He gives me a short nod before going back to packing, throwing the last pair of pants in the blue bag before picking up a green one.
I wonder what goes in the green bag?
I’ll ask him when I get back.
The sound of Wylder and Roman neck to neck in their video game is echoing throughout the house as soon as I open Abel’s door – one that had to be shut because he couldn’t think with Roman screaming.
“Is Tez still at Wylder’s packing?”
Roman shoots me a look over his shoulder and quickly goes back to the game, realizing Wylder shot him while he was distracted. “Fuck! Uh, yeah, you know how he is about those knives. He packs each one away like a fucking newborn.”
I sniffle a laugh, “We all have our vices.”
This time, it’s Wylder that shoots his head back to look at me. “Evie being the best one.”
“Naturally.” I look around the wall at the dining room and kitchen, seeing it bare and empty. “Where is Eve?”
Roman cusses again when Wylder kills hischaracter again. “She – fuck, Wyld – she went out to the shed to pack up her art stuff.”
I hear a knock at the front door and walk over to open it. Markus stands on the other side, his chest heaving as if he ran the whole way here.
“What is it, Markus?”
He reaches up and rubs at his chin, the tattoos across his hand twisting with the movement. “It’s Tara. We were on the phone and there was a gunshot. The phone cut out so I went to go check on her. Fuck!” He whirls around and throws his fist into the wall, knocking a hole straight through the drywall. When he whirls back towards me, his green eyes are alight, teeth bared in a snarl he’s only barely holding back.
A lion caged in a fight he knows he’s already lost.
At some point during his breakdown, Roman and Wylder left their game, joining me in the main entryway.
It’s Wylder who asks the question none of us want to ask. “What happened to Tara, Markus?”
Markus’s eyes grow wet and he leans down, placing his hands on his knees as he hunches over and tries to catch his breath, shaking his head the entire time.
I want to let him have his moment – really, I do – but there’s no time. If Wade made a move, I need to know about it.
“Markus!What happened to Tara?”
I had only met her once at a cookout a few weeks ago, but she had made an impression. Even more so on Roman, since he says she’s the one who put sharing in his mind and gave him advice about Eve.
The ex-pres in Markus has him straightening back up, meeting my gaze head on as he responds to the dominance in my voice. “She’sdead,Valente. I found her in her apartment soaking in her own blood. There – “He wets his bottom lip and shakes his head. “There was a W carved into her forehead.”
“A calling card…. He knows we’re onto him. I’m sure Eve ignoring Vivianne was a dead giveaway but…I don’t know. Something doesn’t feel right.” I turn to Wyld. “Go grab Kortez and Eve. We’re going to leave tonight.”
He leaves with a curt nod, but I can see the hurt in his eyes. Tara was only there because of him. Anxiety rolls through me like a tidal wave. The last few days I’ve had to remind myself that our leaving for New York wasn’t because of fear. It was a strategic move. It was me protecting my family.
It feels like running. It feels like my father is breathing down my neck, screaming at me and telling me what a disappointment I am. How I’ll never be the Don he is.
I don’t want to, though. I don’t want to send my men into pointless battles to spill their blood for me when I wouldn’t do the same. I don’t want to risk my family’s lives for a war that could prove fatal.
I don’t want to be my father.
I want to be a good father for my son. A good husband for Eve. A good brother for the others. I can still do that and be a good Don. It’s what Aldo doesn’t understand. It’s what I’ll pass down to Abel when the time comes and not a minute sooner. He’ll get the childhood I never had.
Fuck, Abel. The suitcase.
“Roman, where’s that black suitcase you have?”
My cousin laughs, “The one that I had custom made?”
