“I was able to get it cleaned up.” Then he hit Play, and we all fell silent as the video came to life in full color and sound.
The image was dark, and we watched from where Lauralee must have stood in the hallway, through a door cracked no more than an inch. Ben was partially in view. Another man, one we couldn’t see, spoke. That was as far as we’d gotten before. I focused as it continued to play, weighing each word for insight into what we were up against.
“Yeah, I got it. An eye for an eye,” Ben said.
“Get the job done by the next commission. We need to be very careful in the timing so that the murder is pinned to Joey.”
“I’ll get it taken care of.”
“I mean it, Ben.” The other person jabbed his finger into Ben’s barrel chest. “Don’t fuck this up like the last job. I want my old man dead.”
The other man leaned forward, and we got a clear enough view of his face before the video cut off—Lauralee must have fled. Guido Amato, underboss and son to Leo, the Amato family’s boss, had ordered his father’s murder.
“Fuck.” Stefano said what we were all thinking. “No wonder they needed to get this back.”
Nico flicked the switches, and the lights returned. “The next commission was proposed by the Tucci Family to include the Five Families and the three in New York, to be held on December sixteenth, in three days.”
“He planned a coup,” I growled between clenched teeth, shocked by the enormity of the situation. I was so lucky that Summer hadn’t been killed. “Where is Guido now?” We needed to know. His desperation to get to her had to have been driving him to drastic measures. What she had could unravel everything he’d planned.
“Because of the Tucci family’s prior dealings with Ivan Pavlov, we’ve got a guy reporting to us from within the family. Guido hasn’t been seen lately. My guess is he’s already here.” Nico was the one to respond.
“It’s time to talk to Dante Morelli,” Max said. “He’ll have more intel.”
“What about Mia Tucci?” Summer leaned forward, the bag of peas falling to the couch. “Could she have been talking about Guido being here?”
“It makes the most sense. I think she was promised to him, but we’ll confirm when we talk to Dante,” Max replied. “We all know Joey would rather have aligned his family with the Morellis and not the Amatos.”
“We can’t wait around.” I clenched my fists at my sides, needing action. “The longer Guido is out there, the more desperate he’ll become. Let’s send a copy of the video to his father, Leo, the Amato boss, and also lure Guido out.”
“I’ll take care of sending the video,” Nico said.
“That leaves flushing Guido out,” I pushed.
“What about at one of the clubs? Use me as bait,” Summer said quietly.
Terror sliced through me at the thought of her being in harm’s way. “The hell we will!”
It took a good fifteen minutes to calm down after Summer’s suggestion of using her as bait, which would have put herself and our child at risk. Asinine. I wouldn’t allow it—but when I said that, I had five angry women converging on me. The guys intervened, shooting me pissed-off glances. Max hissed to “fix it” before I realized the problem was that I’d saidallow—clearly a trigger word—again. Goddamn it, I knew better. Breanna used to box my ears when I said shit like that to her.
After I’d apologized for my “idiotic”—their choice of adjective—comment, they calmed down enough to rescind chopping off my balls and handing them to me: vicious, every last one of them. I secretly loved it but refused to admit anything of the sort after the threat to my manhood.
Nico walked back into the room, phone in hand. No one said a word as he set it on the table, the mute button activated. “I’ve got Dante Morelli on the phone.” He hit the button and spoke. “Marco, Max, Stefano, and Luc are here, Dante.”
“Luc? Where’s Enzo?”
“He’s around, just not here. Luc is the soon-to-be boss of the Brambilla family,” Nico clarified.
“Dante,” Max said, “we’ve worked well together in the past. The Amato family is cause for concern. As a show of good faith, we’re willing to trade information. One of the Amato soldiers showed up here, threating one of ours. We took care of him. Have you heard anything about Guido?”
“The Amato family is a problem. But so are the Tuccis,” Dante said with a heavy sigh. “From what I’ve heard, Guido is in the wind. He might already be in Chicago.”
“That’s what we thought,” Max said. “Is there an arranged marriage in place for Mia Tucci and Guido?”
“Nothing finalized, but I’m pretty sure a contract was started between Mia and Guido. She’s in the wind too. No one has seen her.”
I glanced at Summer. Her lips were pressed into a straight line, and she shook her head. Max caught the movement and didn’t say anything about Mia warning Summer. The connection between Mia and whoever was “already there” must have been because of the marriage contract between her and Guido. That explained why she knew he was in town.
“I will give you some advice on Guido,” Dante said. “He’s acting outside of his jurisdiction. What I mean is that Leo doesn’t know about whatever he’s currently doing.”