I parked underground, below the large new skyscraper that housed my club, Stonewood Enterprises, and other real estate the family had acquired. The building rivaled the tallest in the city and made a statement to all.
I swiped my key card and entered an elevator with marbled tiling. It shot straight to the exclusive club doors and opened to all the luxury this city had to offer. Velvet seating trimmed with gold flanked bars that shimmered with gold molding.
I’d dressed in the traditional Italian attire of slacks and loafers. The shoes clipped across the floor as I stalked toward the table of men I called family.
Dante’s arms spread across the back of the booth, while Bastian had pulled over one of the lounge chairs. He had two men behind him, security that always trailed him now that Mario had flown to New York. Cade was on a laptop across from Dante.
It wasn’t lost on me that no one else was in the club area. The music still played quietly, but my bartenders were gone and the staff that normally buzzed about the patrons was nonexistent. Across from Bastian, one other chair sat empty.
He pointed. “Take a seat, brother.”
The monster that had been quiet for a little while now stirred.
When Bastian saw me scan the two men behind him, he said, “I hope it doesn’t come to that. Should I be concerned that it will?”
I didn’t answer him. I couldn’t honestly tell him one way or the other yet. I kicked the chair to the side and sat down. “I’m here for Cade’s information, not to share mine.”
“You’re here to do what I say,” Bastian replied so fast, his voice whipped through the air and everyone jumped to his attention.
Good, Bastian was starting to learn how to hold the reins of his power.
He would need to. And I wanted that for him, for us all as a family, as long as we could get through this first.
“What is it you’re saying I do then, Bastian?” I leaned back in my seat, put my hands in my pockets, and let my legs fall open. I wasn’t here to fight. Not yet, at least.
“Tell me where Katie is.”
I didn’t look toward Dante, but I was sure he’d figured out by now that I’d been the one to knock him unconscious. He knew those drugs as well as I did, and we were some of the only people who had access to them.
“So, you know what I know, then?” I looked to Cade, and he winced like he was trying his best to stay quiet and not override his brother.
“We know enough,” said Bastian. “You took her last night. I don’t know if that was to save her from us, to save her from them, or to dispose of her as a complication to the family, which she inevitably will be if she’s still alive. Where do your loyalties lie?” Bastian asked, narrowing his eyes at me.
“Where they need to lie,” I replied, not at all in the mood to defend my actions.
One of the men behind Bastian snarled as if I should be shaking and begging already. From the bulge at his side, I knew he had extra magazines from the glock he was probably hiding in his bulky jacket coat pocket. He was too big to know how to use his body. He’d be all force and try to swing his gun as a last-ditch effort.
Guy Two was more reserved, hadn’t cracked an expression, hadn’t glanced my way at all. He seemed far away, so far away I kept my attention on his behavior. He jerked when he heard movement to his left and looked like a man ready to jump at a pin dropping. I’d seen the look hundreds of times now, and I’d killed about the same amount of people for that reason.
He was a mole.
I’d take his life by the end of our meeting. I was sure of it.
“You can’t know priorities because you don’t have all the information. I’m the only one privy to all that,” Bastian said through a sigh.
I shook my head at him. Bastian was still struggling with his father handing over the family to him. “An underboss can have all that information too. Cade has most of it already with what he pulls for you.”
“The family never worked that way,” Bastian countered, like he couldn’t burden us all with what we knew already.
“Our family—between Cade, you, and me—always did, man. You know it, I know it, and he knows it too.” I nodded at Cade.
“You shouldn’t have taken her without consulting us, then, Rome.” Bastian pinched the bridge of his nose. “How do I explain that to everyone? You keep acting without my consent.”
“You don’t, because you don’t need to explain to anyone anymore.”
“I did, and I still do. My father—” Bastian stopped. He knew his father shouldn’t be a part of this at all. “It doesn’t matter. I need to keep this family in line.”
His resolve to finally set an example had Dante, Cade, and his muscle on the edge of their seats. We wanted to see if he’d make the call. It was the right decision.