“Oh, he’s not dead yet,” the man says, a smile curving his lips and chilling me to the bone.
Okay, what the hell?
If I found him unsettling before, I’m downright squirming with discomfort now, and my muscles tense with the instinctive need to put space between us.
I have a bat behind the counter if I really need it, but hopefully, I can just keep this professional and get him out of my shop as soon as possible. “I’m happy to put in the order and can have it delivered to your place of choosing,” I say.Then I won’t have to see your face again.But an order of that magnitude is hard to turn down—even if the guy seems super sketchy.
“Oh, I’m not quite ready to place the order just yet, but I’ll be back,” he assures me, his grin spreading.
Then, without another word, he turns and leaves.
2
GIO
“I say we strike now while the tide is shifting,” my brother Sandro growls, fisting his tattooed knuckles on the table.
Miko nods. “It’s time we show the Tanakas and Murrays just what a terrible mistake they made messing with the Chiaroscuro family.”
My adopted brother—oldest of the five of us—smiles, his eyes glinting.
Their signature blue mark him as distinctly different from the rest of my hazel-eyed family, and only recently did we discover he is, in fact, the heir to the Novikov empire, rightfulPakhanto Chicago’s ruthless Bratva—a title he laid claim to just days ago.
And while that means we now have a combined force of both our Italian allies and the Russian Bratva who own the streets of Chicago, after the violence we’ve faced these past few months, I dread the idea of exacerbating the conflict between us and the Yakuza and Irish Mob.
“We don’t have the numbers,” Raf cuts in, his cold, hard logic easing the knot of tension in my chest ever so slightly. “And we don’t yet have Don Parelli’s blessing to name Gio the new head of the Chiaroscuro family.”
Don Parelli.
It seems like a lifetime ago that he and his cohorts flew in from Italy to give my oldest legitimate brother, Leo, their blessing to take over as Don for our father.
And while I like the Parellis well enough, I don’t relish the idea of taking Leo’s place now that he’s abdicated to chase a normal life with his pregnant wife, Sora.
But considering I’m next in line—especially now that Miko has taken over the Novikov throne—it’s my obligation to reclaim our family’s territory and punish the men who ever thought they could take what’s ours.
Still, I loathe the idea of violence.
The only thing that comes of it is more blood.
Closing my eyes, I scrub my forehead with my fingers and comb them back into my hair.
I’ve dedicated my life to helping my father run the family business since the day I learned that the love of my life was dead.
And now, with our father murdered in cold blood and our empire in ruins, it feels as though my life has been thrown into complete chaos.
The devastation of our family has reopened scars I’d thought had healed after losing Stephanie eight years ago.
And yet, rather than wanting revenge like my brothers, who seem determined to reclaim our birthright, I feel as though I’m slipping away, my reasons for existence transitioning from shadow to complete apparition.
“We might not have the numbers, but we have the thirst for vengeance,” Miko points out.
“And there’s no doubt in my mind Don Parelli will give Gio his blessing—especially if we take back our territory,” Sandro says. “Gio was always his favorite, anyway.”
“We need to be strategic about this,” Raf counters, always the sensible one—even though he has more reason than any of us to want the Yakuza dead for killing his wife along with our father. “Miko might have given us allies with the Bratva, but we’ve both taken such a hit, it will be a marginal victory at best if we try to take on the Yakuza alone. And we don’t know yet where the Murrays stand.”
“Gio?” Miko presses.
All eyes turn on me as tension vibrates through the air.
