 154
Nico stared at me, like he wasn’t sure if I was lying of telling a truth too big to touch.
“He killed his own father?”
“Not with his own hands,” I said. “But he gave the order. And the man who carried it out? Let’s just say I kept a copy of his confession video. Detailed, And signed.”
Nico ran a hand down his face. “Jesus.”
“We leak it,” I said calmly. “Anonymous drop to the press. Bribe a few cops to ‘discover‘ the tape in some raid. The media takes it from there.”
“And his men?” Nico asked.
“i know you want to ask about aria nico.”
He looked down. She smirked. “She won’t look at him the same after that,” I said. “And when she walks away Dominic won’t be able to see straight That’s when we would go into his life and take everything he has. Gosh we would be king and queen of the mafia world.”
He was quiet for a long time. Thoughtful. The idea feels too good to be true but that’s why I was different from my dead husband. I don’t years doing this
r assist him but he was stupid to go kidnap Aria. That pissed me off and I set him up for death. Gosh I was just perfect.
I watched Nico who ran a hand through his hair and I smirked when he tooked up at me.
Then, slowly, he nodded.
“All right,” Nico muttered. “Let’s burn a king.”
I grinned. “That’s my man.” I placed a hand on his chest. “But first. Please me. Suck this pussy, talking makes me horny.”
