Page 42 of Ruthless Sinner

This guy was the Toby to my dad’s Vincent. I’d rarely seen Dad without him in all the years I’d been alive. “Of course.” Just like Toby, nothing ruffled him.

“Is this because of the Prestons?” I demanded. “Is this why Vincent’s playing monkey in the middle with a bunch of packages? Huh?”

Nobody knew who had killed Dmitri Preston, or caused the disappearance of Alexander Preston. I had a feeling Vincent knew and I’d always thought he’d dealt with the matter quietly to avoid a fuss. But if it was his reason for this warmongering, if he’d gotten my girl kidnapped…

Dad stood up and I could feel the temperature in the room drop by a few degrees. “Stop throwing a temper tantrum like a child,” he hissed.

“Oh, because you would’ve been calm if Mom had been taken,” I snapped.

“Yes, I would have,” Dad snapped right back. “Because destructive anger would not help her. Anger should be like a knife—sharp and cold. Not this petty whining.”

“I’m notwhiningyou crusty son of a bitch,” I snarled. I jabbed at the photographs, the photographs showing a disoriented and tied up Kennedy. A Kennedy who, for now—just for now—had all of her limbs. “You put my girlfriend in danger. And I want you to take it, andme, seriously!”

“There are other girls,” Dad said dismissively. “You of all people should know that.”

“She’smine. I don’t want any other girls, I wanther. I finally settle down with someone, that thing you’re always telling me to do, and you don’t care? You don’t care that she’s innocent?”

“She’s not family.”

“She could be.” The moment I said it, I knew it was true. I wanted Kennedy forever.

Dad scoffed, disbelieving. “She is not that special.”

“Mom was that special you fucking hypocrite!”

“Okay,” Vincent drawled carefully, inserting himself in between us. I hadn’t even heard him come into the room. “How about some deep breaths? From the sound of all the fucking yelling I thought Dante was up here.”

Dante and Dad were usually the ones going at it with hammer and tongs, it was true. Until they’d decided to just not really talk at all. The two of them had expertly avoided each other at the wedding, always managing to be on opposite sides of the room.

“Kennedy’s been taken by the Petrovs,” I snapped at Vincent. “That’s what happened. Snatched right out from under us at the goddamn wedding.”

“Brazen,” Vincent murmured. He picked up the photographs and examined them. “They’re sending a message, all right. They can get to us anywhere—and they don’t respect us.”

“We need to find them,” I said. “We’re not going to let them hurt her.”

Vincent drummed his fingers on the desk and looked at Dad.

Dad shook his head. “I think we should let them kill her.”

“They’re not going tokillher,” I growled. “They’re going to chop her up into little pieces.”

“Then we let them do that,” Dad replied, cold as ever. “She is not family and we cannot let the Petrovs, or anyone, lead us around by our balls like this. We can spin this in our favor.”

“Undermining the Chinese by freeing their workers… kidnapping a Russo girl and killing her…” Vincent nodded. “Yeah, it’ll look like they’re unraveling. It would further the idea that they’re out of control. I think the families would unite somewhat and go against them.”

“This isinsane,” I snapped. “You can’t fuckin’ destroy the Petrovs.”

“No, of course not. But you can cripple them. Weaken them.”

“And in turn,” my father said with delight, “you strengthen yourself. The Italians once owned this city. I want to see to it that we own it again.”

“Not at the expense of Kennedy,” I said. “She’s not a pawn to be sacrificed.”

“Everyone’s a pawn to be sacrificed,” Dad countered.

I looked over at Vincent. “Come on, what if it was Marla? You wouldn’t let anything happen to her no matter how fucking ‘strategically important’ it was. You set me up with this package deal and you didn’t even tell me everything about it, and now my girl’s going to pay the price for it? No fucking way. Stop being the mobcapofor two seconds and be my damn brother.”

“The family business comes before an individual. Marla knows that. She knows that better than anyone.”

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