“So increase the security detail on the house,” I say. “On all the houses. Increase surveillance. Double the men at the casino. I don’t know why that means I need some stranger attached to me every second of the day.”
“It means exactly that.”
“No.”
His expression does not change.
I stare at him, waiting for some sign that this is negotiable. There is none.
I drag in a breath. “Papà.”
That word still works on him sometimes. Not often. But sometimes.
Not today, apparently.
He leans back in his chair. “There are concerns about loyalty among our own people.”
There it is.
The part no one has wanted to acknowledge quite yet.
The thing moving like poison under the surface these past few weeks, turning every conversation into something slightly more acidic than it has been. I have heard enough in fragments to piece it together.
Voices lowering when I walk into a room. Vito looking wound tighter than usual. Roberto spending more time away from the casino and in closed-door meetings that go on too long.
Rumors of a traitor.
Someone inside aligning with an enemy.
Someone feeding out information.
I uncross my arms and plant both palms on the edge of his desk, leaning in.
“So that’s what this is? You think one of our own men is giving someone access, so now I’m supposed to what? Have a babysitter?”
His mouth flattens. “Don’t be childish.”
My temper flashes hot.
“Childish? I’m twenty-five years old. I run the financial side of a multimillion-dollar business. I deal with regulators and auditors and investors and department heads and enough bullshit every day to keep three people busy. I am not a child, and I am not going to have some man trailing behind me like I can’t cross a room without supervision.”
“You are not being assigned a babysitter.”
“Oh, that’s good. I was worried about the title.”
He ignores the sarcasm.
“He’s private security.”
I blink. “What?”
I straighten slowly.
For a second, I just look at him, because that is somehow worse. Worse than the demand. Worse than the argument. Worse than the threat, almost. Because it means this has gone beyond discussion. He brought me in here to tell me, not ask me.
“You already hired someone already.”
“The arrangement has been made.”
