Chapter 19 Sebastian #3
I blink, shocked by the information. I would assume that Luca would handle Italy before they came knocking. I frown. “Luca believes there’s a coup forming within the Famiglia.”
“And his father?”
I shake my head. “He didn’t say.”
My father looks at me, studying my face for lies, and my eyes twitch with disdain. “I owe no loyalty to Luca.”
He shrugs. “Loyalty, no. But he’s who hid Gianna, ehh? I know your vindictive streak, son.”
My tongue rubs along the back of my teeth, and I narrow my stare. “I’ll get you all the information you want, but I want Arthur gone.”
“We’re not bargaining—”
“You promised I’d never have to get the crest!
” I snarl at him. It’s not his fault, but I can’t help feel the failure of his promise.
After everything our family has been through with my younger brother and mother, this is the one thing my father has always held true.
I’d seen enough death to know what I wanted in life, and it wasn’t to be a Made Man.
My father’s nostrils flare, his teeth grinding as he drives on in silence before his shoulders slump. “Gone? In what way?” It’s as much of an apology I’ll ever get.
Nico and I exchange glances. I clear my throat. “In a way that leaves a vacancy Nico can fill.”
“But not dead?”
Nico shakes his head. “He does have loyalty within the city, more than you and Christian suspect. There’s more than one reason we reached out to the Irish.”
My father narrows his stare and pulls off the road. He nods for us to get out and snaps his fingers for us to leave our phones. It’s a ridiculous precaution, but one we follow for him without question.
We huddle at the corner of a building, feet from the car parked at the curb. The sting of the tattoo on my chest makes me shiver.
“Explain. Don’t leave anything out.”
I blow out a breath. “When we were watching Arthur, we stumbled across information that we weren’t meant to find.”
Nico cracks his neck. “He’s been working with the Italians’ spies, sparrows as they like to be called.
At first we weren’t sure what we were looking at because we’ve never heard of these sparrows, but they seemed to have been planted in every organization years ago and have slowly been funneling information back to the Famiglia. ”
My father raises his eyebrows. “Just the Famiglia? You sure it’s not approved by the Cosa Nostra?”
I shrug. “If it is, we don’t know and neither does Luca, but he didn’t seem to know about the sparrows either.”
Nico nods. “It seems to be another entity within the Famiglia, but not Luca. They are connecting directly with Arthur.”
“Who isn’t relaying anything to Christian… I see,” my father says under his breath.
I lick my drying lips. “I miscalculated involving the Irish with their volatile history. They acted, exposing the fact that everyone knew about the sparrows before we were ready. The line has gone dead.”
My father strokes his chin. “But it helped find traitors among their mist and they owe that favor, ehh?”
I grimace now. “I used it to locate Gianna.”
His nostrils flare and he looks away from me. “Why? You’ve assured me over and over that you don’t have feelings for her. That it’s only retaliation for what she did in college, and yet you’re making deals with the fucking Irish over her.”
Swallowing down emotions I’ve kept buried as often as I can, I stay silent because I’m unable to come up with another excuse to tell him.
My father turns back to me, wild fury bright in his eyes, and he grabs onto my shirt. “Do you love her?”
My lips tremble, and my breathing shallows, but I struggle to refuse it outright.
He swears, dropping me as fast as he had grabbed me. “You fucking idiot. I’ve warned you! Love destroys everything, especially a bitch you can’t trust. She belongs to the Italians!”
“She doesn’t! She’s an outsider.” It burns that he called her a bitch and I want to punch him for it, but it would make everything worse so I restrain myself.
Spitting on the ground, he shakes his head. “Even worse.”
Nico clears his throat. “I’ve checked her out. Gianna is as pure and good as they come, and in the end, it gave us an opening to engage with the Irish. Something no one at the Outfit has done in years.”
We stare at each other, father and son, and I take the brunt of his disappointment because Nico couldn’t begin to understand the full depth of it. Secrets we laid to rest as a family before I even moved to the States.
Controlling his anger, my father turns to my chosen brother, someone he considers just as much a son. “But now you are cordial with the Irish?”
Nico shakes his hand in a seesaw motion. “Ehh. It’s more a tit for tat kind of thing. They got information, and we give some in return. We gave them the sparrows, they gave us Gianna. We got their girl in place for something, and they got us Arthur’s movements.”
My father rubs his hand down his face. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. We don’t have time for this.”
“The plan was always to put Nico into place,” I remind him.
He glares at me. “Yes, but now Arthur is conspiring against us, against Christian. We can’t allow it to go unchecked. Look how it’s going for the Italians. Italy is growing impatient.”
“Then allow me to make an alliance on behalf of the Outfit.”
My father’s eyebrows flicker. “An alliance with who?”
“The Irish and the Italians.”
“Both?” He barks out a laugh. “Son, you are a man of many talents. But I don’t think you could even achieve that.”
I scowl. “It would be a temporary truce to deal with a common enemy.”
“And Arthur is that enemy?” he asks, unconvinced.
Shaking my head, I blow out a long breath. “He’s mine, but he’s the stepping stone to theirs.”
My father’s eyes brighten with understanding. “You want to allow them to torture the son of a bitch?” The respect in his expression makes me a little sick. The gore of this life has never appealed to me the way it does to him.
“Yes. You think Christian will allow it?”
He hums, turning to think about it before he says, “Sometimes it’s better to ask for forgiveness instead of permission.”
Nico’s mouth drops open. “So you’re saying if it blows back badly on us, you’ll leave us to dry?”
My father glares at him. “When have I ever let you boys hang?”
“He can’t anyway. The Outfit is loyal to its knights,” I spit out the last word, feeling the burn of the tattoo on my chest. “I can’t ever get arrested. If they strip me now, the proof is etched on my skin.”
“You don’t have to worry about that. Get ready to come home, Son. Sooner rather than later.”
I nod, turning to Nico. “I’ll call Luca in the morning. See if we can make a day trip to New York without being noticed.”