“Nothing. Hey, can I ask you a question?”
I remember her saying she knows things because people talk around her like she’s not there. I get that a lot around here, so I’m hoping in this case she can shed a little light for me.
“Yeah, sure. What’s up?”
“How long has the engagement been a thing?”
“Juliana’s father came to my dad about a year ago with the proposition. It didn’t seem like he was interested at first. Then something changed about two months before you arrived. It’s totally weird if you ask me.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Because my uncle hates the Abato family,” Al answers for her.
Rico
“Any of thatmake sense to you?” Mario asks from the driver’s seat.
I was surprised when my father asked him to drive as he climbed into the vehicle with us. I was expecting him to ride in his own car and take Juliana with him. Mario and I have things to discuss, but that won’t happen with her in the back seat.
I was right not to trust her ass. She’s lucky I haven’t put a matching bullet into her head. She belongs with that motherfucker she brought into my pop’s home.
“Nope. Not yet.”
“Read it again. You will see what I did,” he says with disguised heat.
I know him too well not to hear the true menacing tone beneath the words. I nod my head and open up the email he sent again. As I sit in the front passenger seat staring down at my phone, I reread everything Mario learned about the Abato family. I work to continue to keep my face expressionless.
“I’m enjoying Miami for the most part. I was happy to get the call from Mr. Gallo to come out,” Juliana says in her annoying-ass voice.
“I’m sure you enjoyed yourself at the party yesterday. You young people kept me up past my bedtime,” Pop says, not giving his true mood away.
He’s not fooling me. I know he knows more is going on. He’s as good at Uncle Emilio’s games as he is. A glance in the rearview and I can partially see his face.
Yeah, he’s onto the bullshit.
I snort to myself and shake my head. Then I return my focus to the phone before me. Something catches my attention, and my blood begins to boil.
Juliana has no idea I’m onto her and her family as she sits babbling to my father in the back of the car. I want to keep it that way. I have a million questions as I read this report Mario sent me this morning.
I’m seeing everything differently now. Pauly and Jonny, Andy Cusumano, the bullshit in New York. Everything.
If my uncle knows all this, why is Juliana here? What’s his endgame? How do I fit into any of this?
My thoughts go to Oni. What have I gotten her in the middle of? The more I read, the more pissed I get.
We need to get to my uncle’s so I can get some answers. Romeo Abato has been working with our enemies. He doesn’t want this marriage between me and his daughter any more than I do.
“Juliana, is everything all right?” My father asks, causing me to look out the side-view mirror.
She has turned white as a sheet as she looks down at her phone. Good, it looks like she’s been informed that her boy is dead and her plan failed. Oni killed that motherfucker in my father’s house. There was no way I could keep that from him.
My father, knowing he shouldn’t and probably couldn’t keep the information from his brother, reported it to him. That’s the reason for this little field trip.
I knew from the moment he requested Juliana’s presence; he knew something more—the man always does. What Mario sent me only confirms my suspicions. However, I’ve yet to figure out what my uncle is up to this time.
What I do know is that asshole who attacked Oni works for Connor McFeely. McFeely is Finn Sullivan’s right hand. The Sullivans have been after our New York territories since before I was born. It’s no secret we don’t fuck with them.
Those Irish fucks are a pain in the fucking ass. To work with them is like a slap in the face to a Gallo. Abato has some balls trying to arrange a marriage between me and his daughter when he’s been dealing with those scumbags behind our backs.
