As I’d suspected, my brothers had purposely kept me out of the loop of possible future dangers. Granted, there didn’t need to be scrutinizing eyes on every person or entity we’d crossed over the years. One of the best aspects of children growing up in the electronic age was the ability to place the list of known enemies in a database. With hacking capabilities and surveillance as technically capable as those of any military operation, our father and now my brother could keep a close eye on their physical whereabouts.
But there was a lot more that went into keeping track of the whereabouts of those who would just as soon destroy our entire family.
Given the crash course from various sources over the week since our return from Brazil, I was completely cognizant of just how savvy and dangerous they were, all while usually remaining behind the scenes.
Their power and influence as well as the volume of money and properties owned altered everything from financial and stock markets to various billion-dollar deals throughout the world.
Even certain military operations since it had long been suspected a Saudi prince and other royalty were members of the Brotherhood.
However, I knew enough about the history of crime syndicates to know better than to underestimate the Five Families of the Cosa Nostra.
Since a few months before when Alexander had been made honorary member, even if he was doing little more than holding the position open for when Anastasia and Jaxon had a son. They were powerful. They were ruthless. And they were very unhappythat the Brotherhood was in the throes of attempting to pilfer their business operations throughout Europe.
I wasn’t the only person in the room who was itching to drive a stake through the heart of the vampires, but Alexander had learned to become a prudent leader. He had no intention of falling on his sword or allowing his rage to get the better of him.
When the Brotherhood fell, and according to him, they would, it was going to be a permanent solution to a dangerous situation.
That meant putting hundreds of pieces together. Providing information and details to different organizations including national and international law agencies. The thought was to have someone else clean up the mess after we made our point.
Don’t fuck with us.
Sinclair laughed. The rush to Miami had been nothing more than a ruse that we’d fallen for given our recent expansion into Miami. “The bastards think we’d hit a brick wall.”
“They don’t know how close we are to the Five Families,” Alexander reminded him.
When I’d run, I’d thwarted the Brotherhood’s plans of kidnapping me from right under Alexander’s nose. That had royally pissed them off, which was the reason they’d gone full gangbusters with hunting me down.
After learning all the gory details about just how far they’d gone, I was shocked Donatello and I had made it out alive. The antics had included the attempt at tanking certain stocks owned by the Prince family by tossing out accusations of insider trading. Alexander and the group of family attorneys had been forced to deal with that.
There’d been a fire at one of the warehouses, set mysteriously of course, all in an attempt to keep Alexander busy.
My house had even been broken into, the bastards obviously looking for where I’d gone. Thankfully, Donatello being highly intelligent, he hadn’t left evidence as to where I’d gone. In fact, he’d destroyed all possible links. Somehow, they’d figured it out, which meant they had eyes and ears everywhere.
“What do the Dons say about our situation?” Jaxon asked.
“That we’re not alone in being pushed and pushed hard.” Alexander allowed the information to settle in.
“They knew about our connection with the Five Families all along,” I suggested.
Alexander grinned. “Exactly. They decided to use that as their trump card.”
“Only they don’t know how powerful the alliance or how much control the combined members have over everything from financial institutions. Land management. Politics.” Montgomery laughed and winked as he looked at me.
“Then how are we going to play this?” Donatello moved toward the whiteboards that had been set up with the photographs of the people Francoise had provided. “A governor. A brigadier general. The owner of the largest social media platform. A South African diamond king. An Oscar-winning actor. The director of the freaking CIA. The list goes on and on. All members of the Brotherhood. All powerful men in their own right, but when you put them together, their control is explosive.”
He turned around to look at me and for a few seconds, we locked eyes before I turned my head away.
No wonder Francoise and the company members had been so secretive. They were investigating one of their own.
“The question is are we trying to be heroes?” Sinclair’s question was a decent one.
Alexander eased down onto the chair behind his desk, immediately drumming his fingers. “No, but providing us with possible future favors of the international law community while keeping them busy and in accolades is in our best interest.”
Sinclair was grinning from ear to ear. “And the Five Families?”
“Four,” Jaxon corrected.
“Five,” Alexander said, also grinning. “I’ve been kept abreast of decisions made within the Five Families as well as being allowed opportunities to expand throughout Europe.”
