He didn’t flinch at my hard words. “Three of our spots in the Lower East were hit last night right as they were closing. Cash drawers were taken. Two guards killed.”
Fuck me. Adrian was moving fast. I turned and put my fist through the nearest window, the glass cutting my knuckles on impact. I barely felt the pinprick of the cuts as the glass slid through my skin. Bitterness ran through me. In just a few days while I was distracted by Leda, Adrian had managed to take advantage of my absence.
My plans were falling apart at the seams, and there seemed to be nothing I could do.
No.I refused to give up. Not now. I might not have been the pick Adrian and the traitors wanted to take Cosimo’s place, but the old man wanted me there. No one was going to stop me.
“Double the guards,” I said, not bothering to stop the steady flow of blood dripping from my fist. “And put out the word. From this moment on, Adrian is nowpersona non grata. If anyone, and I fucking mean anyone, is caught working on his orders, they’ll answer to me personally.”
“Yes, Don,” Emil said. “I’ll put the word out. Anything else?”
“Get a list of who’s still loyal. Tell the Lower East capos to be ready for war.”
I want Adrian’s head on a platter.I thought bitterly.I want all of the traitor capos dead, and their bodies hanging off the Brooklyn Bridge.
He had pushed me too far, or maybe I had let him get away with shit that I should have stopped months ago. I wanted peace, but trying to keep the peace was proving to be nothing more than a losing battle.
Rocco held out a towel to me. I took it and nodded in gratitude. “That’ll be all. Get to it. We don’t have much time.”
“Yes, Don.”
Emil took his leave, and I was alone on the deck of the yacht with Rocco. I couldn’t help but glance at the city towards the direction of my penthouse. Anger dissolved into something else, something akin to weariness.
I knew I wasn’t the Don that these fuckers wanted. But now that I was in the position, I wasn’t about to lose it. Adrian thought he could just run his fucking mouth, and replace me at the first sign of weakness?
No, he just kicked the hornet’s nest.
I wanted to kill him. I wanted to put him in a shallow grave and piss on his corpse. There would be no turning back now.
“Let’s go.” I said to Rocco.
“Where?”
“City. We’re going to sit down with Adrian and talk terms of his surrender.”
Chapter 54
Lucas
As Rocco drove me into the city, my cell rang. I looked down at the caller ID and felt my blood pressure spike.
You little shit.
“Don Valentino,” Adrian said cheerily when I answered. “I trust you got my message?”
“Yeah, I got your fucking message,” I growled as the car weaved through the crowded streets of Manhattan. “Funny thing. I was just about to giveyoua call. We need to talk. Face to face.”
I wasn’t surprised when he chuckled into the phone. “Of course, Don. I move at your command. But I just wanted to say that I did warn you about what would happen if you didn’t get rid of the D’Agostino bitch.”
You shut your fucking mouth.My fist balled.
“What I do in my personal life is none of your business.”
“None of my business?” Adrian asked. “I warned you that you brought down the wrath of Carmine D’Agostino down on our collective heads the same day you bought her. But you didn’t listen. And now, I hear that Enzo’s been murdered, places in the Lower East were hit, and God knows what else happened since then. Carmine is pissed, and he won’t stop until you bleed.”
Carmine? Or you?
“Are you trying to tell me that I’m not doing my fucking job?” I asked hotly, hating that he could easily get under my skin in a short time.