Page 110 of Savage Enemy

He nodded and sipped his liquor.

“So you now control your family’s business as well as the Capaldo and Malta empires.”

“So it would seem.”

“You know this means I need you to take your seat on the council. Otherwise, you’ll become a target, and the same goes for your son. I understand why you don’t want to join us, but it’s shortsighted. I believe the Commission can give you something you want even more than you want to kill me.”

“What I want makes a very short list,” I gritted out.

Fucker laughed.

I fixed him with a bored expression and focused on ignoring the searing pain radiating from my finger while a cold sweat left my shirt clinging to my back.

“Aren’t you even a little curious to know how I found out you broke the treaty?”

Actually, yes, but he chose that moment to bump the table with his knee. The edge of the table knocked my finger against the inside of the glass filling with my blood.

I could no longer guarantee my ability to respond without screaming, so I kept my jaw locked and my mouth shut. It worked out, since Lordi liked to hear himself talk.

“I got an interesting call this morning from Aris Moscatelli. He said you showed up uninvited at a ball to make an offer on his sister. Of course, it didn’t take me long to get information and hear the rumors about her. I’m assuming the person she had a tryst with in the ladies’ room was you.”

I said nothing.

“It got me thinking. The treaty was a sign of weakness. New York saying they couldn’t handle Chicago. Maybe it was true for the old guard, but I think it’s time for Chicago to come back into the fold and get put beneath New York. I want to break the treaty, unravel it, and take over that second-rate city.”

He canted his head to get a read on my expression.

“What do you think about that, Mr. Vignali?”

“I think you should have brought that to my goddamn attention before you took my finger.”

“That was your own doing, Stefano, not mine. I had intended to let you make a case. I didn’t think you’d let it go without a fight. Your argument was going to be the basis I used to dissolve the treaty, but you had to be difficult.”

“What is it you’re proposing?”

“I’m proposing you join the Commission immediately. I’ll have you sworn in right now. The rest of them are waiting in the restaurant. And then we start putting together a plan to invade Chicago, take out the heads of each family there, and restore the natural order.”

“So you want a war?”

He tossed back another swallow of whiskey and shrugged.

“Not just any war. I want the bloodiest war this country has ever seen. I want to expand into Chicago, then north into Boston, and then all the way to California. There’s no reason the rest of this country shouldn’t be under New York control.”

“Why do you need my help?”

“Aside from the fact you’re now one of the most powerful men in the city, you, son, are the inciting incident for my war.”

The more he called me son, the more I yearned to end him.

“This new age we find ourselves in is all about image. It’s all about telling a story. If we just go attack Chicago, then we’re the bad guys. Families start leaving the council. Maybe Atlantic City and Atlanta decide an attack on one of them is an attack on all of them. Suddenly, everyone’s trying to restore balance.”

“What the fuck does this have to do with me?” I snapped.

“You’re going to be the story we tell. The young man thrust into power he wasn’t ready for, but who regained his family’s honor, then fell in love with a girl from a rival family. It’s like the Capulets and the Montagues. You know, Shakespeare shit.”

Right. Shakespeare shit.

The English Lit major in me huffed a frustrated sigh.

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