Page 71 of The Arianna Arrangement

Potter’s phone dinged with a text and I saw the notification on the screen before he picked it up.

Dad

Just checked your grades. Great job on your project.

Atlas was a great dad, all the Givenchy men were, but as far as I knew, he wasn’t one that kept up with his kids' grades. Especially Potter. That meant the text was code for something.

I raised an eyebrow, causing Potter to smirk and wink at me. That was all I needed to know exactly what that text was about.

Bradley’s family was going down tonight.

Tucker took my hand in his as we walked through the door to his parents house. Ashley had planned a family dinner for tonight and said she wanted all her kids at home. It happened at least once a week so I hadn’t been suspicious, but now I knew it was a cover to have us all together when the news broke.

We were either going to relish in our victory, or start a new plan. Either way, it wouldn’t raise any red flags to the outside world that we were together now.

“Tuck!” Damon ran into the room and almost tackled my husband with the force of his hug.

I absolutely loved how much his little brother loved and looked up to him. It warmed my heart that he didn’t feel the need to hide that love either. Damon could have no better role model than his father and big brother.

My husband hugged him back and smiled as he pulled away and ruffled his hair. “Sup man? How was school?”

Damon’s cheeks pinked. “It was fine.”

Karly appeared from the living room, a shit eating grin on her face. “He has a crush.”

“Shut up, Karly!”

“Hey, don’t yell at your sister.” Zephyr walked out of his office headed towards us. “We show respect to women.” He took us both into a hug before motioning towards the living room. “Thought we might catch the news while we wait for supper.”

I saw Leyla roll her eyes when we walked in. “Why we have to watch the boring ass news, I’ll never understand.”

Zeph placed a kiss on the top of her head before taking the seat next to her and snatching the remote from her hand. “Because, my dear daughter, you never know when there will be some interesting information that could come in handy.”

I had to agree with my friend. The news was boring as fuck. Normally. Tonight, however, I was very much looking forward to it. Zephyr turned to NBS, the National Broadcasting Service, the Blackwood’s most widespread station.

Unfortunately, we were all almost bored to tears by the time they finished the weather, traffic reports, and a story on a park that was getting repaired in a poor part of New York.

The older man, I think his name was Nick, turned to the camera and sat down his papers. “In other news, we at NBS pride ourselves on bringing the hard hitting stories and making sure the public is aware of what’s going on in the world.”

The blonde with overly teased hair nodded. “That’s right, Nate.” Guess I was wrong. “That’s why tonight, we’re bringing you a story about corruption and the sex trade in the Bronx. We were informed today that Carter Pinkston, well known in New York for his role in importing and exporting, as well as setting up a major charity to help homeless youth, has actually been working with the Carbone crime family to traffic people into the sex trade.”

“That’s right, Sally. Documents show not only pictures of meet ups, but audio recordings as well as a paper trail that link Pinkston to some of the lieutenants of the Carbone family. These documents also show evidence that they have been paying off the Bronx police assistant chief to make sure that the patrol officers are always out of the area when shipments are moved in and out.”

Leyla’s eyes widened. “Holy shit.” Her head turned towards me, but she didn’t need to open her mouth to ask the question. I knew she was wondering if we were behind this, so I gave her a subtle nod.

Yes, it was probably safer if she didn’t know, but I was done keeping secrets from my BBF.

When Potter suggested setting Blackwood up, I knew that we had to target one of the five families. It was the only way to guarantee they went into hiding. If they just posted something that would get them in legal trouble, they’d fight it. I mean, they might lose some money in the end, but it wouldn’t be detrimental enough.

The five families operated outside of the law, so they were the ones that would scare him into hiding. It would also almost guarantee their untimely death, something I was personally rooting for.

When I brought it up to Sandro, he agreed wholeheartedly. This would give him the opportunity to take down Carter Pinkston, punishing him for betraying our family, while also taking out some of the Carbone leadership. Sandro said he thought they were chomping at the bit to possibly make a move on some of our territory.

I was also thrilled with the idea because it would cut down on the sex trade in New York. While it wouldn’t go away completely or forever, even slowing it down for a while was a move in the right direction and maybe by the time Luka took over for the Accardis and Dante for the Pesaros, between three of the families they could run the sex trade out of New York.

It was a lofty dream, but it wasn’t one I would give up on.

Chapter 35