"Yes, sir, Mr. Morelli," her pleasant voice responded right away. "Should I bring in your breakfast?"
"Yes. Thank you. For Enzo, too."
"Of course."
Logging onto my computer, I checked the business accounts for the strip clubs we owned downtown, making sure the expected deposits had been made. I'd check in with the managers later today and make sure everything was running smooth. We laundered our drug money through them, so it was important they didn't reflect that. Lisa came and went, dropping off our food and coffee. I was halfway through my egg white omelet before I realized Enzo wasn't talking. Nor was he eating.
I set down my fork, looking at him around my monitor. "What is it?"
He took his sunglasses off the top of his head and set them on the desk. "I have concerns, Luca."
His way of telling me he didn't approve of something I was doing. "About?"
"Veda."
Leaning back in my chair, I laced my fingers over my stomach. "What about her?"
"I don't like this."
I sighed and took another bite of my breakfast. I’d known this was coming. Eventually. Deep down inside, Enzo had a soft heart, and an unusual set of morals. Unusual for someone in his position, that is. "We've discussed this," I told him.
"No, Luca. We discussed doing this to Mario's actual wife-to-be. Not her sister. A woman who has absolutely nothing to do with him. She's never even met him."
"I find that hard to believe." This was exactly what I’d just been thinking to myself, and yet I found myself arguing with him anyway.
"Why?"
I set down my fork and stared across the expanse of my desk at my longtime friend. "Veda is Nicole's sister. Her twin sister."
"But she is not Nicole."
"She's been mourning her sister's death for weeks. I find that an unusual way for someone to act if they weren't close."
"Maybe it's not her sister's death she's mourning, but her own."
I closed my mouth, whatever I'd been about to say dying on my tongue, and threw myself back in my chair. This, too, had come to me in the dark hours of the night. And yet to hear it said out loud…"Fuck."
Convinced he'd finally gotten through to me, Enzo relaxed and took a bite of the breakfast Lisa had brought for him. "So, what are we going to do with her?" he asked around a mouthful of food. "We can't just let her go."
"Of course I'm not letting her go. The plan hasn't changed." His eyes flew to my face, his gaze sharp as glass. I explained, "Veda is a small sacrifice for the overall greater good, Enz. You know this has to happen. Our lives depend on me getting a leg up in this organization again. And to do that, I have to cripple Mario. And Veda is the path to that end.”
He shook his head, stubborn as always. "There's gotta be another way."
"There's not."
“You could just kill him.”
“Not good enough.” Not after what he’d done to me. To Maria. “Besides, that’s my father’s final call. Not mine. And he hasn’t given me the go ahead.”
Tension rode in the air between us. That wasn't unusual. Whereas Tristan was prone to just do what I told him—not because he was easily swayed, but because he honestly didn't give a fuck about anyone or anything except the two of us in this room—Enzo and I often didn't see eye to eye. It's what kept me from getting too cocky, and I appreciated him telling me his side of things. But I wouldn’t be swayed. Not on this. I needed to see Mario suffer as I had. And it was nothing less than he deserved.
"Goddammit, Luca."
"Finish your breakfast," I told him in a kinder voice. "And then go get some sleep. I'm just going to run over these numbers, and then I'm taking Veda shopping."
"Why not send her with Lisa? Tristan can go with them."
"Because I don't trust her not to make a break for it, and because I'm taking this as an opportunity to be seen before the party.” I paused. “And to win her over to my side of things.”