Chapter 25
TWENTY-FIVE
Marchello
The raw November air had settled in my bones hours ago. My team had been at the warehouse all night, monitoring the FBI activity and accepting that the cargo had been confiscated.
Another screw up on my watch.
“This has to stop.” Lucas paced the concrete floor. “Your father will have nothing to come back to at this rate.”
“Don’t you think I fucking know that?” I kicked an empty trashcan, launching it across the room just as Milo and Lorenzo entered the damp building by the water.
“I see your mood hasn’t changed,” Milo said.
“Is there a reason it should?” I asked. “What’s the update?”
“The Feds are clearing out.” Milo loosened his tie. “According to our source, they have no idea where the shipment came from or where it was headed. There is nothing that can tie it back to us or either cartel.”
That was true. We always made sure of that. We had so many fail-safes in place that it would be difficult to trace anything back to us.
“That does me no good,” Lorenzo said with gritted teeth. “This is the second shipment I’ve lost because I’m caught in the middle of your senseless war. Do you know how that makes me look?”
“You trusted us.” I glanced at Lucas. “I won’t make excuses.”
My father wouldn’t.
“Your words don’t offer me much hope either,” Lorenzo said. “I’m starting to think I backed the wrong horse.”
“You’re wrong,” Milo said. “You’re much better off with us than you would be with Gian.”
“I can make this right.” I had more than words to back up that promise.
“I don’t see how.” Lorenzo shook his head. “The men I deal with won’t be so forgiving a second time. We’ve lost a lot of money.”
“Juan won’t be so forgiving either,” Lucas said. “He is going to expect you to deal with this, Marchello.”
“I plan to deal with it personally.” I pointed to my brother. “Milo and I will finish this problem this morning.”
We had been working on a plan all night. I just needed Lorenzo’s assistance if I wanted things to go smoothly.
“Our team is in place,” Milo assured me. “We just need to execute it.”
If I could have figured out a way to spare Lissia this heartache, I would have, but her father left me no choice. He provoked me, and now I had to end this.
“Lorenzo, are your resources still available to us?” I asked, fully prepared for him to tell me to fuck off. I would if I were in his position. “I realize your confidence in us has been shattered.”
“I spoke with my contacts.” He tapped his fingers against his chin. “They’re sending a team to the Gallanti estate at my request.”
“You have put yourself on the line for my family. Your faith in me hasn’t gone unnoticed,” I said. “My family appreciates it.”
“I understand the position you’re in, and as much as I adore Lissia, her father is a threat none of us need. We can’t allow him to do any more damage.” Lorenzo glanced between me and Milo. “If either of you are not prepared to do what comes next, step aside and let my men take over.”
“Thank you for the offer, but it’s not necessary.” I held out my hand for the file Lucas had prepared. “Doing business with us has cost you more than you needed, but you’re still choosing to stand with us.”
“I know a strong family when I see one.” He sighed. “I’m willing to allow you to make this right because I see a profitable future if we align ourselves with you. I believe Gian is a blip in the road. Your father’s reputation can’t be ignored.”
“You’re right,” I said. “Once my father returns, things will settle down.”
“We have to get him home first,” Lucas mumbled.
“Enough!” Milo pointed at him. “My father relies on you, but that doesn’t mean that you can disrespect us when we’re not doing the job you think we should be.”
I offered my brother an approving nod. I had grown tired of Lucas and his disrespect, but he was still here because my father would want him to be.
“I wanted you to have this as a show of good faith.” I handed Lorenzo the folder. “I’ve been keeping it safe for you.”
Lorenzo opened the papers and studied them before looking at me. “You son of a bitch. You’ve had this the whole time?”
“I couldn’t show all my cards.” I smirked. “It’s the inventory of the shipment you trusted with Collins. The one I intercepted.”
“I thought you destroyed it.” Lorenzo continued to look at the inventory.
“It’s all there,” Milo said. “Worth a pretty penny too.”
“You could have sat on this and sold it at a later time.” Lorenzo waved the file at me. “Why are you giving it back to me?”
“Because it’s yours.” I motioned between me and Milo. “We intercepted it and kept it until the time was right. You took a chance on us, and we haven’t proved ourselves, but we will.”
“Thanks to Gian,” Milo said. “We can rectify that today.”
“With my help,” Lorenzo said. “This offer will go a long way with my cartel.”
“It’s a thank you for agreeing to assist us today.” Without Lorenzo’s cartel, I wouldn’t be able to go in and do what needed to be done. “Your manpower will make this operation much smoother.”
“Are you sure you don’t need more than my manpower?” Lorenzo asked. “I’m fully prepared to take this on myself.”
Handing over the hit to Lorenzo would make my life so much easier, but taking out Gian was my responsibility. The other families would expect me to prove myself.
“I appreciate that.” I extended my hand. “But it has to be me.”
“I admire your work ethic.” His lips curved into a side smile as he shook my hand. “Gian poked the bear when he came after you.”
“Technically, I started this when I took Lissia hostage.” I shrugged. “I don’t regret doing that. What I started, I’ll finish.”
I didn’t see another way out of this.
“I could finish it.” Milo leaned against the cold cement wall. “I don’t have to sleep with Lissia… Unless you need me to do that too?”
“In your fucking dreams.” I snarled.
“Can you two screw around later?” Lucas motioned between us. “I respect the balls you had when you stood up to me, Milo. Your father would too.”
I patted my pockets. “Crap.”
“What is it?” Milo eyed me.
I ran my hand through my hair. “I left the burner phone at the penthouse.”
Milo shook his head.
“Let’s go.” I glanced at my watch. “The sooner we get this done, the faster this war ends.”
“I hope you’re right.” Milo followed me. “Because losing shipments and keeping your girl in line is exhausting.”
“You’re not kidding.”
* * *
I wandered down the ostentatious hallway to Gian’s study.
How arrogant of him to think that four guards would be enough to protect him after coming for me. I had an army of my men and cartel backup. There would be no interference this time.
Gian was a dead man. I had wasted too much time.
Although I didn’t need justification to end this today, I had plenty of it.
I gripped my gun, staying calm and observant. In my gut, I suspected this job could never truly be over. How could it? I would have to look Lissia in her eyes every day and know I was the one who murdered her father.
She would know it too.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
When I pushed open the ajar door, Gian waited at his desk, sitting there with his gun drawn and pointed at me.
His hubris knew no bounds.
“I’ve been waiting for you, Accetti, heir to the fallen empire.” He kept his gun trained on me.
“I’m here now.” I stepped toward him, aiming my weapon at his chest, assessing the odds of getting a shot off before he took one at me. If he wanted to shoot me, he would have done it as soon as I walked into the room. He could have ambushed me.
Why didn’t he?
“We’re settling this today,” I said.
“You’re just as daring as your father.” He chuckled. “Only, if he and I were at war, he would have come for me by now. He wouldn’t have gotten distracted by my daughter.”
“You have your daughter to thank for the last few days you breathed in this air.”
“My daughter has been a detriment to my business for weeks. Defying me, taking up with the enemy, coming to me on your behalf.”
“I didn’t send her to negotiate for me. As far as I’m concerned, you have nothing I need.”
“You need my daughter, and in order for that to happen, you know in your head that you can’t kill me.”
“She has a blind spot when it comes to you. Even after you promised her to Danny, she still tries to find the good in you.” The pictures behind his desk jumped out at me. They were all of Lissia in various stages of her life. Don’t falter now.
He shrugged. “Don’t be so surprised. You see the good in your father, don’t you? And we both know the lengths he would go to in order to get what he wants.”
“You are nothing like my father.”
“Who has a blind spot now?”
“You put out a hit on me and my brother and shot your own daughter in the process.” I inched closer to his desk. “You have to answer for that.”
“Don’t come any closer.” He stood, keeping his gun aimed at my chest. “I will shoot you.”
“Not if I get a round off first.”
“You’re not going to shoot me.” Gian’s voice was laced with confidence. “My daughter means too much to you.”
“Is that what you’re banking on?”
“I’d bet my life on it.”
“This is business.” I couldn’t let him use Lissia against me. “Your house is surrounded. Lorenzo and members of his cartel are outside. If I don’t make it out of here, neither will you.”
“You’re going to call them off, then you’re going to get the hell off my property.”
“I don’t think so. Your time is up. The other families won’t even defend you for taking up with Collins and going against my father.”
“You’re wrong.”
“Am I?” I grew tired of this conversation. “I’ve been up all night monitoring the docks and speaking with key members of each family. I’m quite the negotiator. My father taught me well.”
“You have nothing those families want,” he said. “Not unless you’re going to step aside and let them fight for Nico’s territory.”
“That might have been true a few weeks ago, but I’ve formed an alliance of my own. I have a lot to offer.”
“If you’re talking about the Argentinian cartel, I would watch my back if I were you.”
“I’ll take my chances. They now know that if you’re willing to send the Feds in my direction, they can’t trust you. What’s to say you won’t do it to them?”
“What if I could end all of this now?” he asked. “You get your father back, and I’ll get my daughter back.”
“So you can marry her off to the arms dealer?” I gritted my teeth. “I’ll never let that happen.”
“Not even if I could provide information that could help your father?”
“You have nothing.”
“Are you sure?”
“Stop the fucking games.” I squeezed the handle of my gun. “I don’t need to find the good in you. Lissia wants more than anything to make peace, but we both know that will never happen.”
“If you kill me, you’ll never know.” He stepped around his chair and paced from side to side, making himself a harder target for me to hit. “I was going to give the information to Lissia, but I can’t trust that she would honor her end of the bargain.”
“If you mean having her come back into this house, I’ll chain her to the wall before I let that happen.”
“How noble of you.”
“It’s far better than what Collins has planned for her, and you know it.”
“She didn’t give him a chance before she ran off with you.”
“He’s never going to get that chance.”
“I know you’re curious as to what I might have.” He grinned. “Otherwise you would have pulled that trigger by now.”
I clenched my jaw and steadied my hand. I wouldn’t let him get inside my head. Any information he had on my father, I could get on my own. Once Gian was no longer a factor, I could get back to business.
“I’m going to give you the information you’re looking for,” he said. “Then you’re going to throw my daughter out of that penthouse and send her back home.”
“And if I don’t?”
“She might not survive the outcome.”
“This is your daughter you’re talking about.”
“The same daughter who betrayed me when she got into bed with Nico Accetti’s son. I can only forgive so much. I need her to understand that what she did is unacceptable. There has to be consequences.”
“I’ll never let you hurt her.” I tightened my hold on my gun.
“Then again, she might not even be at the penthouse.” He smirked. “It wouldn’t be the first time I lured her away. Didn’t you think it was strange that Danny has been so quiet? Perhaps he’s been lying in wait. Biding his time for just the right moment.”
Get out of my head.
“You were preoccupied all night.” He strode around his desk to stand inches from the barrel of my gun. “Shoot me and you’ll never find her.”
I glanced at his gun, then glared into his eyes, ignoring the fact that I hadn’t heard from Lissia all night.
“Is that a chance you want to take?” he asked.
I wanted this over, and the only way I could protect Lissia was to kill her father.
“Go for it,” Gian shouted, pulling the trigger and firing at me.
Fuck!
Gian’s bullet whooshed past my head as I hurled myself over the sofa behind me, setting off my gun in the process. My bullet hit the lamp on his desk, causing it to shatter in a spray of glass and smoke.
“See what happens when you allow yourself to get preoccupied?” Gian laughed. “You miss the target.”
“I won’t miss this time.”
“She’ll never forgive you if you do this,” Gian said. “Every time she looks at you, she’ll see the monster that you are.”
“She’ll know I destroyed the monster that hurt her.”
We both took aim, staring at one another with an unwavering determination. Which one of us would shoot first? My choices had brought me to this moment.
Kill or be killed.