Page 49 of Devil's Deal

Clearing my throat to get their attention, I said, “I didn’t lie to you before. I came to Takoda for personal reasons.”

“So you picked up a contract since you got here?” Nico asked in that same soft voice.

“I wouldn’t say that, exactly.” I turned and smirked at Dante. “What do you think? Is looking into a missing person for Cory a job that these men need to be concerned about?”

Interest flared in Dante’s face, but he quickly masked his reaction. I didn’t blame him. He’d sworn an oath to this Family, so it wouldn’t do him any good to show curiosity in something that concerned me when I was obviously on their shit list. “I wouldn’t think so. No,” he answered my question.

Vin pffted again. “That’s the owner of that strange-ass hotel you’re staying at, right? Since we had to do another clean up over there, I’m thinking we need to investigate the him a little harder.”

I gripped the arms of the chair to keep myself from diving across the room and putting him against the wall. “That won’t be necessary. He had a little roach problem, and I took care of it. But he does have another situation that I think you might be interested in.”

“And what’s that?” Rocco asked. He pointed at Dante. “His face just twisted up all weird. What’s that about?”

Honestly, I didn’t know why he’d have a reaction to this. I hadn’t said a word about Cory’s nephew to him. I’d find out later. If I got my way—which I intended to—Dante and I would be seeing a lot of each other. “Cory’s nephew, Emilio, went missing four years ago. He was only eighteen.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Nico said, folding his hands together on his desk. “But I don’t know why that concerns me.”

“Because his father is a Pasini soldier.”

Rocco barked out a laugh. “What do we care about those penises?”

Vin pinched the bridge of his nose and muttered, “For fuck’s sake, Rocco.”

With a quick check over my shoulder, I saw Dante fighting back a smile. I turned back around and focused on Nico. “You know what’s interesting? In the time I was running surveillance like you asked, I noticed that the Pasini’s seem to take a lot of liberties in your territory.”

“Explain,” Vin barked.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “It seems the rumors are wrong. I’ve heard it said several times over the years that Rocco grew up to be a hothead, but apparently, you’re the one who needs to calm the fuck down.”

Rocco turned to Nico, gesturing at me. “See? Did you hear that? I keep telling you he’s gonna have a heart attack or something if he doesn’t get a grip.” He looked past me to Dante and pointed at me again. “You heard that, right?”

Nico sighed. “Vin is usually completely levelheaded. It must be your charming presence that has him all wound up, Romeo.” He thrummed his fingers against the top of his desk, the cool mask of indifference slipping. “Why do I get the feeling you were going to request a meeting even if I hadn’t had Dante bring you in?”

I tapped my temple. “Because you’re smart.” Holding up my hands in surrender, I said, “It was disrespectful of me not to reach out to you yesterday, Don Buccelli. It was disrespectful, but I’m not used to answering to anyone. At the very least, I owed you a thank you for letting Dante take care of clean-up. Cory was shaken up from his wholealmost-dyingordeal, and I was so focused on him that I screwed up.”

“The least you could have done was answer my phone calls.”

“Again, I’m very sorry. I turned my phone off and was focusing on Cory.” Leaning forward, with my elbows on my knees and my hands clasped in front of me, I continued, “Listen to what I’m saying, Nico. I’m telling you that I’m staying for personal reasons. I’m not hiding the fact that it’s for Cory, which means you know exactly where to find him and how much he means to me. I know that information in anyone else’s hands would be a death sentence, but I trust you. I trust everyone in this room.

“He needs help finding his nephew. He owns that hotel, so he’s not going anywhere. That means I’m not going anywhere. You know I’ve never gotten involved in any Family business. I take a hit, I do my job, and I move on. I stayed out of Jersey to make sure that my job never touched your Family. But now I need your help.”

“Just like when you were a kid, huh? It seems like you’re always needing something from us,” Vin said with a sneer. Nice of him to throw my childhood trauma in my face. “But what are we getting out of the deal?”

“Me. I’ll clean up the riffraff for you.”

“Why should we trust you?” Nico asked.

“Because I’ll take him,” I said, hooking a thumb back over my shoulder.

Vin shook his head, hard and aggressive. “The hell you will. Get the fuck out of here. We don’t need you, and we’re not sending one of our soldiers to babysit you.”

Finally, amusement flashed in the cold depths of Nico’s eyes.I had him. “Vin’s right. You can’t have Dante, but”—he swiveled his chair toward Rocco, then forward—“you can take him.”

“Rocco?” Vin and I asked at the same time.

Rocco smirked. “You heard him.”

Vin growled in frustration. “Why?” he demanded. “Why should we help him?”

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