“Yes, well, that goes without saying,” I agreed.
From my position near the windows looking down on the street, I could just barely make out the first whistle. Then the second. Then the third. I got to watch as my soldier out front reached for his phone just a moment before mine buzzed in my pocket.
“Just the Morellis and Costas,” I reminded him.
They wouldn’t come alone. But their men had to stay on the street with most of mine.
Alessa and I watched as the cars pulled up, the men filed out, and the rules were laid out.
In the end, it was Alessa’s father and her brothers who were allowed up. Then there were the Costa Capo dei Capi, Lorenzo, his brother (and Alessa’s man) Santiago, as well as Isabella—in the storage room’s—brother, Emilio. Then, of course, because this crew never went anywhere without their rabid dog, was a man by the name of Brio. Brio was the kind of cold and vicious that gave even me pause at times. I’d never seen a more capable torturer or killer. In my opinion, he’d been born into the wrong Family. He would have been a great Esposito.
“Let her go!”
Those were the first words spoken during this important meeting. They were spoken by Alessa’s brother, Ricco. The same man who had murdered my brother.
“Maybe,” I said, waving toward the conference table. “We will see about that.” I watched as they all took their seats before taking my own. “Want a seat, baby?” I asked Alessa, waving at my lap. Really, I just wanted a rise out of her Family by the comment. And I got it.
“Not if you were the last man on Earth, Primo,” Alessa said, getting a small smile out of me. You had to appreciate all her fire.
"You didn't have to take Alessa," Lorenzo, the Five Families new Capo dei Capo, said a few moments later after some tense hellos. "And shoot my man in the process,” he added.
Yes, well, things had gotten a little messier picking up Alessa than they had when grabbing Isabella.
"Relax. Salvatore will live. And I did need to take Alessa if I wanted to smoke out Ricco," I said, gaze sliding toward the man who'd shot his brother.
"All the proper channels were gone through to order the hit on Due," Lorenzo said, meaning a mission with the whole Commission. Except it wasn’t the whole Commission since I hadn’t been present. And if I knew anything about the Lombardi Family, they wouldn’t have been present at the meeting either, since they were having just as many issues with the new leadership as I was. If not worse. "If I'm not mistaken, your father had gone through the same channels in his day to have a member of my Family hit,” he added.
Just the mention of my father had my blood boiling and my spine straightening.
"Don't compare me to my father," I demanded, voice a harsh whisper.
"I'm simply proving that this system works in favor of all the Families with legitimate concerns. Yours included. This wasn't done in a shady or unfair way."
"It was my brother, Lorenzo," I insisted. It was one thing to get some random made man taken out. But a boss’s brother? That shit was serious. I was taking it seriously.
"And you know The Commission only approves the hit of men as high up in the hierarchy if there is just cause."
"What just cause could you have possibly had?" I snapped.
"Ricco," Lorenzo said, nodding toward Alessa's brother who pulled a rolled-up folder out of his bulletproof vest, spreading it on the tabletop, and pulling individual pages out, then passing them across the table toward me.
I could feel myself straightening as I took the folder. Because if there were documents or pictures of any sort, then it was entirely possible I was mistaken about the situation. The Commission might well have had their reasons.
I never could have anticipated those reasons, though.
A muscle in my jaw ticked as I clenched it hard enough for pain to shoot up my mouth and to my temples as I looked down at the pictures in front of me, not sure I wanted to believe them, but not being able to deny them either.
"Your brother was caught soliciting minors," Ricco explained, making my stomach drop, even as I looked at the proof of it before me. "Online, as you can see from the messages," he went on. "But also in person. We got word from someone in your community whose son said Due tried to get him to get in his car and come back to his place for ice cream. He was nine years old," Ricco finished.
Rage, a familiar and old friend, burned through me, a fire that caught and spread until it engulfed me entirely.
My gaze rose.
"And you just shot him in the back of the head?" I asked.
"He was a fucking pedophile," Ricco snapped.
"Let me rephrase that," I said. "You only shot him in the back of the head?" I asked. "Men like that should be taken apart piece by piece," I added, barely able to get the words out, my jaw was so tight. "No matter who they are. If you didn't have the stomach for it," I went on, "you should have brought this to me. I would have done it."
I wasn’t putting on some sort of show for them.
I meant that.
I meant it down to my bones.
Yes, I believed in family.
But I did not believe that your blood should be protected at all costs, no matter what.
If I believed that, my father would still be alive and running the Esposito Family.
On a growl, I reached into my pocket to produce a handcuff key, freeing Alessa whose Family I no longer had any issue with.
"It was fun, baby, but go back to your man," I said, and she didn’t even pause.
"This isn't over," she said as she got to him. "He has a plan," she added.
"No no," I said, waving a finger at her. "No spoilers."
"Spoilers for what, Primo?" Lorenzo asked. "We dealt with the issue."
"We dealt with one issue," I said. "We still have many to contend with. And they all come back to the utter lack of trust between our Families."
"I don't disagree," Lorenzo said, nodding. "Which is why open and honest sit-downs are important."
"No," I said, shaking my head. "We're beyond talking. You and I both know it would never be enough."
"What then do you propose?" Lorenzo asked, giving me a dubious look.
To that, I raised a hand in the air, a cue to my man to knock on the door. And for the man inside to bring out Isabella.
"What the fuck is this?" Lorenzo asked, body going tighter than ever before.
"My proposal," I said, shrugging. "We could fuck around with this war. We could each lose dozens of men and millions of dollars. Or we can end it all right now. With an act of good faith."
"With a fucking sacrifice," Alessa snapped, practically vibrating with rage.
"Alessa here doesn't approve of my plan," I said, shooting her a barely-there smirk. "Called it out of the Dark Ages, if I recall correctly,” I told them.
"No," Emilio, Isabella’s brother, said, quicker to figure out what was going on than I was.
"I understand your hesitance," I agreed, nodding. "She is your little sister, after all," I said, waving the guard and his sister closer.
"I said no, Primo," Emilio ground out, his gaze going to his sister. “If you hurt her…” he added, voice tight.