Leonas made a face. “You aren’t as much fun as Rocco and Ricci.”
“Well, what would be fun?”
“Roller skating! Or riding the bike and doing stunts!”
Some of the stunts I’d caught the boys doing with their bikes had almost given me a heart attack. Not to mention that Dante would lose it if I left the house with Leonas to take a ride. “How about we do something else?”
He pouted, then his face lit up again. “The slime challenge.”
My brows rose. “Slime challenge?”
“Yes!” If it caused this much excitement for a boy of seven, it would be something I’d definitely not enjoy, especially if slime was involved, but I wanted to distract him. “All right, let’s do this slime challenge.”
Leonas’ answering grin banished some of the dark in my chest.
Dante
I sat in an armchair amidst the chaos Danilo had caused in Pietro’s office. Torn books, broken glass, overthrown shelves littered the floor. Danilo had left with his car. I doubted he was on his way back to Indianapolis. He needed time to himself. We all did.
I stared down at my shiny wingtip shoes, at my perfectly ironed dress pants, the neatly closed cuffs at my wrists. From the outside, I was the immaculate, controlled businessman, the Ice Man. I was like one of those goddamn volcanoes hidden beneath a thick layer of eternal ice. Propping my elbows up on my thighs, I lowered my face into my palms. If one of those erupted, they had the potential to destroy everything around. I felt on the verge of a dangerous outbreak.
I wanted to destroy, only not the ones around me but they would be at risk if I gave up control. Luca and Remo, those were the ones who’d feel my rage. Remo for everything he’d done to Fina, to our family. And Luca, for cooperating with the Camorra despite everything he knew of them.
“Daddy?”
My head shot up. Anna hovered in the doorway. She was dressed in a flowery summer dress, her hair up in a messy ponytail and her blue eyes wide. She was everything I wanted to protect. I didn’t say anything. Slowly she came inside, almost shyly. I wasn’t sure what Val had told her, but I doubted she’d mentioned the sheets. Anna was too young for something like that, even if Val had already explained a few things to her.
“You look sad,” she said quietly, stopping right beside me.
Sad wasn’t the right word to describe my emotions.
“I am,” I agreed anyway.
Anna wrapped her arms around my neck. I embraced her.
“It’s going to be all right. You are going to make everything okay. You always do.”
Her infallible trust in me was my incentive. I kissed her temple and held her for a while. I wasn’t sure who was comforting whom. It didn’t matter. Eventually, I pulled back. I had a call to make. “I’m sure Sofia can use some distraction. Why don’t you go find her?”
Anna nodded. She knew it was my cue that I needed to work.
She slipped out and closed the door.
Taking a deep breath to compose myself, I called Remo. I didn’t want to show him how the sheets had shaken us up.
“Dante?” he said in a tone that made me forget my resolution almost instantly.
“I got your message.”
“I know you don’t follow the Famiglia’s bloody sheets tradition, but I thought it was a nice touch.”
I’d always despised the tradition, had found it utterly distasteful when I’d been confronted with it at Famiglia weddings and even the occasional Outfit wedding of very traditional families who stuck to the old habits. But these sheets stood for something far worse than a consummated marriage. They stood for an act of violence a woman shouldn’t ever have to suffer, not in a marriage and not outside of it either. “There are rules in our world. We don’t attack children and women.”
“Funny that you say that. When your soldiers attacked my territory, they fired at my thirteen-year-old brother. You broke those fucking rules first, so stop the bullshit.”
“You know as well as I do that I didn’t give the order to kill your brother, and he’s alive and well.”
“If he weren’t, we wouldn’t be having this conversation, Dante. I would have killed every fucking person you care about, and we both know there are so many to choose from.”
Anna, Leonas, Val… he wouldn’t get near them. I’d do anything to protect them, if necessary even stoop as low as him. “You have people you don’t want to lose either, Remo. Don’t forget that.”
Samuel didn’t believe Remo to care about anyone but the note of protectiveness when he’d mentioned his brothers led me to believe something else. It was a flicker of hope.
“I thought the sheets might have made you see reason, but I see that you want Serafina to suffer a bit more.”
“Remo—” The click sounded.
“Fuck,” I growled.
I tried calling Remo in the following days but he ignored my calls. Ines’ despair rose with every passing day, and so did Danilo’s, Samuel’s, and Pietro’s wish to go through with our attack on Luca’s Enforcer.
The MCs had agreed to give a kidnapping a try in return for outrageous amounts of money and numbers of guns and drugs. I didn’t trust them. They wanted to be paid in advance because of the huge risk and I was wary of agreeing to such a deal.
I was glad when Remo finally contacted me with a new demand, one I had anticipated. My former Consigliere in exchange for my niece. Naturally, I agreed to give him Rocco. I didn’t care about his fate or the undoubtedly cruel torture he’d suffer under Fabiano’s and the Falcone’s hands. That wasn’t why I’d been reluctant to hand him over. No, it was regarded as weak to answer to the enemy’s demand, especially if said enemy asked for your former Consigliere, especially if the enemy was Remo Falcone. An action like that caused worry among the ranks of my Underbosses and Captains because they preferred to consider themselves safe and giving up one of theirs burst their bubble. Rocco had many friends among my men. He knew how to manipulate people.
Exchanging a worthless girl against a former Consigliere would be seen critically by some. Others, who held their family dear, would judge me more kindly. It didn’t matter. I’d made my decision. I had to save Serafina, for her sake and my family’s sake.
PART SEVEN
Dante
Val had baked a cake for Anna’s eleventh birthday and held a small celebration that felt more like a funeral.
Every smile was fake, every laugh forced.
We tried our hand at pretend happiness. It tasted fake, bitter.
Anna blew out her eleven candles, her eyes closed tightly. I knew what her wish was even without her revealing it. She hoped things would go well tomorrow, that we’d all return with Serafina. It was my greatest wish as well. Many things hinged on the outcome of the exchange, most importantly the happiness of my family.
Samuel looked off into space, torn between hope and worry. Remo had agreed to an exchange tomorrow evening. Danilo, Pietro, and I would leave early in the morning to take Rocco to Las Vegas. Santino and Arturo had brought him to Minneapolis a few hours ago.
Anna smiled when she unpacked the painting utensils Val had gotten for her. We all ate cake afterward, trying to maintain meaningless conversation but it was impossible to overcome the tension.