I always knew Enzo and Marco would betray me. How they went about it had been a mystery up to this point, but I should have known the Novikov Bratva would have been involved. What surprised me was Andre’s involvement. It wasalmostgenius. Getting me to marry Andre’s daughter, as if he thought marriage would soften me and would have made me less likely to guess what game he was playing at.
Marco and the Russian exchanged a few pleasantries before Marco left. Probably on his way back to the airport to get back to Las Vegas.
Good.
I needed him in my territory before he realized we were onto him. It would make him easier to catch.
Elio signaled to me when it looked like Marco was gone. We silently moved over to where the fucker was still standing, smoking a cigarette, the file still tucked under his arm.
I wrapped my arms around the fucker from behind, squeezing one hand around his neck as Elio grabbed the file.
“What is this?” Elio asked. “A wedding present for the Novikov’s heir? Why don’t we take this off your hands?”
“You scream,” I said to the struggling man, “and I’ll break your neck. Got me?”
The fucker nodded.
“Good boy.”
“Please. I’ll give you whatever you want.”
I laughed. “I only want your phone.”
Elio patted the man down until he found it in the front pocket.
“What’s the code?”
The man hesitated.
I twisted him around until he faced me, moving my hand back on his neck. The fucker was about several inches shorterthan me and about fifty pounds lighter. Killing him would be easy.
“Do you know who I am?”
“Lo Spietato,” came the man’s whispered reply. Good to know my reputation had made its way to New York. I indicated the phone in Elio’s hand. “Five-three-three-seven.”
I waited for Elio to test it out. He nodded, telling me it was the right code.
I grabbed the knife tucked inside my shirt. The fucker’s throat was cut before he could blink, blood pooling out from the skin. He was dead before he knew it. That was my mercy.
“Let’s get rid of the body,” I said, just as Elio looked through the files.
He looked up at me. “The location of our warehouses, shipping ports, and the middlemen we use for transport. A lot of the information here Marco shouldn’t have known about.”
I nodded. “There are more traitors in my ranks.”
“Looks like it.”
“We’ll weed them out. For now, we got a dead Russian to bury and a wedding to crash.”
I took Elio in,wearing the same suit I was. Black on black. Perfect for the occasion.
Andre and his family had already been in New York for the past three days, preparing for the wedding. Valentino was in Chicago, and by the time this trip ended, I was going to know if Emilio was someone I could trust or not. As much as I could trust someone who wasn’t my family, that was.
“You’re a crazy fucker, you know that?” Elio grumbled, fastening the bomb to his waist. It was small enough that hissuit jacket would hide it as we made our way through the hotel entrance.
I grinned at him. “Crazy or bold?”
He rolled his eyes, patting himself to make sure the blades were tucked into place.