“Guess who she goes to school with?” Franky says as he lifts his head and looks like something has just occurred to him.
I’m intrigued. My interest is piqued. After all, as I said this is my smart grandson.
“Dante and Dario Di Lorenzo.”
“Ah, now you’re saying something worth listening to. This is how you get a promotion. I knew you had it in you.”
Frances scoffs. “Don’t listen to him and his fake promises. You’ll never be made. It’s not possible. Ignore him and his bullshit, Franky, I’m warning you. He’ll get you killed with his nonsense.”
I wave my son off. “Once I’m Don, they won’t be able to stop us. You keep thinking on your feet. You will move up in our family.”
“The bullshit,” Frances fumes.
“Anyway, hello, Bethany, is it? Come sit. Tell me about your parents.”
I think I’ve just found the piece I’ve been looking for. I’m going to take Dante out of the equation. That will leave my pawn as the last and only option. This mulignon might be worth something after all.
Well done, Franky. Well done.
CHAPTER 37
Master NY
Gio
Three years later…
I walk out onto the catwalk above the training room. My gaze lands on Ny. She’s pissed at me.
“This should have been fixed weeks ago,” Jace murmurs beside me.
“Here you go telling me shit I already know. I like it when you’re quiet, you know that?”
He snorts. “Whatever. You miss her as much as I do. Fix it.”
I turn to look at him. He must have lost his mind. The smile at the corners of his lips gets him a pass. He’s right, I do miss her.
So much has changed. There are more eyes on me, I had to change the way I move. The Dollhouse has been a great success.
Nothing happens in New York or New Jersey that I don’t know about. Most of it has my hand moving through it. I’m not just the most valuable man in the room, I’m the most valuable man in the families.
Yet I’m still not a made man. Not even Romano was able to make that happen for me. It’s why I now own eighty percent of his businesses and he’s sleeping with the fishes.
His usefulness ran out a year ago. The Russians took care of him for me, keeping my hands clean on a made guy and granting me my Russian expansion.
I’d say it’s still a win. Where am I losing? My girl has forgotten I can’t always be there, and I have a target on my back. Riccardo isn’t as confident in discounting me. He’s back to trying to expose my weakness.
A weakness that’s not real. No matter how good I am at making it look otherwise. A doll is in danger of losing her life because I’m so good at making things look a certain way.
I had to hide Essence away until Ny calms the fuck down. If she finds her, she’s going to kill her. I can’t have that.
“I told you choosing Essence was going to be a problem. She looks too much like her.”
“Would you please shut the fuck up. I know that. I told you why I chose her. Did you not see the way Robby looked at Ny. I want those trucking yards and I’m not using Nyla to get them. Essence was necessary.”
“She was also disrespectful. This didn’t have to go this way. Ny’s not stupid. Yeah, those pictures were bullshit, but Essence likes fucking with Ny and she wants to fuck you.”
I pull a face and gesture with my hand for him to get away from me. “Can’t you go find someone else to annoy or just shut the fuck up, Jace?”
This is the one time I wish my mother would mind her own damn business over in Italy. Had I gotten to the pictures before she showed Ny, I wouldn’t be in this predicament. She knows Ny has a temper like fire.
“I can’t go another month without her talking to me. If I knew where you sent Essence, I’d kill her myself. Fix this, Gio.”
I get ready to snap, but Ny’s voice pulls my attention below. The sound makes my heart skip a beat. I have the chessboard set up with a bottle of wine waiting. I just want to spend time with her and talk. A month has been way too long. I need her.
“Ming, Kamiko, Alyona.” The girls move to stand around her as she calls them. “These are what true dolls look like. They’re what you are here to become. Forget the roller derby team they see out in the rink. That’s not who we are.
“You’re here to become trained assassins. A part of a team of assassins. A team,” she yells.
“Those men up there”—she points up to the catwalk Jace and I are standing on, acknowledging our presence for the first time—“they’re not your fuck toys and you will never get a chance to fuck either of them.