CHAPTER 24
TONY
Levente and his brother Dominik grunt and crack their knuckles. They’re twins, absolute monsters of men. Huge and ready to do some serious damage to my lost cousin and anyone close to him.
They speak in Hungarian, so I only catch snippets. I don’t speak Hungarian, only a few words, but I don’t need to.
“Don’t be rude, boys.”
I’m sitting in the passenger seat, and Lev, the driver, is looking at his brother in the rearview more than he’s looking at me. Like Lev thinks Dom is in charge or something.
“You two need to remember who has the connections back home,” I snap. “You two could take out Rafe, sure, then what’ve you got? The other Hungarians on your ass, and no outside support. Good-fucking-luck.”
Lev sighs. “We mean no disrespect.”
“Act like it, then.”
He bows his head slightly. I’ve been building my reputation here for a year and a half, using good old bendable Nico to talk up my reputation to the Hungarians. Getting him to lie about the fake death, keeping Rafe away. But with Nico gone, there’s no one to lie about my connections back home.
If I don’t end Rafe and take over soon, they’ll start to doubt me. I’ve worked too hard for too long to just give up now.
I stare down the street as the sun rises, shining brightly on the five-star hotel, red carpet out front, valet,anddoorman. Rafe thinks I’m weak. And worse… he thinks I’mkind. That’s why I was able to make so many connections right under his nose. No one questions a cockroach.
“Maybe I’ll see if you big lumps can tear out my cousin’s spine.”
They grin menacingly. The brothers love macabre talk.
“I think we could,” Dom says.
As the minutes drag on, the brothers grow more restless. I clench my hand into a fist, fighting the urge to snap at them. Ever since Nico died – that washisfucking fault – I’ve had to be more patient. Nico was so scared of me leaking those photos, he sang me praise like I was a damn king.
You should see how they look at Tony in the city, man…
Thankfully, soon, my cousin appears. He strides out of the hotel with two men flanking him. One of them is Dante, I think. They wait for the valet to pull up in their sleek SUV with tinted windows. Rafael is holding his son in a carrier. He lets one man climb in first, then hands him the carrier and climbs in after.
When the car pulls away, another car pulls out, trailing him.
“He’s moving his son,” I whisper in awe. “We can’t be this lucky. Lev, follow them.”
“I know how to follow a man,” Lev says slowly, “so that he doesn’t know he’s being tailed. Trust me, Italian.”
I open and close my hands. “Just don’t lose them. I’m calling the others. We can end this.”
“And then we will all be rich, yes?”
I swallow. “Yes.”
Assuming I can get rid of Rafael, take his place, win over his men, win over our people back home, then yeah, I can make everybody rich.One problem at a time. As Lev drives, I call my two other lieutenants, meaning we’ll have twelve men total. More than they can possibly have in those cars.
“Finally,” I say, drumming my fingers along the dashboard. “You don’t know what it’s like, fellas. All those years hearing the legend of Rafael Bellini. He survived the war, went away, made himself a… a fuckingknight, you’d think, the way people talk about him. So scared, they’ll stop selling drugs. Stop sellingeverything.”
I shake my head. “I’m going to be the legend when I bring real money back into this game. Rafael is content with scraps. Not us, fellas. Not us.”
Lev says something in Hungarian, and Dom laughs.
I don’t catch a single word.
Rafe is leading us out of the city. I wonder if he’s going to take his spawn home. That wouldn’t be good for me. I don’t want to have to deal with all his men, his endless goddamn army. Not until they’re mine anyway.
