Page 71 of The Mafia's Bride
I snort. “Come now, Zio. Everyone. Bruno wants the import business and there are smaller crews coming in from New York City, looking for a bigger piece of the market.”
“Right.” He leans on his cane, greying hair slicked back and reflecting the dying sunlight. “But who would risk it, knowing we’ve aligned ourselves with the O’Brien clan? Who would be stupid enough to face her retribution?”
Sucking on my bottom lip, I pause. Rubbing my chin, putting the pieces together like a complicated jigsaw. “Not many people know we’ve aligned. The wedding was in the papers, but we haven’t exactly made a big deal of being allies.” I’ve spent the time breaking in my new wife, breaking in this marriage that at one point seemed stupid. Now, it’s all I want.
“Bruno and the small crews aren’t idiots, Lex. They’re watching us. They know about the wedding. Maybe someone is trying to shake it up?”
It’s a decent thought. It’d give me more direction of why ourproduct is being taken not just how or when. I need a name and I need it now if I’m ever to keep the alliance alive.
Because I’m not giving Sloane back. Contract or not.
“Someone isn’t happy with the alliance,” I surmise, dropping back into my chair. Nico smirks like he’s been waiting for me to make the connection. “It was hasty, put together on the cusp of Ferguson’s death. I’m not even sure the Board knew about the arrangement.” It would explain the shouts I heard when I showed up to the after party. Nico remains silent, because even now, he’s not telling me the full details. “Someone knows how to hurt us where we’re weakest.”
The cane stomps into the ground once. “That’s my boy,” he praises. “We are not a weak family, but the alliance is young. It can be broken with only a few things. What are they?”
“Take out what’s covered in the contract—docks, imports, costs. It’ll scare Ace away. It fucks with our entire family and alienates us from O’Brien.”
He stomps his cane once again in agreement. “What else?”
I tilt my head. “Sloane. That was Ace’s biggest concern. If anything happens to her, the contract falls. If someone gets her, they get the contract.”Over my dead body.
“Now you’re thinking like a Capo. Sloane isn’t just a pawn for the O’Brien clan, she’s the key to their dealings. She can turn this around. What’s the next step?”
“Research the soldiers, see who they’re answering to.” I open my phone, shooting a text to Tony to do just that. “Then set up another delivery with only those we trust. Get on the ship. I’ll investigate the products myself.”
Sloane will need extra protection. If someone wants the contract, wants the De Luca family to fail, she’ll be their way to do it.
“Good man,” he agrees. “As for Ace and her clan?”
I wince. “I’d rather keep her out of the loop until absolutely possible.”
Nico hums, tilting his head in thought. “It’s risky. Ace isn’t the type to be left out if it affects her side of things. And you know the clause.”
The clause in the contract that Ace added at the last minute. Itsays that if anything were to happen—like a dissolution of the arrangements between the two organizations for whatever reason—Sloane is forfeit. She goes back to being an O’Brien and no longer a De Luca.
The idea that my ring, my name will no longer be attached to her is unthinkable. I can’t lose her, can’t allow her to leave me after all the leeway we’ve made. I own her—but she owns my heart, and I cannot think of a day when I don’t have her fire in my life, her sharp tongue flaying me or her body beside me at night. I refuse to lose her; I physically can’t.
I wouldn’t survive without her.
“What about a compromise?” What I’m going to suggest is either very daring or very arrogant. “I could bring in a third party. One that will be on our payroll and one who will have Ace’s best interest at the forethought?”
Nico goes still, thoughts spinning in his mind. He didn’t become the Capo because of money or force, but because Nico is smart. He sees scenarios better than anyone else. And he knows almost immediately who I’m referring to.
He visibly swallows and it’s painful to watch. Only one man gives my uncle pause and I’m asking to hire him.
“Hire him, Lex. But you better have control over him, otherwise none of us are making it out of this alive.”
Hours later,Killian Linwood is sitting in my office with a drink in hand, one leg propped up over his knee. The picture of calm and control.
But I see his eyes. Soulless and dead. There’s no remorse in his gaze. Just the instincts of a killer.
Mio Dio, I hate what I’m about to do. What I have to do to keep Sloane mine and this alliance alive.
“So you are losing product,” he says, sipping from his glass. The smile he fights has my blood boiling, but I keep it down.
It wouldn’t look good to punch the hitman while I try to hire him, would it?
“It’s being stolen,” I amend. “Right off the docks, right from under my nose. I need your assistance to help me secure the next shipment. Locate who might be stealing from me.”
