54. Max #2
How was he still pulling fast ones on me? How could he still be doing shit I wasn’t aware of ?
“You’re bullshitting me.”
A RICO case was the death of the mafia. The government had come up with the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act to wipe out the Families in the 70s, 80s, and 90s.
It was a legal framework used to dismantle criminal organizations.
In the mafia, high-level bosses rarely did the actual dirty work that it took to run a Family.
We had the low-level guys do our dirty work, so the Dons could never be charged and remain in power.
But in a RICO case, crimes committed by a low-level guy could be linked to the Heads of an organization, and the Dons could be convicted even if there was no actual evidence that they had committed a crime. A RICO case would not be the end of one Family, but all of them.
“I’m not,” he said with a sigh. “The feds are building a RICO case.”
My mind spun. A RICO case meant we had a turncoat in our midst. There had to be someone willing to testify that a high-level guy had ordered them to commit crimes, usually to save their own skin. My mind flipped through all the men who’d been picked up recently. Who the fuck was it?
“How do you know?” I asked.
He shook his head. “You need me if we’re going to beat this. If I die, the RICO case spreads. The feds will have more than enough evidence to come after us and the other Families.”
I pressed my gun to his temple. “How do you know?” I repeated.
His lips thinned. My mask slipped.
“ Fuck , Luciano!” I shouted. “If the feds are building a RICO case, what do you think the Camorra will do when they find out?”
They would kill us. My bargain would mean nothing.
The Family code, omertà , would be broken, and they’d wipe the Vero Family, possibly more, off the map.
It wouldn’t matter that I’d promised them New York.
They’d take it anyway and start fresh, with new Families that wouldn’t snitch to the feds or get all of us caught and locked up.
Jesus fucking Christ.
No.
I wouldn’t let Luciano do this. I wouldn’t let his words turn into another trap. I would kill him and then deal with the RICO case. I needed time to fucking think .
“Put your gun down, son,” Luciano said. “Together, we can beat this. Alone, we stand no chance.”
“No,” I said while my mind raced. I tried to let the emotion bleed from me, to bring me back to my focused state, but I started pacing in front of him. “Shut up.”
What would my father say?
He’d say finish the job at hand. He’d say consider all your options. He’d tell me to play it smart.
Leaving Luciano alive was, and always would be, a bigger risk than killing him. I exhaled deeply, steeling myself again. I lifted my gun again.
“Maximiliano Volpe,” Luciano sneered, as if he still had some sort of power over me. “Stop this now.”
“Your time is done, Luciano.” I clicked back into my emotionless space. I’d worked too fucking hard for this to be ruined now. David and Elio were currently preparing to alert the other Four Families of the leadership change and threaten them to leave with no other problems.
“You don’t need to do this,” he bargained.
“You fucked up, Luciano. You’ve left me no choice.” It was his choices that had brought us here, not mine. He’d killed my father. He’d killed my mother. He’d killed his own fucking wife. There was no part of him that deserved to live.
“Think about Leona,” he urged. I almost barked a laugh. As if he’d ever thought about her outside of how we could use her. “She’d never forgive you for this.”
“I’m not searching for her forgiveness,” I spat. How dare he speak of forgiveness? “I’m searching for my father’s. I’m purging this Family and eliminating anyone who stands in my way. Anyone .”
Resolution surged through me. No one would stand in my way. No one.
It was time.
I plunged my knife into his stomach. It slipped through his muscle and fat. Whatever mess Luciano left behind, I swore I’d clean up. I’d make it right. It all started here.
“You stabbed me,” he murmured. Blood coated his teeth and bubbled at the edge of his lip.
I should have felt something, but I was numb. Emotions over logic. His death would finally give me, and this city, peace. I’d fix his drugs. I’d get rid of the traffickers. I’d deal with the guns and the feds.
I’d figure out a way. That’s how it had always been.
His eyes focused on something over my shoulder. The door hinges creaked. “Leona.”
I whirled automatically, pointing my gun at the intruder.
Leona . My stomach dropped to my feet. No.
No. I never wanted her to see this. How long had she been there?
How long had she been watching? Her face was ghastly white while her hand gripped the door’s threshold.
She looked like she was about to throw up.
“ Fuck ,” I hissed.
I had to get this under control before it slipped through my fingers. I reined in my emotions. I let logic take over again.
I didn’t hesitate. I shot Luciano in the head before either of them could draw more attention to this. The plan had to go off without a hitch. He didn’t need to spew any more lies, especially not to her. He was done. His body collapsed to the ground.
“This can’t be real,” she whispered.
My jaw clenched. It was real. Luciano was the reality I’d lived with since I was fifteen years old. She never had to deal with him the way I had. She never had to make the choices I had to make. She wasn’t made for this world.
I had to be the villain.
My brain knew the right choice to make, even if the heart buried inside my chest rebelled. I had carried the weight of this Family by myself for years, what was another hundred pounds?
With her father dead, she’d want to get as far away from me as possible. She’d leave the Family. That’s what I wanted the entire time.
Luciano’s blood dripped from my face, and I wiped my forehead with my sleeve. I let my voice be empty and cold. “Leona. It’s unfortunate you had to see that. I had hoped Cas would keep you downstairs.”
I had to get her under control. The plan had to continue, but she was frozen in the doorway.
Elio and David were waiting for my commands. I pressed my finger to the comms in my ear. “Clear the house. He’s dead. All men converge now.”
“What’s happening, Max? What have you done?” Her eyes were wide as they stared at her father’s dead body.
My heart twisted in my chest at the pain and disbelief on her face. I inhaled a breath, suddenly frustrated that she could be so oblivious to everything. “I’m doing what your father didn’t have the balls to do. I’m fixing his mistakes.”
David’s voice crackled in my ear. “People are scrambling. The gunshots tipped off the other Heads. They’re leaving now and taking everyone with them.”
“Hurry. Find Caspian and subdue him. I’ve got Leona.”
“Max…” she whispered. “What’s happening?”
If it came down to it…if I had to choose between her and my plan to purge this Family from the inside out…what would I choose?
My face hardened. I knew the choice my father would make. I knew the choice this Family needed .
She turned on her heel and ran.
I followed, forcing myself to bury the emotions threatening to burst forth. I’d worked too hard for all of it to get fucked up now. I needed to get her under control before she ruined everything.
“Leona, running will only make this more difficult for the both of us,” I called after her.
The second half of my plan wasn’t blown yet.
I could catch her and Cas, and get them both out of the city before this got worse.
With Leona out of the way, the Family would have no choice but to accept me as the new leader.
She reached the landing of the stairs. David and Elio were still trying to get the crowd under control downstairs. Their chatter in my ear was distracting, but I couldn’t focus on it. I had to focus on her.
I aimed carefully to the side of her, intending to get her to freeze.
I fired two shots at her feet, nowhere near close enough to actually hit her.
She shrieked and launched herself down the stairs.
I leaned over the railing, watching her run straight to Cas.
He wrapped his body protectively around her.
“They’re in the main hall,” I said in my comms. “Find them. Don’t let them leave the estate grounds.”
“Yes, boss,” David said in my earpiece. “The other Heads and their teams have scattered. Elio and I alerted them to your new position.”
“They agreed to our temporary terms?”
“Yes, boss.”
I exhaled slightly in relief. At least one thing had gone off without a hitch.
I’d carefully blackmailed each of them into allowing this coup to happen.
I’d deal with them in a joint summit once I secured control over the Vero forces.
The men would easily transition to my leadership—I’d been leading them for years at this point—but I expected at least some resistance and questions about why I took control.
I stalked back to Luciano’s office, grabbing my knife, his gun, and then the key he kept in the hollowed-out book on the shelf behind the desk.
I locked the study and tucked the key into my breast pocket.
I’d have to deal with his body later. For now, everything in here was evidence of his crimes.
The documentation he’d kept was extensive, and I needed to have complete control over it.
“We found them, boss,” one of David’s men said. “Back entrance, by the kitchen.”
“Keep them there.” I took only a moment to steel myself.
I was about to face off against my best friends. I had to be prepared for anything.
By the time I walked through the kitchen, Cas was pointing both his guns at David and my new security staff. Leona cowered behind him, her hands twisted into his suit jacket.
“The Don?” he asked David. “Is he safe?”
I stepped up. “There’s been a change of leadership, friend.”
Confusion and fear flitted across his face before he frowned. He took in the blood splatters on my suit while I tried to ignore Leona’s flash of red hair and her body pressed against his.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” he asked. “Where’s Don Luciano?”
I stepped closer. Cas was loyal to a fault, especially to Luciano. The old Don had saved Cas’s life, fed him, housed him, clothed him, and given him a job guarding the love of his life. There was no use in hiding that I’d killed Luciano, but Cas would never understand why I did what I did.
“I’m afraid the Don is no longer with us,” I answered him while a war raged inside me. “I am taking over the position effective immediately.”
“What did you say?” Cas breathed. He looked between me and Leona, clearly putting the puzzle pieces together. “Tell me you’re lying. What happened?”
I shook my head slowly. I couldn’t tell him the truth about everything, and especially not about the Camorra or about RICO. The Family would implode. He and Leona would implode. I was the only one strong enough to do what had to be done. But there was no use in lying. Leona saw everything.
“I shot him in the head myself. Leona was there.”
“Tell me this is all a sick joke,” he said. “That you’re playing some elaborate prank on me like you both used to when we were kids.”
I sighed, dropping the ammo clip from my gun and loading a new one. Just in case.
“How dare you?” Cas’s voice dropped. I expected this. I knew they’d both hate me after tonight. If I followed through with the plan, they’d be alive, and that was all that mattered. “How could you, Max? After everything the Don has done for us? After all we’ve been through together?”
Anger boiled in my veins. He had no idea what the Don had done. “Put your gun down, Cas. It doesn’t have to be like this.”
“I’ll kill you for this,” he snarled. “Mark my words, Max. I’ll watch the life drain from your eyes. I’ll kill you for everything you’ve done tonight.”
He was telling the truth. I could see his rage in his eyes. I could see it in the way he protected Leona with his body.
I inhaled and exhaled deeply. I sank back into that place. When all of this was done, I hoped he’d be the one to kill me, but not until I’d finished this. “I know, my friend. But not yet.”
I gestured to Elio to capture them. He knew the plan was to get them out of the house safely and transport them to the landing strip where I had a plane waiting to fly them off to the remote island I’d purchased in Alaska.
Elio moved, but Cas moved faster. He immediately began shooting. It happened within seconds. I shouldn’t have been surprised when five bodies lay on the ground between us—my new security staff decimated. My jaw clenched in frustration. Clearly, I had underestimated him.
“Move!” he shouted as he dragged Leona through the backyard .
The choice was right in front of me. Go after them. Let them leave. Kill them.
I couldn’t bring myself to shoot them.
But if I let them leave, Cas would take her and run. He’d understand what happened here tonight. He’d want to get her as far away as possible.
That had to be enough for now, at least until I spoke with the other Heads and figured out what to do about the RICO case.
The last bit of feeling I had slipped from my body as she and Cas disappeared from sight. He’d get her out of the city. I’d put a hit on them just to keep them moving, but I knew Cas would never let anything hurt her. He’d get her to safety, and then they could live .
I’d never see them again. That was how it had to be.
They were free.
And I never would be.