"Let's skip the pleasantries, Carlo. You know why we're here."
"Your woman." He blows smoke toward the ceiling. "The former escort. The one my niece has been so concerned about."
I don't react and give him the satisfaction of seeing me flinch.
"I'm here to lay down terms. Caterina stops her campaign against Bianca. No more gossip items, no more former clients showing up at restaurants, no more harassment of any kind."
"And in exchange?"
"I don't destroy your niece's reputation the way she's trying to destroy my woman's."
Carlo leans back. "That sounds like a threat."
"It's a promise. I have information on Caterina. Sealed court records. Affairs with married men. Financial irregularities that would interest the IRS. I've been building a file for days." I slide a folder across the table. "This is a sample. There's more where that came from."
He doesn't open it. Just stares at me with those dead eyes.
"You're bluffing."
"Try me."
Silence stretches between us. Then he laughs. Actually laughs.
"You think you can threaten a Bellandi? You think we're afraid of some capo who's so weak he'd follow hisfeelingsand marry a whore to avoid an alliance that would benefit everyone?"
The insult hangs in the air.
Enzo shifts behind me, which is a warning for Carlos, and we both know it.
"Choose your next words carefully," I say quietly.
"Why? What are you going to do?" Carlo leans forward. "You want to know what I think? I think Caterina is right. I think you're desperate. I think you latched onto the first woman who spread her legs for you and convinced yourself it's love. But it's not. It's weakness."
"Last chance, Carlo."
"And I think—" He blows smoke in my face. "—that woman of yours is a commodity. Something to be bought and sold. That's all she'll ever be. A whore playing dress-up in a capo's house."
The room shifts.
I feel it like a change in air pressure. The moment negotiation becomes something else.
"You had your chance," I say.
Then I move.
Fast. Before his guards can react.
I grab Carlo by his collar, slam him face-first into the table. His cigar goes flying. Blood sprays from his nose.
His guards reach for their weapons but Enzo and Rafe are faster. Two clean shots. Not fatal—we don't want war yet—but incapacitating. Both men go down clutching shoulders.
Carlo struggles. I hold him down with one hand, use the other to grab his left arm. Twist it at an unnatural angle.
"You want to call her a commodity?" I wrench his arm higher. "You want to insult her? Threaten her? Act like she's something you can bargain over?"
"You're insane?—"
I pull. Not enough to dislocate but enough to make him scream like a girl.
