Page 21 of Blood & Heartache

“What was it you found in the trunk?” I asked as Ryker helped me to sit.

Instead of standing back up, he chose to kneel in front of me, hands resting on my knees. “Luca had to fill me in on why what we found was a problem, and it was a damn good thing we got it out of the car before the cops found it. Which is another problem we’ll need to address, but first, I’ll start with what was in the trunk.” He paused to take a deep breath like he was worried how I’d react to what he told me. “Buried under a shit ton of these flyers was a wooden box. The tech team didn’t do much searching of the car itself since most of it was ash. When we got to one of our secure warehouses, we opened it up and found this man’s head inside.”

Ryker pulled out his phone and showed me a picture of said box. The shocked expression on Nick’s face told me he never saw the attack coming. Pushing the phone away, I dropped my head on Ryker’s shoulder and took a moment to collect my thoughts.

“What did Luca tell you?” I asked.

“That you and Nick were friendly and met by chance on your first day back in the city. When you went to the club, you two hung out for a bit until the guys figured out he was Harvey’s nephew, and then they chased him off,” Ryker answered. “Have you had any contact with him since then?”

“No, none,” I said, lifting my head and rubbing my face. “This doesn’t make sense. If they put his head in there to frame me, why the fuck would they light the damn car on fire? It could have destroyed everything and made it harder to figure out what happened or why. Leaving the car there by one of our offices on the docks with a head and all these flyers would have been a neon sign pointing at me. So again, I come back to why the fire?”

“What if it was two different people?” Braxton inquired. “When you break it down like you did, it makes me think someone was trying to set you up, and the other was trying to cover it up. Do we have security footage?”

“No, the bastards knew how to cut the feed, and there’s a gap in recording here at the manor. It seems they took the car late last night then waited until they knew Luca’s men would be at the docks to unload the ship. An inside person would be the only reason they knew what was happening within the Family business,” Ryker explained. “I agree with you, though, Braxton. The fire would have gotten rid of everything if it wasn’t still raining.”

Looking at this problem as two different motives made things seem a hell of a lot clearer. Who would have a motive to not only smear my name with the police but also with the Family? If they’d known I was friends with Harvey’s nephew, they could take that as a betrayal. Now the words traitor, backstabber, and murderer made more sense for this situation. The other slurs were just to ram their point home that they were pissed at me.

“Liu,” I said, turning to look at him. “Off the top of your head, who are the top five people who would want to ruin my place in the family?”

Scratching his chin as he thought, Liu stood and started to pace. He hadn’t struck me as a person who needed to burn off excess energy like that, but then again, I didn’t really know the man. “The first name that comes to mind is Flora. You humiliated her publicly by stripping the Caprioni name from her and banishing her from ever coming back. Then there is Alejandro Molina. After your meeting, he reached out to your father to complain about how he’d been treated. I’d have said the Red Tigers, but you already wiped them out, and this kind of plan is too elaborate for them.”

I had to agree with him on that. Big Time wasn’t the type of guy I’d see getting in good with security and making something like this happen. “No, you’re right, it has to be someone clever… a person or persons who wouldn’t be noticed for being here. Flora is a good suggestion. Ryker, can you find out where she is and what she’s doing?”

Ryker nodded and headed out of the room.

“Now, you haven’t met this group of men yet, but I know you’ll understand why I say they’d want you out of the game,” Liu commented as he paused in his moments. “The Old Guard.”

Chapter 9

Falling back against the couch, I groaned. The Old Guard referred to the five men who helped Daddy build this empire into what it is today. Grandfather was the first one to leave Italy and boldly proclaim he was going to create a bigger network than the founding families did throughout the whole of the country. Of course, it didn’t go as well as he had hoped, but when Daddy took over, that’s when things really started to take off. He got the gangs, bikers, and other criminal organizations to work with us instead of against us. The Old Guard saw this and decided to leave Italy and back his effort here in Mansara.

As Daddy prepared for me to take over, the only people he couldn’t touch were the Old Guard. He’d been dealing with them personally and planned to until they saw I was more than capable of doing the job. Now, these men might be gunning for me, and a misstep like befriending the nephew of the man who has been our biggest threat would have been a disaster. Not only would they have the manpower, smarts, and capability to do something like this, they should have been at the top of the list for those who wanted me gone.

“How long has it been since they came to the house?” I questioned.

“Yesterday morning,” Liu answered. “They came to pay their respects to Flora before the funeral so they could have a private moment to mourn.”

“Did they know about Daddy’s heart condition? Could it be that they don’t believe the story we put together?” I pressed, looking at all the men around me. “Have I been so lost in my grief that I missed the fact I’m surrounded by vipers waiting to sneak in the smallest crack and take me out?”

“It’s much worse than that,” Ryker interjected as he rejoined us. “Flora decided she wasn’t going to take this quietly and is currently spending some time at Harvey’s beach house a few hours north.”

“Wow, if that isn’t a match made in heaven,” Braxton muttered.

“That’s how they did it, though,” Jace blurted. “Flora, the bitch that she is, always made sure to make the right friends. She made sure to establish connections here in the manor when Colmazio was courting her and when she lived here throughout the engagement. Only after she was officially his wife, did he send her away. I might not have been around during those days, but when I was first brought on, I was placed with the security team. Let me tell you, I got all the gossip listening to drunk people talking at the parties I was forced to monitor. People were either all for Flora or absolutely against her. There was no in-between.”

He had no idea how true that was. “Yes, I had the delight of being forced to attend all those parties when we lived in Apria. Flora is a master manipulator, but the only people she never could get her claws into were my father and me. Not sure why I could see right through her mask, but no matter what she did or said, I never believed a damn thing. While it didn’t work on me, it was obvious to see it did on everyone else. That woman could get into any party, club, or event she wanted with a smile. So there isn’t a doubt in my mind that she’d get her revenge on me and Daddy by going to Harvey. Hell, he probably came up with the plan and had his nephew killed for befriending me.”

“It would appear that we’re now dealing with a woman who knows too much about the inner workings of our business and a man who wants nothing more than to take over,” Atticus summed up. “I personally believe we need to address the security issues first. We can’t defend ourselves if we have a weakness they can exploit.”

“Agreed,” Ryker said as he stood and gestured to Jace. “Come on, I’m going to need you for this. Luca, you too. I need as many eyes as we can get.”

“Can I offer my help?” Liu asked.

It was odd. Even though Liu had been around for a long time, I was starting to realize he hadn’t been part of daily life here. He was on the outside of the clique my lieutenants had built, and even if they didn’t all like each other much, they had to work alongside one another. Now here was Liu, the new kid trying his best to find a way into the group.

“More the merrier,” Ryker called, waving him to follow as they headed out.

This left me with Braxton, Atty, and Gunner staring at me like I’d have orders for them too. What did they think I was their boss or something? Groaning internally, I reminded myself that I was trained for this. Yes, the job of running this entire operation was dumped in my lap way faster than I’d planned or wanted, but I wasn’t without the skills I needed.