Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 108119 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 541(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108119 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 541(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
“Now…” Louis nodded, his expression inscrutable. “You need a replacement.”
I swallowed the knot of anxiety in my throat. “We’re always stronger as five families. They’ll keep trying to enter into the fold every time, unless we replace them with someone stronger, scarier, more…” I shrugged. “Royal.”
“So that’s where they come in?” Nixon talked like the Sinacores weren’t even in the room, arrogant bastard. I loved him for it. “Why couldn’t we just call a hit on every last De Lange?”
“A massacre?” I nodded. “Yeah, we could do that, and then our own people fear us more than they already do, which isn’t necessary. Let the new family come in and create a reputation for themselves, let them create the bloodbath. We call a commission when it’s done, ordain the new arm of the Sinacore Family into the Cosa Nostra, and the problem is officially solved.”
Dante raised his hand. “Not to put a damper on world domination here, and no disrespect…” The kid just oozed disrespect, but whatever. “But they have no boss.”
Louis shifted in his seat.
It was common knowledge that they’d been without a boss for years.
Because they’d been inactive.
They’d been laying low in Sicily, they’d been a figurehead.
“It’s time to wake the beast,” I said with deathly calm.
Louis’s jaw tightened, the men sitting stood.
“It’s time,” I said again. “To remind the rest of the world who the Sinacore Family is, and what they will do to those who defy them.”
I reached for a glass of wine and twisted it in my fingers. “To answer your question, they have a boss, a powerful one that will combine two families who desperately need it.”
Sergio stilled.
I could see the shift in Chase’s stance.
Nixon gave me a curious look.
“Andrei Petrov,” I whispered, “is their heir.”
The drop of a single pin would have sounded like an explosion in that room.
So, I lifted the glass high. “To the new Cosa Nostra, may she be as strong as she once was, to the new arm of the five families, The Sinacore—Petrovs.”
“Fuck,” Tex muttered under his breath.
As we toasted to the families.
I knew.
We’d just done something we could not undo.
We had taken the oldest family in mafia history.
Poked them.
And forced them to rise again.
May the De Langes rest in peace.
Because we’d just ended the war.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
Andrei
It was starting.
Don’t ask me how I knew.
It was in my blood.
I was born of violence.
A son of war.
I felt it in my bones as I slowly put on a pair of jeans I would later have to toss in the trash because of all the blood, and paired it with a black V-Neck.
She was sitting up in bed watching me.
I let her.
And I wordlessly went over to my dresser and grabbed two knives, shoving them in the back of my jeans, another in my boot.
My Glock was loaded.
I wasn’t sure how much I would need.
I wasn’t sure how this would even happen.
All I knew was that something was happening.
“Get dressed.” I didn’t recognize the sadness in my own voice as I stared her down. “I’m going to escort you to the SUV, and you’re going to get in, and then you’re going to promise me that you won’t do anything until I come for you.”
She nodded her head quickly, jumped out of bed, and ran across the room, throwing herself into my arms. “Tell me it’s going to be okay.”
“It’s going to be fine,” I lied, kissing her hair. “Pack a small bag just in case, you never know, this may be me being dramatic.” It wasn’t, she didn’t need to know that.
She was De Lange.
I could lie all I wanted.
But we took records of everything.
Phoenix knew.
Dante knew.
Which meant El, his wife, knew.
Too many people knew.
People I couldn’t kill.
People I couldn’t control.
People that were most likely done lying to their own blood, especially after discovering what the De Langes were doing. And how they were supplying me.
Alice pulled away and ran across the hall.
My phone buzzed in my pocket.
It was Tex.
Tex: Shoot on sight. De Lange bloodline. Men. Women. Children. Official cleanse of the family line.
My stomach sank.
It wasn’t like the Italians to do that. Kids? I was obviously growing a heart. Then again, there was a reason for the warning text, it would be sent out to every family member, and if the De Lange adults were smart, they’d hide their kids until the cleansing was over. That’s one thing the mafia did not do.
Kill orphans.
Tex, as the Capo, would place them with other families, they would be forced to pledge allegiance to them for life.
But they would live, unless their parents decided to be selfish pricks and use them.
Phoenix texted next.
Phoenix: You at the club?
Me: Where else would I be? Disneyland?
Phoenix: Ah, he has jokes.
Me: He’s happy or WAS.
Phoenix: We’re on our way… have you made your choice?
Me: Not that easy.