12. ~Nico~
12
~Nico~
It had been a week.
A week since Caterina had been spirited away from us.
A week since we’d had to let her go, even temporarily.
A week since we hadn’t been able to see her, hear her voice, feel her.
“I’m undeniably, obsessively, and dangerously in love with you.”
My words to her hadn’t been hyperbolic in the least.
They’d been the raw truth, through and through.
And when I wasn’t with her, that obsessive and dangerous aspect tended to rise up.
Just like it had with our war after I’d first developed a connection to her.
Now, though, that connection was so much deeper, something that invaded every fiber of my being, that consumed me even in my stronger and more rational moments.
Things didn’t work without Caterina.
Right now, I was trying to sublimate.
One of the ways I was doing that, and one that was also helping Julian and Milo to do the same where she was concerned, was through re-reading the encrypted communication that Levi had intercepted from her two nights ago.
Just needed to let you know that I’m doing well. Healing up and mobile again. Getting stronger. I miss the three of you so much, though. So fucking much. Know that I love you, and that will never change. I can’t wait to get home to you. Love always, Caterina.
We’d read between the lines with the tail end of her message. It was her telling us that she was also working through her grief concerning the baby, particularly the guilt that she’d felt, which we’d all worried would keep her away. Apparently, that wasn’t the case, though.
And she would come home to us.
When it was safe.
After Levi’s report on Erebus, that safety was definitely an issue.
They were more than just hired guns that Angelo was currently using to try to take out Caterina for killing Santino. A lot fucking more.
And they certainly weren’t run-of-the-mill hitmen either. Their skills were dangerous beyond belief, even in respect to our world, and so was their reach and resources.
That said, this wasn’t exactly the first time that the odds had seemed stacked against us. Taking down the two families had been viewed as near impossible by many.
But we’d found a way through.
This would be no different.
While Levi was working to generate leads on Angelo’s whereabouts, as well as actionable intel where Erebus was concerned, I was dealing with things on our home territory. Angelo thought he could use these black ops shitheads to claim power? When I was done, there would be nothing left to claim.
After our strikes, Santino’s murder, and Angelo being in the wind working with Erebus, the Leone Family was reeling.
Carlo and I had ordered Dante Rivera to take advantage of the uncertainty and chaos, wherein he’d been covertly instilling a whole lot of doubt into Leone soldiers.
He’d come to me yesterday with insider intel concerning Elia, the remaining Leone Capo who was still in the city. The fucker was working and coordinating with Angelo from a distance, and they’d decided to call a closed-door meeting with their soldiers to reinforce their commitment to the Leone Family. In their sadistic terms, that meant making a brutal example out of those they’d identified as losing faith in the Family. Basically, they were going to torture, then murder them in front of everyone else, and maintain control by fear and force.
The fools had unwittingly provided me and Carlo with a significant opportunity.
Elia and Angelo were so overconfident that they’d written Dante off as nothing even resembling a threat. All Dante had needed was some support, to be bolstered, and he’d been able to demonstrate just how capable he was. He’d even been able to ascertain the location of this supposedly covert meeting, along with specs concerning the building itself and security protocols.
And now I was putting the final touches to the tactical strike that Carlo and I were going to launch jointly within a few days.
I looked up from the plans laid out on my desk, as Julian barreled in, not bothering to knock, as was far too common of an occurrence with him.
At my grunt, he held up his hand. “I know. But you’re gonna love this.”
I rounded my desk and leaned against the front, folding my arms across my chest. “I’m listening.”
“The task you gave me is completed.”
“Already? It’s only been forty-eight hours since I laid out the strategy to you.”
“Yeah, it’s done. I’ve convinced the majority shareholders in Leone Realty of just how unstable things are now, in light of Santino’s death. I showed them proof of the human trafficking activities as well, highlighting that it would come back on them all and spook investors in a major way.” He grinned. “They’re selling the company to me, where we’ll then dismantle it piece by piece, effectively destroying the Leone Family’s flagship business.”
“I’m impressed.”
“Well, I’m just that good. Some of that may have gotten lost lately with everything that’s happened, but believe me, I’ve still got it.”
“I never doubted it, Julian. None of us did.”
He smiled. “Finally, some good news, huh?”
“Absolutely.”
“With Caterina holding Leone Family funds hostage, they’ll fall from a business perspective. In a few nights, when you deal with their soldiers, they’ll be decimated, Nico.”
“Except for the Erebus aspect.”
“Yeah, speaking of that,” he said, shifting his weight uncomfortably. “I think you should reconsider having Levi tracking Angelo the way he currently is.”
“He’s not just tracking Angelo. Given that the fucker is working with Erebus, he’s also tracking them .”
“We should draw him out, and use me to do it,” he told me, point blank.
“Julian, the dangers of doing that—”
“I know. Believe me, I know better than anyone. But the outcome would be worth it. Lure Angelo out into the open and this group he’s allied with. We could even use those of them swarming around Leo at the Marchetti mansion to do it.”
“Those swarming around Leo haven’t made a move for a reason.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I have eyes on them through my soldiers. They’re waiting on something.”
“Like what? Their leader? Succeeding in their hit against Caterina?”
“They’re on the hunt. We’ve tracked them venturing throughout the city. Levi and I believe they’re searching for something or someone. Something instrumental here in Tolhurst to their plans. Something that has the means to usurp those plans.”
Movement at my office doorway pulled my attention.
I looked past Julian to see Levi standing there.
“We now know what that something is,” he announced. He walked into the room, his phone held in his hand, the screen unlocked. “I was able to discern what they came for when they hacked into Rina’s system. It wasn’t the Leone funds. I’ve actually determined that the way she’s hidden them makes them untraceable, no matter how skilled or technologically advanced these assholes are.”
“If not the funds, then what?” I asked.
“These individuals. Politicians, city figures, a whole lot of influential people who Santino had in his pocket for years, many of whom he acquired recently through the power increase that the Leone-Marchetti alliance seemed to promise.”
He held his phone out to me, and I took in the names, recognizing every single one of them.
I eyed Julian. “These are the people we severed from the Leone Family the night of the strikes. We relocated and hid many of them at the time. Following Santino’s death, I’ve had my soldiers hide others who’ve come to me wanting protection in exchange for dropping their support of the Leone Family.”
“So Erebus is trying to find them?” Julian spoke.
“Yeah,” Levi confirmed. “It coincides with the places Nico’s soldiers have tracked them to over the last little while—all those locations and people have connections to these influential people. It’s clear they were hoping that they’d find the safehouse locations on Rina’s system. But she was smart. She kept all of that offline, so it could never be ascertained via a hack.”
“This doesn’t bode well,” Julian uttered. “It suggests they’re not just here for a temporary assist or being hired by Angelo and Santino and now apparently also Leo, that they’re actually here to stay and they want to cement their position here in the city and use the influential figures that Santino had in his pocket in order to strengthen that.”
“Now we have this intel, we move from reconnaissance to annihilation,” I told them.
“Have your units of soldiers tracking them when they’re moving outside the mansion and into the city, and put them down going forward,” Levi surmised.
“And in bits and pieces so we can cover it up, so there’s no outright massacre to worry about,” Julian said.
“Precisely,” I confirmed.
I handed Levi his phone back.
I went to pull mine out to connect with Carlo. Given our alliance, I had to ensure I ran an operation like this by him, rather than making a dangerous, unilateral move. I wouldn’t make the same mistakes that my father had made.
But before I could make the call, Julian’s phone started ringing.
He pulled it from his pocket and answered, “Carver here. What? Hazel? Who are you talking about? What do you mean you can’t say? Are you in danger? Okay, yeah. Christ. Just try to stay calm. We’ll be right there. It will all be okay. I promise. All right? Yeah, good.”
He hung up and shoved his hand through his hair. “We have a situation.”
“That much was just made clear by your end of the conversation,” I said. “There’s something wrong at one of Caterina’s businesses?” He was overseeing everything for Caterina while she was still off the grid.
“Not the operation of the businesses themselves,” he told us. “It was Hazel, Cat’s assistant. She’s at Luster and she has a visitor. A visitor who’s aggressively and threateningly insisting on seeing you , Nico.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know. She wouldn’t say. Or, more like, she wasn’t allowed to say. It sounds like she’s under this person’s influence and control right now.”
His phone buzzed and he swiped it open. “Uh, definitely on the control part.” He showed me the screen, and I took in the sight of Hazel bound to a chair, her eyes bulging with a whole lot of fear. From what I could make out, she was inside Caterina’s office and it was actually her desk chair that she was bound to. Words were scrawled across the photo. Come alone, Nico.
“Surveillance footage is offline at Luster. Looks like it went down a few minutes ago,” Levi reported, eyeing his phone.
“If something happens to Hazel, it will kill Cat,” Julian told me.
As if I didn’t already know that.
Hazel was an integral staff member of Caterina’s, a highly trusted assistant. She was somebody who’d worked for her for years, somebody she trusted to work that closely with her. When it came to Caterina—or how she had been until she’d let the three of us into her life—that was a rare thing. It had basically been her assistant and Nova Henderson, Caterina’s architect.
“Not to mention, Luster itself could also be under threat,” Levi pointed out.
“Respond. Tell whoever it is that I’m coming down. In the meantime, get surveillance back online.”
“Take a unit of your soldiers with you,” Julian advised me.
“He’s right,” Milo’s voice came from the door. He stood there, his arms folded across his chest. “I’m coming, too. We’ll wait in the wings, have this shithead believing you are coming alone, but you’ll actually have backup nearby.”
I nodded. “Let’s do it.”
They were all worried.
Having the Boss on the front lines made everyone nervous as a rule. In the past, they’d always been heavily fortified. Marco, Santino, Carlo. They didn’t walk into volatile situations alone. Hell, they didn’t really venture anywhere alone.
But things were more intense now, the concern deeper than it normally would be, because of how much they were counting on me to spearhead this new era, to push out the bad and rotten, and bring about a new reign.
I wasn’t used to being coddled by security, like Marco and Santino had been.
I’d come from years in the field, getting my hands dirty.
Waiting for security to be shored up around me felt more than a little claustrophobic.
But I also wasn’t a fool. I recognized the risks. And I also understood that those under my charge needed reassurance at this juncture.
It was just something I would need to get used to.
A lot about being Boss of the Marchetti Syndicate required such adjustment.
My earpiece buzzed as I entered Luster covertly through one of the side doors, my Sig Sauer at the ready.
I tapped to answer, and Levi’s voice came down the line. “I pushed out interference from the club’s security system. Wouldn’t have had to do that if Rina was using her own setup, instead of outsourcing it to a security company.”
“She didn’t want anyone to know what she was capable of, Levi.”
“Yes, I’m aware. But still.”
“Your point about the actual mission at hand?”
“Right. I also recovered footage that showed a figure sticking to the shadows, their identity shielded by an overhanging hood, entering Luster an hour ago. Alone. You’re dealing with a single individual.”
“Got it. Thanks.”
“Remember, Luster opens in less than two hours, so you’re gonna have to move fast to deal with this. According to Julian’s calculations, if the club fails to open for a night, Rina stands to lose—”
“I know what the loss would be. I’ll handle it.”
“Emilio and a unit of your soldiers are waiting in the wings. Although, I agree with your intent to deal with it without them, given what an insane amount of damage them storming the place could pose to the club.”
“Just keep me posted if reinforcements for whoever this mysterious bastard is show up.”
“Will do. I'm monitoring the immediate area.”
With that, I tapped my earpiece, ending the communication, because I needed to concentrate.
Especially when I didn’t know who I was dealing with, or why this individual was determined to meet with me, and going to these lengths in order to make it so.
Either way, there would be no negotiation. Not with somebody using these tactics.
As I made my way through the darkened club floor, sticking to the shadows and approaching strategically, the lights suddenly went on behind one of the bars to the left, a couple of hundred feet away.
I heard the clinking of glasses a moment later, followed by the sound of liquid being poured. What the—
“Holster the weapon, Nico.”
That voice.
Absolutely distinctive to me.
It had me pulling up short, and even doing a double take.
Of all the scenarios I’d imagined, this hadn’t come close to being one of them.
“You’re not in any danger from me. Neither is Caterina’s employee,” he called again, when he got no response from me.
My earpiece buzzed with an incoming transmission. I tapped it and Levi’s voice sounded again. “The facial recognition software has identified the gait and key mannerisms of Marco Marchetti. Also, he’s pouring you a drink at the main bar. What the fuck is going on?”
“I’m aware. He just spoke to me.”
“Another reason why Rina should be using her own surveillance capabilities, then there’d actually be sound.”
“Thank you, Levi, I’ll take it from here.”
I disconnected and responded to my father, “Yes, let me just foolishly take you at your word.”
“The assistant isn’t hurt in the slightest. I just needed to get your attention.”
“My attention for what?”
“I have information that you need. Joseph Stover sent me. He can’t pass this on himself while he’s off the grid.”
How the fuck did he know about Stover or his part in this?
In the next second, two Berettas slid across the floor toward me.
“I know you’re a killer. I made you into that long ago. But I believe there is a line for you. You’re not ready to murder your own father.”
Son of a bitch.
I pushed from the darkness and strode over to him at the bar.
“This is about the intel you claimed to have. Nothing else,” I grunted, as I took him in, sitting on a stool at the bar and knocking back some bourbon right from the bottle.
There was a glass poured beside another bottle, this one Johnny Walker Black.
An oversized, dark hoodie hung loose on him, the hood up and hanging low over his face, a few strands of his layered black hair spilling out. He was wearing matching sweatpants, too. It was a world away from the man I’d known, from the impeccable image he’d crafted and maintained over the years. The designer suits, being perfectly put together.
I stopped at the edge of the bar.
He gestured at the drink he’d poured for me.
I shook my head.
“That’s a shame.”
“What?”
He turned to me, angling himself so I could get a proper look at his face, those deep brown eyes of his burning into mine with an intensity I wasn’t used to from him. With emotion. “It’s our last drink together, Nico.”
“What does that mean?”
He sighed heavily. “I didn’t intend for it to end up like this. I didn’t want any of this. This… insanity.”
“You lost control of the Family.”
“Worse. Leo took it from me. I allowed that reckless fool to take it from me.” His voice dripped with thick emotion as he said, “I didn’t handle your mother’s death well. Not like you. You processed it and came out on the other side.”
I secured my gun and holstered it. “She was sick for a long time before she passed away.”
“Perhaps that should have made it easier, to expect what then came to be… her leaving us. But it didn’t for me. I know to you she was a shell of her former self for years before she died, so it had given you time to already say goodbye to her. But for me, I didn’t accept that change in her. I wouldn’t allow myself to see that shell of her that you were able to see.”
I ground my jaw. I didn’t like talking about this at the best of times. I made my peace with things and I moved on. Or I compartmentalized things. I didn’t dwell, and I didn’t wallow, not even when it came to this, something that I’d put behind me years ago. Dredging it all up now really wouldn’t do me any favors, especially not when there was already fresh grief that I was trying to process, that I couldn’t shove down because Caterina needed me not to. She’d need me and all of us to be emotionally available when she returned, so we could help each other through the loss of our baby.
I couldn’t have this on top of that.
I hadn’t said a word to the boys, but holding back and not tearing into the Marchetti mansion and waging a fucking bloodied massacre for the ages had been a fucking strain like no other. Not letting loose and unleashing my feral state in all its destructive, blood-lusting glory had been taking a shit-ton of self-control. Focusing on the fallout of doing such a thing, and how it would absolutely come back on us all, and draw the attention of the law in an irreversible way, either forcing us into hiding or behind bars for the rest of our natural lives, was helping to stop me from giving into the part of me.
There was another way through, another way to go about this.
And we were doing that, working toward it.
I just wasn’t doing well with the time-consuming nature of it all.
Somewhere along the way, I’d lost my patience.
And least, internally. I wasn’t projecting that outwardly, fortunately.
They needed me not to. They needed me solid and rational. They needed to trust in me.
All those who’d had the courage to pledge their loyalty to me deserved my best, because they’d risked their lives by going against the Marchettis and the Leones.
True loyalty wasn’t forced or even a given, it was earned.
“Get to the point,” I ground out.
“In the throes of my grief, I gave Leo too much power. I gave up control when I should have held on tight to it. And by the time I came up for air, he’d done the unthinkable. He’d tied us to Erebus.”
I jolted at him mentioning that name.
He read my reaction. “Hmm. Props to you for discovering that already.” A glare from me had him pressing on. “Leo made deals in my name. One such deal was with them.”
“Hence the Malcolm Lynch deal.”
“Yes. Something you engineered the destruction of.” Before I could get a word out, the corner of his mouth turned up. “Impressive.”
“If you knew, why didn’t you strike against me? Officially remove me as Capo?”
“Because you were doing what I couldn’t.”
“You want me to believe that you didn’t want any part of this?”
“It was too late to undo it. The deal with Erebus, the despicable alliance with that depraved demon, Santino. When I realized the turn everything had taken, I pushed you out. Partly to keep you safe, but also to keep you at a distance so you could make moves under the radar.” He smiled proudly. “Which you did. Very well. You actually exceeded my expectations.”
“And what of Leo? You left and disappeared into the ozone—until tonight—and simply handed over power to him, despite claiming you didn’t want things going this way, that you didn’t approve of the decisions he’d made?”
“I didn’t hand over power because I chose him as the optimal candidate for Boss. I did it so I could assist you, pass on this information to you, so you could end this.”
“What?”
“It’s your turn to take power, Nico. I choose you. But my word and tapping you as Boss isn’t enough at this juncture, given the chaotic nature of everything. Or given the fact that Leo is now working very closely with Angelo Simone.”
He scrubbed his hand over his face. “It’s too late for me. Our soldiers have pledged their loyalty to you. You have support that I will never have again, given what I’ve allowed to happen, how I lost complete control over it all. The respect they had for me is long gone. And it’s also not safe for me anymore. Disappearing like that has tarred me as a loose cannon, as a threat. They’ll come for me.” He took a large pull from his bottle of bourbon. “I’m leaving tonight. Joseph has facilitated it with some of his connections. I’ll be untraceable.” He shook his head sadly. “I’m sorry, son. I’m sorry for all the pain that this has caused you, how you thought I’d discounted you. I never had. I never will. I have absolute faith in your ability to take my place, and to do better than I did, to achieve what I could not.” He took another gulp from the bottle. “I’m also so very sorry about your child.”
I looked away, biting back the emotion that his words had wrought. Fuck.
He slid something across the bar top toward me, and I took in a flash drive.
“This contains a complete list of all the safehouses that Erebus is using within the city. Many of them are being provided by Victoria Munsen at Angelo’s request. Take these in synchronized assaults, use Marchetti Holdings transportation to move the bodies out of the city, then bury them. They’re all ghosts. You can bury the evidence of their murders without drawing the attention of the law. You’ll need to ensure there’s no collateral damage that could expose you, though. No arson, no blowing them to hell. You’ll have to do it the hard way. Just keep in mind how well-trained these bastards are. Although, the soldiers you had under your charge as Capo have been trained well at your insistence, so they should be able to win out in these scenarios. Carlo also has several skilled combatants among his soldiers.” He took a beat, then told me, “You do this, take out these safehouses and those residing there at the optimal times indicated on this drive wherein they’ll be there and not at the mansion, and it will violate the terms of the agreement that Angelo and Leo have with them of providing safe zones for their operations throughout the city. It will also be enough of a blow to redirect their focus from pursuing both Caterina and the influential individuals they’re currently hunting. It will cause the destabilization that you’ll need and what they’re most afraid of—exposure. Light being shone on their operations.”
“All right,” I said, pocketing the flash drive.
“Concerning Angelo Simone, he’s currently being protected by Erebus. When you cause this chaos with the safehouse takedowns, that would be the optimal opportunity to see to him. Given what Joseph has told me about Erebus—some of it limited because that covert bastard can’t stand not holding most of the cards—they’ll pivot once they get word of those takedowns. They’ll use resources and their men to try to dig their heels in and obtain more safe zones with the help of Leo, who’s become one of their men on the ground here. Angelo will be moved somewhere secure in the meantime because they still need him. But at that point, you need to draw him out.” He grimaced. “Unfortunately, you know as well as I do the most optimal way to do that. Obsession makes puppets out of us all, Nico. That is certainly true where Angelo is concerned.”
I clenched my fists at his suggestion of putting Julian in danger.
Not just the suggestion itself, but how strategically sound it was.
“I need to know who the leader of Erebus is.”
“I don’t know myself.”
“And Stover?”
“He must know at this point. Perhaps that’s why he’s taken Caterina and hidden her away. Not just to shield her from the hit, but also because he needs her to locate this bastard. From what I can gather, the way they’re set up, if this leader of theirs falls, everything collapses. He’s an egomaniac. He won’t give up control to anyone. Meaning he doesn’t have a line of succession. He believes himself an untouchable god.”
I couldn’t let this opportunity go by without asking another question that had been weighing on me. One that Milo needed me to ask.
“What about Enzo and Rosa Bardi?”
He cursed under his breath and shifted his weight.
“What the fuck happened?” I pushed.
He sucked in an unsteady breath. “Rosa wasn’t supposed to die that night.” He screwed up his face. “Leo lost control. He took it too far.”
“I’d say that putting a hit out on your own Underboss was taking it too fucking far to begin with. Talk about flying in the face of loyalty, honor and brotherhood, all in one shot.”
“It was a mistake.”
I scoffed. “A mistake? I’d say so.”
“No. I mean evidence had been presented to me that incriminated Enzo. Proof that he was working with the Leones against the Marchettis. We were at war. It was a mammoth act of betrayal and I couldn’t have one of my own, especially not somebody in his position, being a fucking traitor, Nico.”
“Enzo was no traitor.”
“You’re right, he wasn’t. That proof was falsified. I didn’t find out until years later. It was Leo. And he was also the one who’d actually been working with the Leones at the time. I discovered it shortly after your mother’s death, when I was in a really bad place. And that was when Leo revealed that he’d made those deals with Santino and Erebus.”
I slammed my fist down on the bar, jarring the glass and bottles. “So much would have been avoided if you hadn’t trusted in Leo!”
“I know. I know, Nico.” He laid his hand on mine. “I’m sorry, so very sorry.”
I jerked my hand free and moved away. “We’re done here.”
“Wait!” he cried, grasping my arm before I pulled away entirely.
With his other, he reached inside his hoodie, then pulled out some rolled up documents. “Here.”
I took them from him and flipped through the thick documentation, determining what the hell this was all about.
I choked when it became all too apparent.
“I had another reason for wanting to meet before taking off. Of course, part of that was to see my son one last time.”
“Stop,” I bit out.
He held up his hand. “All right. Listen, I’ve been meeting with my lawyers discreetly. Marchetti Holdings is now legally and undeniably yours. You have enough on your plate without having to fight to claim that, which you will need when you become Boss.”
“You’re just handing this to me? Just like that?”
“Not just handing it to you. You’ve earned it.” He smiled. “And I couldn’t be more proud of the leader that you’ve become.”
“If only your pride in me still held any weight.”
His smile fell, and he gestured at my Sig. “It’s never been done where a Boss has been left alive after a coup. Let’s face it, they’re always the first to go in order to take power. You must have also assessed the risk of me remaining alive. That I could return bolstered by more resources and try to reclaim my seat. I can tell you that I have no intention of doing so, but to trust in that is still a risk.”
“I’m aware.”
“I told you this was our last meeting. I was prepared for that when I walked in here.”
“So your claim that you were certain I wouldn’t kill you was bullshit?”
Just like so much else.
“I wanted to put it in your head for when this meeting came to a close. For your own good, Nico. It’s what needs to be done.”
“That’s your assessment of the situation. It’s not mine.”
“What are you—”
“Go. Disappear into the ozone. Get away from all of this, the ashes of your former reign. This is your second chance to rebuild yourself into the man I barely remember now. A chance to do something positive with your life, to make her proud and honor her memory. But that will never be around me again. It can’t be. This is our last interaction, Father.”
“Nico, I—” He reached out to me, but I stepped back. Emotion welled in his eyes, something so rare for him that it was hard to stomach, and even harder to process.
And I didn’t want it.
“Go,” I told him. “Before I change my mind.”
I didn’t want it to infect me any further than it already was.
I didn’t want him to see that there was an impact on me, that losing him in spite of everything was actually cutting at me.
He didn’t deserve to know that.
He nodded and without another word he rounded me and walked off in the direction I’d come in.
I watched him leave the guns he’d relinquished earlier, then disappear through the door.
Disappearing from my life forever.
He was a shadow of the man he’d been before. The man I’d once looked up to and respected more than anybody else.
His role as head of the Marchetti Syndicate and the weight of the tragedies that had befallen him, his bad fucking decisions… it had all broken him. Twisted him. Changed him into a man I barely recognized as my father. It had made him a monster.
It wouldn’t let that happen to me.
Not just because I’d will it so, nor because I planned to do things differently.
But because I had people I could trust implicitly in my corner.
Something he’d never really had, especially in Leo.
I had a family in our foursome.
And everything began and ended with that for me.
Marco Marchetti’s fate would never be mine.
Because I had them.