Chapter 27
Twenty-Seven
Marchello
Men who ran cartels waited for no one. Everything was urgent. Time was money. The longer you made them wait, the more money they fucked you out of. If they didn’t try to kill you first and then take everything you had.
It didn’t matter if you were the lead family in your territory, how many jobs you had done for them, or how much money you laundered. When the cartel was ready to do business, you dropped everything and made them front and center.
That was why working with these types of people was profitable. This wasn’t the mafia of fifty years ago when we didn’t need to move stuff for cartels. My people were successful in their own right. We owned the streets. But that was before there were cameras on every corner and inside every business.
How were we expected to shake someone down when the doorbell saw you coming a block away? Hell, even sports betting was legal. If you wanted to survive in this business, you found other channels of revenue.
That was how my father rose to power. He made alliances others didn’t have the vision or street smarts to make. He stayed on top because he knew what these men wanted, and he always figured out how to give it to them.
If I had accidentally destroyed a lucrative cartel shipment six weeks ago, I would have waited for the call, then done everything in my power to make things right.
But it wasn’t six weeks ago. A spoiled mafia princess had blown my life apart, and I couldn’t forget all my responsibilities for her, even to stand by my brother and take care of our shit.
An internal conflict warred within me over what I was supposed to do and how I was supposed to handle this.
Milo came into our father’s office and shut the door. I hadn’t seen him all morning because he had been working on leads and trying to figure out what our next move should be. I hoped he was more successful than I had been.
“I have news.” He loosened his tie.
“You got a lead on where Lissia is?”
“No,” he said. “I haven’t had any luck on that front.”
“Did you call Rosalie?”
“Three times.” Milo sat in the chair across from the desk. “She’s not answering.”
“Her mother has to know where she is.” I ran my hand along my rough jaw, noting the effects of not shaving for almost two days. I hadn’t slept or eaten more than one meal either.
“One of our people told me Rosalie has moved back into Gian’s house. As far as they know, there have been no Lissia sightings since she left the safe house.”
“Has anyone seen Collins?”
“None that I can find.” Milo stared at me for a moment. “If I had to guess, I would say he has her. I would also say Gian knows.”
“That’s not what she intended when she left. She would never walk away from me to go to him.”
“I believe you, but if we don’t know where Collins is, we can’t go after him.”
I glanced at my phone, willing it to ring. I needed one of our contacts to come through. We had the description of the car from the cameras. Someone had to spot it and give me a location.
“I want to negotiate something with Gian,” I stated. “It’s the only way I’m going to get her back before we have to deal with all the other shit going on.”
“We can’t make a deal with him. What would you even offer him?”
“I was thinking maybe we could smooth things over for him with the Argentina cartel. If we can fix what we destroyed and still have them work with Gian, maybe that would get him off our backs.”
“We don’t even know what they want from us for getting involved in the first place.” Milo jumped up and slammed his palms against the desk. “You’re not thinking. What the hell is wrong with you?”
“What’s wrong with me?” I stood and leaned across the desk, going head-to-head with my brother. “Lissia has been missing for almost twenty-four hours. We’re pretty certain that lunatic Collins has her. What are the chances he hasn’t—”
I didn’t want to think about what he had done to her in that time.
“I have to do something to help her,” I said. “She sacrificed herself for us. Shouldn’t I do the same?”
“Throwing yourself on the mercy of a cartel we know nothing about isn’t the answer. Negotiating with Gian definitely isn’t the answer. He wants our territory. Are you willing to give it to him? Are you willing to get us all killed?”
“Of course not.” I sat back down. “Do you think I would betray Dad like that? Betray this family?”
As much as I wanted Lissia back safe and in my arms, I couldn’t hand over Accetti territory to Gian. If I did that, I would show weakness. Every other rival would come for us, knowing she was my soft spot. They would bleed us dry, and there would be nothing for my father to come home to.
“Look, I know you’re desperate. I want to get Lissia back too.” Milo tapped his fingers on the desk. “She doesn’t deserve any of this. It’s not her fault she’s a Gallanti.”
“I’m not desperate enough to do something stupid. I’m trying to weigh all the options.”
I knew who I was and I remembered everything my father taught me. I would find a way out of this. That was my job. That was why my father trusted me to run things while he was gone.
“You’re not going to do something stupid like getting yourself killed and leaving me to clean up the mess?”
“Is that your way of saying you would miss me?” I asked. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“You better not.”
“When you came in here, you said you had news. What is it?”
“I heard from Juan. Argentina is sending a representative to meet with us in the next day or so. I don’t have the details or the location. It might not even be in New York.”
“Do you think it will be out of the country?” There was no way I could leave the state, much less the country. Not until I had Lissia back.
“They’re going to want to meet on their terms in a location where they feel secure. That’s what we would do,” Milo said.
“We’ll need to have a security team in place. Lucas will go with you to negotiate the details and assure them that we will do whatever it takes to make up for the shipment they lost.”
“That sounds like a solid plan.” He sat down. “Except for the part where I take Lucas with me.”
“He’s our consigliere. Why wouldn’t you take him with you?”
“I realize he will be going, but where exactly will you be when this meeting is taking place? Don’t you think it will look a little suspicious if you’re not there? They could see it as a sign of disrespect.”
“I’m hoping to be right by your side, but if we get something on Lissia, I have to go after her.” I glanced at my phone again and noted the time. I could now add another hour she was away from me. “I can’t be in two places at once.”
“Christ, Marchello.”
“You and Dad keep saying I can’t split my focus. If it comes down to it, you’ll take the meeting, and I’ll go after her.” I pointed at him. “You are my second, are you not?”
“You know I am, but my job is to protect you. I can’t let you go off and face Collins without me. I won’t do that.”
“Milo, I feel the same way about sending you into that cartel meeting alone, but sometimes, we have to make the hard decisions. I’m thinking like Dad would. We need a plan in place. We have to look at this from every angle if we’re going to survive.”
“You sound like him.” Milo grinned. “He would be proud.”
“I don’t think so.” I glanced around the office, wishing our father was here to get me out of this situation. “I think he’s furious that I got us into this mess. Every day we take to clean up this shit is another day he can’t come home. We’ve gotten nowhere on the Bello situation.”
“We did get preoccupied when Lissia got nabbed.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Again.”
“This is different than when I took her. I would never hurt her.” I closed my eyes and tried not to imagine her being tortured or… “She doesn’t know how to keep her mouth shut, Milo. She pushes and pushes until you snap. She’s going to push Collins too far if she hasn’t already. He doesn’t have the control and the discipline I do.”
“Try not to think about that.”
“That’s all I think about. He won’t know how to handle her.” I looked up at the ceiling. “She was promised to Collins, and we both know why someone would accept that deal. Yeah, it is a lucrative deal, but Collins thinks she’s untouched.”
“Ah, that’s a problem.” Milo rested his chin between his thumb and fingers. “Was she a virgin before you kidnapped her?”
“She was.” I nodded.
“I see.”
“A man like Collins is territorial. If he finds out I tainted her, he’s going to make her pay.”
“How’s he going to find out unless he…” He shook his head. “If he’s so traditional, to the point he wants a virgin bride, he’s not going to pop her before the wedding night.”
“That’s what I’m talking about.” I really needed that drink. “She will tell him she slept with me to throw it in his face. She can’t help herself. She’s going to push him over the edge.”
“You’re speculating, and that does us no good.”
“You’re right.” I had to hope she could hold it together long enough for me to get to her. I didn’t need her throwing some wicked tantrum and expecting Collins to show her the same patience I had. “We should devise a plan for the cartel meeting.”
“You were talking about having security in place.” He stretched out his legs. “We have to decide who goes where.”
“What are your thoughts?”
“We’ll set up two teams.” He took out his phone and started typing. “Let’s look at the strengths and weaknesses of each guard, then we’ll have a better idea of who goes with you and who comes with me.”
I smiled at him.
“What?” he asked.
“Now who sounds like Dad?”
“He left us in charge for a reason.” Milo scrolled on his phone. “We have an empire to protect.”
As Milo went over names and what each guard’s strengths were, my phone rang. I quickly picked it up from the desk and read the screen.
“Who is it?” Milo asked.
“Unknown number.”
“Take it,” he said.
“Hello,” I answered, putting the phone on speaker.
“Is this Marchello Accetti?” a man asked.
“Who am I speaking with?”
“We have a mutual friend,” he said.
“Who would that be?” I glanced at Milo.
“Lissia Gallanti,” he replied.
“What do you know about her?” Rage bubbled in my chest, but I had to keep it together if I wanted to figure out if this was a legitimate call.
“I can tell you where she is.”
“Why don’t you tell me who you are first?”
It could be a scam , Milo mouthed to me.
“I was with Lissia the night she met you,” the caller said.
“Where was that?” Milo asked.
“The auction at your dealership, Milo ,” the man said. “Now, you’ll probably say that was in the papers because of the shooting, and you’re right, but I left before the shooting happened. Lissia insisted that I take her mother to meet her friends.”
“You’re her guard?” I asked. “Michael.”
“I also brought her back to the dealership the next day after she got her nails done and waited in a long line to bring you cookies. Does any of that ring a bell?”
“Where is she?” I asked. “Tell me where she is.”
“I’ll tell you, but I’m warning you, I’m only calling you out of desperation. Her mother begged me to get in touch with you, but I don’t think anyone can save her now.”