Bones sat across from me at the table in the bar, looking furious from the second he took his seat. Covered in tattoos and awash imminent threat as he was, not even his pretty eyes could make him seem harmless. His muscles stretched his t-shirt, and his broad shoulders looked like a solid wall. A glass of scotch sat in front of him, and he downed it quickly before he ordered another.

“Thanks for coming.” Now that I’d had a tour of Cato’s home, I realized it would be impossible for me to pull any kind of stunt—at least with my skill set. I could win a shootout and fight off a grown man, but to kidnap someone so protected was impossible.

“You aren’t welcome.” Both of his elbows rested on the table, and he sighed as he glared at me. “I’m only here as a favor to Crow. Make it quick.”

“How do you know him?” The Barsettis seemed to have a connection to everyone in Italy, from the Skull Kings, to the mob, and even politicians.

“He’s my father-in-law.”

It took a moment to process his confession. “You’re married to his daughter?” Bones seemed too dangerous to be part of the simple life Crow described. He was hostile and aggressive, a man with a reputation for blood lust.

“Yes.”

“Oh…I didn’t know that.”

“Don’t blame him for being ashamed. Now get on with it. My wife has a Barsetti attitude, so if I’m out too late, she’ll raise hell.”

“Yeah, of course.” I pulled out the rough drawing I’d made of Cato’s home in Tuscany. The dimensions weren’t perfect, but I had a good schematic of the place. “I got a good look at the house. It seems like there’re five staff members at all times, and the outside wall is protected by a security detail of at least thirty men.”

Bones didn’t even glance at the schematic. He kept staring at me, his hostility rising. “You’re kidding me with this bullshit, right?”

“Bullshit?” The only way I was going to pull this off was by collecting every ounce of information possible. Maybe Cato’s home in Tuscany wasn’t the best location, but his building in Florence was even worse.

Bones pressed his finger into the page, his eyes still focused on me. “You think you’re gonna overpower him and somehow sneak him past all these people?”

“Overpowering him will be the easy part.” Nothing a syringe couldn’t handle.

“So, your plan is to drag a 200-pound man out the front door?” His jaw tensed noticeably, filled with rage.

“No. I’m asking you for advice, which is why you’re here.”

“I already gave you my advice.” He pushed the paper toward me. “You want this guy? You need to fuck him.”

“And what will that accomplish? He’ll screw me then forget about me like all the others.”

“Then make sure he doesn’t forget you.”

The last time, just when things got hot and heavy, Cato threw a curveball and expected me to share his bed with another woman. Regardless of how open-minded I was, that wasn’t a course of action I would take. “Even if I could pull that off, what then? If I get him to like sleeping with me, how does that get me closer to saving my father?”

“When a man is obsessed with a woman, he can’t think straight. It’s the only situation where he can be manipulated or misled. Get him wrapped around your finger and deep in your pussy, and you can get whatever you want.”

I didn’t appreciate the crass way he spoke to me, but I liked his candor. He didn’t seem like the kind of man who could speak any other way. Brutal honesty was the only way of life he knew about. “I’m an experienced woman, but if Cato is obsessed with threeways, I don’t think there’s anything special I can offer him.” Even in lingerie with a kinky trick up my sleeve, there was nothing that could surprise him.

Bones took a long drink from his glass then wiped his mouth with the back of his forearm. With the same irritation in his eyes, he looked at me. “I remember the moment I fell in love with my wife, even though I didn’t realize what was happening at the time. She was just some woman I wanted to murder for revenge. But the second I fucked her, it was game over. She took all the power—and I surrendered.”

I cocked an eyebrow. “Wait, you wanted to murder your wife?”

“Yeah, long story.” He brushed it off with a wave of his hand. “But my point is, I was thinking clearly before I got between her legs. The second I was there, all my ambitions were destroyed. She became my biggest obsession. Like she was a drug, I couldn’t stop until I got the next hit…and then the next.”

“How romantic…”

His hard expression didn’t change. “That’s what you need to do with Cato.”

“You’re simplifying it. Were you screwing lots of women before her?”

He took another drink. “Yes. And I was into kinky shit too.”

“Well, I can’t control Cato’s reaction to me. The idea of him becoming obsessed with me seems unlikely. This guy gets more ass than he knows what to do with. I’m a talented lady, but there’s nothing I can do to impress him.”

“My wife just lay there—and that was more than enough.” An evil grin stretched across his face.

“Well, maybe she’s your soul mate.”

His smile dropped, but the intensity in his eyes deepened. “I don’t believe in that bullshit.”

“Then what other explanation is there?” I didn’t believe in true love or soul mates either. My own father wouldn’t protect my mother, and now I was being threatened with rape and death by his enemies. If he’d spent more time loving us instead of trying to gain more power, I would be living a normal life right now.

He shrugged. “Till this day, I still don’t know.”

“Well, that definitely won’t happen with Cato. He’s not my type. I’m not his either.”

“All women are his type,” he said. “Has he tried getting you into bed since?”

Cato didn’t say much when we were together, but I could definitely feel the tension in the room. His eyes always scanned my body, and he blinked so little, sometimes I wondered if he needed to blink at all. “No.”

“Cato is the kind of man who always gets what he wants. Maybe defying him is your ticket.”

“I just said he hasn’t tried to hit on me.”

“That doesn’t mean anything. He wanted you before, and you took off. It’s unfinished business for him.”

“Maybe.”

“The best way to stand out is to be different. Denying him definitely makes you different.”

I tried to follow his logic, but I came to a dead end. “You said I needed to fuck him, but now you’re telling me not to?”

“I’m telling you to play hard to get. When I met my wife, she wasn’t afraid to tell me off. She wasn’t afraid to shoot me. She stood her ground when other women would have melted. It was that spark that captured my obsession to begin with—because she didn’t need me.”

What kind of relationship was this? “Your wife shot you?”

His grin returned to his face, full of sincerity. “Yeah.” He rubbed his left shoulder, like he was remembering the pain from the wound. There was no denying the pride in his eyes, like that memory was holy to him.

“Alright…” I didn’t understand how a relationship based on such violence turned into a marriage, but asking more questions wouldn’t make me understand it better. “Well, I’m not gonna shoot Cato.”

“Then keep him on your line—and slowly reel him in.”

“And then fuck him and hope it goes well?” I asked incredulously, despising myself for sinking so low. No one would judge me for sleeping with a man to save my father’s life, but I wished there was a better way to do this.

“You have no other option, Siena. Even if you had a team of thirty trained men, getting him away from his guard and making the handoff would be impossible. Not only would your father die, but you would die too. It would accomplish nothing.”

“So if I make this happen, then what?”

“You’ll have to gain his trust. Then the two of you go off somewhere together—alone. You have Damien wait for you there.”

“I never see Cato go anywhere alone.”

“I know.” Bones nodded in agreement. “Which is why he’ll need to trust you. Have him take you away for a romantic evening or something. All you need is a thirty-minute window. You guys make the trade, and then you run for it.”

That was the only plan that seemed feasible. Plotting an escape from one of his residences would be futile. There was no way I could pull this off under these circumstances. Getting him alone and away from his men was the only possibility, and for that to happen, he would need a reason to want to be alone with me. Sleeping with him really was the only way this would work.

Bones watched me from across the table, examining my expression as I gripped the glass in front of me. “Your father is an asshole. No one would blame you if you left him to his fate. It’s his fault he’s in this situation—not yours.”

I stared at my glass as my fingers felt the condensation on the outside.

“He had his chance to walk away—but he didn’t.”

Crow had given me the same advice. I lifted my gaze to look at Bones again. “As much as I don’t want to do this, I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t try. He’s my father…my blood. Loyalty is the most important thing in this life.”

Bones opened his mouth like he was going to argue with me, but then he closed it again as if he’d changed his mind. He gave a slight nod instead. “I understand.”

“I don’t know how Cato is mixed up in all of this, but I’m beginning to feel bad for what I’m about to do to him.” He wasn’t the kind of man who trusted anyone. He didn’t even seem that warm to his own brother. If I successfully tricked him, it would destroy him. Was he innocent the way I was innocent?

“Don’t feel bad for him. He’s not a good man.”

“He’s not?” I whispered.

Bones shook his head. “His money isn’t clean. He’s the richest banker for a reason—because he uses blood money.”

“What’s blood money?”

“He acts as the treasurer for all organized crime. When the mob needs cash, they call him. When the Skull Kings need to hide their cash, they call him. When they need to borrow money for a weapons deal, they call him. Cato Marino knows about all the crimes against humanity because he funds most of them—and makes a profit each time. He doesn’t hesitate to kill anyone who gets in his way. His finger doesn’t stay on the trigger for long.”

I felt a tremor move down my body when I realized who I was dealing with. This man was pretty on the outside but murderous on the inside. He had more power than anyone I’d ever heard of. “No wonder Damien wants him gone.”

“I’m sure Cato is funding competition. If they can get rid of him, the nucleus binding all the organizations together, it would be chaos. A free-for-all. There’re just as many people who want him dead that want him living.”

And I would be the one to make it happen.

“So, don’t feel bad. Cato Marino is just as evil as I am.”

After listening to Bones speak so highly of his wife, I didn’t feel afraid of him. “You don’t seem so bad.”

He finished his drink then turned the glass upside down on the table. “Trust me, I am.”