5. Liam
Irritated that I’ve been summoned to my father’s office over something so stupid, I try to remind myself that he’s grooming me to take over his position as leader of this Family when he dies. Though, it isn’t my fault my guy was dumb enough to do the job without covering his face. Maybe he thought the bastard would die and not be able to talk, but I can’t see how he thought that. Now I have to listen to my father rip me a new one again.
“He’s waiting for you,” Maverick says as I pass by his station down the hall from my father’s office door. The behemoth of a man leads the security team and intimidates everyone who walks these halls, except me. I grew up here, and he knows he’ll report to me soon enough. No sense in my being bothered by him.
Irritated, I stride down the hallway, my leather boots clicking against the polished marble floor. The office doors stand tall and imposing at the end of the corridor, adorned with an intricate carving of our family crest. As I approach, they open inward slightly, revealing a sliver of gold-trimmed darkness within. Music drifts out—an oldies tune my father often plays when he”s in a foul mood. The scents of rich mahogany furniture and expensive cologne waft toward me, mixing with the faint aroma of cigar smoke.
Pushing the door open, I step into my father”s office. The room is a study in opulence. Plush, deep red carpet muffles my footsteps. Matching drapes frame the wall-to-wall windows that offer a view of our sprawling estate. A large mahogany desk dominates the space, its surface clear except for an antique brass lamp that casts warm light over leather-bound ledgers and framed photos of past family members—all powerful and ruthless like him.
He stands by the curtains watching over the expanse of gardens, a cigar in one hand and a glass of whiskey in the other. I don’t bother announcing myself. He knows I’m here. He probably watched me on the surveillance system as I arrived out front and walked through the house. I stand by his desk with my hands folded in front of myself waiting for my dressing-down to begin. The sooner I get this over, the sooner I can get back to the things I want to be doing.
“Do you see this, Dominic?” His eyes are trained on something beyond the curtain which I can’t see from this angle, but I don’t think I need to see it in order to get the point of his statement. I say nothing and he continues. “Land like this isn’t cheap.” He turns away from the window and faces me, and the sunlight shining into his dark office casts an eerie shadow across his face. “Millions… hundreds of millions, I spent buying these properties, demolishing them, transforming them into what you so easily take for granted.” He walks toward his desk and puffs on his cigar.
I’ve seen the look on his face before. He thinks I’m ungrateful and that I need to grow up, but I work just as hard as anyone else in this Family. I know who I am and who I will be one day, and I just like to enjoy that a little too much sometimes, at least by his standard.
“I’m not sure I understand what you are getting at.” I unbutton my suit coat and slide my hand into my pocket. I know exactly what point he’s trying to make, and he’s wrong, but I’ll never correct him. I’m not stupid enough to do that again. I tried once as a teenager, and it earned me a hard smack and six months doing grunt work at the restaurant.
“Cameron was arrested for the little incident you planned and orchestrated.” His eyebrows peak in the middle as his lips turn into a sour pucker. “If I wanted to throw my entire estate and organization into the shitter, I’d do it myself.”
I scoff and turn toward the leather armchairs situated by his desk and have a seat, crossing one leg over the other. My giving orders isn’t the same thing as my screwing the job up. That’s all on Cameron. I didn’t think I had to spell it out for him to wear a mask when he did a mugging.
“Your legacy isn’t going into the shitter. Our guys go down for shit all the time. Louie is in the slammer right now, remember?” I run a hand through my hair and roll my eyes at his overdramatization of the circumstance. We have men on the police force for this reason. They cover things up. Sometimes, they let something slip.
Dad sits down in his chair and sets his whiskey tumbler on the coaster to the right of his mouse pad. He isn’t an intimidating man physically—shorter than me by several inches and not as broad in the shoulder, either. He doesn’t work out, and age is beginning to show in all of his features. But anyone who even hears the name Luciantonio Salvatore trembles. I’ve done my share of shaking too.
“Dominic, if you can’t lead your small faction of men under my command, how will you lead this organization?” His gaze bears down on me, eyes narrowing as he sets the cigar down in the ashtray. “All of this for a woman, too? Is that what I hear?”
I shrug a shoulder and look away, irritated. “Not like you haven’t done similar things.” He likes to pretend he’s perfect, that he’s never made a rash decision or impulsive choice in his past.
“You had the director mugged so they would cancel a production so you could spend time with the actress?” His tone is accusatory and insulting. “You took stupid risks to get pussy.”
My hands clench into fists and I grit my teeth. This is the part where I just let him go off on me and say nothing. I don’t think it was a risk. I think it was a calculated move that enabled me to get what I wanted, but I don’t voice that now.
“Yes, but she was worth it.” I deadpan, not breaking eye contact with the man who created me. His nostrils flare in anger, and I know I’ve gone too far. How would he feel if he knew I didn’t even fuck her yet?
“Women are a dime a dozen, Dominic. You can’t let them distract you from your purpose.” He stands up and paces the room, red-faced and fuming. “You can’t lead with your dick.”
He’s right. I know he is. But he also doesn’t understand that when he met Mom, it was game over for him too. When a man meets The One, nothing is too extreme, there’s no line he won’t cross.
“I get it, Dad,” I say through gritted teeth. “It won’t happen again.”
“See to it that it doesn’t.” He picks up his drink and downs the rest of it, then picks up his cigar and takes a drag before tapping it on the edge of the ashtray to remove the ash. “Because you can’t make mistakes that get you caught before you even become the leader. You can’t lead from prison.”
“I know,” I grind out, unable to stop the irritation from seeping into my voice.
“You’re treading on thin ice, Dominic.” His cold blue eyes meet mine, a reminder of every harsh lesson he’s ever taught me. Some of those lessons left physical scars on my body that I won”t soon forget. “Don’t push your luck tonight.”
I bow my head in submission before meeting his gaze again. “Yes, sir.” Each time he says my name, though, all I can think about is hiding that identity from Elena. She needs Liam, the wealthy businessman, to charm her and seduce her until she’s eating out of his hand—my hand.
“Get out of here,” he grunts, and then he waves his hand in dismissal, and I stand and leave.
I know Dad isn’t fond of the way I do things, but my guy getting nabbed wasn’t my fault. I want Elena, and I want to keep her happy. After hearing the tinge of disappointment in her tone when she told me she didn’t get the lead on this show and it had been given to someone named Nina, I just knew I had to do something.
My driver is waiting with the car running, and I climb in with my phone already pressed to my ear, calling my top guy. Smitty will handle my next task, and this time, we won’t have any issues.
“Yeah, it’s Smitty. Go.”
“Hey, man, it’s Dom. I have a job for you…”
His task? Our lead actress will have a bit of a spill, say… a car accident. He’ll make it look like a true accident, and no one will be the wiser, and it will all go down the afternoon of opening night, right when Elena can step in as the understudy and take the role. Any woman who dates me gets top-tier treatment. That means Elena is the star and outshines them all, and anyone who tries to dim her light will find out who they’re messing with.