“I can’t promise you another five years of my life.”
He shrugged. “It was worth a shot. Ivan Grimaldo is the man you’re looking for.”
Fuck. The Grimaldos were big—almost as big as the Pinellis. They’d been rivals with the Pinellis for decades. I’d carried out hits against them for Pinelli, but in the last three years, they’d formed a truce, staying off each other’s turf. No love was lost between the two groups, but they’d arrived at a mutual respect.
“Why would you tell me this?” I asked. “What about the truce?”
“Fuck the truce, Sullivan. They killed my boy. I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to take them down without getting my hands dirty and breaking the truce. They know they can’t come after me without violating our truce, so of course they go after you, the man who killed Papa Grimaldo.”
Papa Grimaldo had been the head of the Grimaldo family until I cut him down after he’d killed Luigi’s son and sent the boy back to him piece by piece. It was after Grimaldo's funeral that his son Ivan, who’d taken over, had approached Luigi with a truce. Both sides had lost family members during the long-standing feud.
If they couldn’t touch Pinelli, of course, they would come after me. I might work for Pinelli, but I wasn’t a part of the family. They had no obligation to protect or avenge me should they succeed in cutting my life short.
“Damn, it makes perfect sense.” Liam plopped down at his computer, and his hands flew over the keys. I paced in front of his desk while he worked on god knew what.
Following my lunch with Luigi, I’d driven straight to Liam’s with the new information I had.
“We need to verify if this is true before we decide what to do about it,” I said.
He glanced up at me. “You think Don Luigi would lie about this?”
“You can’t trust anyone in this game, Liam. We’ve worked together long enough for you to know that.”
“I guess I just don’t understand why he would lie about something like this. What would be the motive?”
“Let’s say Luigi set this up for me to think it’s the Grimaldos. If I go after the Grimaldos, he gets his revenge for his son’s death without having to lift a finger.”
“But he already had his revenge. Papa Grimaldo was killed. You took him out.”
“A man like Luigi won’t be satisfied until he wipes out all the Grimaldos. This feels a little too convenient.”
“All right, I’ll check if I can find a connection between Taggart and the Grimaldos.”
“Good.” I dropped into a chair. “I need to be sure.”
“I get that. Wouldn’t want to start shit with the Grimaldos for no reason. And if Luigi’s trying to use you to do his dirty work, it’s best you know now before signing up for another period.”
“Whether he’s behind this or not, I’m done after my year is up.”
“You said that the first time.”
“I had to continue working for him. Luigi had already made me the face of Pinelli’s henchmen. I couldn’t have backed out of it, even if I tried.”
“And what makes you think you can back out now? You’ve made a lot of enemies over the years, Sullivan.”
“I can go somewhere else and start over.”
“With Kit.”
“If he’s still speaking to me, then.”
“He’s still mad at you?”
“Pretty much. Why can’t he understand my concerns?” When silence met my question, I frowned at Liam. “You’re awfully silent.”
“Don’t want to be caught up in the middle of what you two have going on.”
“But…”