Page 75 of Blood on Ice

“He quit the force before we got married. But I mean, when I seduced him, he was a cop.”

“I’m telling Joe you said that,” Lucien said.

“Go ahead. It’s the truth.”

I could see how his family, especially Lucien and Dom, could scare the fuck out of anybody, but I liked them. I hadn’t expected that. I’d assumed Vito was some sort of anomaly, but they were all fucking charming.

“Can we figure out exactly what we’re going to do to eliminate Benito and everyone who’s taking up with him?” Vito asked. He was obviously itching to get on with planning the main event, not that I wasn’t, but I’d actually been enjoying myself talking to his family.

I reached over and laid a hand on his thigh. “We’ll get there.”

“Damn fucking right we will.”

“Patience has never been your gift, has it?” Dom asked.

“Fuck, no.”

“Such disrespect.”

“I’m sorry, Pops. I’m anxious. I want this done.”

“We all do,” Lucien said.

“Why don’t you take the floor, Dom.” Lucien motioned to Vito’s father.

“With the information we got out of Benito’s allies who were watching us at the arena, we know where he’s staying in the city, and we know most of the other key players.”

“Any way we can deal with them all at once?” Val asked.

“Possibly. We could stage the takedown at Benito’s house if we could make the others believe he’d summoned them there. That plan has a lot of chance to backfire if too much communication is made between the players. I don’t imagine Benito is the kind of guy who says things more than once or allows back-and-forth chitchat from the men who work for him, but it’s definitely a risk.”

“I don’t love it,” Lucien said. “But I think we could pull it off.”

“The other option is we lure Benito to a spot where he thinks he can take us. He’ll bring his key men with him, and we’ll be ready for them. We might not get them all, but we can track the others down.”

Val shook his head. “That’s too fucking risky.”

“What if you told him you were going to turn me in?” I asked.

Vito rose out of his chair. “Fuck no!”

I gestured for him to sit down. “It is an option.”

“You have a fucking game tonight.”

“After the game.”

“No. Anyway, he’d rather have us than have you.”

“But what if he thought he could get the whole package? Or what if he thought you were willing to make some kind of a deal?”

“I would never make a deal with him. We’re so much stronger,” Vito said.

Devil shook his head. “Benito’s crazy. He isn’t likely to use the logic, is he?”

“Yeah. You’re crazy, and you rarely use logic,” Angelo said.

“See. That’s what I mean.”

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