Damian shakes his head. “I don’t like it anymore than you do. I’d rather find out who is responsible for this, but Carmine?—”
I interrupt this time. “Carmine doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing lately. He’s playing everything too safe.”
“That’s his prerogative,” Alessio reminds me. “He’s our leader. If he says to wait, we wait.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it. What are we doing exactly if we’re not finding out who’s responsible for buggin’ the estate? Oh, wait. I know. You and the others are allowed to do their jobs, but I’m not allowed to do mine.” I wave an arm in the air.
“You have a job to do,” Alessio insists. “You’re supposed to be training Nikolas and Beau. If things turn nasty with the Bianchis, we need them to be prepared.”
“See, that’s your problem,” I point at the both of them. “You’re preparing forifthings turn with the Bianchis, I’m already prepared forwhenit does.”
I turn around and leave the room, disinterested in listening to them try to stop me from doing my job. Getting intel and finding out who the fuck is playing us in this house. It’s gotta be one of the guards brought in over the last few months. Someonethat Carmine thought he could trust and hasn’t realized yet that he can’t.
I think about the guards I ordered to follow around Aleksandr. No, if they were in on this, they wouldn’t have agreed to it. They’d be too worried about blowing their cover somehow. Wouldn’t they?
Or maybe by not agreeing to it, they would’ve drawn suspicion to themselves…
I’m starting to confuse myself, but I need to weed out who might be the mole in our family. There could be more than one. Maybe we’ve already been infiltrated beyond belief, maybe it’s too late.
Damn, I need a drink.
I head for the liquor cabinet in the family room and find Tiberi sitting there per usual, with a book.
“How is it, brother?” he asks me, voice quiet and calm. Like he’s not at all interested in the conflict I’m struggling with inside and outside.
I grab a bottle of whiskey and pour myself a double before shoving it back into the cabinet and sitting down in a chair beside him. I down half of it in one go and sigh.
“Tired of this shit,” I admit. “Carmine needs me to do my job, but he’s stopping me. Why?”
“I don’t really agree with it either,” Tiberi tells me.
“You couldn’t say anything to him?” I wave a hand. “Does no one speak up when it fuckin’ matters around here?”
Tiberi shakes his short-haired head. “I also think Carmine is right. We can’t jump in without being prepared.”
“I am prepared!” I raise my voice and feel the burn of the drink as I take another sip. “I’m prepared to get intel from the Rose and kick some ass.”
“After what happened with Eivor, the mess left behind…Carmine wants to go about things a bit more delicately,” heexplains. “We need to find out just how deep into our business they are before we start getting into theirs.”
“They’re pretty damn deep, I can tell you that much. I think we need to find their soft spot and exploit it as soon as possible.” I growl out my words in frustration.
“Maybe so,” Tiberi shrugs. “You both could be right, but what isn’t going to help is infighting.”
I scoff. “Do you always have to be so studious, Ti?” I ask him. “Can’t you be ready to get this war started once and for all?”
Tiberi sighs and adjusts the book in his lap. “I’m not ready to start any war, but I’ll certainly be there to end it.”
“That’s what I’m fuckin’ talkin’ about,” I grin at him. “Carmine needs more of your energy. We need to end this thing before it goes too far.”
I down the rest of my drink and start to feel the soft buzz in my head.
If only Carmine would listen to me.
If only Aleksandr would talk to me.
They both will, eventually. I’ll make sure of that.
4
