Chapter 14
Soren
“You’re the one who fucked this up, you’re going to be the one to clean it up,” Eivor tells me as I stand in his office. Unlike usual, he doesn’t even request that I sit with him and have some coffee, or tea, or any hot beverage or food at all.
I nod slowly. “I will,” I lie. At least, I think I’m lying. After all, I can’t just turn around and leave, find Carmine, shoot him in the head, and be over with it.
Can I?
I think about it for a moment.
Before, perhaps, I’d been willing to take him out as long as I was the one who did it. I told myself that anyway. Now? I want to throttle my uncle for even insinuating that I should be the one to “clean it up,” aka, take Carmine and his family out.
I don’t want to. I can’t. It’s the last thing I want to do now. I want to see so many more people suffer before I see Carmine suffer. That much I know.
But how do the both of us stay loyal to our families when Eivor wants me to clear a path for him to victory?
“What is it you want me to do?” I ask him.
Eivor scoffs. “You have to ask?” he waves a hand. “Carmine was supposed to die that night. Somehow, he ends up at a hospital with a mere bullet hole in his leg. I want you to make sure the job gets done this time.”
My jaw tightens. “Right.”
“Is there a problem with that?” he asks, eying me.
I take a slow careful breath, trying not to show him any weakness. Trying not to let him see how I really feel. Anger.
Seething anger and frustration.
If I were in charge none of this would be happening. I wouldn’t be vying to take over the Dresvanni’s empire entirely.
“No,” I lie. This time I’m certain.
“Good, now get it taken care of by the end of the week,” he demands. “Or else.”
I narrow my eyes. “Or else what, Eivor?” I ask him. “Why is this so important to you?”
“The fact that you’re even asking makes me wonder if I can trust you,” he leans forward in his seat. “I hate even saying that, Soren, my boy.” He frowns.
I shake my head. “I’m just curious, Uncle,” I try to insist. I curse myself inwardly for even speaking, instead of just walking out of the room. “Why don’t you take the deal they offered? Carmine might be willing to arrange it. He doesn’t know that we had any part of the incident last night.”
Eivor looks at me with an uncertain gaze. “They can’t offer me what I want. What I need to bring this family into being the most powerful family in Italy, no, the world.”
I’m beginning to understand what’s going on.
My uncle is losing his fucking mind.
He thinks being the most powerful mafia family in the world is possible. More so, he believes it’s good for the family, what the family needs.
I realize that I can’t rationalize with him, not right now anyway.
My hands ball into fists, but I try to loosen up, and I smile at him.
“I’d better get working on making that dream come true,” I tell him.
He pauses and then laughs softly. “I should never doubt you. You’ll get this sorted, I know you will.”
I leave his office, and my face immediately falls. I pass my sister Rose in the hallway on her way to his office as well and she looks concerned.
“What did he say?” she asks me.
“He wants me to clean up the mess,” I say simply. “I’ll have no trouble.”
Rosalie squints at me. “Sure. How did it even get messed up in the first place? No one has told me that.”
I shrug. “I didn’t have a choice but to jump in. It would have been suspicious if I was nearby and one of the guards saw me but I wasn’t on his back.”
She nods. “I guess that makes sense, but…oh forget it. Just, let me in on your plan for Carmine. I want to be a part of something besides bait for men,” she insists.
I ignore the lump in my throat. “Got it.”
I text Carmine from one of the burner phones.
Where are you?
I wait for a response. I know where he is.
He’s at home in the library, but I need to know if he’ll tell me the truth about where he is.
I need to know that I can actually trust him.
It’s kind of ridiculous; I’m the one who betrayed him.
But how can I know that he won’t turn around and do the same thing.
After our night together, I’m pretty sure he won’t, but I know better than anyone that I can never be too careful.
I’m sitting at a coffee shop because I can’t sit at home pretending I’m planning something I’m not. I should go talk to Carmine in person, but now I’m wondering if someone is trailing me. I wouldn’t be surprised if my uncle had someone watching me now. Besides our usual guards.
I look down as I finally get a response.
At home. Stalker. What do you want?
I can’t help but smirk at his words.
With my thumb hovering over the screen, I press the button to call him. It rings several times before Carmine’s voice finally sounds over the other end.
“You know, you could just come over if you miss me that badly,” he tells me, his voice low and slightly teasing.
My smile grows. “Someone is flirty,” I mumble, keeping my voice down. “This is serious though.”
There’s a pause. “What’s going on?”
I sigh. “I need to tell you in person, but I don’t know if it’s safe for me to come there. Did you find all the bugs I told you about?” I sip my coffee slowly and pretend like my conversation is totally casual.
“To be honest, I don’t know…” Carmine trails off. “I have a business meeting in Greece in a few days. Volos. Can you meet me there?”
With a glance around the room, I try to remember just how far away that is, and what excuse I’ll give my uncle.
It won’t be too difficult; I can tell him it’s for a date.
He’ll give me some grief about focusing on the job, but he shouldn’t be suspicious.
It won’t be the first time I’ve gone to Greece to fuck someone. Though, it’s been a while.
“I can get there. Send me hotel details and the time,” I tell him, not ask him.
“Right. Will do.” Carmine doesn’t hang up immediately like I expect. Instead, he hangs on the line. There’s a certain tension there, and I can’t find the will to hang up either. I lick my lips and look down at my coffee.
“How’s the leg?” I ask him.
Carmine chuckles, and the sound in my ear sends a shiver down my spine. Hearing him laugh is almost as good as hearing him moan my name. Laughter isn’t that common in my life; I imagine it’s not in his either.
“It’s been a day. It hurts like hell,” he admits.
“You taking the meds how you’re supposed to?” I narrow my eyes just imagining him chucking three at a time and downing it with a bottle of liquor. Like that’s going to help the situation. The pain maybe, but not inwardly, not really.
“Yeah, yeah. What are you, my daddy?” he grumbles.
Heat floods my dick. “I can be whatever you want, Carm.” I smirk to myself, but I wonder if he can hear it through the phone.
“I want you to shut up,” he insists, but I hear a slight smile in his voice too.
I roll my eyes. “Never.”
The next couple days I’m forced to act like I’m keeping myself busy.
It means long days outside of the house finding literally anything to do.
I trail Carmine, but from a much looser distance.
It seems like he’s keeping himself out of trouble, as he barely leaves the house.
It’s a damn struggle not to just walk up in there and talk to him.
Ask him what I’m supposed to do in this situation. What he expects of me…
Instead, I try to think about what I expect from him. What do I expect from Carmine? His loyalty to his family is just as important as mine is, but that’s the problem. How can either of us remain loyal to our domain and not fucking kill each other?
I’m hopped up on way too much coffee and not enough sleep when I text him the night before I’m supposed to get on a plane and go to Greece.
You sure about tomorrow?
I sit in my bed, knowing I need to try and get some rest, but I just can’t make myself.
I spent all day running petty errands for the family and taking on the job of one of the guards who was supposed to be watching the backdoor of the Dresvanni club.
Just to get myself out of the house and away from my uncle.
Maybe I hoped Carmine might show up at the club expectedly, but all I got was a few drunk idiots and some women flirting with me. The attention was nice.
Yet, all I could think about the entire time was Carmine. Where was he? What was he doing?
I’d pulled my phone out a couple times just to look at the cameras before it became evident that they’d finally figured out how to block my access.
It’s necessary, I know that. I’m the one who told Carmine to find all the bugs in the house either me or the other guards placed.
Still, not having access to the cameras made me itchy all fucking night.
Even more so now at three in the morning while I’m half naked and staring at my phone screen. Unable to check if he’s in bed.
I don’t get a reply for ten minutes.
Maybe he’s already asleep.
I’m about to plug my phone in and make myself close my eyes when I get a response.
Are you having cold feet?
I snort audibly and start to type back right away, except, now I’m wondering what took him so long to reply. The anxiety about him being up to something is gnawing at me. What if he’s not even at home? What if he gets into trouble and I’m not there to save his ass?
I take a deep breath. It’s fine. He went twenty-odd-years without me helping him before the last couple months, I’m sure he doesn’t need me every second of every day. He can handle himself sometimes, right?
Based on the way he threatened to end my life the other night, I’m pretty sure if he puts his mind to it, he can get out of whatever trouble might come his way.
As long as it’s not trouble with the Carvels.
I growl low to myself.
“Fucking Carvels. Why can’t they just stay outta this?”
If my uncle didn’t have them on our side, the game would be more even. They’re not that powerful, really, they’re like shrimp to our sharks, but they give us an edge. An edge of unpredictability and desire to hurt the Dresvannis. Especially Carmine.