My dad held out his hand to silence him. “You should consider yourself lucky I’m only collecting on the one favor you owe me.”
Lorenzo sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers. “Lucky? I committed the worst sin imaginable to repay you. We were supposed to be friends. We’re going to be family. Is this how you treat your family?”
What man would kill his wife to settle a debt? A coward.
Lorenzo had the O’Shea family murder his wife at the children’s hospital dinner. Back then, I thought he was an idiot for making her death so public. Until I realized he was using it for his campaign for mayor. He was smarter than I gave him credit. Angelo was still looking for the murderer, all while Gia was grieving her mother. She knew our family was responsible, but she had no idea the man she’d looked up to her entire life was a cold-blooded killer, no different from the rest of us.
“My family is smart enough not to cross me. They have a role. They play their part.” He looked at Angelo, who always needed a reminder. “They do as they’re told.”
My dad folded his arms over his chest as a knowing look was fired off in Paulie’s direction. Paulie responded with a nod. They had communicated something only a few of us in the room understood. While Angelo was training to become my father’s consigliere, we kept him out of the loop on anything involving the Carlini family. He was a loose cannon, too emotional to be trusted with important matters.
A few moments of uncomfortable silence ensued before my dad removed a white slip of paper from the top drawer of his desk. He slid the paper in Lorenzo’s direction, shutting the drawer with his other hand.
Lorenzo stared at the paper for far too long before he picked it up. He read the words several times with a defeated expression on his face. My father owned him. He knew it. There was no running from a man who had everything.
“No,” Lorenzo said, crumbling the paper in his hand. He threw it on the desk in front of my father.
His lip curled up in anger. “How dare you deny my request after everything I have given you?”
“We’re done here.” Lorenzo stood, kicking his chair behind him.
My father pushed himself up from behind the desk, meeting Lorenzo’s gaze.
They engaged in a stare down.
Lorenzo turned to leave.
I thought my father would stop him, but he let him go. He flexed his jaw, his eyes so dark and menacing he looked like a demon. His expression mirrored mine when I had men on my table in the kill room.
My father ordered Paulie and Angelo to follow Lorenzo back upstairs. The narrow hallways were unlit, save for the few camping lanterns scattered throughout, the ceiling full of exposed wooden beams. It was impossible to navigate the path to the upstairs if you didn’t know the way.
Marco stood to close the door behind them, leaving us in silence. My brother and I sat in the chairs in front of my dad’s desk and waited for him to speak. There was an order to things when it came to the old man. He believed it was respectful for us to await his next move.
We never spoke out of turn or did anything we weren’t ordered to do. I was a soldier in the Morelli army, as were my brothers, except I was being groomed to take the old man’s place. I was a Caporegime, a boss of my own crew. One day, I would sit behind the same desk and bark orders to my brothers, no different from what I do now, only with a different amount of power behind those words.
“Since I can
’t rely on Angelo, I need you two to take care of this problem for me.” My father ran a hand through his short, dark hair and sighed. “Lorenzo will not budge on Pitt Steel. We need to acquire the company to gain some of the contracts I’ve worked hard to get for this family.”
I nodded. “What do you need us to do?”
The corners of his mouth turned up into a wicked grin when he locked eyes with me. “I need you to take Gia, force Lorenzo’s hand. It’s the only way to make him listen.”
Angelo was a pain in my ass on a normal day. If Gia went missing, he would lose his fucking shit.
“When?”
He leaned back in his chair and kicked up his shoe on his knee. “Tonight. Make it quick and painless.”
“Sonny will be with Gia,” Marco interjected, “now that Angelo has him babysitting her all the time.”
My father’s grin turned pure evil. “Good. We can kill two birds with one stone. Sonny has a weakness for that girl, too.”
“What do you want us to do with Sonny?”
My dad shrugged. “I want Angelo to blame himself for this. He needs to think killing Antonio Mancuso is the reason for Gia’s disappearance.”
“How do you want it done?”