Luca shook his head again.
“I marry his daughter, and he’ll keep the evidence to himself. If I don’t, he’ll send the photos to Romano, and you’ll die.”
I had an excellent private security force. They were well-trained, professional, and morally flexible enough to deal with intruders in a way that dissuaded future intruders from crossing me.
However, there was a difference between security and punishment and war with the fucking mafia.
Luca’s eyes widened.
“Shit.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “Dante, I—”
“Don’t say another word. Here’s what you will do.” I pinned him with a hard stare. “You will cut off all contact with Maria, effective immediately. I don’t give a shit if she’s your one true soulmate and you never find love again after her. From this moment on, she doesn’t exist to you. You will not see, speak, or otherwise communicate with her. If you do, I will freeze every damn account you have and blacklist any person who assists you financially.”
Our grandfather had been aware of Luca’s wild spending habits and left me full control of the company and family finances in his will. Being blacklisted by me meant being blacklisted by everyone in our social circle, and even Luca’s idiot friends weren’t stupid enough to risk that.
“I’m also cutting your monthly allowance in half until you prove you’re capable of making better choices.”
“What?” Luca exploded. “You can’t—”
“Interrupt me again, and it’ll be cut to zero,” I said icily. He fell silent, his expression mutinous. “You will earn the remaining half of the money by taking a job at one of our stores, where you’ll be treated like any other employee. No special perks, no drinking or fucking on the job, and no leaving for lunch and rolling back in two hours later. If you slack off, you will be cut off completely. Understand?”
After a long silence, he pressed his lips into a thin line and jerked out a short nod.
“Good. Now get the fuck out of my office.”
If I had to look at him for another minute, I might do something I’d regret.
He must’ve sensed the impending danger because he got up and hightailed it to the exit without another word.
“And Luca?” I stopped him before he opened the door. “If I find out you’ve violated my rules and contacted Maria again, I’ll kill you myself.”
My fist slammed into his stomach, hard and precise. My first hit of the night.
Adrenaline buzzed through me as Kai grunted at the impact. Anyone else would’ve stumbled and gotten the wind knocked out of them, but in true Kai fashion, he only paused for a few seconds before shaking it off.
“You seem upset,” he said as he countered with a left hook. I sidestepped it with millimeters to spare. “Bad day at work?”
A hint of amusement shaded his question despite the direct hit he’d just taken.
“Something like that.”
Sweat dripped down my forehead and coated my back as I worked out my frustrations in the ring.
I’d come straight to the Valhalla Club after work. Most members preferred the on-site spa, restaurants, or upscale gentleman’s club, which meant the boxing gym rarely saw any traffic except for me and Kai.
“Heard the Santeri deal is moving along, so it can’t be that.” Kai was barely out of breath despite the aggressiveness of our opening round. “Maybe it’s not work. Maybe…” His expression turned speculative. “It has to do with your engagement to a certain jewelry heiress.”
He let out another small grunt when I landed a hit on his lower ribs, but that didn’t stop him from laughing at my scowl.
“You should know better than to try and keep something so big a secret,” he said. “The whole office is buzzing about it.”
“Your staff should spend more time working and less time gossiping. Perhaps then, circulation wouldn’t be down.”
My engagement announcement wasn’t scheduled to run in Mode de Vie’s coveted online Style section until mid-September, but the luxury fashion and lifestyle outlet was the crown jewel of the Youngs’ media empire. I’d be surprised if Kai didn’t know about the engagement ahead of time.
“Never thought I’d see the day you get married.” He ignored my dig. “To Vivian Lau, no less. How’d you manage to keep her a secret for so long?”
“We’re not married yet.” I blocked another attempted punch. “And I didn’t keep her a secret. Our engagement is a business arrangement. I didn’t fucking wine and dine her before we closed the deal.”
The word engagement left a bitter taste in my mouth.
The thought of shackling myself to someone for the rest of my life was as appealing as walking into the ocean with concrete blocks strapped to my feet.
I preferred work over people, many of whom didn’t appreciate coming in second place to contracts and meetings. But business was lucrative, practical, and, for the most part, predictable. Relationships were not.
“That makes more sense,” Kai said. “I should’ve known mergers and acquisitions would take over even your personal life.”
“Funny.”
His laugh faded when I hit him with an uppercut to the jaw, and he retaliated with a punch that knocked the air from my lungs.
Our conversation tapered off, replaced by grunts and curses as we pummeled the hell out of each other.
Kai was the most mild-mannered person I knew, but he had a vicious competitive streak. We’d started boxing together last year, and he’d become my go-to partner for blowing off steam because he never held back.
Who needed therapy when you could punch your friend in the face every week?
Hit, duck, dodge, hit. Over and over until we ended the night with a tie and significantly more bruises than when we’d entered.
But I’d finally worked off the edge of my anger, and when I met Kai in the locker room after my shower, I’d gained enough clarity not to lose my shit on my brother again.
I’d been this close to cutting him off after our conversation that afternoon, promises and conditions be damned. It would serve him right, but I didn’t have the energy to deal with his inevitable temper tantrum right now.
“Feel better?” Kai was already dressed when I entered.
Button-down shirt, blazer, thin black wire frames.
All traces of the lethal fighter from the ring had vanished, replaced with the epitome of scholarly sophistication.
“Marginally.” I got dressed and rubbed a hand over my sore jaw. “You pack a mean punch.”
“That’s why you called. You’d hate it if I took it easy on you.”
I snorted. “As much as you would hate losing.”
We exited the gym and took the elevator up to the first floor. The Valhalla Club was an exclusive global society for those with a certain net worth, and it had chapters all over the world. However, its New York headquarters were the largest and most opulent, spanning four stories and an entire city block in upper Manhattan.
“I’ve met Vivian a few times,” Kai said casually as the elevator doors dinged open. “She’s beautiful, smart, charming. You could’ve done a lot worse.”
Irritation flickered in my chest. “Perhaps you should marry her instead.”