Arranged Marriage To The Princess Of The Red Scorpions

A/N: Hello dear readers. I hope you're still enjoying the story.

I know some of you have already, but those who haven't I kindly ask for honest reviews. I have some hesitant new readers and would like them to know from other readers the book is worth the investment or not.

Thank as always for the support.

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Ryan didn't disappoint Lena with the dessert. He had made a tres leches cake to have after lunch. She knew that it had to be because of everything that was going on that he specially made it as cake wasn't usually something that was served after dinner, never for lunch.

This made it worth it to the princess to sit through the odd atmosphere around the lunch table and eat despite not having much of an appetite still. She knew though that once everything was back to the way that it should be that she would be perfectly fine. This meant that she just had to put up with things until Jovani left and whatever needed to happen with the Vedova Nera family was taken care of.

Later that night she decided to skip dinner because she was still full from lunch and had a lot on her mind to think about. Jovani had retired as well stating that as much as he wanted to keep talking with this cousins and getting to know more about them that there were things he had to take care of since he wouldn't be coming back for the night and he had left Alonso in charge of the work that he usually took care of.

The man was more than capable of taking care of what needed to be done without any direction. It was more for the sake of his mental state that Jovani was messaging him. Similar to Lena, the man wasn't thrilled about his walking into territory after seeing how the princess had reacted to the other after everything had went down.

Of course Jovani brushed his concern off and told him that there really wasn't anything to worry about and instead that everything would work out for the better if he was the one to concede on this small point. So far he didn't feel like he had been proven wrong in thinking this way.

He was fairly good at working with even the most difficult of people even if he couldn't exactly get them to warm up to him. He could prevent himself from being shot so to speak by those who were more hostile towards him. One of the few skills that he had in his favor after he suddenly had to step up and work in a world that he didn't know beyond the basic skills how to navigate.

Charm and humor proved to be an effective weapon against a number of different situations. One could say the coldest and harshest things to another without raising their temper if they did with a charming smile and the right amount of humor. It also worked equally well as a tool for getting information.

Except for in the case of Lena Scarlet it seemed. She certainly was tolerating him rather well, but he could sense that it was really only for Sam's sake rather than anything else. She was great at asking questions to get the information that she wanted to know, but she didn't have much to say about herself or the family.

Not that he was looking for anything that he could use against them. Rather Jovani was one to poke for any kind of weaknesses that might need shoring up. Especially if Samuel was going to be marrying into the family. He didn't want there to be the risk of anything happening since he hadn't gotten ahold of his cousin yet. Though, the other wasn't the only threat that he would have to worry about.

A little bird had informed him that Genson was also working with Lena, though not much on the dark side of things as with an on-going issue within the business side. However, he knew what kind of man the other was since he had worked for his family in the past after all.

Genson was no better than a poisoned tongued viper in Jovani's opinion. Great at tricking people into believing that beyond his pompous and overly arrogant attitude that he was harmless until the right situation presented itself for him to strike and end up as the one out on top.

The Scarlet princess was certainly sharp and intuitive in her own right, but he wasn't fully convinced that she would be able to put those small pieces together herself since there wasn't much of a reason to think that they were connected after all if one didn't step back and look at the big picture or knew what could be going on in the background.

He was going to have to rely on someone else to help him with that piece and hope that they managed to be the ones to solve the problem first before Genson tricked his way into being the one to work at Lena's business.

"Alonso. I have already told you that there isn't anything for you to worry about. They might not be the warmest people here but it's not like I'm at risk of getting my throat slit in my sleep." Jovani joked as he laid on the bed. He had taken off his suit that he only had back dress shirt and pants. He feet were crossed as he lounged on the bed with his shoes still on.

He might've currently been laying down, but he wasn't quiet ready to retire for the night yet, there were still a few other pieces that he needed to have taken care of before that. dismissing Alonso's concerns were one of those.

"You might joke about that, but the princess's glare that day is something that I'm still worried about. She would've killed you on the spot if he hadn't intervened." Alonso argued.

"With so many people in the family it wouldn't be a hard thing to make you 'disappear' overnight without anyone knowing the better what happened to you or who did it. Nor would they care." Jovani couldn't stop himself from laughing over what the other was saying. He knew that there was a partial ring of truth to such a concern, he personally didn't think that it applied to this situation however.

"Trust me, you don't have to worry about that happening. She won't touch me so long as Sam vouches for me. I would have to do something worse than I already did to make that happen." Jovani reassured his friend.

"It's not the warmest welcome I have gotten in being allowed to stay somewhere that is certain, but the rest of the family isn't as cold as the princess. Though, I don't think her brother likes me much either."

That was a bit of a pity to Jovani honestly. He actually found the younger brother to be an interesting one. He was perhaps the only member of the family that he didn't know much about. Part of that he knew was due to the fact that he had been sent over seas when he was younger and had only recently returned for a brief extended period of time.

He was perhaps someone who would've struck his fancy in becoming closer or decent friends with if the reception he had received from him and the fact that he was fairly certain the other wasn't planning on staying around long told him that it wouldn't be worth it at this point to try and get close to him.

"All I'm saying is that I just don't think that you should keep being as nonchalant as you always are in these situations. One of these times it'll end up costing you your life and then what am I going to do?" Alonso continued to complain.

"Be happy because you get an unexpected promotion and pay raise and don't have to spend the next few decades stress yourself into getting white hair due to all the worrying you're done?" Jovani joked.

"That isn't even remotely funny." His friend replied dryly after there was a short pause on the other end of the phone.

"Taking over your job would lead me to have even more stress. I want you to keep yours so that I can retire early once things shift around in the family and there's someone else to keep an eye on you." He continued.

"You know that isn't how things are going to end up working out. It's more likely that I am will be assigned to worry about someone and request you to be there for backup as you always have been so reliable when it comes to that." Jovani corrected.

"But I will put in a good work to request that you be able to retire early one a few years have passed and things have been sorted out. I'll even make it a promise so I won't forget it." He assured the other.

They talked for a few more minutes after this before he ended the call. There was still someone else that he need to speak with that felt far more pressing to him at the moment in time.. Once he was finished with that, he might be able to think about getting to sleep depending on how long the call took.