Page 37 of Savage Claim

“You’re angry with me,” the man said with a disappointed-sounding hum. “My apologies. I did call with more than just empty words.”

“Get on with it.”

“I want peace between us,” he said. “The Russian Syndicate and the Cosa Nostra do not need to be at odds with one another. We’ve coexisted in this city for decades, and I would like for that to continue now that my would-be usurper has been put down.”

“What would I get out of that?”

“Everyone wins,” Nikolai boasted. “No more blowing up casinos or burning down buildings. No getting in the way of each other’s money. That’s why I pulled my men back when we got word that you wanted the weapons cache, as a show of good faith from us.”

That cleared up a lot of confusion. “I’ll think about it,” I told Nikolai, “and I’ll let you know by the end of the week.”

“I look forward to hearing from you.”

CHAPTER 23

Lorenzo

“It seems too easy,” Damian said when I filled him in about the call. We were in the car, heading back to Long Island. The cache was set for auction in the following days; we had potential buyers, yes, but I liked casting as wide a net as I safely could. Until then, they would remain under lock and key in our New Jersey warehouse.

Isabella agreed with him. “I don’t know much about anything,” she said, “but I don’t see any of you handing over millions of potential dollars like that.”

She wasn’t altogether wrong. I certainly wouldn’t have given the weapons to anyone, even if I wanted to get on their good side. A discount, maybe, but to just hand something so valuable over? It was madness. Or idiocy. Or both.

“If it is a real offer, though,” Isabella said, “I would like you to think about it.” She reached across the console and slid her hand over my thigh, not in an attempt to seduce, but in order to seek out comfort. “It would be nice if I didn’t have to worry about you getting blown up every time you visited one of your businesses.”

She had a point. “I have some reservations,” I admitted, “but maybe I’ll let Nikolai earn my trust.”

Isabella smiled. “Thank you for considering it.”

For all the smiles and happiness that emanated from Isabella, by the time we reached home, my cousin was foaming at the mouth. “Have you lost your goddamn mind,cugino?” he barked the moment we came through the kitchen door.

I was going to punch whoever called Elio. I knew that this wasn’t going to go over well with him. “The Russian Syndicate wanted to get rid of Artem just as badly as we did.”

“So, why didn’t they?” he spat.

I leveled a look at him. “The same reasons no one in the Cosa Nostra would come after me directly,” I told him. “Whether we did it on purpose or not, we helped them out.”

Elio’s anger didn’t abate at all. “So, now we’rebestieswith them?”

Damian scoffed. “Of course not,” he said.

My cousin wheeled around on him. “Stay out of it,” he barked. “This is a family discussion, get it?”

The good-natured expression fell from Damian’s face, and his eyes slid away from Elio, staring at the wall ahead of him. Damian wasn’t going to leave me alone with Elio when he was this angry, but he had detached himself from the situation.

“Enough,” I said, getting Elio’s eyes back on me. They were wide and a touch wild, and he was going to punch me.

“Those motherfuckers almostkilledAmalia!”

“I know that.” Isabella put her hand on my shoulder, and I took a breath and tried to gentle my tone. “I will make sure ifanyof the remaining Syndicate was involved in the attack on the house, they will face consequences for it.”

Elio let out an angry snort like a raging bull. “We should wipe them all out,” he seethed.

I could see where he was coming from. If Artem and Santinodidmanage to make it out of the inferno we’d left them in, I wouldn’t stop until they were nothing but agony and ash for what they had done to Isabella.

But I had to be able to look at this in the long-term. “Being allies with the Russian Syndicate could be bene?—”

Elio’s meaty fist swung for my face, and luckily, rage made him slow. I was able to block it and push Isabella behind me so that she wasn’t in range. “You’ve gone soft,” Elio said. His voice was like a deep, angry growl. His eyes landed on Isabella, who was peeking at him over my shoulder, and his expression twisted into something hateful, and I heard Isabella suck in a breath behind me.

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