Page 36 of Angelo's Vengeance

Ilias swore under his breath. “You think she was helping fund Renzetti.”

“Maybe,” I muttered. “Maybe she has always been involved in the sex trade.Trafficking.” I’d always wondered if she was more of the mastermind of my father’s trade routes — the impetus for pushing him into the alliance and the blood oath.

Maxim cocked his head at me in that way he did when he was contemplating something. “It’s possible for sure, but she’s never shown her hand before or since. Then we cut off everything else,” Maxim said. “Burn every contact. Isolate her and Renzetti. Starve them.”

I nodded. “I’ve already started. I’ve pulled back on every Santelli-funded deal, even remotely linked. The ripple will reach her. She’ll come out of hiding when the money runs dry. My men are roaming the streets here in New York, looking for any of Renzetti’s men and grabbing them on the spot.”

A smile stretched across Maxim’s face, wolfish and sharp. “I caught two of them last night. Lev and I enjoyed that.” He glanced at his vor, whose answering grin confirmed that Renzetti’s men had not reciprocated the feeling.

“We’ve been on the lookout but haven’t seen any,” Conall added. “Not that we haven’tbeen looking. O’Kelly turf has been quiet, except for a call from Nico.”

Ilias went still. Nico should have warned us, at the very least, about this mysterious cousin of Cosimo’s.“Oh? What did that fucker have to say? Did he have a good explanation for why this psychopath was coming out of the woodwork?”

“Not really. He was quick to mention he wasn’t involved in whatever Renzetti was up to, which is smart. Nico said he had the men who were loyal looking for any intel they could find, but obviously, I don’t think we should bother too much with Nico. I’m not saying we should write him off, but …” Conall’s massive shoulders rolled as if he were trying to work out a kink. He felt uncomfortable with the situation involving Cosimo Oliveto and, by extension, Nico Balestra, but he was trying to navigate it for Theo’s sake.

Silence settled like ash. At times, that dream floated forward — the one where I took my family and found a place where blood didn’t fall from the sky and the pavement wasn’t perpetually boiling beneath me.

In my head, it was quiet. It was her voice. Theo. Laughing. Swearing. Telling me I wasbeing dramatic. That I looked like a mob boss straight out of a movie. That I was capable of figuring it all out. She was right, of course. But the difference between me and the caricatures was simple—I didn’t bluff.

My phone buzzed again—another message from Theo.

Theo: You better be bringing home pizza. Or I’m setting fire to your ties.

I smirked despite myself.

“My sister still causing trouble?” Ilias asked, watching the way my mouth twitched.

“She’s—” I paused, then exhaled. “She’s driving me insane.”

Conall laughed knowingly. “You’re a goner.”

“She sees me.” My voice was quieter now. “But I have a lot of work to do to get her to trust me.”

I hated leaving her behind. I hated the way her eyes followed me to the door that morning. She hadn’t said,‘Don’t go,’but she hadn’t needed to. It was in how her breath caught as I helped her dress and checked her bandages. Her eyes werewary, even as I wanted to press my advantage.

And maybe I shouldn’t have kissed her. Or I should have kissed her more.

Maybe I shouldn’t have tucked the sheets around her, knowing damn well that the only place I wanted her was under me, in my bed, screaming my name.

But she’d been pale. Still healing. And when she’d curled into the pillow and whispered my name in her sleep, I’d felt something splinter in my chest. I didn’t want to deny what was in front of me anymore. There was that tug and pull to her that was undeniable.

I wanted to keep her.

Protect her.

“She doesn’t deserve this,” I murmured. It was a difficult realization that the lives we crafted weren’t conducive to safety, no matter how hard we tried. It felt like grasping at a pile of pick-up sticks. I didn’t think the others knew how uneasy it all made me, how uneasy it had always made me. How conflicted I felt.

“No, she doesn’t,” Ilias affirmed. “But we take care of our families.”

“Even when they despise us for it,” Conall said, raising his glass.

“Amen to that,” Maxim remarked with a faint smile.

We all appeared to bear that burden, particularly lately, with the shadows looming over our empire.

The meeting extended well into the afternoon. Plans were crafted. Insights were exchanged. Names were mentioned.

And all the while, my mind drifted back to the brownstone in the Bronx. To a woman who stitched silk like magic and threw knives with her words. To the way, she’d looked at me in that bath, soft and suspicious, aching and proud.

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