Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 94720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
“Does the woman at the funeral home have you so worked up that you have to resort to dumb jokes?” Loren raised an eyebrow at Dean.
“Fuck off, Costello.” Dean scowled.
I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing. Russo was probably damning the day he let it slip that the owner’s daughter was now running the funeral home he temporarily owned. According to him, she’d been “such a bitch” from the beginning. Dean owned the place now, but the previous owners were still running it and planning to buy it back from him when they could. They hadn’t told their daughter any of this.
“So no one was trying to steal it?” Loren asked, making sure.
“They were, which is why we stole it first. The guys said Boston was behind it,” Dean said.
“Jesus Christ. Again with Boston.” I groaned. “We need to send men there. The agreement we have now clearly isn’t working.”
“We have a decent working relationship with them. Why fuck it up?” Loren asked.
“Because they’re trying to steal shipments from us.” I shot him a look.
“Unsuccessfully,” he said.
“They’re still trying,” I huffed. “It’s disrespectful.”
“Don’t worry about Boston. After this cargo, they’ll know we’re onto them. We need to worry about Chicago,” Loren said. “With Joe gone and Gio here full-time, we left it pretty open.”
“Russo owns Chicago.” I lifted my glass slightly toward Dean.
“Times are changing,” Dean said, shaking his head lightly. “Costello’s right. Charles is dead. Joe is gone. Gio’s here. The only person we have over there is Petra, and people know not to fuck with her, but she’s not us.”
I let out a breath. He wasn’t wrong. Petra was a certifiable bad bitch, but a bitch is the only thing the men over there saw her as. How they could ignore the fact that she could kill them in under a minute, I didn’t know, but they were constantly pushing her buttons, trying to see how far they could go. So far, they’d been unsuccessful at every turn.
We were all silent when Loren spoke up again. “What if Boston and Chicago are working together?”
“Huh.” Dean’s brows pulled. He was quiet for a moment. “I think I’ll go over there and visit my godkids this weekend. Show my face around a little.”
He took out his phone and excused himself as he started dialing. I watched as he lowered the phone to say hello to Cat, who was walking in our direction, and then he was off. Russo wasn’t wrong. Times were changing. Many old guys from families in other cities were already handing their kids the keys to the throne. It was what my father did with me and what he did with him. The difference was that these kids were still young — a lot of them were in college. That part wasn’t disturbing. If my kid went to college, I’d want him as far away from this shit as possible. From what I’d heard, though, these kids were reckless. Reckless and flashy. I said this aloud, making Loren laugh.
“That was us not too long ago.”
“Us?” I raised my eyebrows. “Maybe you, Mr. Law School. I was in the trenches at that age, and then. . .” I shook my head, letting out a breath.
“Maybe you’re right,” he said. “Your father did drop that loan shark business of his on you from one day to the next.” I pulled a disgusted face at the mention of loan sharking. He laughed. “Why did you give that shit to Nico again?”
“I have no interest in playing bank for people who will never afford to pay me back.” I shrugged.
Loan sharking was a vicious, dirty cycle. I may be a shit to people who owed me money, but I wasn’t about to terrorize good families who had dug themselves into a hole while trying to attain the American dream. Fuck that. I’d terrorized enough innocent people for this lifetime and the next.
“I’d still be a full-time lawyer if I could,” he said, lost in deep thought. He was so full of shit I almost spit out my tequila.
“Yeah?” I raised an eyebrow. “You’d rather work crazy hours and leave all the money you’re making on the table?”
At that, he grinned. He liked to act like he wanted to be a stand-up citizen but couldn't because of who his father was and what the expectations were. It was all bullshit. There was no way he’d be making the money he made if he’d stuck to being a full-time lawyer. The only thing Lorenzo Costello loved more than money was the person walking up to us.
“I knew I’d find some handsome gentlemen here,” Cat said as she reached us, giving me a quick kiss before Loren wrapped his arms around her.
“You better be talking about me and only me,” he said as he pulled her against his chest.