“In a heartbeat.” Achilles’s voice dripped malevolence.
“Fuck.” Luca lowered his gun, exhaling sharply. “Dad’s gonna kill you.”
“I’ll deal with him.” Achilles turned his attention to Tiernan, still holding Luca at gunpoint. “Callaghan, get your cunt of a sister out of here before my charitable mood sours. Deposit her at the airport and make sure she goes far, far away. And you”—his gaze landed on me—“next time I see you, I’ll kill you. Make sure I don’t see you ever again.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Achilles
“Damn,that was one hell of a bite.” Enzo took a swig of his protein shake. “I’m surprised you let that mouth anywhere near your dick, bro.”
“Luckily I’m up-to-date on my tetanus shot,” I muttered, pacing my parents’ living room, waiting for my father to reemerge after getting stitched up by the family doctor.
“Yeah, some luck you’ve got there.” Enzo let loose a rancid burp.
“Bro, those protein burps are lethal. Stop drinking these shakes around us,” Luca grumbled.
“I can’t help it, okay? I have to hit my protein goal and that means a shake every three hours. This physique doesn’t just happen.” Enzo gestured to his admittedly sick form. “You are what you eat.”
“If that were true, you’d be a bag of dicks,” Jeremie said, eyes hard on his phone as his thumbs flew over the screen, per usual.
“Jeremie,” Luca barked. “Get the fuck out of this room, and never speak to a Ferrante like that again.”
Jeremie complied without even looking at any of us, shrugging off Luca’s shit-ass attitude. Enzo quirked an eyebrow at Luca. “Someone’s in a sour mood.”
“You shouldn’t let him speak to you like that,” Luca said, just as my father entered the living room. His left hand was bandaged into a tight fist. His pinky was gone. The doctor had to remove it. In the end, he’d learned the lesson Tierney had taught me years ago—that she was an untamable force, born to defy whoever tried to clip her wings. I had nothing but respect for her. She had more courage and fire than all the mobsters I knew combined.
The room fell quiet as Dad assumed a seat on a plush recliner. Enzo stood and lit a cigarette for my father and handed it to him.
He took a long drag, closing his eyes. “I’m sending an assassin to deal with her.”
“A paid wet worker?” Enzo flipped his pocketknife in the air. “Rude. Why not one of us?”
“You’re needed in New York, Luca needs to go clean up the Sangue Blu mess your brother has created, and Achilles made it clear he would follow this woman to hell.” My father rolled his cigarette between his thumb and index, staring into space.
“All Achilles needs is to escort her there,” Luca drawled. “But he needs to be the one who kills her, because he’s the one who screwed all this shit up.”
“It’s not as simple as all that. She’s family,” I contributed to the conversation.
“A family member who handed your neck to the feds before your cum dried inside her,” Vello clapped back.
“Lila won’t be happy. And Tiernan will likely start a war bigger than the one waiting for us in Naples,” I countered calmly. Things were complicated as it was without throwing a murdered socialite who was in bed with the feds into the mix.
“Every war has its casualties,” Luca said tonelessly. “Tiernan knows that.”
“Would you have let him kill Lila if she went to the feds?”
Enzo visibly shuddered. “I’d kill anyone who comes near her.”
“Tierney’s not Lila. Our sister minds her own business,” Luca parried. “And if Tiernan has an issue, he can take it up with me.”
I stroked my chin, working this in my head from all angles. I usually enjoyed wet work. Killing quieted the noise inside my head. Tierney, however, was a different matter altogether. But that’s precisely why I had to take this job. I needed to kill the one thing more powerful than my lust for the crown—to eliminate the only person who could be an obstacle on my way to world domination.
She was my Achilles’ heel.
But I wouldn’t let her bring me to my knees. Not again.
“How do we know we won’t raise FBI suspicions by offing her?” I asked. “Killing her would cut through all of the preliminary red tape that’s stopping Rothwell right now. He’d get access to our computers, phones, documents. Search warrants would be issued. Maybe even a few arrests.”
