Vladimir’s jaw tightened imperceptibly as he ignored the jab. “Do you have the money?”
“Do you have the guns?” Alesso countered, a singular blond brow lifting as he stared at the other man, giving him a gesture to speak.
Alesso always had a way of getting under the skin of those he was trying to dominate. He wasn’t the biggest man, but he had a way with words that would drive a man insane. It was what had helped the Amante family excel in their more legit businesses over the last year since we graduated from college and stepped fully into our roles as Amante’s mostloyaldogs.
The word loyal being completely sarcastic here.
Truthfully, none of us cared for Alesso’s father and would just as soon leave the family for good. We certainly could, given the wealth we had accrued playing around in the stock market.
There was just one, welltwo, problems.
One: Luscinia would not be able to leave with us.
She was kept under lock and key at the estate. Though Amante Sr. had no use for a daughter he viewed as broken, that didn’t mean that he didn’t view her as his property still.
That was a non-negotiable for Alesso. He wouldn’t go anywhere if Cini didn’t go with us.
Then there was Alesso’s stupid ass pride.
He was the heir to the Amante family, and as much as he hated it sometimes, he liked the potential power that he would one day hold if his father ever croaked. He had spent our college years talking about his grandfather’s vision of turning the family legitimate and eventually stepping into politics.
I doubted Alesso’s pipedream would happen any time soon, though, since his father was as healthy as a horse and full of enough bitterness to last him well into his nineties.
Vladimir jerked his head to the side and one of his men dropped a large duffel bag on the ground in front of us.
“There is more once I see your father’s money,” Vladimir said with a smirk.
The insult was clear. Vladimir thought Alesso was too young—too green—to be doing drops like this on his own. That even though he was the Amante heir, he was still just a child in Vladimir’s eyes.
Alesso’s smile was slow and dangerous as he turned to Dante who began to approach the bag.
As soon as the other alpha’s hands touched the guns, our deal would be brokered, so we needed to be careful and make sure that the product was good.
What Amante Sr. needed with guns like this, I wasn’t sure. It wasn’t as if the family didn’t have a surplus of weapons that included a literal tank in the estate’s garage.
But I knew that, whatever he needed them for, it wouldn’t be anything good and that it would probably be a giant headache for our pack to deal with.
Tensions had been rising amongst the five families for a while and Alesso told me that, at the last group meeting, Alistair Keane and Amante Sr. had gotten into it and the meeting had ended in a shouting match.
The Irish and the Italians had always had a begrudging truce since the previous war that wiped out the Serbians had ended, but I had a feeling that truce was on the precipice of ending if these weapons were any indication.
“FBI!” a voice suddenly boomed from the trees, cutting my thoughts of territorial disputes and mob wars off as everyone at the lookout stiffened and froze. “Drop your weapons and put your hands up!”
Red and blue lights lit up the night as several dark SUVs and sedans skidded to a stop in a wide half-circle, effectively blocking our exit.
For the first time since he had walked out of the mist, Vladimir Volkov looked surprised. “You set us up?”
“How do I know it wasn’t you who set us up?” Alesso questioned harshly as he turned to me, his blue eyes communicating more in a flash than he could have with words.
“Get to the trees!” I bellowed to the rest of my pack. There was a hiking trail not far off from here that would lead straight back into the city. We had chosen this lookout exactly for this reason—though an FBI ambush had been the furthest thing from Ranieri’s planning for tonight.
It would be much harder to catch us on foot, going downhill, in the dark than if we were to try to get back into the car.
“Nic,” I turned to my younger cousin who looked panicked—it was the same expression he always got when shit went sideways.
He had lived the first eight years of his life outside of the Amante family because his father and my uncle wanted nothing to do with it. But when they got into a car accident and my parents were his only living relatives, Nico had come to live with us.
He had been raised differently and now he was going to lock up with fear at any moment.
