Chapter 30
Marchello
I came down the steps just as Milo entered the penthouse. Getting Lissia to settle and fall asleep had been a chore. She kept apologizing, but I didn’t want her apology. I wanted for us to be on the same page. I needed to know she understood what was at stake.
I wasn’t convinced she understood anything about me.
“Chello,” my brother called.
“Shh.” I pressed my finger to my lips. “Lissia is asleep.”
“How is she?” he asked.
“Exhausted, but the doctor said she’ll be fine. She just needs to rest.”
Her head had an impressive bump, and her feet were cut up pretty bad, but she would survive.
“She’s lucky we found her running around in those woods,” Milo said.
“Tell me about it.” I didn’t want to think about what could have happened to her once the sun went down and the temperature dropped. She wasn’t exactly a wilderness kind of girl.
“When she went after Collins, I backed our guys off. I didn’t want her to get shot in the crossfire.” He smirked. “She’s a crazy one.”
“I appreciate what you did, but her behavior allowed him to get away.”
“Her behavior is something you’re going to have to correct.”
“I intend to.” I went to the bar in the sitting room and poured two shots of vodka. “I can’t stay down here long. I told her I would stay with her.”
Milo bit the corner of his lip before taking the glass from me.
“What?” I asked.
“You like her.” He laughed. “Good for you.”
“I’d like her better if she knew how to listen.”
“You like her just the way she is.” He took a sip of his drink. “You crave her fire.”
“She’s going to be the death of me.” I drained my vodka. My brother wasn’t wrong, but there was a time and a place for games. This wasn’t the time or the place.
“I hope not. I need you alive.” He swirled the liquid around in his glass. “I’ll make the travel arrangements for us when I get to the house. We’ll leave in a few days. I’ve finished vetting the team.”
“Sounds good.” I poured another shot. “Lissia’s coming with us.”
He waved me off. “It’s too dangerous. We can’t trust these people. You have to be at the top of your game and not worry about her.”
“I can’t leave her here.” I downed the second shot, but it wasn’t as smooth as the first. “It’s not safe, especially if I don’t know where the fuck Collins is.”
Milo sighed. “Alright, I’ll make sure she has her own security team.”
“Not Ricardo.”
“He won’t be making this trip.” Milo pointed at me. “You roughed him up pretty bad.”
“He deserved it.”
“Dad might think otherwise.”
“That might be true, but Ricardo defied a direct order. I can’t show weakness when it comes to our soldiers or they’ll all try to get away with stuff.”
“I’m not going to argue with you.”
“Ricardo is better off recovering at the main house.” I slammed my glass on the bar. “Because if I have to look at him right now, I’ll probably kill him.”
“Don’t worry about him.” Milo placed his empty glass next to mine. “We have more important matters to tend to. Lucas is briefing Argentina as we speak and letting them know what we expect when we arrive. Although, we’re not really in a position to demand anything.”
“Florida could be a mistake,” I said. “But it’s our only chance at making allies out of this cartel.”
“If they even want to be friends.”
“We have plenty to offer.” I looked out the window, taking in all the people and cars on the busy street below. An adversary could come at us from any direction, even our own doorstep.
“This could go either way.” Milo tapped his fingers on the bar. “It’s risky. We don’t have the upper hand in Florida, and we don’t have a lot of time to scope out the territory.”
“There’s no reward without risk.” I continued to stare down at the street. “Besides, we’re not safe here either.”
An Enemy
Sitting in the parked car across from the ritzy building with the tinted windows and the prominent residents, I gazed up at the penthouse. It was too high for me to see anything, but I knew he had her in that fortress.
I gripped the steering wheel tight, biding my time and exercising patience. She may have looked like a hostage, but I knew better. She was with Accetti because she wanted to be with him.
They would both pay for that.
The brothers would be taking a meeting with the cartel in a few days. My cartel. The one I had worked relentlessly to gain as an ally. One intercepted shipment had ruined all of my hard work.
Marchello would not take anything else from me. I would make him suffer, and she would watch. This war may have started with Gian and Nico, but it would end with Marchello and me.
All of their territory was up for grabs. A new era was taking shape, and it would have nothing to do with the old-school New York mafia.
My phone rang with an incoming call, and I cussed under my breath. I didn’t need this now, but if I didn’t answer, he would just keep calling. I hit the screen on the dashboard, wanting to get this over with as soon as possible.
“Gian,” I answered. “What can I do for you?”
“Where the hell are you?” His voice roared through the expensive sound system. “I’ve been looking all over. Are you ignoring my calls?”
“No, I’m laying low.” I stared at the untouchable tower Marchello had the spoiled princess tucked away in. “It’s been a long day, in case you haven’t heard.”
“I got your message,” he said. “How did my daughter end up with Nico’s son again?”
“You’re seriously asking me that question? You obviously have a traitor in your organization.”
What the hell did this man expect me to do? I extracted her from the situation and got her away from the rival family. How was it my fault that Marchello found her?
“Nonsense. No one would be idiotic enough to betray me.”
“How the hell else do you think Marchello and Milo found that cabin? I didn’t call them and tell them.” I lit a cigarette. “I’d find the mole if I were you, because when I find them, I’m going to blow their head off.”
“I want my daughter back.” His voice was steady and low. “You told me you had things under control. What the hell happened?”
“I did until Marchello showed up with a team of gun-wielding guards. If your daughter wasn’t such a hot-head, they would have killed me.”
“What’s done is done,” Gian said. “You need to forget about Lissia. She’s under Accetti’s spell, and that’s a problem we don’t have time to deal with.”
“You promised me her hand,” I said. “You’re not backing out now. I’ve already put myself on the line for you. That debt will not go unpaid.”
“You will marry her when the time is right,” he said. “But right now, we have to work together if we want to gain the Argentines’ trust.”
“That ship sailed when we lost their shipment.” I gritted my teeth.
“No,” Gian said. “There’s talk of a meeting. It’s not too late.”
“I heard.”
“Marchello and Milo cannot leave Florida alive,” Gian said. “Is that understood?”
“You’re saying you want to take out both heirs to the Accetti throne?”
“Did I not speak English?” Gian asked. “An empire is about to go down. Nico will have nothing to come back to when we’re finished, and we will have gained back the cartel’s trust.”
“I like it.” I nodded. “If they know we were willing to eliminate the problem, then they’ll see that they can trust us with their next shipment.”
“Stay out of sight, and I’ll be in touch.”
“It’s about to get a little hotter in Florida.”
I ended the call as I took a long drag from my cigarette. I exhaled slowly, letting the smoke fill the car as I sunk down in the seat and rested my head against the soft leather.
This was a fight I might have walked away from a few months ago. I had connections all over the world. I didn’t need Gian or his alliance, but Lissia made it personal when she sought the protection of another man.
I inhaled on my cigarette again before flicking it out the window. As I gazed at the top floor of the building across the street, I hoped Lissia wasn’t getting used to her new surroundings. She wouldn’t be there for long.
An empire was about to collapse, and I would claim my runaway bride, even if I had to dig her out of the rubble with my bare hands.
The End for now.
Continue with this dark, enemies-to-lovers story to see if Marchello and Lissia can survive the impending storm in Vicious Vows .