“It has. Face it, E, none of our supporters are going to step a toe out of line after all of this bullshit and without the Russians the city is going to be a complete shitshow for a while. This has thrown off the balance of everything. I know it and so do you,” Ranieri, ever the pragmatic asshole, scoffed as he crossed his arms over his chest. “And there’s no way we’re ever going to get her out of that house now—especially since that old bastard now finds ‘value’ in her.”
The rest of the table was silent, Nico seemingly upset by the argument happening in front of him, and Dante, as always, was lost in thought, his brown eyes faraway.
Our original plan before Cini’s kidnapping had been to consolidate as much power as possible within the Amante family while also making connections outside of it. Then we would force Amante out.
Truth be told, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be to get people on our side. Amante had spent most of his tenure as the head of the family running it into the ground and there were more than enough disgruntled members ready for a change.
But now that the Russians had been eliminated by the FBI, there would be a vacuum left in their place and some of the remaining four families would be clambering over one another to take up the space that Volkov had just vacated.
Not to mention the fact that Amante had just done what so many had been trying to do with their beta children for hundreds of years: he now possessed a child who had changed into an omega.
That secret in and of itself was powerful currency to the greedy parents who wanted their beta children to be changed.
It didn’t matter that the new designation was fucking with her body or that alpha genetics came along with it.
And if it got out that she was the first human in history to successfully have her designation changed?
She would never get a moment of peace for the rest of her life.
We were now banking on the fact that there was no way Amante was going to give up his secret to anyone—not if he didn’t want to get hauled in by the FBI who I knew were undoubtedly going to be watching the city with a sharper eye over the next year or so.
Which was yet another reason why our allies would be going underground, leaving us to fend for ourselves if we wanted to wrest the power from Amante. No one was willingly going to stick their neck out and risk getting tossed into a federal prison.
“What if…” Nico cut in, his voice almost too soft to be heard over the disgruntled growl rippling out of Ranieri’s throat. He looked thoughtful, his dark eyes lifting to meet mine as he let out a sigh and ran a hand over his jaw. “What if we said fuck it and played our hand for the rest of the families?”
Ranieri scoffed, rolling his eyes at the very idea. “And risk getting our dicks chopped clean off by Amante?”
“Watch it, Rani, he’s allowed to share what he’s thinking,” I warned. It had been a long day and I was getting sick of the other alpha’s continually snotty ass attitude.
But Nico was unruffled as always, shrugging off the other alpha’s sarcastic comment.
He may have been the youngest amongst us, but after we’d gone away to prison he had been forced to grow up and grow up fast. “No, it’s not much of a risk. It isn’t any secret that the Japanese, Chinese, and Irish have grown tired of Amante’s bullshit—and now with the Russians out I’m willing to bet that patience is about to wear really thin. Especially once they learn of the extent that Amante has been helping Volkov fuck with everyone else.”
“What’s to keep them from taking the entire Amante family out entirely?” I asked, pointing out the obvious. This would be the perfect chance for them to do it. If I was in charge I would definitely have considered it.
Nico shrugged. “Like it or not, they need us. We can’t lose two families in one year seeing as the balance has already been thrown off. From what I understand it took years for things to settle down after the last war when the Serbians were wiped out, so I’m willing to bet the other three heads would be willing to at least hear you out. I guess it’s simple: we either stick together or none of us survives what’s to come next.”
“A symbiotic relationship,” Dante finally chimed in, sounding impressed with the youngest member of our pack.
Nico’s smile was broad as he leaned back in his seat with satisfaction. “Exactly.”
“It’s risky,” Ranieri pointed out. “More likely to get us all killed than to work.”
“Do we have any other choice?” I asked.
That made the entire room go silent.
Things had changed irrevocably. Our plans, the plans that we’d been carefully laying over the past few years after Alesso’s death, were all moot now.
Luscinia had been kidnapped from her own home and the things that had been done to her filled me with a rage that made my skin itch.
The bite on my neck throbbed in response to my thoughts and I had to resist the urge to lift my hand and press my palm to it.
Dr. Stedmeyer had told me he didn’t know what sorts of things could come from Cini’s bite and to call him if anything strange happened.
Truth be told, all of this was strange to me… and a little fucked up because, despite the steps leading up to Cini biting me, there was still a teensy, tiny, itty-bitty part of me that was happy about whatever the bite was.
“Elio?” Nico’s voice pulled me from my thoughts.
