“Yes, you will. Unless you want me to kill your entire family.”
Acid swims in my gut at the lethal look on his face. “Ben won’t let you get near them.”
“Mazzone couldn’t stop me from single-handedly wiping out every don in the US.” His smugness knows no bounds, and I’m tempted to throw my plate at him. “By the time he realizes what I have done, it will be too late to stop me.”
Stefano loathes Ben with the heat of a thousand suns. It’s blatantly obvious. Ben was responsible for the demise of his and Giuseppe’s plans. Now, Ben holds the ultimate position of power, something Stefano has admitted he wants. Ben is well-connected and true mafia royalty. He has an heir in Rowan, and their family is expanding.
Stefano is threatenedby Ben, and I’m scared for my family. I’m still struggling to see where I fit into all of this. I’m glad it’s me he’s come for and not my kids or my sister or my nephew, but how do I help his situation?
“Then why do you need me?”
“Insurance.”
I hate that fucking word. It’s such a Giuseppe DeLuca term. He used to always ensure he had a backup plan in place. Yet he still took a bullet, and he rots under the ground now. So, fat lot of good his insurance ever did him.
“I need to convince everyone in The Outfit that I’m the right man for the job. Some have misgivings. Others are worried about retaliation from The Commission and the grieving families. I understand.” He picks up the uneaten half of my sandwich. “I’m a stranger to them. They have only recently discovered the man they knew as Joseph Lawson was in fact their don. They need reassurance.”
“I won’t give them that. A lot of them are wary of me.”
“That may be the case, but they know you. You were Gifoli’s wife and Giuseppe’s daughter. You’remafiosothrough and through.”
“I won’t support you. I won’t get out there and tell those men what you want me to say.”
He finishes the sandwich in one large bite, his eyes blazing with superiority as he stares at me while eating. I pop the cap on my water and drink, purely to have something to focus on rather than the stranger staring at me with wicked intent.
“You really are quite stupid,” he says when he finishes chewing. “The last thing I need is you opening that mouth of yours.” His eyes darken. “Unless it’s so I can fuck it.”
Panic crashes into me, and familiar fear tracks through my veins. “You’re my cousin.”
He shrugs. “And?”
“You can’t touch me.” I hate how my voice wobbles.
He roars laughing, and I reach up, running my fingers over my new necklace, allowing it to comfort me. I made a promise to myself. No man is ever putting his hands on me again without permission. I’m prepared to die to see that through.
He leans forward on his elbows. “Firstly, no one knows we are cousins. Secondly, it is legal in both New York and Sicily to marry your first cousin.”
“Marry?” A nervous laugh bubbles up my throat. “You can’t be serious.”
He sits back, another smug smile cresting his mouth. “Oh, I’m deadly serious, Serena. The only way I can legitimize my claim to the throne, so to speak, is by taking you as my wife and having you birth me a son. So, as soon as we land in Chicago, I’m taking you to church and we’re to be married.”
37
ALESSO
“You can’t go in there!” the older woman shrieks, picking up the phone on her desk as Ben, Leo and I push past her and enter Lucas Avara’s office at the import-export business he owns. It’s past closing hours, and only a skeleton staff remains, which is how we were able to get back here with little trouble.
“Security will be here in a few minutes.” Ben stalks to the man’s desk. “Be quick.”
Leo heads for the locked cabinet on the far side of the room while I rummage through the open shelving, flinging files and books onto the ground in my urgency to find something,anything, that will give us a clue as to who Avara is and where he has taken Rena. Phillip found some footage from cameras at the back of NYU that confirmed Lucas is the one who has kidnapped her. I want to borrow Saverio’s axe and hack Lucas to pieces until nothing but fleshy tissue and shards of bone remain.
“You need to leave.” The woman stands in the doorway, looking like she’s shitting herself, but I give her kudos for having the balls to confront us.
“Lady.” Leo walks toward her. “Go back to your desk, and keep your nose out of this. Trust me, it’s safer for you that way.” He slants her a sharp look, and she scurries back to her desk, shaking and scared. She doesn’t know we would never hurt an innocent woman, but the threat is enough. Leo slams the door shut as the woman reaches for her phone again.
There’s a loud thud as Ben snaps the lock on the desk drawer and yanks it open, rifling through the contents, while Leo breaks the padlock on the cabinet and begins searching through Lucas’s files.
“There’s nothing here.” Ben sighs in frustration as he sweeps the contents from the top of the desk onto the floor.
