“You turn your back on your brother, you get the bullet. Or in Cosimo’s case, the Cutter’s knife.”
The banter along with the drinking kept going around me, but my mind was elsewhere. Enzio Lanza had murdered his twin brother, his capo, the leader of his family, in cold blood, and the reason? Cosimo Lanza was the one lacing the crack among several other sabotage missions of their family gun deals.
I couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact that Cosimo was the one sabotaging his family from the inside. He was many things but a traitor? He ran the Lanzas for years, very successful ones, and he preached about family everywhere he went. Why the fuck would he destroy everything he worked so hard for?
Do it. Don’t let it suck you until there’s nothing left.
His encouragement behind my decision to leave the MC rang in my ear. From the last two meets I had with him, he was different, but in a way I never felt we were so similar. I could tell what was going through his head because I had the same thoughts. I fell in love and wanted to protect my woman more than anything even when it meant losing everything.
Cosimo must have felt the same way with his wife and son. He wanted to protect them from the life before the enemies and outside threats. Maybe, he, too, wanted out.
He wouldn’t have betrayed his own blood for it, though. He would have found a replacement—he had a fucking twin underboss for fuck’s sake—and left, just like I planned to. He wasn’t stupid. Traitors never survived. He needed to live for his wife and son, who were now taken as fucking property by his brother.
Cosimo Lanza couldn’t be the traitor.
“I beg to differ,” Cameron said at Church.
“He said someone was after his seat. You should have seen the look in his eyes when I mentioned betrayal. He had someone in mind. He was planning on taking them down. They must have found out and said whatever fucking lies to the family and Enzio to off him before Cosimo killed them,” I said. “Fuck, it could be Enzio himself.”
She glanced among the brothers and then at the table. “Or Cosimo simply lied to your face to protect his ass.”
“I think I know when I’m being lied to. I’m your Prez. Don’t forget your place. You weren’t there, VP. You’d have known.”
“I wasn’t there because you sent me to get intel from Alfarez.”
“Did you?”
She pursed her lips. “Nothing useful as I anticipated. Which leads us back to square one. Wrench. Beth and he are planning to kill me and hijack our chapter,Prez. We must do something to stop them. Now.”
“The last thing I want to do is put you in danger or let any threat whatsoever out there not taken care of, and I want to find Beth more than anyone, but something is fucking off.”
“Why? Because of your Mob friend? It doesn’t matter if he was the traitor or someone else was. Either way, the sabotage is over, and we’re back on business. It has nothing to do with Beth. We need to find that woman yesterday.”
“Claws have a point, Prez,” Big Gun suddenly said. The other brothers agreed.
“Can you put my idea to a vote?” she asked.
I understood how she felt, having a target on her back. I did my best to make her feel safe, but after what happened to her and her sister by the hands of Roar, Beth and Rush, my own family, I didn’t think there was anything I could do to convince her she didn’t have to worry and I’d take care of her.
She needed the control. For her, I’d always been more than willing to give it to her. But not when it could destroy her.
“In the matter of raiding rivals in Detroit patches, what do you say? I’ll vote first.” I cocked a brow at her. “Nay.”
She swore under her breath. “Well, yea.”
“Yea,” Skid followed. My Road Captain had become her fucking bitch. Ever since she saved his boy, whatever she said, he followed with a yea.
“Nay,” Owl voted.
We all stared at Big Gun. He took his time as usual before he spoke. “Sorry, Prez. I’m with Claws on this one. Let’s get our knives wet. Yea.”
CHAPTER 40
Dusty
I lost the next vote, too. If she had to go through with her plan, I needed to be with her on that raid, but it was a fucking unanimous vote that I shouldn’t be there. They said if we found Beth, I could do something unpredictable that would compromise the raid, and Prez shouldn’t get his hands dirty in the first place. The perks of being a fucking king in a democracy. I didn’t get to protect my ol’ fucking lady while she fought my battles. Battles that could be the end of us if Beth wasn’t playing with Wrench.
Ginger came running through the clubhouse. “They’re back.”