Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 96129 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96129 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
“I’m curious.” Dad turned to my brother. “How do you know about him? Are you not staying in your lane?”
“What? Of course, I am.” Santi scoffed. “Jochy told me about him. You know he’s un chismoso.”
Santi was a terrible liar, so I knew he was telling the truth.
“Let’s move on. I’ve stated my piece about the thug,” Dad said. I bit my tongue. “I want to apologize for what I did. For everything that happened and everything I dragged you into. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“You already apologized.”
“I want to apologize again. What I did was selfish and unfair to both of you.”
“Rosie got the short end of the stick,” Santi mumbled. “I was fine at school.”
“Let’s just put it past us and agree to never borrow money from anyone but the banks,” I said.
“Right.” Santi scoffed. “Let’s not borrow money from regular thugs, just thugs in suits.”
“Santiago,” my father warned. Santi shrugged.
I shook my head. “By the way, the rest of the money is in that little black bag. Once he gets this, it’s really over.”
“Thank God,” Dad said. “Thank you.”
He set a hand on top of mine, I set mine over Santi’s, and the three of us held hands for a few seconds, just grateful for this moment.
And then our front door flew open. We didn’t have time to prepare for it. When the first shot rang out, we threw ourselves to the ground. Then came the second shot, then a third. My own screams were the last thing I heard before everything went black.
34
DOMINIC
Our phones were supposed to be in airplane mode while we sat at the table, but I kept mine on and continued sneaking glances at it in case Rosie texted to tell me she was home already. Isabel, Catalina, and Petra were taking turns playing the Pac-Man machine in the room behind us. They’d been with Lorenzo and Gio when I called, and the guys didn’t want to leave them wherever they’d been. Isabel cheered and the other two groaned. Across from me, Gio and Loren smiled wide, looking over at them. Jealousy shot through me. I finally had what they had and I would’ve given anything to have Rosie join them in the other room, where I could see her, hear her, smell her.
It used to be that women weren’t allowed in here, but a lot had changed since Charles’s and Joe’s deaths. When it came to Lorenzo and me, our fathers didn’t know about the lax rules we held these days, but we knew they wouldn’t be on board with any of it. They were all about holding up tradition and we would probably be ostracized for having women we respected in here and not just whores we fucked and discarded. It was one of the things that made me and Gabe nervous for our little sister, Lenora, or Nora, as we called her. She was technically our half-sister, but still our flesh and blood and we were very protective of her. Gabe said he’d heard Dad talking about arranging her marriage as if this was the fucking 1920s or some shit. There weren’t many men in the old country that I trusted to treat my sister well. Then again, Giovanni and Isabel were set up that way and it had obviously worked out for them, so maybe there was something to be said about it.
In a way, I wished that was the deal with Rosie. If that were the case, she’d have to be with me. That idea made me no better than my father. I couldn’t force her to want this. That was the only thing I kept going back to. Gabe wasn’t wrong. Rosie wasn’t wrong. My last name alone made me a target. It was all or nothing with us. They may not have taken blood oaths, but it was an oath just the same.
“Hey, lover boy, cut the shit and tell us why we’re here,” Rocco snapped. “And why is this asshole here, looking all tan and shit?”
“Tell them what you told me.”
Gabe took a breath, knee bouncing. He’d known these guys as long as I had, but he was still nervous around them. Lorenzo cut him off just after he got to the part about Tommy showing up. He still hadn’t even said Gio’s last name.
“I’ll say it,” Lorenzo said, then turned to Gio. “We think Joe’s alive.”
Gio’s face was totally blank for three seconds. “How can that be?”
“No clue, but the last name on all of these accounts is definitely Masseria,” I said. “He must be trying to buy the club from Tommy and my dad is in on it.” I glanced at Loren. “You think Angelo knows?”
Loren shrugged.
“How can that be?” Gio said again before he stood up and started pacing.
The rest of us stayed completely silent as we watched and waited for all of it to sink in. It was bad for all of us, but it was worse for him. Or better. I wasn’t sure what I’d feel if I’d been told that the controlling father who I thought was dead was actually alive. Had he faked it all? Had they actually tried to kill him and he’d survived? These were questions I had but couldn’t answer. The women walked into the room. This was exactly why they hadn’t been allowed in here previously, and the reason I understood the rule. Some women were passive, let men lead, and only spoke when spoken to. Not these women. Not Rosie. It was probably why we never stood a chance.