Page 326 of Sinfully Savage Mafia

I dropped the ball once by not calling Matteo.

He needs to hear this firsthand.

I’ve been so focused on making a name for myself that I forgot the whole reason why I’m in this position in the first place.

I need to do what’s right for the family, not for myself.

Every time I lose sight of that, something else crumbles.

My chest tightens as I think of Chella back at my place, wondering where the hell I am.

What would she say if she knew I had her beloved brother laid out in my trunk?

I scrub a hand down the front of my face.

I can’t think about that now.

I need to focus!

I pull my car into the garage and dart up the stairs, bypassing the elevator completely.

Somehow, it feels wrong to take it.

Especially now.

I throw open the door to the apartment to find Dante lounging on the couch, flipping through Netflix shows. “Where’s Chella?” I say in a low voice.

He nods toward the bathroom. “Getting ready for that charity thing. She’s been in there for over an hour.”

“Good,” I say. “Come into my office. We need to call Matteo.”

Dante narrows his eyes at me. “Where the hell have you been? And whose blood is all over your shirt and hands?”

“Frankie’s.”

“Fuuuuck,” he breathes. “This should be a fun call.”

I close the door behind us and open the lid of my laptop. Then I pull up Matteo’s number and make the call. His face flashes on the screen a minute later and he looks hella tense. I brace myself for another lashing because there’s no way I’ll escape his wrath right now.

“Did you take care of it?” he asks, not even bothering with a quick greeting.

“Not exactly,” I say. I recount the whole story for my brothers, including Frankie’s whole sob story and then one-hundred-and-eighty-degree about-face that confirmed his revenge plot against me.

Us.

It doesn’t really matter.

He fucking crossed the line.

“I hammered him pretty bad then threw him in my trunk,” I say, folding my arms over my chest.

“What the hell are you gonna do with him in your trunk?” Matteo shouts.

“I was trying to come up with a different plan,” I say through gritted teeth. “I didn’t want to have to kill anyone else, don’t you get that? I wanted to solve this without any more blood!”

“But you couldn’t do that, could you?” Matteo sneers. “And now we’re going to war with the fucking Volkovs? How in the hell did you let this happen, Roman?”

“Look, I made a mistake! A lot of them! But I’m trying to fix it all!”

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