“Good luck with that,” I told him. “You’ve been trying for five fucking years. Tell me what you are going to do differently this time.”
“You have your day coming,” Adrian replied.
I ended the call before he could go any further, and reached for the bottle once more.
He was an asshole, just like the rest of the family. There were some capos that had been willing to follow me without complaint, my second-in-command Rocco being one of them. For five fucking years I had fought Adrian and his family, and earned my place among the Dons.
I was ruthless, straying on the other side of the blurred line between what I wanted to do and what were unspoken rules. I was unapologetic in my kills and dealings, stealing from the other Dons when I could and laughing in their faces when they raised hell about it.
I took after the lessons of the Don from the good old days, building my empire as I saw fit and not what everyone expected I would do. There were even rumors that I bathed in the blood of my enemies—rumors that I encouraged.
I wanted my enemies to fear me.
Drawing in a breath, I poured another glass, and then set the decanter aside on the sideboard. Adrian was right about one thing. Everything was about to be out in the open about my purchase of Leda D’Agostino.
I did it for two reasons: one, to get back at Carmine, and two, to flex my muscles as Don. There had been a room full of Dons that had been running this world for generations. They could probably go back hundreds of years in their family trees, and it would have been impossible for one of them to take the D’Agostino princess into their Mafia like I had.
I overpowered them all with my money, and damn did it feel good.
After being the one they had used for years, I knew I held something enormously powerful in my hands. The fate of the D’Agostino Mafia. Their power might have been broken, but the foundation of their wealth—the string of properties and clubs and other investments—remained.
Everyone knew that Carmine’s son Nico forfeited his rights as Don. He had no interest in the family business, and rumor was that he had a family of his own to take care of.
That, and the fact that Carmine just wouldn’t die. I couldn’t understand why someone who was poised to be in a position of power would give it all up for a family.
Families were shit. They didn’t do anything but cause hurt and let down those that depended on them.
I threw back the whiskey, letting it burn my throat this time. I hated any sort of feelings. They reminded me of my weakest moments, moments where I didn’t think I would survive past the morning.
If it hadn’t been for Cosimo realizing I was better suited as an enforcer, I would still be living that life.
Or dead. Most likely dead.
Now I could defend myself with the best. I was a knife expert, able to hit a target from fifty yards away. I knew where to slice and dice for a slow death and how to find the quick kill without a sound.
I wasn’t half bad with a gun in my hand either, but I preferred the intimacy of knives any day. That way I could see the fear in their eyes and feel their life drain out of their bodies.
My other skills, well, I could get close to just about anyone without them realizing that the fox was in the henhouse. And by the time they knew, it was already too late.
Placing the glass down, I drew in a breath. The other Dons must be passing word to their capos and soldiers. I would now be targeted for having her in my presence. There were many that wanted to make Carmine pay, many who wanted to watch him suffer at their hand. Leda was an easy way to make that happen. Some might kill her outright, send her head to Carmine’s prison cell.
Others might marry her off to their sons, so their worthless heirs might plant a brat in her belly and extinguish the D’Agostino bloodline altogether.
Some would want her to hurt, to pay for his crimes.
Me?
I wanted to make her submit to me in every way a woman submits to a man.
I wanted Carmine to know that his little girl was worshipping someone else, someone who would take her fears and craft them in a way that would have her crawling to me for protection instead of defying me.
That was my plan for his little girl, and unless I wanted to have others attempting to kill me, I needed to start executing my plan.
“Boss.”
I turned to find Rocco at the door, his bulky frame filling up the space. “What is it?”
“Guards are all in place,” he stated, his eyes piercing in the dim lighting.