Page 35 of Little Deer
Kida’s eyes widen at his words, and even I jolt a little bit. He murdered his parents?
“Nico, you idiot,” Massimo hisses at him.
“You already told them I kidnapped Gia, I’m just adding to the story,” Nico returns cruelly. He looks at me as if gauging my reaction. I look away, fear and horror filling me. A man who kills his mother can’t be a good man. I don’t care what any of them say. I don’t fucking trust Nico Armani.
If he can kill his mother, then what chance do I or my son have? What chance does Gia, his wife, have?
19
MASSIMO
I’m goingto strangle him with my bare hands, and I can see Papa’s face turn dark and disapproving as he glares at Nico. Why the fuck is Nico being such a fucking asshole? Why scare these women even further? We need their fucking cooperation, and Lucy looks like she’s about to run from the room. Even Kida’s face is pale and her eyes scan the room fast, looking for an exit.
“Nico,” Gia chastizes him sharply. Nico looks at her quickly, eyes flashing almost in surprise. Hell, I think it’s the first time I’ve ever heard Gia speak to him that way. Gia shoves off his lap, and he’s too surprised to stop her, though his scowl darkens when she steps out of his reach.
“Uh oh, Boo Bear, I think you made her mad,” Alessio mock whispers, a small laugh in his voice.
Nico’s jaw grinds, but his eyes never leave his wife. Lucky for Alessio, because this might be the moment Nico kills him.
“I get that you’re pissed that I’m upset and this whole thing is a mess, but you don’t get to fucking scare them on purposeto prove some weird point,” Gia snaps, hands on her hips. “And you’re purposely leaving out the reason to make things worse.” She turns her head and looks at the girls. “Nico killed his mother when he found out that she was running a sex trafficking ring through his territory and that she was sleeping with Seamus Gallo, the head of the Irish crime family. She was trying to keep it from him, and Nico has a very hard line about something like this. She was evil, and she harmed so many men, women, and probably children in those decades that there is no way that she’s better off living. He doesn’t just go around murdering people.”
Nico doesn’t respond, but his face hardens.
I look down at Lucy, but her gaze is still mistrustful. Well, so much for any progress we made.
“That is the truth of it,” Aurelio jumps in, ever the voice of calm and reason. “But that is one of the reasons that Nico wouldn’t talk to his uncle or expect his help. All of this happening could be Esposito getting back at him in some way. Joining with Leonardo is a large fuck you to Nico and the rest of us. Instead of working with family, he’s working with an enemy.”
“Then it stands to reason that this whole buyer shit is Esposito trying to stay on Leonardo’s good side and stay in whatever fold they’ve created,” Zeno jumps in.
“What if we’re thinking about this all wrong?” Amara suddenly asks shyly. Everyone looks at her expectantly. “I don’t know who told me, but wasn’t Gia promised to Dante at one point? Which means that Leonardo and Esposito have been working together for a long time. Otherwise, why would they have done some kind of contract like marriage? They were planning for something big. I mean, even Leonardo’s kids didn’t know about it, otherwise Marco wouldn’t have tried to do the deal with you guys, right? So what if all this is just because Esposito has been planning big moves and he saw an opportunity to do them with the help of Leonardo? He gets tokick back at Nico for killing his sister and causing problems with their distributions. Maybe whoever this buyer is is someone that they both know, who can help them expand that network? And the meeting of the two of them and Seamus was another way to come up with a plan? I mean, all three of them meeting together we assumed was some kind of truce or them talking about a way to handle Marco and Giovanni, but what if it wasn’t? What if they were planning how to handle their secret empire, they’re all profiting from? And this buyer is key to that. With them at their backs, depending on who they are, they come after us, then they deal with Giovanni and Ivan. Four groups on one at a time? We wouldn’t expect that.”
“I’ll say it again, beauty and brains,” Urso beams. “You got lucky with her, big brother.”
“I know,” Lazaro says, pride clear in his tone, and he gives Amara a quick kiss to drive the point home.
“It’s possible, but that brings us back to this chameleon group,” Alessio points out, glancing at Rori. “They’re not aware of them or expecting them, and if they’re as good as you said, Rori, then it could be that Giovanni is planning to try and send them after not only us, but the others to get them out of the way too. It’s a fucking mess waiting to happen.”
“All of it is a fucking mess,” Rori agrees, expression cool and calm.
“Did you get in touch with your contact?” Papa asks carefully, watching her.
“I did.”
“And?”
Rori’s silent for a long time. The silence stretches so thick that even I can feel the weight of it in my gut. We’re putting a lot of trust in Rori to make sure that we’re not going to have a major problem on our hands, but will they actually listen to her? Finally, Rori says, “I’ve pleaded our case, explained that weare not the bad ones in this story. They neither confirmed nor denied that they were contacted by anyone other than me.”
“That’s it?” Nico demands, spearing her with a sharp glare. “You call, tell them this shit, and just leave it at that?”
Rori’s expression doesn’t change, but her eyes go cold. “Yes,” she hisses. “These are not people you question or fuck with unless you want a fucking target on your back. They might not kill you now, but you piss them off, they’ll be back and kill you before you know what’s happening. Do not underestimate them. I gave them the facts, I told them what they needed to know, and kept things to myself that they don’t. Namely, that you kidnapped Gia, Alessio threatened to enforce a marriage contract on Sienna, and Amara found out about the secret room and your mother’s secret office. All of that shit they don’t care about. If I pushed or pleaded, they would have ignored me.”
“Can you tell us exactly what they said?” Aurelio asks her. “Anything is helpful, Rori. Sometimes the smallest turns of phrase can turn a tide.”
Rori’s eyes soften as they look at Aurelio. “The only thing they said was that they would consider what I said. Then they hung up. I have nothing else. These people thrive on not being tracked, on not explaining themselves to anyone.”
“How did you know how to reach them?” Urso suddenly asks, watching her carefully.
Rori’s face goes hard. “I won’t answer that.”
