Chapter 10
Gio
“The hair is a choice,” a familiar voice remarked upon my entry to my home office.
Enzo was reclining on the leather couch, a tumbler of amber liquid dangling from his fingertips.
Not sparing him more than a passing glance, I moved to the wet bar to pour my own drink. I needed something to take the edge off.
The burn of the liquor, carving a path down my throat, was exactly what the doctor ordered.
Swallowing, I turned to my cousin. “I landed less than three hours ago. Forgive me for not stopping off at a barber first thing when I have a feral wife to deal with.”
The corner of his lips tugged up into what was his signature smirk. “On a scale of one to ten, how pissed is she?”
I hummed while taking another sip of scotch. “Not sure I can conjure a number high enough.”
He chuckled. “Sounds about right. Matteo mentioned the threat to your hardware below the belt. Good thing you flew private or that shit would have lit up the metal detectors like a damn Christmas tree.”
Dropping onto my desk chair, I grumbled, “Maybe worry more about your own dick. Surprised you can even get it up with the big 4-0 looming.” My cousin was three years older than me, and I never let him forget it.
Enzo cupped his junk. “He’s just fine. Everything’s in perfect working order.” Tossing me a wink, he added, “Test run this morning went off without a hitch.”
I shook my head. “Never fails to amaze me how you have an endless stream of women falling into your bed.”
“Only been one woman in my bed for the past three years.” He lifted his left hand, showcasing a gold wedding band, and I fucking spat out my drink.
Thumping my fist against my chest, I croaked, “Holy shit. You’re married?”
The man had been adamant throughout his entire life that he would remain single to his dying day. Hearing that the apocalypse was imminent would have been less shocking than learning my cousin had tied the knot.
With a nod, Enzo replied, “And fuck you very much for ruining our weekend away.”
“You’ve been doing this job long enough to know you’re on call 24/7.”
He arched an unimpressed eyebrow, folding tattooed arms over his chest. “What was so important it couldn’t wait until Monday?”
“I don’t fucking know.” I threw my arms wide. “How about me rising from the dead?”
“You weren’t dead, you were undercover,” he countered.
“Same difference. I’ve been gone for four years. I expected a little more excitement when I returned as the conquering hero.”
“Damn.” That single word was accompanied by a snap of my cousin’s fingers.
“Can’t imagine how I forgot to schedule the party to celebrate.
” Then his hazel eyes hardened. “Oh, that’s right, because we’ve been here in the trenches, fighting a war you started while you were off, God knows where, chasing down Rory because your needs came before the rest of the family’s. ”
My jaw clenched, and I growled, “Watch it.”
Undeterred by my warning, Enzo kept rolling.
“Do you have any idea how many bodies we’ve had to bury?
How many families have been ripped apart?
Matteo and the girls lost Allegra, and I lost—” His words cut off abruptly, and he shook his head, his voice coming out thicker when he continued, “And for what? Your fucking pride? Why couldn’t you just let her go? ”
I was on my feet in a flash, roaring, “Because she’s my goddamn wife! She belongs to me!”
“Keep treating her like a possession, and she’ll never stop fighting you.”
“She is my possession,” I gritted out, chest heaving.
“No, she’s your Achilles’ heel, a distraction capable of causing your downfall. Right now, we can’t afford to have any weak points when we’re under attack.”
I waved off his concern. “Now that Rory’s back, I’ll make things right with the Russians. I’m sure we have something they want that will ensure peace.”
Enzo barked out a humorless laugh. “We obliterated the Russians years ago. Our newest threat comes from within.”
My eyes widened. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“You’re never going to believe this because it’s beyond inconceivable, but Dario has been undermining us this whole time. He’s the one who put the hit out on you that killed Allegra. And when you disappeared, he tried to take out Matteo. He wants the crown all for himself.”
“That motherfucker,” I hissed, my blood boiling over at learning that my own uncle was coming after what was rightfully mine.
“From our limited intel, he joined forces with the Russians, making them promises of a partnership if they helped wipe you and Matteo off the board. Beyond that, he was siphoning money from the casino and secretly selling our munitions warehouse, keeping the proceeds for himself. He’s got millions of dollars at his disposal, and whoever he’s paying to cover his digital footprint is better than Nico, because we can’t fucking track him down, making him more dangerous than ever. ”
I absorbed that information, my mind working overtime to process it and develop a plan to protect my empire.
“Bring Logan in. If Dario’s in Chicago, we’re gonna need every cop in the city to be on the lookout for him.”
Enzo cringed. “Yeah, that’s not an option.”
“Shit, you’re right.” I dragged a hand down my face. “If they hauled him in, he’d flip on us in a heartbeat after securing an immunity deal.”
“That’s not why.”
My eyebrows rose. “No?”
“You see, the thing is . . .” Enzo pulled in a deep breath before saying on the exhale, “Logan’s dead.”
“Dead,” I repeated, my voice flat. “Were we the ones responsible?”
My cousin’s gaze fell to his lap. “Yeah.”
“Fuck, Enzo!” I slammed a fist down on my desk. “Do you have any idea how important it was to have the Police Commissioner in our back pocket? What the hell were you thinking?”
His head snapped up, his eyes flashing with an emotion I couldn’t name. “He was actively involved in Allegra’s crash.”
“Jesus.” I collapsed onto my chair. “He double-crossed us?”
“Dario got to him. Offered to pay off his debts if he betrayed us.”
My eyes lifted to the ceiling, and I blew out a heavy breath. “Of course he did. Getting everyone else to do his dirty work has always been his style.”
Enzo hummed. “If it didn’t require you and Matteo to be six feet under, I’d say let him try being Don. I’d give him a week or two at most before his own men turned against him.”
“He’s never had what it takes to command loyalty,” I agreed. “Too fucking selfish.”
“You can say that again.”
Reclining in my chair, I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Am I crazy, or were both your and Matteo’s houses just gone when I drove past?”
“Not crazy,” he confirmed. “Matteo’s burned down a few months after you left. They bought a new place in the same neighborhood.”
“And what happened to yours?”
“Bulldozed it.”
I blinked at him. “Why would you do that?”
“It held more bad memories than good, so we leveled it to the ground and sold off the lot. Allie and I stick to the penthouse in the city.”
Enzo was my right hand. When I called, he came running. With him living downtown, his response time would go from a few minutes to upward of an hour if he got caught up in rush-hour traffic, which was less than ideal.
“Allie, huh?” I changed the subject.
My cousin softened, a grin growing on his face at the mention of his wife. “Yeah. She’s way too good for me, but for some reason I’m the lucky bastard she loves.”
That had me rearing back. Did he say love? What the hell was going on around here?
“You could try just a little bit harder to not look so disgusted by the notion that someone might actually care about me,” Enzo remarked dryly.
“Sorry.” I shook my head to clear it. “From what I understand, there are several new Bellini women I’ve yet to meet. Your wife, Matteo’s new wife, a third niece. Once the dust settles, we’ll have to have a family dinner.”
“Yeah, sure.” Enzo stood, leaving his empty glass on the coffee table. “If that’s all for now . . .” He jerked his head toward the open office doorway, clearly eager to get back to his wife after I interrupted their getaway.
I held up a single finger. “One more thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Marco.”
Enzo’s eyebrows drew down. “What about him?”
“Not to be morbid, but how’d it happen?”
“Morbid?” he repeated, confusion etched across his features.
“Yeah.” I rolled my wrist. “You know, so I’m not insensitive when I pay my respects to his family.”
“Pay your respects . . .” He shook his head. “The fuck are you talking about?”
My temper flared. “Stop repeating everything I say and tell me how Marco died!”
Blinking at me, he said, “Um, he’s not dead.”
“What do you mean, he’s not dead? Then where the hell is he?”
He shoved both hands into his pockets. “Indianapolis.”
The throbbing behind my skull intensified. “What Bellini business do we have down there?”
“He’s leading the team that was sent to guard Gemma and her family when shit hit the fan with Dario,” Enzo explained.
It took me a minute to process those words.
“Gemma, as in Gemma Bellini? Your sister, my cousin?”
There was a nod of confirmation. “One and the same.”
“And you said she has a family?”
My only female cousin had begged for my protection against her father’s attempts to sell her off into marriage to the highest bidder.
While I might not be a saint, there were many men within our world who beat up on their wives and children.
My uncle had left enough marks on Gemma’s body to last a lifetime, so it had been a no-brainer to shut down the prospect that she would be shipped off to become the property of yet another abusive man.
After Rory’s “disappearance” and Allegra’s death, Gemma felt the walls closing in as the last Bellini woman standing, and she made a petition to leave Chicago—to leave the mafia life behind—and start fresh on her own.
I’d granted her request for freedom, but my cousin was the ultimate black cat.
I could only imagine there was a hell of a story behind someone getting her to let down her guard enough to earn her trust and settle down.
Enzo rocked on his heels. “Husband and two little boys.”
I choked out a disbelieving laugh. “I leave for four years and come back to find everyone’s coupled up and having babies. What’s next? You gonna tell me you’re a dad too?”
A shadow passed over my cousin’s eyes, and he tugged on the back of his neck. “Nah. No kids for us.”
“Ah, still drowning in childhood trauma and scared to pass it on to the next generation?”
Gemma wasn’t the only one who carried scars inflicted by Dario.
Enzo had managed to hide most of the physical ones with the black ink covering almost every inch of his skin, but the mental ones ran deeper.
We didn’t talk about it often, but I knew his outright refusal to procreate stemmed from having the world’s shittiest father.
Enzo averted his gaze, clearing his throat. “Something like that.”
His reaction gave me pause. It almost felt like there was more he wasn’t telling me, but I decided not to press the issue.
His family planning was none of my business.
At least not anymore, not with my heir on the way.
My brother and cousin were officially off the hook for supplying a backup in case I never managed to have a son.
With a flick of my wrist, I dismissed him. “Go home to your wife.”
“Good luck with yours.” He winked before slipping out of the room.
I didn’t need luck. Not when Rory would do anything to keep from being separated from our son.
She was completely under my control from this point forward.
The way it always should have been.
After a haircut and a shave, I felt much more like myself, even if the man staring back at me in the mirror might as well be a stranger.
Speaking of strangers . . .
I did a double-take when I walked into the back room of our underground casino, ready to face my capos after a four-year-long absence.
There wasn’t a single man among the eight seated at the table that I recognized as the ones I’d left in charge of managing the many facets of our operation.
But they had one thing in common. They were all young, either in their thirties or forties.
It would appear Matteo had cleaned house while I was gone, removing the old guard and bringing in fresh blood. Wish someone had warned me before I walked into this meeting, because the surprise of it knocked me slightly off-kilter.
Four of the eight were the sons of my previous capos—Al Barone, Vince DeLuca, Ricky Bianchi, and Stefano Marchetti—so I was confident they had learned the ropes from their fathers.
But the other four had been nothing more than soldiers when I’d left.
I had to trust my brother knew what he was doing in promoting them because, in a time of internal warfare, we couldn’t afford any weak links.
“Gentlemen,” I addressed the room, standing at the head of the table.
Without hesitation, they replied in unison, “Don Bellini.”
“I’ve been gone a long time, been through some changes.” I waved a hand in front of my face. “But my dedication to this family and all those who serve it has not wavered. And I am pleased to share with you all that I have secured an heir, thus strengthening our position into the next generation.”
There were several nods of approval from my new capos.
“I understand that we are currently facing an enemy that we know well. If my father were alive today, he would be appalled by his brother’s behavior.
Attacking defenseless women and children while hiding in the shadows is the work of a coward.
How can he expect to command respect when he’s unwilling to step into the light and fight me face-to-face to take the crown from my head? ”
A few fists thumped on the table, urging me on.
“For generations, the Bellini name has garnered respect. Even in the dark underworld, we maintain integrity and live by a code. Certain business pursuits have always been off limits. The ones that ruin families, like trafficking and drug distribution. Neither are necessary to line our pockets and control the streets. We take care of our own, and loyalty is handsomely rewarded, as some of you know firsthand, having moved your way up the ranks. I refuse to let someone come in and dismantle what my ancestors have built, simply because they can’t accept their role as the second son.
” I gestured to Matteo, who was to my left.
“Brothers should stand together, working toward the common goal of keeping this family at the top, not trying to tear it apart from within. Now that I’m back, my heir on the way, it’s time to eliminate the threat Dario poses, once and for all.
Spread the word that the man who brings me his dead body will receive ten million dollars and a seat at this table. ”
Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would place a bounty on my uncle’s head, but he’d crossed a line—threatening the lives of my brother’s family, with the intent of coming for mine next.
He was a traitor and couldn’t be allowed to live.