Epilogue
Benito's office was nice and toasty, just the way I liked it. I had a sneaking suspicion he bumped it up whenever he knew I was coming. Mostly because by the time I arrived, the rest of my brother's had all shed their suit jackets. Not me. I felt perfectly at home in the balmy heat.
"You're late," Benito called as I walked in.
"Sorry. Quincy was being clingy today. I had to get my mom to distract him."
Benito smiled. "How's she taking to New York?"
"Oh, she loves it. Right now, she's looking for a little place. Quincy and I are thinking about letting her have our apartment and looking for somewhere a little closer to your loft."
My brother's eyebrows raised. "Why?"
"Cuz he loves us, duh," Giancarlo replied. "I mean, we are pretty badass."
"Can't argue with that," Paolo added.
Enzo shook his head. "They're both idiots, but having you closer might be a good thing. Gin keeps trying to rope me into watching his"—he shuddered—"child."
I laughed as I plopped down on the couch. "What are we all doing here?" I asked finally.
Benito stood up behind his desk. He glanced around and nodded. Giancarlo quickly looked outside of the door before he shut it and gave Benito a thumbs up. My oldest brother pressed a button and the deep thunk sounded as a heavy lock engaged. We were sealed in, away from the world. Right away, I sat up straighter. So did the rest of my brothers.
"We have a problem," Benito said. "Cesare has been a pain in my ass for a while now, but he's taking things too far."
I leaned forward. "What's going on?"
"That old man is determined to take back the business for himself. I've seen more of our family around town. Heard from them too. It feels like he's building his own little personal army."
I frowned. "You think he would attack you?"
"Not outright," Benito said as he rounded his desk to lean on it. "He's not stupid enough to do that. All it would do is agitate the family back in Italy. No, he's playing the long game. Putting out little rumors and games that say I'm unfit to lead. I don't expect him to come put a bullet in my head, he can’t do that to a made man, but he knows how to fuck with this business. To tear it apart from the inside out."
My stomach felt queasy. I pressed a hand to it, frowning as I thought about my last conversation with Cesare. Was this my fault?
"We've handled him before," Gin said. "We can handle him again."
"That would be foolish to think," Enzo objected. "Just because we know his old games and tactics, doesn't mean he's going to stick to them. You have to remember, this was his empire first. He knows how to play the game."
"Exactly," Benito cut in. "Which is why I've come up with a counter strategy."
When he walked away, we all looked at each other in confusion. Except Giancarlo. He seemed to already know what was going on. For someone as wild and crazy acting as he was, he seemed to know best how to be serious and be Benito's backup when he needed it. His face was stone straight as Benito walked back in with someone on his arm.
"This is Rafael Barbosa." He waved a hand to the man who smiled at us.
"How do you do?" Rafael asked.
I blinked. "How exactly is this going to work?" I asked, incredulous as hell. "No offense, but... I'm still lost."
"We need a man on the inside to figure out what Cesare’s up to," Benito said. "But other than my mom, Cesare doesn't mess around with women much anymore. Rafael is just his type, or at least the type that Grand Myah has been telling me he's seeing."
Collectively, all of our jaws dropped. My father was... seeing men? I'd only ever known him to chase women. I'd watched him do it when we were out together.
"That poon hound is gonna go for a man?" Paolo asked.
I gestured wildly to my brother. "That part! Since when?"
Benito shrugged. "This is the information Grand Myah gave me. She said he's been coming around looking for a particular kind of guy. Rafael just so happens to be looking for an opportunity and this is the perfect one. He's a great actor and he'll be able to get closer to Cesare than anyone else." He paused. "I hope."
"Or... Cesare's going to kill him," Paolo said.
"That's what I was thinking," Enzo added grimly.
Rafael held up a hand. "I understand your concern, but that isn't a deal breaker for me. Trust me, my entire life has been danger, uncertainty, and oftentimes, downright terrifying. I know how men like Cesare operate, how they think," he said, pointing a long, sharp fingernail to his temple. He brushed away long, brown locks and smiled. "I know what they crave. I can do the job."
"What's in it for you?" Enzo asked bluntly. "That's what I can’t figure out."
"Benito has offered me a lot of money," he said. "Isn't that enough?"
"No." Paulo shook his head. "Money usually isn’t enough. What are you hiding?"
The man bristled, but he clamped his mouth shut. I saw the way his eyes blanked out, as if he was disassociating from the entire situation. Whatever was going on with him, he was a strange guy.
"Enough," Benito said. "There's no need to interrogate him. Rafael and I have already made an agreement. He feeds us information about our father to take him down, and he gets a whole lot of money. Anyone who has a problem with my plan, please, give me another one. I'm dying to hear it."
The intense glare on Benito's face made all of us find something else, anything else, to look at. Finally, he sighed and all the tension evaporated from the air.
"I'll go over the game plan," Benito said. "Listen carefully."
By the time I left the office, I was on edge. What Benito had planned made sense, but it was also batshit crazy. If Cesare ever found out what he was up to, he would be pissed. Part of me still worried too. What if we could just sit down and talk to him? When I suggested that, all of my brother's looked at me as if I was fucking nuts. Clearly, they'd had a lifetime of dealing with Cesare's shit. They knew him better than I did. So I conceded.
Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to him. That maybe we could fix this without all-out war.
"Hey, baby girl."
I glanced up as I hit the sidewalk. Standing there with two cups of steaming hot coffee, was my husband. I carefully took mine, thanked him, and fell into the kiss he planted on me.
"Figured you'd like a ride," he said. "Your mom's still at our place, tidying up."
"Hmm. Yeah," I said.
"What's wrong?"
I shrugged. "Nothing. Things are just getting odd."
Quincy looked like he wanted to ask me more, but he didn't. I appreciated that. I had no idea how much of Benito's plan I was supposed to talk about. Or not talk about. The whole ride, my stomach was tight. I could barely take in a deep breath.
"You sure you're okay?" Quincy asked.
I took his hand, lacing our fingers together before I squeezed. "Okay enough," I said. "For now. Can we leave it at that?"
"Of course." He nodded. "I'm sure you're doing what you have to do."
Yeah, I was. I was choosing to betray my father and any hope that we would ever reconcile in the future. As difficult as my feelings were for Cesare, I didn't hate him. This still hurt.
Quincy brushed his lips over my knuckles. "Everything's going to be okay."
"Promise?" I whispered.
He nodded. "As long as we have each other."
Yeah, I believed that. Maybe that's all I needed right now.
Hope.