Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 55263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 276(@200wpm)___ 221(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 276(@200wpm)___ 221(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
“They want to create panic so they can slide in and corner our market. That shit makes sense; threatening Mattie doesn’t.”
“Exactly,” I said, a little too excited that we were on the same wavelength. “The processing plant makes sense; it was a good business strategy. Threatening my son does not.” If anything, it would piss me off enough to go after the asshole in charge, not his little henchmen.
“Yeah, I see where you’re going with this, Enzo. I’m on it.”
“Thanks, Luca. And look into everyone. Dig deep. I don’t want any assumptions; I just want to know who the fuck is compromised.”
“Understood.”
I ended the call quickly, chest pounding because I knew this was a mystery that wouldn’t have a happy ending for someone, and I was fine with that. In this business, there were very rarely happy endings. One side inevitably lost—the battle or the war, sometimes both—and that was just the nature of the beast. I couldn’t say what would happen with the Russians, but whoever was threatening my son would find themselves without a fucking pulse very soon.
Outside the window, Matteo’s laughter bounced off the trees and carried on the breeze, drawing me closer to the window. To their happiness. My son stared at Ren like she was the love of his life, his smile bright and his eyes clear and filled with joy. And Ren? She was soft and genuine, so loving as she gave him her full attention.
They looked like a picture from a life that only existed in my mind.
I’d given up that life for family.
More accurately, for The Family.
Because it was family first, right?
Except now I had to look a little deeper at my own fucking family.
There was Aunt Valentina. She was old school, believed in all that shit like blood, order, and family hierarchy. She’d been furious when my father planned to let me walk away from the family business, convinced birthright mattered even more than choice. She had supported me fully when I stepped in, called it “destiny correcting itself.” She was still a supporter and a sounding board.
She would die before betraying the family.
Her daughter, Luisa, was a college professor on the East Coast. She ran in academic circles, visited history conferences, and spent her time researching Victorian economic history or some shit. She only visited the family on holidays or when we gathered for weddings and funerals. She was always polite and always distant. Her life was completely separate from the family. Intentionally far removed.
The way mine was supposed to be.
Valentina’s husband, Dante, was half-senile, forgetting his name more days than not. He lived in a luxury care home that overlooked the ocean in Malibu, guarded more by nurses than loyalty. He wasn’t a concern.
Which narrowed the field considerably.
There was David, my cousin. He was an accountant who spent his days buried under numbers, spreadsheets, and ambition that didn’t match his work ethic. He’d never shown any real interest in the family business other than occasionally throwing his opinion out during family dinners, which no one ever took too seriously. He’d never wanted leadership, only the benefits he received because he was born a DeRossi.
Lena, David’s ex-wife, was a wild card. She was sharp and bitter, but none of that mattered unless she knew more about the business than she should. And the only way that would happen was if David knew more than he should. She hated David but still maintained a good relationship with Valentina, which still put her in the category of potential threat.
Finally, we had Ella, David and Lena’s daughter. She was in college right now, and honestly, I had no clue how much she knew about the family fortunes. She wouldn’t be the first girl in love to attempt to scam her rich family out of a few million dollars, except the request for money never came.
I picked up the phone again, and Luca picked up on the second ring. “Enzo.”
“We need to dig into Lena and David,” I said without preamble. “I mean really dig. Deep. If either of them has complained to a coworker, a book club, anything, I want to know about it.”
Luca let out a long, slow exhale. “David,” he asked on an incredulous laugh. “You think he’s got the balls to be behind this?”
I huffed a short laugh. “Everything is easy when you don’t have to execute it yourself. Giving an order is a lot easier than pulling the fucking trigger.”
David didn’t have the stomach to run an organization; that much I knew. He was good at numbers, but he wasn’t capable of management. That didn’t mean he couldn’t be useful to someone who only wanted to take down the family.
“Just to be safe,” I added. “I don’t want to eliminate anyone based on my gut or yours.”
“Got it,” Luca said. “So how are things going with Ren?”