“Fuck,” he hissed.
Marco was up to his old tricks again. That Franco deemed it important enough to wake him up said it was more than just a prostitute with a black eye. The only thing that would cause Franco to call him in the middle of the night was a threat to Tristan himself, Raymond Sperry, or Uncle Roberto, Marco’s own father.
Damn. Marco was on borrowed time, and it just got a hell of a lot shorter.
“We felt it best for you to know right away. Orlando is waiting for me, and I’ve asked Leo to be on standby.”
Rubbing a hand across his head, he knew shit was about to hit the fan. Looking over his shoulder at the beautiful woman asleep in his bed, he grimaced. He had no doubt she was about to get a crash course in exactly what his life was all about.
“Come to the house. I’ll be downstairs in ten minutes.” Disconnecting without saying goodbye, he sat on the edge of the bed for a few minutes. The last thing he wanted to do was take his cousin’s life. They’d grown up together, went through their first communion together, and survived this crazy world by each other’s side.
It would break his uncle’s heart if his son was taken from this world by his own cousin.
Standing from the bed, he grabbed up a pair of jeans, a polo shirt, some socks, and his new Timberland™ boots Camille gifted him with a few weeks ago. They’d turned out to be extremely comfortable. He would never have guessed. A smile on his face, he headed to the bathroom to get dressed.
Twenty minutes later, he sat on the edge of his desk in his private office. Pissed was too tame of a word for how he felt right now. Looking around at the men in the room, he gave each of them a hard look. Taking a large swallow of whiskey, he took a few minutes to let the information Franco shared with him sink in.
“How much do you trust the intel?” he asked Franco but included Orlando and Leo in his hard gaze. He needed them to be right. What they’d just told him couldn’t be ignored. It demanded a response. He could do it himself, but he knew he’d need to tell his Uncle. This wasn’t something he was willing to keep to himself. Not this.
“No matter how much I trust, I also verify. It’s true. Marco has been running off at the mouth about you, your uncle, Camille, and her father. He wants you all gone. The plan is to get to your uncle first, and while you’re grieving for him, he’d go after Camille and her father. You would be last.” Orlando paced as he shared this bit of information.
“Does he really thinks he can pull something like that off? What does he think will happen when he executes thiscoupupon not only his father but Camille and her family? He knows who her father is. We all do. Does he have a plan beyond that?” Although his tone was normal, Tristan was seething inside. This motherfucker planned to kill Camille. The only woman Tristan had ever loved.
“Boss, I know he’s your family, but we need to handle him,” Franco added.
Shaking his head, he tried to calm his nerves by counting to ten, then twenty. It wasn’t working. “I’m not worried about him. My worry ismio zio,mia zia.La mia Camille.” His body wanted to go back upstairs to her. Grab her in his arms and promise everything would be okay. Protecting her from all this was his main worry. Things were going to get worse before they got better. And Camille would be caught in the middle. Fuck!
Marco had just signed his own death warrant.
This time Leo responded, “He means to take over the family,Fratello. He wants anyone who can get in his way removed. There is no coming back from this. It cannot be allowed.”
Tristan nodded at his friend. Leo calling him brother was intentional. The four of them were family, even if Franco and Orlando worked for him. Their bond was stronger than steel, and Leo chose that moment to remind him of that.
Leo was the quietest of the bunch. Then again, he’d spent some time away from them when he joined the military. When Leo came home six years later, he’d been a different man, no less loyal. In fact, he was even more loyal to the group of men sitting in this room. But there’d been a change in his eyes. At the smallest hint of betrayal, his friend became someone else. He’d borne witness to some of the things Leo had done in the name of cleaning house for Tristan. It was the kind of shit that induced nightmares, but it also sent clear messages to those who needed it.
No, Leo didn’t need to be part of the family. His loyalty had been earned day-in and day-out through the blood of Tristan’s enemies.
Looking at the other two men in the room, he nodded to them as well. Yes, they would take care of this together. “I agree. We handle this as one.”
Glancing at the clock, he saw that it was just after one in the morning. What he wanted most was to be lying in bed next to Camille, maybe even rolling over so he could slide his cock inside her hot sex one more time. Going to the minibar, he fixed another drink and turned to his boys.
“All right, let’s come up with Plan A, B, and C. First thing tomorrow, I’m going to visit Uncle Roberto. Let’s figure this shit out so I can get back to my lady.”
Two hours later, just after three a.m., Tristan slid into bed next to Camille. He was positive their plan was solid, but he’d held something back from the discussions. He had a secret weapon he might have to call on to help set things into motion.
Once Marco knew they were onto him, he’d run. And if he knew his cousin, he knew exactly where he’d go. Calling Conall O’Shea was a risky move. That motherfucker was like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He was a suave businessman first. If that’s the only side of him you came to know, you should count yourself lucky. If you got to know the other side of him, the one hiding behind the veneer of respectability, it was more than likely when his gun was against your head as he pulled the trigger.
Pulling Camille’s body closer to his, he spooned her from behind. Her soft moan and the wiggle of her hips as she pressed against his hardening member, brought his attention back to her.
“Baby, where’d you go?” she mumbled.
“Just downstairs for a bit. I’m back now, and that pussy is calling out to me,” he murmured, lifting her top leg and cradling it in his hand.
“She probably missed you.” Pressing her ass back against him, he saw one of her hands roam down her body toward the juncture of her thighs.
“No, don’t you dare touch yourself.” Using his free hand, he grabbed her neck tightly, though not tight enough to harm her. “Just accept what I give you.”
“Mmmmm,” she moaned as he began sliding his dick inside her tight sheath.