Page 138 of More Tricks

When I looked at him, I noticed the black eye he was sporting. I hadn’t been able to see it from the way he was standing in the elevator. “What the hell happened to you?”

“I don’t know how but my father figured out we met with you after the meeting. He was furious, saying we didn’t need you to pull this off, but he’s wrong. There’s no way for us to pull this off if you’re not part of it. We might have the numbers but not the influence needed to hold a position like that for long.” He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “I told him as much, and he got pissed, which is how I ended up with the black eye.”

“While that sucks, I’m not sure how that tells us why you’re here, in New York, looking for me?” I pushed.

“My father called Valter and told him that Betta and I went rogue. They got to Betta before I could warn her, so I pretended I wanted to talk, make amends, then killed them all,” Tommaso explained. “The coup is in motion, and I’m here to beg you for your assistance.”

I waved my hands to get him to stop talking. “Whoa, back the fucking train right up. You killed Valter?”

“Yes, and my father. He refused to side with me, and I couldn’t risk him going to Diego,” Tommaso answered.

Cognac whistled his shock as he crossed his arms. “Damn, man, that’s cold, but you had to do what you had to do. Nothing about a hostile takeover is easy or black n’ white. You make split-second choices and hope to God it was the right one.”

“Did you get to Betta?” I asked, understanding how protecting family could make you do drastic things.

“Yeah, she’s at the hotel. They beat her up pretty good, trying to get information out of her, but she didn’t talk,” Tommaso answered, pride in his voice. “I know I said you could have time to look over the agreement, but we don’t have that now. Things are set in motion, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”

Wes came to stand at my shoulder as he addressed Tommaso. “Then what’s he doing here with you? The plan didn’t include outsiders.”

“François is the representative from the head of the Italian mafia. He’s here because it’s proof that they support my claim over Boston’s branch and will also back me in taking over the De León Cartel,” Tommaso explained. “Now, all I need is the Queen of the West Coast to add her endorsement, stating that she will aid in my fights if it comes to it, knowing that it will give me enough time to establish my own base and loyal followers.”

Eagle frowned at that. “Wait, are you telling me you’re taking over all of this, and you have no one but outsiders backing you? None of your own people are waiting for the signal to help make this happen?”

“No, that’s not what I’m saying. Think about it, though. The Italians have been a small fish in this game, and I’m about to take a massive slice of the pie. People will be pouring out of the woodwork to try and take this from me,” Tommaso argued. “I’ve got men at the ready to make this happen. I just need to know if you’re in this or not?”

“I can’t give you that answer right here right now,” I stated. “This is not just my choice to make or whose life I will be putting on the line, so I need tonight to discuss things, and I’ll give you my answer in the morning.”

Reaching for his back pocket, he pulled out a folded manila envelope. “This is just to show you what value I bring to the table. Giving this to you means you don’t need me as much as I need you. I hope it proves that I want this to work. The criminal world needs to be brought into the twenty-first century, and only having fresh blood is going to do that.”

Taking the papers, Void and Magnus escorted them back to the elevator, leaving the rest of us to look at what he’d given me. Opening the envelope, I pulled out papers but also pictures of a woman in her twenties and a guy who seemed around her age. There were pictures of them in the city, leaving a building and getting in and out of cars together. My guess was since she looked so much like Gabby, it was her daughter.

“Look at that, she’s got both ears and all her fingers,” I pointed out, handing one over to Picasso. “Now we know for a fact those belonged to someone else.”

Shuffling through the papers, I found one for the son where Elena was living with him. I was glad she wasn’t going to be in the main building. It would make taking it down easier. Out of all the planning we’d done, trying to balance firepower and ensuring we could get her out alive was tough. You can’t take over a whole office building and not risk shooting someone you don’t mean to.

“He gave us everything we needed to get Elena out of here tonight if we wanted to,” Eagle commented. “Is this what he meant when he made it so we didn’t need him?”

When I looked over the next page of information, my brows shot up. “Ah no, pretty sure it's the detailed schedule they have of Diego’s habits, mistresses, and restaurants he frequents. If we didn’t want to hit the office building, we don’t have to at this point. Fuck, he even has the locations to his two homes, one in the city, one over in the Hamptons.”

That had everyone converging upon me, looking at the information. Thankfully, no one tried to snatch it out of my hands. Then I might have stabbed someone.

“Let’s get back upstairs, and we can really map this out and talk logistics,” Jaxson suggested. “We have an office with all the things we need.”

Once more, we climbed back up the stairs, grabbed a beer, and got to work.

Chapter twenty-two

Dax

It was hard to fight against the adrenaline rush you got from making a plan that was falling into place so perfectly. I’m not sure any of us got much sleep last night because of it. The information Tommaso gave us helped to fit the pieces we couldn’t figure out perfectly. We had all the names of the biggest players in his cartel, where they liked to hang out, and who was important to them. Not many of them had families, which was smart. This was no life for kids to grow up in.

“Holy fuck, if this works, it’s going to be one of the most epic takeovers ever witnessed,” Ghost said, flopping onto the couch in the living room. “They’re never going to see it coming.”

“Now the trick is to get Tommaso to convince everyone to do their part,” I countered. “He might have taken out his immediate competition, but I’m pretty sure he knew all along he’d have to do that. This is going to be that on a massive scale.”

Wes looked up at me from where he was lying in my lap, poking my side. “If he doesn’t have the balls for it, then just do what everyone assumed and take over both coasts.”

“Yeah, I’m not sure I want that much work,” I said as I absently brushed my fingers through his hair. “Think of how much work it is to run the Hidden Empire, then double it. There would never be a chance for us to do anything but put out fires flying all over the place. It just sounds awful.”