Chapter 37
Thirty-Seven
Enzo
On the drive back to the hospital, Benny told me our father was out of surgery, and everything went well.
Mom leaped from her chair and rushed into my arms when I returned to the waiting room.
“Everything is okay,” she said between hitched sobs as her tears soaked through my shirt. “He’s alive.”
Before marrying my father, she had known the lifestyle and risks of being his wife. A mob wife had its perks and dangers.
My father’s chance of dying young had always been higher than living to old age. When you were a killer surrounded by other killers, longevity wasn’t common.
He’d already beaten those odds. He was the oldest among Mafia bosses. The rest from his generation had already croaked.
Mom pulled away and stared at me with watery eyes. “You’ll find out who did this, right?”
I used my thumb to wipe a salty tear from her cheek. “Yes, and I’ll kill them.”
She gave a satisfied nod, then pressed a kiss to my cheek.
As soon as my father was brought to the private recovery room, we gathered inside and waited for him to wake from the anesthesia.
He was hooked to IVs, and a bandage covered his bullet wound. The imbeciles had aimed for his heart and missed. I wouldn’t make the same mistake when I found them.
“Hey, son,” he said when I stepped to his bedside after giving Mom the time she needed with him.
“Dad.” I couldn’t hold back my smile that he was alive.
His chest shifted, and he winced when a small laugh escaped him. “Fuckers really thought they could take me out with a single bullet.” Without lifting his head, he shook it against the pillow.
According to Benny, a black SUV had swerved in front of our father’s and shot through the window. The SUV sped off before the driver could catch a license plate. The driver had taken him straight to the hospital, which was less than ten minutes away.
My fingers closed around my father’s tattooed hand. I breathed in a thick puff of air to hide my emotions. The love and respect I had for my parents were unmatched.
Each one for different ways and reasons.
My father had molded me into who I was. He kept our family safe, risking his own life at every turn.
Someone’s desire for his demise meant a threat to all of us.
I looked up when the door opened. Nico squeezed through the doorway. In a line behind him was Cedric and Cassian. Their expressions were just as murderous as Benny’s, Antonio’s, and mine.
Seraphina almost knocked Cassian over when she charged toward our father and rushed him into a hug, not even thinking that the man had just been shot. Behind her were Livia and Benny’s daughter, Gemma.
A stab of guilt struck me for not waiting for them so they could ride to the hospital with me. I knew they’d find a way here. All that had been on my mind was that my father needed me.
Livia hugged Mom tight before going to Seraphina. Gemma made a beeline for my father to hug him. The girls’ sobbing made Gigi and my mom cry even harder. Their emotions all seemed to blend.
While Livia and Cassian might have the last name Lombardi, they still had Marchetti blood flowing through their veins. Dad was their grandfather.
I said goodbye to my father, thanked the guard at his door, and walked outside with the guys to Benny’s SUV. Dad was alive. Now, it was time for revenge.
But first, we needed a motive. And a name.
“I can’t believe you guys have nothing,” Nico said from the third row of Benny’s Escalade.
Benny twisted in the driver’s seat to look at all of us. “You think it could be tied to your little secret society?”
Cedric coldly glared at his father from the captain’s chair beside me. “It’s not a little secret society.”
That was a familiar argument when the Night Sons came up. My father and Benny never fully understood what the Sons were, even though joining them had been their idea. I figured they saw the extra power, extra money, and stopped thinking beyond that.
They’d only ever owed loyalty to the family. But our loyalty to the Sons strengthened the Marchettis, which meant it protected the family too.
“Has anyone checked on the whereabouts of the Bratva?” Cedric asked.
“What about the fucking Irish?” Nico cut in.
“I talked to Pippa’s cousin,” Antonio said from the passenger seat.
Pippa was the wife of his underboss, Damien. Her sister ran the Irish mob.
“We keep them in business,” Antonio went on, dragging a hand down the back of his neck. “Hell, we helped Riona kill her father and take power. She wouldn’t turn on us. She knows the consequences.”
“All right, and the Bratva?” Cassian asked.
“We’re working on them, but Liliya is saying no.”
Liliya was another Lombardi capo’s wife who also happened to be connected to the Russian Bratva.
We had connections everywhere—good ones.
The kind that had kept us safe for decades. I couldn’t remember the last time my family had been at war.
Well, I could, actually.
It was with Antonio’s ass.
“Circling back to the Sons,” Benny said. “You don’t find it suspicious that the president of the United States, who brought you into the society, was also shot on the same day?”
I nodded, my head pounding. “I do.”
“Who would want the president and Grandfather dead?” Nico asked.
“Everyone,” Benny, Antonio, and I said at the same time.
Nico scoffed. “That sure narrows it down.”
“It’s your job to narrow it down,” Antonio said. “Anyone talk to the president’s son?”
“I spoke with Secret Service earlier,” Benny said. “The president was in emergency surgery then.”
“Let’s hope his shooter also had bad aim,” Cassian said.
“I have people meeting us at Seven Seconds,” Benny said, referring to the nightclub my family owned.
It had been named after my father’s favorite game, which he’d invented. He used to give his enemies seven seconds to run before killing them.
Benny’s voice turned grim. “Prepare for a long night, guys. We’re not resting until every motherfucker involved in shooting my father stops breathing.” His stare locked on me. “You keep in contact with the president’s son. I want every single update.”
I nodded.
“Let’s keep in touch with Secret Service too,” Antonio added. “We need to know everything they know. I bet my ass these events are connected.”
“Someone is probably unhappy the president is working with us,” Benny said matter-of-factly.
Benny and Antonio had fought through bloody wars over turf and control of the city. They’d survived kidnappings, shootings, and enemies no one saw coming. They had more experience than any of us. I trusted them, and I trusted that we’d find whoever was behind this.
“We should get the Sons involved,” Nico said. “They have some of the best connections in New York. In the world. In every damn sector. That’s why we’re affiliated with them.”
Every man in the SUV nodded in agreement.
Benny looked at his son. “I want you in charge of that, then, as well as going through footage.” His attention slid to me.
“Enzo, you keep in contact with Brooks and get all the information you can from the Secret Service.” He looked at Antonio next.
“You talk to Liliya and Pippa about the Bratva and Irish.” Cassian was his next line of focus. “You and Cedric are coming with me.”
We were all armed when we stepped out of the SUV and split off to our vehicles to handle our assignments.
“I’m flying back to Saint Vale with the VP,” Brooks told me over a secure video chat from Air Force Two. “We’re meeting with the Elders. They’re traveling from every corner of the world. They’re pissed off.”
I offered a nod from my dad’s office at Seven Seconds. I’d been in there for at least ten hours, making phone calls and digging for answers. Every hour or so, Benny came in to trade updates and ask what I’d found.
A few other Elders had also told Nico they were reaching out to contacts across the city for any clue who could be behind it.
These were the times when the value of being a Night Son shone through.
“Do you think it’s wise for the vice president to leave DC?” I asked.
“He’s meeting with the other Elders,” Brooks said. “We’re getting revenge on the fuckers who did this. Someone shot the president of the fucking United States. They all know if he stops being president, our power shrinks.”
Vice President Kirkland stepped into view, filling the frame.
“Enzo,” he said, “any new information to report?”
“We got intel on the car driven during the shooting. It was registered to a Miami car dealership.”
“We traced the vehicle involved in the president’s shooting to a Miami dealership too.” He lifted his wrist and checked the time. “The FBI is headed there to conduct a raid right now.”
“Who owns the dealership?”
“We haven’t confirmed that yet. We suspect it was registered under an alias because the name ties to an account in Cuba.
One of the Elders has connections to their dictator.
He’s meeting us tonight, and we’ll have him put us in touch.
” He straightened the flag pen on his lapel.
“I’ve spoken with every Elder. We’ll find out who did this.
Will you be joining us for the meetings? ”
While Brooks’s face didn’t come onto the screen, I heard his voice.
“They’re staying in the city,” he told Kirkland.
The VP frowned. “And your Fawn? Have you made sure she’s safe in her Quarters? An Elder Son and a Night Son’s father were attacked. Her Night Son’s father. She could be in danger.”
Brooks’s face returned to the screen as the VP moved aside. “Where’s Blair?”
“My home,” I replied.
Brooks let out a low whistle. “Monster Marchetti permitted that? Wow. I’m not even allowed there.”
“Benny agreed to one night, but she needs to return to Saint Vale today.” I arched a brow, an idea striking me. “If you’re making any stops, think she could ride with you?”
Brooks glanced toward the VP.
“I wouldn’t object,” he said. “But we’d need her in the next fifteen minutes.”
Shit.
That wasn’t doable.
I checked my watch. “I’ll ask Emeri to take her back. He’s at the casino and headed to Saint Vale soon.”
“You don’t think she’s involved, do you?” Brooks asked.
The snarl and anger on my face must’ve been pretty damn clear on the screen because he hurriedly kept talking. “Don’t kill me, but our information on her was limited, and now, both of our dads have been shot.”
“Our fathers have been on people’s hit lists long before Blair showed up,” I said defensively.
While it pissed me off, the suspicion made sense. She was the newest person in our circle, but we needed to remember who had been targeted.
It wasn’t average Joes.
A mafia boss and the leader of the free fucking world.
“We need to look into her,” he said. “People don’t have their entire history erased when they’re living innocent lives. That looking into her should’ve been done before the Selection, like I said then.” He shot me a dirty look.
He’d asked me to dig deeper on her, but I’d sworn to the other Sons that she was safe.
I narrowed my eyes and returned the look.
“Let’s all stay in contact,” the VP said. “Let me know any updates on intel. Make sure your Fawn stays safe. If you don’t trust her, put her in the Fawn Quarters. That way, she’s safe but also confined, just in case she is trouble.”
After ending the call, I yawned and checked the time again.
Everyone was right to ask questions about Blair. My feelings for her were making me reckless with my own family. I needed her out of the mansion.
Deep down, I wanted to believe she wasn’t involved with this, but I wasn’t certain.
I needed to get her back to the university.
Then I needed to find my dad’s killers.
Then I’d go back to learning my Fawn’s secrets.