Page 127 of More Tricks

“Go right ahead. I’ll answer them if I feel like they’re valid,” I agreed.

He looked at my men in the room, then met my gaze. “Are you sure you wouldn’t want to add one more to your group? I know you haven’t legally married any of these men, but you and I could. As you said, think of the combined power we’ll both share doing that.”

“Wow, clearly I misjudged you, Tommy,” I said with a disapproving click of my tongue. “Tell Valter to take his hand out of your ass and let you speak for yourself. If you ask another asinine question, we’ll go with plan B and pretend we never had this meeting.”

Tommaso burst out laughing and a genuine smile shone on his face. “I can see why you need seven men to keep up with you, Dax. You’re too much for any one person to handle.” He took a moment to compose himself, then seemed ready to ask his real questions. “You said you wanted a friendship between us. I see the benefits it will bring to me, but I’m not sure what you feel you’ll get out of me?”

“Ah, now we’re talking,” I responded, clapping my hands together and rubbing them before I answered. “I looked into you, Tommy. Sorry, we aren’t friends yet. Can I call you that?” I asked. He nodded and encouraged me to go on. “While we were digging up information to make sure the claims were true, I was looking for other aspects of who you are as a person. You play by the rules but aren’t afraid to break them when it really matters, good or bad. I knew you had siblings that were born after your father adopted you, and from what I could tell, you looked after them. Just like you did with Bev back in the break room. What I appreciate most from you is that, like me, we don’t hide who we are from those around us when we can, yet we shelter those who can’t handle the truth of who and what we are.”

I paused a moment to look at my guys, then back at Tommaso. “You aren’t married or have a steady woman in your life because it’s too hard to handle both, so it's easier to do without. I used to think the same way until these assholes decided they had a different plan for me. To do this, you’ll eventually need a partner in life. To be clear, I’m not talking about myself. Seven is more than enough for me to keep track of,” I teased. “You’ll be good for business, plus I think you and I could work well together having similar moral compasses. We aren’t pitch black on the scale of things, but we’re nowhere near white or even light gray. You and I, we live that dark gray life, my friend.”

Tommaso seemed to ponder over my long-winded answer, a finger tapping on his chin. “What would you say if you found out that I sent you those papers?” he asked, seeming to have come to a conclusion about something.

“I would say it makes a whole lot more sense,” I answered. “The more we looked into your adoption, I just had this gut feeling that Sergio knew exactly who you were. Did they have a plant in the house to know something happened to your mom and steal you away?”

“Just like that, you roll with it, and all you want to know is how they got the boy out of the house?” Valter demanded, his face a mask of confusion. “Tommaso basically told you we set you up.”

Now it was my turn to look at Don of the mafia, confused. “Valter, just as you said before, people don’t do things out of the goodness of their hearts. There had to be a calculated reason for someone to leave behind that kind of information. Add to it that someone close to Tommy’s mother had to supply the photo since I’m sure Diego destroyed them. Why would he want anyone to know there could be a mysterious firstborn child out there? So no, I’m not shocked it was any of you that put that on our doorstep. My real question is, did we pass your test?”

Valter seemed satisfied with my answer and yelled something in Italian. Seconds later, in walked Beverly, her face washed clean of makeup and wearing a much more appropriate dress for working in the office.

This was the part that shocked me.

This bitch had been a plant.

“What the fuck is going on?” Cam demanded. “If you wanted us to come here and offer you an alliance, why all the games?”

Beverly, if that was really her name, sat next to Sergio. Her father smiled as he patted her leg affectionately. “Allow me to formally introduce you to my daughter, Betta. She does work here, but she’s in charge of finances for the whole production, as it were.”

“Ciao,” Betta greeted with a little wave before turning to me. “I’m sorry about all that earlier, but they told me I had to push you until you snapped to see how you would handle it.”

I pointed at her as I glared at the men. “Now that kind of shit I don’t like,” I snapped. “Do you realize what kind of danger you put her in? Thank God she didn’t make a move on any of my men, or I would have slaughtered her in a heartbeat.”

Sergio blanched at this, but Valter didn’t even blink an eye. “If you did that, then it would have told us you aren’t the person we want as our ally.”

“You were willing to put her life on the line to make that call?” I demanded, as my anger started to boil inside me. “It’s men like you who live in the old world, thinking that women are disposable, and that make me sick. So because I didn’t kill her, I’m better than Diego or Marco? That is one of the most asinine things I’ve ever heard.”

“Little demon,” Void warned, placing his hand on mine.

I knew I was overreacting, but it was shit like this that got my twin killed. If he had a crew that really stuck by him and saw his value as a brother in their family, things could have been so different.

“She has a point,” Tommaso interjected. “They didn’t tell me about this exercise either until this morning because they knew I wasn’t going to like it. If I’d come into that break room and found you truly ready to slit her throat, I would have intervened. Instead, you were using your blade to get her attention and make a point, then you offered her a way out if she wanted it. That interaction told me everything I personally needed to know about who you are as a person, Dax.”

My gaze drifted over to Betta, needing her to tell me the truth. “Why? Why were you willing to do as these men asked, knowing who and what I was.”

“As you said, we women are allowed to be badasses in the world. While I might work here in an office, I have a position of respect as the treasurer of the whole organization. Yeah, I don’t rule an empire or know how to fight like you. I still demanded my respect from these men,” she answered, her tone cool and confident, nothing like the woman she was pretending to be moments ago. “Who knows, one day, I might be hitting you up for a job if we become as good of friends as these men want.”

I sighed, slouching in my chair. “They sure have a fucked-up way of showing their intentions. God, I feel like I’m back in grade school where the kid who pulls your pigtails is in love with you.”

Betta and Tommaso chuckled at that, along with my guys, but the older men didn’t at all seem amused.

“So what now? Do you need me to bleed on something? Offer up my firstborn child?” I asked, feeling the energy drain out of me at all these games they insisted on playing.

“That would do us no good since you lost your firstborn, then ensured it couldn’t happen again,” Sergio muttered.

Cold shock slammed into me at his words. “What—”

My words were cut short as Cam vaulted out of his seat, grabbed Sergio by the back of his collar, and slammed him to the floor.