Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 57983 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 290(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57983 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 290(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
“You were behind the blackmail,” I say.
“Rafe,” Claudia says with a small smile. “You grew up to be a handsome man. All three of you did. Of course, I blackmailed her. She spread her legs for literally any man who asked. The Tarenkovs should know who they have in their family. It’s disgraceful. In fact, the Tarenkovs have a lot of bad eggs. It was just so easy to lure Alexander away. To get him to start the drug arm of things. He was eager to defy his father. And let’s be honest, he flat-out hated his pretty little sister. Of course, I can understand sibling rivalry.”
Claudia turns to Pop and winks.
“You’re going to die today,” Igor says coldly. “For what you did to my family and for much more than that. How does it feel to know that your life can now be measured by mere minutes?”
“Oh, please. I’m not dying today. You all might think that you took out my security outside, but I have plenty more where they came from, don’t you worry.” She turns to Pop with a smile. “I must say, I have missed you, brother. You’ve aged well. How is Flavia? Still weak and whiny?”
“Cut the family reunion bullshit and get to it,” Carmine says and raises a brow at Benji when the other man steps toward him. “Oh, I dare you.”
“Stop with the dramatics,” Claudia says impatiently. “Carlo, I’d like to introduce you to your nephew. My son, Benji.”
“Your son?” Pop demands.
“Yes. My son,” Claudia replies as the others in the room shuffle around, ready to pounce and kill her. But we don’t have all of the information from her yet. The energy in the room is electric, full of hatred and violence. But Claudia is as calm as ever, almost feeding off the attention, smiling at Benji like a proud mother at a high school graduation. “I suppose I really should start at the beginning, shouldn’t I? Vinnie was a piece of shit. We all know that. It’s not like the world lost a great man the day he died. I hope he’s rotting in hell, where he deserves to be. Mom and Daddy made me marry him because he had the right pedigree, but there was literally no attraction there. None at all. We couldn’t stand each other. We were married in name only.
“A few years after I married him, I met Francisco. Now that was the kind of man I wanted. He was kind and gentle. Not nearly as driven as me, but I was able to overlook that all in the name of love. I spent a great deal of time here in Dallas with him.”
“Even after you had Elena,” Carmine says.
“Elena.” Claudia sighs. “I didn’t want to have her. I wasn’t interested in having a child with Vinnie at all. The sex was appalling. Ugh, just the thought of it turns my stomach. But that asshole just kept pestering me, nagging me to produce an heir for him. Then Mom started in, too, and I got pregnant to shut them all up. I thought about getting an abortion, pretending that I’d lost the baby. But then I thought…I’ll just go through with it and hire a fucking nanny. Between the nanny and my family, I hardly ever had to see her.”
“Should have just aborted her,” Benji spouts off, and before anyone can react, Carmine raises his arm and shoots the other man right between the eyes.
Claudia jumps and stares in horror as her son falls to the floor, dead.
But she just keeps speaking as if nothing at all just happened. Like a cold robot.
“I had Vinnie killed in prison. Staged my death and got the fuck out of that rainy, godforsaken city. Ran to Dallas with Francisco. I had Benji about five years after Elena. Carlo, do you remember those two years or so that I was gone so much, and Mom kept calling you, wanting to know where I was?”
“Yes. I remember.”
“Well, it’s not like I could go to Seattle to see the family while I was pregnant with another man’s child. Even I wouldn’t do anything so dramatic.”
“Because you know Vinnie would have killed you on the spot,” Shane says. “He beat the hell out of Elena, almost killed her, just because she wanted to marry her high school sweetheart, and he thought that was an embarrassment to the family. If you’d shown up pregnant, he would have killed you. And you know it.”
“Perhaps.” Claudia narrows her eyes and then glances at Benji on the floor. “My son was the true heir. The only heir. And when Francisco died, God rest his soul, I made it my mission to get rid of all of the other families so Benji could rule, and the Carlitos would be the only organized crime family left. He had Carlito and Martinelli blood running through him. Who else could be more ideal to run it all?”