Page 69 of Diary from an Inked Throne

And yet I understood them all. Understood the way he’d never forgive himself for the things he’d done in the Guerra name before he’d smartened up, saved his sister, and gotten them both out of there.

He’d been bred for violence. Brainwashed into doing things nobody else would.

And maybe he didn’t deserve forgiveness.

But he did deserve a second chance.

Nyah spoke up. “At that point, he had the three men I loved. With that, if I hadn’t agreed to marry him, he could have used that leverage to make me do anything.”

I agreed with her. “We heard the guards the day of the wedding. Once Nyah was married to him, we were dead. He only kept us alive in case we were needed to force Nyah into the marriage.”

Luca snorted. “That didn’t work out too well for the old man, did it, though?” He put his beer bottle down on the coffee table. “But if all that is true, Enzo had to be involved. He was my father’s right-hand man. He knew everything.”

Nyah stroked her fingers through Lynx’s hair absentmindedly while she considered that. “He seemed genuinely surprised you were alive.”

That didn’t make sense to me either. “I guess maybe he thought we’d all been killed in the church basement?”

Bruno leaned on a wall at the other end of the room and sighed heavily. “Or maybe you have the entire thing wrong, and it wasn’t Carlos and Enzo at all.”

22

NYAH

Dear Diary,

I think Dax’s brothers would ask a nun about her sex life.

All four of us stared at Bruno like he’d just grown a second head.

Luca twisted on the couch so he was facing his soldier. “Say more. What do you know?”

Bruno shrugged, pushing off the wall to stand straight. “Nothing I could tell you before, when I belonged to your father. But he and Enzo were here, the night Virginia died.”

“You’re sure?” I asked. “All night?”

He nodded and then focused on Dax. “I liked your mom. She was a good woman. She didn’t deserve what happened to her.”

I reached across the arms of our couches to squeeze Dax’s hand in support.

He nodded at Bruno. “Thank you.”

“But when I heard about her death, I checked the security cameras. And Enzo and Carlos were both here that entire night. They didn’t leave.”

“Can you show us?” I asked him.

He looked at me. “You want to watch eight hours of Carlos and Enzo sleeping?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Yes. I do.”

He nodded. “You don’t believe me.”

“Why would I? You were at Carlos’s beck and call the entire time I lived here.”

His gaze met mine. “And now I’m at yours and Luca’s.”

He had a point, but I still wanted to see the footage.

Luca nodded at Bruno. “Get it.”