Page 82 of The Proposal

“You better believe I am. I can’t fix this shit until I know what’s broken.” It’s the unknown that concerns me the most. I need to know what this fucker is up to, and with whom.

When he hands me the bolt cutters, I grasp them and apply pressure to the padlock’s shackle, forcing it to snap apart.

“Well, that was easy enough,” he says.

“Don’t underestimate my devilishly good looks for weakness; my brute strength is capable of crushing anything in my path.”

“Noted,” he retorts with a smug grin.

After removing the lock, I reach for the door handle, only to have Romeo grab my elbow simultaneously. My eyes move from his hand to his face, and I don’t need words; my expression is clear.

“Let me go in first, boss. What if it’s a trap?”

Blowing out an exasperated breath, I reluctantly step back. It’s his job to keep me safe, and he takes his position seriously. I need to respect that.

He flicks on the torch on his phone and enters, while I stand at the doorway and watch. From here, the majority of the space looks empty.

Romeo lifts his phone higher, shining it in the air. “Shit, there’s camera’s in here.”

Honestly, I don’t give a fuck about that now. Even if we find nothing, I want Edoardo out of theFamiglia,effective immediately. I’m done placating him.

I no longer care that he was my father’s closest friend. I can’t have people around me that I don’t trust. His inability to mention the ransacking of his house and then to flat-out lie about having renovations done when he was called out, not to mention having this place. None of it adds up.

I enter the warehouse and flip on the lights. He can know that I’m here … let him try and explain his way out of this one.

The warehouse stretches out before me, three-quarters of it vacant, but something large and draped in a black material lurks at the back.

My footsteps echo against the cold concrete as I move towards it. I pause when I spot the thick layer of dust coating the cloth. Whatever’s under there hasn’t been touched in a while.

My heart plummets, and my breath catches as I grip the black fabric and tear it off. Beneath it lie four pallets of neatly stacked tinned Italian tomatoes … the same tins we use to smuggle our shipments of drugs from Italy. Is this part of the cargo that went missing?

The fury that’s now boiling within me is best described as a searing heat spreading through my chest as the full weight of his betrayal and everything this represents sinks in.

“Is this what I think it is?” Romeo asks.

“Open one of these tins while I have a look around,” I growl, kicking one of the pallets in frustration.

Romeo pulls out a knife and cuts through the thick plastic wrap as I move towards the door on the left.

When I step into the small office space, the air feels thick with tension, and each breath I take is sharp and ragged. My pulse pounds in my ears, drowning out everything else, as a burning rage churns inside me.

As I move towards the desk, the walls seem to be closingin on me. My mind feels scrambled. I had an inkling Edoardo was up to no good, and my gut was right, but I never anticipated that things would run this deep. I have a sick feeling that this is just the tip of the iceberg.

My hands tremble as my fists clench and unclench with the need to strike something. That darkness deep inside—the one I manage to keep at bay the majority of the time—is now bubbling to the surface. Someone is going to die tonight, and it sure as fuck won’t be me.

I’m pacing back and forth as I wait for my men to arrive. Edoardo obviously knew the jig was up the moment we walked in here. He must’ve been tipped off through the cameras he had rigged inside the warehouse because not long after we arrived, Romeo got a ping from the tracker.

Edoardo was on the move.

But he wasn’t headed here or going back to his place. The fucker was making a break for it and heading out of town. If that doesn’t scream guilt, I don’t know what does.

Romeo and some of my men are en route to get him now. I’ve instructed them to wait until he’s out of the city limits, where there is no CCTV. He is going to disappear tonight, and I don’t want this coming back to haunt me or theFamiglia.

I’m waiting for a truck to arrive to shift the drugs. It’s only half of what went missing. I have no idea what happened to the rest of it, but I intend to find out.

Did he split it with whoever he hired to hijack the shipments? Or does Stefano have something to do with this? Is that why Edoardo’s number was on his recent call list? Have they been in bed together from the very beginning?

My mind races as I try to remember who gave us the intelthat it was the Mortellis who hijacked our drugs. Logic tells me it was Edoardo, but if it wasn’t, that means there are others on the inside I don’t know about.

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