“Being loyal to Nicoisbeing loyal to me.”
“Not with the way things are going.” Diego pauses, hesitating.
“Spit it out.”
“Nico is making you look like a bitch,” he says plainly, and I blink at his bluntness but he has a point.
“And what am I supposed to do about it? I’ve tried showing him consequences…”
“After years of getting whatever he wants? It’s too little, too late,Caputo.”
“Are you trying to say my brother is a lost cause?”
“If the shoe fits.”
I stand up, puffing out my chest, but Diego doesn’t back down, just looking up at me since I’m slightly taller than him. And the thing is he’s right. Nico has gotten away with murder for far too long.
And it’s not like my father is going to discipline him at this age.
“I need to find out who’s loyal to me other than you and Arturo.”
Diego sticks out his fingers as he names people. “Joey Stacks is loyal to money, so you can win him over. Alfonso and Johnny are firmly in Nico’s camp. Then you’ve got the floaters…”
“Can’t trust any of them,” I mumble. My men have dwindled these last five years, given my takeover of my father’s empire. Most of the help we get is from men loyal to Oscar Cortado, since we’re allies. But I can’t ever fully trust men loyal to an entire different family.
The only two men I can trust are Diego and Arturo. How has it come to this?
“I can call some of my old guys,” Diego offers.
I nod. “Do it. Anyone you trust, I trust.”
“There’s maybe four I could scare up.”
“Send two of them to the shipment to relieve Joey. Send the rest here. We need better security here.”
Diego glances at the busted open bedroom door.
“Someone came here to take her?” His voice raises in volume, incredulous.
I nod. “I don’t know who. She said they were masked. Driving a muscle car.”
Diego whistles. “Sounds like some of Nico’s guys.”
I frown. “But Nico doesn’t know I use this place as a safehouse.”
“Alfonso does. So I bet Nico knows.”
I curse under my breath. “So you think it’s Nico? You think he’s making a play for the empire?”
“I don’t know if he wants the empire, but he’s certainly trying to throw you off your guard. And it’s working, isn’t it?”
I roll my shoulders since they feel stiff.
“I guess it is. I don’t want her hurt.”
Diego glances at Sophia, who is snoring softly, curled up on the couch.
“Caputo?”he says, and I turn to look at him.“What is she to you?”
