Chapter 15
FIFTEEN
Hades
I had waited a long time for this moment. Through the years, the scenario of confronting Leo for placing the blame over what had happened in that church had changed. But the results were always the same. The confrontation ended with Leo losing his life.
“Atticus,” I said. “You can leave us.”
“Are you sure?” He glanced at Leo. “I can stay.”
“That won’t be necessary.” This was something I had to do on my own. “We can be civilized.”
Leo wandered deeper into the suite as I nodded at Atticus to go. My trusted friend obeyed my wishes and closed the door behind him.
“You do realize Atticus will stand on the other side of that door until this conversation is over. If you leave here and I don’t, you won’t get very far,” I said to Leo.
“I didn’t come here to kill you.” He pressed his lips together and tightened his jaw. “Even though I should for what you’ve done to my daughter.”
“I haven’t done anything to her.” That wasn’t exactly true, but her father didn’t need the details. “This isn’t about her.”
“Isn’t it?”
“I didn’t seek her out.”
“What the hell were you thinking?” he shouted. “She’s half your age. Your fucking goddaughter.”
“She hasn’t been that to me in a very long time thanks to you.”
“Why are you here?” The lines in his face were a little deeper than I had realized last night. He looked as if he hadn’t slept in over a day. Knowing your enemy was sleeping with your daughter could cause a major disruption in a person’s life. “Why now?” he asked.
“Maybe it was time.”
“You should have stayed in hiding.”
“I wasn’t hiding.” I shook my head. “I never changed my name, I never stopped making my living the way I always did, and I keep a pretty high profile in Greece.”
When I started over, it wasn’t easy. I looked over my shoulder for a long time, always wondering if and when someone would come for me to avenge Father Santiago. No one ever did.
“You could have come to me any time in these past eighteen years,” I said. “You could have made this right.”
“Why couldn’t you have sent her away when she found you?”
“She didn’t want to go away.” And now I can’t leave her.
Whatever my reasons for being with Capri were didn’t matter.
She had managed to sneak her way into my life, insinuating herself in my world, and now she was stuck there.
She may have entered Greece as an innocent girl, but as soon as she found me, she was destined to become a pawn in my game of revenge whether I meant for that to happen or not.
“I’m here because I’m not going to allow you to hand Capri over to that family.” All of my muscles tensed at the thought of her being forced into an arranged marriage. Pawn or not, I still needed to protect her. That became my duty when she gave herself to me.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Leo said. “No one asked you to come here and make assumptions.”
“It wasn’t that difficult to figure out.” When I stepped closer to him, he straightened his posture, forming a defensive stance. “You’re in bed with the Lazaro family and you’re sacrificing your daughter in exchange for who knows what.”
“I’m not discussing my business with you, but Capri doesn’t need you to save her.” He glared at me. “I can protect what’s mine.”
“Except she isn’t yours.” I smirked. “Not anymore.”
Knife inserted, now all I have to do is twist it.
“You son of a bitch.” When he raised his hand, I blocked his impending strike and forced him against the wall.
“Try me,” I said.
“You’re not worth it.” He pushed my arm away from him. “I didn’t come here to fight with you. I have people who can do that for me. I’m not the same man you remember.”
“No, you’re just a despicable man who would lie to his daughter and sell her to the highest bidder.” I backed up, because if I didn’t, I would break his jaw for what he had planned for Capri.
“And you’re as brutal as I am. You’re using her to get to me.”
“That’s just a bonus of being with her.” I shrugged. “I tried to turn her away, but she is an extremely determined woman.”
“You didn’t try that hard.” He clenched his fists. “What you’re doing disgusts me.”
“Everything about you disgusts me.”
“So, your revenge was sleeping with my twenty-year-old daughter?” He waved me off. “Are we even now?”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I slammed my hand against the wall. “We will never be even. You took my life away.”
“Your life isn’t horrible,” he said. “You started over and made a name for yourself in Greece. You’re quite wealthy from what I hear.”
“I shouldn’t have had to start over.”
How could he stand here and act as if he was blameless? If it weren’t for him, I would never have been in the position I found myself in.
“I never meant for it to go that far.” Leo sighed. “There isn’t anything we can do about it now.”
“You were supposed to make things right, but instead, I had to flee. I had to give up everything, and you went on living your best life.”
“Everything spiraled so quickly. You had Emilio’s blood all over your hands.”
“I had his blood on my hands because I tried to save him so you wouldn’t have to regret what you did for the rest of your life.”
Leo had acted on impulse when he went after Father Santiago, and I tried to clean it up. I never imagined that in having his back, I would pay the ultimate price.
“It was out of my control,” Leo said. “If you would have done the job in the first place like I asked you to, none of this would have happened.”
His lack of remorse infuriated me. There wasn’t anything he could do to redeem me now but an apology wouldn’t hurt. Not that I would accept it.
“I wasn’t killing a priest just because you had a hunch he overheard something he shouldn’t have,” I said.
“Like you would draw the line there?” Leo laughed. “You’re an assassin. You always will be. Does my daughter know that?”
“I didn’t lie to her.” I pointed at him. “But I didn’t tell her I took the fall for you because you might have killed an innocent man.”
“No one would believe that now.” He tapped his finger against the back of the chair he stood in front of. “Not after all these years.”
“Capri might.”
“You’re not walking back into my life after all this time and destroying everything I’ve built.” He shoved my chest. “You’re going to stay away from her.”
“I’m going to do the opposite.” I smashed him against the wall. “Capri and I are going to continue what we started, and you’re going to allow it.”
“Over my dead body.”
“That can be arranged.”
“Stay away from my daughter.” He broke past me. “Go back to Greece and forget she exists.” He yanked open the door and stormed into the hallway.
Blowing out a frustrated breath, I clenched my fists.
Restraining myself wasn’t easy, especially when Leo insisted on provoking me.
I wanted to knock his teeth out, but I had to walk a fine line when it came to Capri.
She was still learning to trust me and I couldn’t shatter what we were building.
Even if I didn’t understand what her role in my life was.
I wouldn’t let Leo win again. Destroying me once was enough.
“Hey.” Atticus stood in the doorway. “It sounded like it got a little heated in here.”
“No one got shot.”
“Not yet.” Atticus entered the suite and shut the door behind him. “You know things are going to escalate.”
“I expect nothing less.” I glanced at my watch. “Is it too early for a drink?”
“Not if we were in Greece.” He motioned to the bar on the other side of the room. “It’s already dinner time there. Maybe we should go home?”
“Not yet.” I was just getting started. “Since we’re still on Greece time, pour me a drink.”
One of the advantages of staying in such a high-end hotel was the fully stocked bar in my suite. It had been a long time since I had been in this city, but the accommodations didn’t disappoint.
“While you were having a conversation with Leo,” Atticus said as he poured two glasses of vodka, “I received an interesting phone call.”
“From who?” I asked.
“Romero Bilotti.”
“The head of the New York family?” I took the drink he offered me. “What does he want?”
“To meet with you.”
“That’s interesting,” I said. “Why does he want to meet with me?”
“He didn’t say.”
“Huh.”
“Romero has recently come into power here in the city.” Atticus sipped his drink. “No one anticipated him taking control, but there was a struggle and he outmaneuvered all of them.”
“I remember his father.” I swirled the liquid around in my glass. “He was ruthless. Showed no mercy for anyone.”
I had done a couple of jobs for the older Bilotti in my younger years, taking out men he deemed too threatening to his organization. He was one of the men I ended up running from when I had to flee the country.
“He’s been dead for a long time,” I said. “Murdered in front of his house if I remember correctly. His sons relocated to Italy, making a name for themselves as arms dealers.”
“You know your mafia history.”
“Romero made an alliance with Antonio Torrio.”
“He married Antonio’s niece, but there was a dispute and Romero went after the Torrio family hard,” Atticus said. “I don’t know all the specifics, but Romero is the last man standing, and now he and his brother Gio, along with their half-brother Rocco, run the city.”
“Still doesn’t answer my initial question,” I said.
“Why do they want to meet with you?”
“Yeah.” I let the vodka coat my lips from the rim of the glass before I chugged the contents. “I didn’t come here to take meetings with mob bosses.”
“Hmm.” Atticus stared at me before pouring another round. “Why exactly did you come here?”
“Don’t start.”
“Romero has requested you meet with him tomorrow,” he said. “It might not be a bad idea.”
“He’s probably wondering what I’m doing in his town after all these years.” I couldn’t blame him. “He’s looking for reassurance that I’m not here to do a job that could interfere with his business.”
“That makes sense.”
“Set it up,” I said. “I’ll meet with him.”
“If you’re certain.”
“I’m going to be in the city for a few more days.” I couldn’t leave Capri here with the Lazaro family circling like a pack of wolves looking for their next victim. “It’s been too long since I’ve been away.”
“You stayed away for good reasons.”
“That was before.” I ran my finger around the rim of my glass. “Maybe it’s time to make new alliances.”
I had to reclaim my reputation. Leo had gotten away with destroying my character for far too long. Men like Romero deserved to know the truth, and if it knocked Leo down a notch, that only worked to my advantage.
“It’s probably time you ask yourself what you’re really doing here,” Atticus said.
I dropped down in the chair and leaned my head back. As I clutched the glass in my hand, I weighed my options.
Walk away and go back to my club. Forget about Leo and continue living in the world that I had created for myself.
Doing an occasional job for prominent people and getting paid really well as I inflated my bank account.
Or risk throwing everything away that I had built on a vendetta that I had reconciled years ago.
The answer should have been easy. But if I left all of this behind, where did that leave Capri?
Where does that leave me?