25. Leona #2
The man was dark-haired and tall, even leaning over the counter working.
He wore dark blue slacks and a white button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up—a suit missing the jacket—plus an apron spotted with flour.
It was obvious he didn’t belong in this kitchen; he looked nothing like the other cooks in matching black chefs’ coats preparing food on the other side.
“Forgive me,” Enzo Rossi said, deftly moving the dough and barely looking up. “I’m trying to make some dinner. You’ll excuse my men for the holdup at the door. Anthony is just trying to make a name for himself.”
My eyebrow raised as I cast an amused look at Anthony, who blanched as he stood ramrod straight at the kitchen entrance.
“Look at you, covered in flour,” Cas said with a smirk. “I don’t understand why you put so much effort into making it fresh when you always overcook it.”
Rossi barked a laugh. “Fuck you. It’s been ages since you’ve tried my pasta.”
“I have an excellent memory.”
Cas had said that he and Rossi were friends.
They’d worked together when Rossi took over his Family a few years ago and kept in touch ever since.
But I didn’t expect them to be like this.
The other Dons were so stuffy and old. I could never picture my father making fresh pasta in the privacy of our own home, let alone in a commercial kitchen.
I cocked my hip to the side, watching his hands while he and Cas exchanged some small pleasantries and barbed jabs. “You’re overworking the dough.”
He stopped with a sigh before bracing his hands on the counter and staring down at the rough lump. “I’m trying to learn my Nonna’s recipe.”
“Any luck? ”
He shrugged. “I have all the proper measurements, and I still can’t get the texture right. But I’m not one to give up. I’ll figure it out.” He picked up a dish towel tucked into the tie of his apron and wiped his hands. “Leona Vero.”
“Enzo Rossi,” I shot back at him. “To what do we owe the pleasure?”
“Let’s get right to it, shall we?” He looked between me and Cas. “I believe you’re searching for an Albanian. I know where he is.”
Cas and I exchanged a glance. Now this was a surprise.
“So where is he, then?”
He hmm’d and braced both his hands on the prep table while he sized me up.
My neck prickled at his clear measuring.
If it weren’t for the slightly amused look in his bright yet careful eyes, I might draw a knife.
From any other person, I’d probably be pissed—but with Rossi, I didn’t feel like he was trying to insult me.
More like trying to determine if he could trust me.
I couldn’t deny that he was handsome, just a few years older than Caspian.
At one point, Obi had considered a strategic marriage to Rossi, though we’d all shut that down immediately.
Still, it wasn’t just his face; it was also the confidence with which he held himself and the strength that radiated across his shoulders.
I could see why the other Dons didn’t like him.
He reminded me of Max.
“Why do you want him?” He pulled out a length of plastic wrap and wrapped it around the dough before placing it in the industrial fridge behind him. The cooks continued to work around him as if he didn’t exist. The bustle of a busy restaurant continued around us.
“Are you aware of what the Albanians do? The Vokshi Clan?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“That’s why I want him. ”
“You want to kill him.” It was a statement, not a question.
“Eventually. I need information first.”
“What kind?”
I scoffed. “Am I on trial here, Rossi? You either have information for me, or you don’t. Stop dicking me around.”
He chuckled as he undid his apron and tossed it to Anthony. His hip leaned against the counter. His eyes trained on my scar. “My apologies for your recent…incident. I’m glad to see that you’re in good health.”
Cas stiffened beside me. My heart sank a little at the thought of the kidnapping being common knowledge amongst the underworld, but there wasn’t any avoiding it. My men had tried to overturn every stone to find me again.
Still, I didn’t enjoy knowing that all of New York was aware the Albanians had hurt us.
Cold. Dark. Scratches. Dead eyes.
Nope. Not going there. Not now. Never again. I blinked away the vision.
“I’m in perfect health for a little vengeance.”
“Is that what this is?”
“What else could it be?” I cocked my head to the side, sizing him up just as much as he sized me up. I knew so little about him, yet it was clear he knew far more about me. “What kind of man are you, Rossi? Are you like my father? Or are you a recluse because you’re not?”
He said nothing, but he crossed his arms over his chest.
“Cas thinks you’re a good man,” I continued. “I want to believe him.”
“Aww,” Enzo said, a smirk playing on his lips. “Sweet.”
Cas shrugged. “Figured you would be against human trafficking.”
“Is that the benchmark these days?” His eyes crinkled, like he was laughing at me. “To be a good man?”
“It’s a good fucking start. ”
He sighed. “You’re right. There has to be some code in what we do. Otherwise, it’s chaos and bloodshed.”
I nodded. “So give me Orik Vokshi’s location so I can put an end to them. I want to stop what my father started.”
It was vengeance, but it all traced back to him. It all traced back to my need to fix all the shit I lived in ignorance about for far too long.
“I want something in exchange,” he said.
I gusted a breath. Of course, he did. “What?”
He observed me for a few tense moments. “Chiara Tommaso.”
I snorted while my fingers brushed over the hilts of my knives. “Get the fuck out of here. What the hell does that mean?”
Chiara was missing, but she’d promised me in her note from the VCI board meeting that she was fine.
I hated that somehow he’d gotten her under his thumb, likely only as leverage against me, and there was no way in hell I’d simply give her to Rossi.
She was her own full person. She was not a fucking object.
I swore to Fallon I’d create a future where women were no longer treated as pawns, and I intended to do so.
“I understand she is engaged to Volpe.”
I stopped myself from rolling my eyes. “I suppose. What do you want with her?”
“I believe you are her best friend.”
“Yes.”
“And you think this engagement is a good idea?”
The worst idea I’d ever heard.
“I think, Rossi, it’s none of your fucking business.”
He leveled his gaze, passive yet calm. “I’d like you to bring her to me. I’d like to offer her my own proposal.”
“I think we’re done here,” I gritted out, practically vibrating like the water boiling in Obi’s tea kettle. “We’ll find the Albanian on our own.”
Cas placed a hand on my shoulder, compressing my rage down to a manageable level. “Enzo, what makes you think this is something we can handle? Why don’t you reach out to Max himself?”
Rossi tilted his head back. “I don’t want a relationship with a usurper, especially not one who almost killed a man I trust. The previous generation of Dons overlooked quite a lot to get what they wanted. I am not that man. So, instead, I’ve refused his multiple invitations to meet.”
If what Rossi said was true, maybe we had a chance to create an ally out of him. But it would never come at the cost of Chiara.
“And why exactly is that?” I asked.
“Volpe will offer me a deal I know I don’t want. Let’s just leave it at that.”
I huffed, eyes narrowing into a glare. “But why Chiara?”
“She and I are acquaintances,” he said carefully. “I think she’ll find that my offer will be better than Volpe’s. To the mutual benefit of all of us.”
I inspected every single thing about him I could see.
The expression on his face. The slight tilt of his shoulders.
The stretch of his shirt around his waist which told me he had a gun tucked into the belt behind him, where we couldn’t see.
Was Rossi different from the rest of the men in our world?
Or was he just simply more of the same, entitled assholes who believed they could take whatever they wanted?
“I’ll warn you right now, Rossi. The women in my circle, under my care, make their own goddamn choices. We are not pawns to be used. We are not objects to be given and received. Chiara will never be a pawn in this game while I have a say.”
His face turned sad. “She already is. All I offer her is a way out.” I opened my mouth, but he held up a hand.
“In a gesture of goodwill, I will give you Vokshi’s location.
And I promise I do not intend to hurt her or use her.
If you can get a message to her from me, inviting her to my territory, that’s all I ask. ”
“A gesture of goodwill,” I repeated .
He was quiet for a moment. “Yes. Do you agree to get her a message?”
He was dangling exactly what I needed in front of my face for something there was no way I could give.
Was he really interested in Chiara? Would he just use her the way Max was using her? Was he trying to test my measure?
But Cas trusted him. Cas thought he was a good man. If Cas was right, Rossi set himself apart from the other Dons on purpose. I had to take a chance.
We needed Orik Vokshi’s location.
The hair prickled on the back of my neck. “If it is possible for me to do so, I will pass along a message from you. That is it.”
He nodded before pulling a phone from his pocket and reading the screen. “Orik Vokshi ran to the Luccheses.”
I stilled. “The Luccheses? How do you know?”
“I have spies in many places. He’s there. You can trust that. No guarantee of how long they’ll hide him before they move him back to his men.”
“Why would the Luccheses take him in?”
We had account numbers and payment receipts that suggested my father was paying the other Dons, but we didn’t know why or for what. Was this the answer? Were the Dons also allied with the Albanians?
Rossi looked over my shoulder to Caspian, then back to me.
“Right after I became Don, your father approached me with a request. It was more of a demand, really. He told me he needed access to my streets, and that he’d pay me for the privilege.
He told me there was a transport going down, and we only needed to let it happen, let it pass through.
He was even doing me a favor, offering me so much money for just a night. ”
Payment for using his territory. I shifted from foot to foot. “And did you accept it?”
He shook his head. “This kind of underhanded deal was exactly what got my father into trouble and exposed our family to ruin.”
Cas shook his head. “I’m glad you came out on the other side of that. You’re the best leader for the Rossis, and everyone knew it.”
“Thanks to your help, Cas, I kept my rightful seat.”
“So what about my father?”
“I was hesitant, and rightfully so. I didn’t know Luciano, and I didn’t trust anyone who hadn’t earned it.
I told him he could use my streets as a personal favor, which I expected him to one day return.
He accepted, quite pleased with himself that he didn’t end up paying me any money.
Then I had him followed, and we watched exactly what happened.
What he organized. When I realized he was trafficking and using my territory to do it, I cut ties altogether.
We’ve kept the other Dons out of our territory ever since, and I always assumed if he’d make that offer to me, he’d make it to the other Dons.
I was the only one who seemed to say no. ”
So Rossi was reclusive and kept to himself because he didn’t trust my father, or the other Dons. Another piece of the puzzle slotted into place. Now I could clearly see that he was not the weakest of us. He was the only one with a spine.
I chewed my bottom lip. The Luccheses being involved also connected the Sandrinis to this whole mess. My father must have been paying them both for something similar, and then over the years, the Vokshi felt safe with them.
“Why did you call us?” I asked Rossi. “You could have just kept this hidden and found another way to contact Chiara.”
“Perhaps it’s because I believe we could one day trust one another.” He sighed and then laughed. “Perhaps it’s because Cas is my friend, reluctant though I am to say.”
“Thanks,” Cas smirked. “Dick.”
“I’ve been watching you and the Shadows.
” Rossi’s face turned contemplative. “I’m telling you this because you need to understand that I take my duty to the people who live under my care seriously.
I will not be used, Leona. To answer your earlier question, that’s the kind of man I am.
Your father learned this early, and ultimately left me in peace. ”
I stared at him. He wouldn’t be used; he didn’t want to be involved in the old Dons’ shit; and he certainly didn’t want trafficking in his territory. Rossi and I had more in common than I thought.
I nodded. “All right. Message received. How about this, Rossi? You watch my back, I’ll watch yours. Outside of that, we’ll leave each other be.”
He considered for a moment before he nodded. “Agreed.”
I huffed a breath through my nose, then looked at Cas. If Orik was with the Luccheses, we needed to go there next. Whoever aided our enemies would pay the price. We had work to do.
“Well, Rossi. Thank you for the information.”
“You’re welcome,” he replied while grabbing another towel and cleaning the countertop in front of him. “Now I’m hungry, and I’d like a late dinner. Care to stay?”
“Appreciate the offer, but I’d rather not eat overworked and overcooked pasta.”
He laughed. “Don’t blame you.”
Cas extended his hand, and they shook. “Good to see you, Enzo.”
“Always a pleasure, Cas. Come see me again when you’re not building an empire from scratch.”
Cas folded his hand into mine and squeezed. We both headed back toward Anthony to escort us out of the restaurant.
“It was very nice to meet you, Leona Vero,” Rossi called. I turned. He pulled the lump of dough from the fridge and unwrapped it.
“Lovely to meet you, Don Rossi.”
He waved a hand while he sprinkled some flour on the counter and picked up a wooden rolling pin.