27. Matti
Matti
T he tension pours off of Siena as she sinks back into the recesses of the couch. I run my palm lightly up and down her thigh, a silent reassurance that she’s not alone.
“So, the Luminous & Co. job,” Vin says, with a glance at Siena. I nod, letting him know he can speak freely. “We’ve been on hold, waiting for Tommy to track down the information he needs to locate Giovanna Marino. But things have changed. That’s… no longer an issue.”
“You found her, man?” I turn to Tommy in surprise. What is he doing here if he found her? If it were me and Siena, I’d be buried so deep in her pussy you wouldn’t find me for days.
A shadow crosses over Tommy’s usually composed features. “We’re a go for the job,” he says darkly, ignoring my question.
Vin clears his throat. “The issue is, we need a set of codes to get into the safe. And we need a fail-safe plan to reach that safe without drawing attention.”
“Going in guns blazing won’t help our cause,” Tommy says drily.
I nod.
Vin continues. “I met with Lorenzo Marino to feel him out, see if he’d be interested in getting some payback for Giovanna and working with us to do the job. But he wasn’t interested. At all.”
Vin shoots a look at Tommy, who leans forward, elbows on his knees, fingers interlaced, glowering at the floor.
Lorenzo Marino, Giovanna’s father, was once one of us, at least in the sense that he was a businessman who had did handshake deals with Aurelio.
About a decade ago, when the CEO of Luminous died and his son took his place, choosing not to honor old agreements, Aurelio took him out and replaced him with Lorenzo.
But about a year ago, without warning, Lorenzo abruptly fell out of line, refusing to launder Demonio money. Aurelio tried to regain control by taking Giovanna hostage, and when that didn’t work, he came up with a new plan: strip Luminous & Co. of all assets and destroy Lorenzo in the process.
Despite the fact that Tommy had nothing to do with it, Lorenzo’s hatred for him deepened, and that’s saying a lot because he truly hated him before this.
He never approved of Tommy for Giovanna, saw him as nothing more than a street thug.
Now, it seems that Aurelio’s choices with his daughter have cemented that opinion.
Tommy stands, pacing in a tight circle. “Without support from us or Luminous & Co., Aurelio’s plan is to use the schematics to break in at night, avoiding crowds and security. Keep it simple.”
“But getting into the vault room—let alone the vault—is an issue without the codes,” Vin interjects.
“The codes were a problem for us before we split off from Aurelio,” growls Tommy. “And they’re still a problem now. But for some reason, he decided not only to say ‘fuck it’ and go for it, he’s going for it tonight.”
“Tonight?” Valentina throws her hands up. “Without the codes? What’s the fucking point?”
Vin nods. “Exactly. It’s going to mean doing something drastic, something like blowing up the safe, which is going to bring way too much attention.
There has to be a reason that he’s moved up the job, something that spooked him.
Which brings us to the other part of the potential obstacle: Franco.
” Vin glances in Siena’s direction without making eye contact.
I pull her closer to me, and she tries to push me away as she leans around me.
“What about Franco?” she asks.
Valentina snorts and crosses her arms over her chest, glaring at Siena.
“He’s gone,” says Tommy.
“What do you mean ‘gone?’”
I watch her carefully. Her voice rises on the last word, and though her face remains impassible, her lip is shaking so much that she bites it to hold it still and her fingertips dig into my back.
Based on the way she manhandled Franco at the Edge, I had hoped that her attachment was fading if not gone.
But her eyes reflect a different story, and my heart sinks.
Seeing her in pain is gut wrenching and only makes me double down on my commitment to protect her from further heartache by any means necessary.
The room is quiet, and I turn to check out Tommy and Vin. Both are studying her the same way I am. But they’re waiting for something .
“We were wondering if you might have some ideas,” says Tommy carefully.
I stand and step between them, ready to snap if he says a single insulting word to her. Siena rises, too, tension radiating off her body.
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” I ask, balling my fists as he stands, stepping up to me until we’re nose to nose. He doesn’t back down. Neither do I.
Valentina cackles from the dining table, her laughter ending in a contented sigh. “So the trashy bitch is coming between the brothers? This is too good.”
“Fuck off, Valentina,” Vin barks and steps between Tommy and me, placing a firm hand on both of our chests. “Nothing comes between us. Ever. It’s not an accusation. It’s just a question. Franco’s been MIA for a week, and so has Siena.”
“She’s been here with me,” I snarl.
“The entire time?” Vin asks, his voice low and measured, trying to keep things from going off the rails.
“The entire fucking time,” I say, still locked in on Tommy.
Tommy holds my gaze for a beat, then gives me a short nod and steps back. He turns to Siena. “My apologies.”
Tommy sinks back onto his chair, spinning a ring he’s wearing on his right ring finger, deep in thought.
Slipping an arm around Siena’s waist, I pull her back down onto the couch on my lap, but she’s stiff in my arms.
“Why isn’t Franco still at the Edge?” I ask, my pulse spiking. I’ve been so focused on Siena that I left Olivia to deal with Franco on her own. Did she let him out? Did he overpower her?
Vin raises his eyebrows at me. “The footage shows him finding a set of keys left in his room by someone who was in a hurry to…” Vin shoots a look at Siena then back at me. “Take care of something.”
“Oh my fucking God,” Valentina snorts.
I was a fucking mess the day I went to Franco’s room to interrogate him after fucking Siena for the first time. Once he told me Aurelio had a hit out on Siena, I don’t remember much except how my stomach seemed to fall out of my body when I found nothing but her jacket in Siena’s room.
I take Siena’s hand and squeeze it hard. There’s nothing I won’t do to make sure that never happens to her again.
I frown. “If you’re saying that I was the one to drop the keys in there, that would have happened over a month ago, and you said he’s only been gone a week.”
Vin shakes his head. “He’s been off our radar for a little over a week, but he’s been spotted out and about over the past month or so.”
“He was in pretty bad shape. Probably all healed up now, though,” I say.
Tommy speaks up. “And hiding out. But he’s got connections and he was all in on planning this job.
So I don’t know if Aurelio moved up his timeline because he found out Franco is making moves, or if Franco heard Aurelio was going in and wants to get in there first. Since no one has the codes, one could be luring the other into a stand-off.
We just don’t know what we’re walking into. ”
“Fuck.” I blow out a breath.
“‘Fuck’ is right. Aurelio is spooked, Franco is ready to strike, and we need this hit if we want any shot at turning our… bigger plans into a reality.” All of us are skirting around the words, unsure of how Siena will respond.
“So your missing detail is the codes, and your potential obstacle is Aurelio or Franco or both,” Siena says thoughtfully.
“Good job, genius. Thanks for showing up,” snorts Valentina.
Siena rolls her eyes but continues. “Why the sudden shift between them? Especially with this job on the line? My understanding is that they’d been… working together for years.”
Siena shivers, and I squeeze her to me. I know she’s thinking about all the things Aurelio told her about Franco and her family when he tortured her.
Tommy darts a glance at me, asking my permission to speak freely about Franco, and I give him a slight shake of my head. He clears his throat. “Yes, Franco has been working with Aurelio for years, Siena. But in the past few months or so, their connection has been severed. We don’t know why.”
We know why. Franco didn’t kill Siena when he was ordered to. Even though it’s because I locked his ass up at the Edge, Aurelio views it as a failure, and Aurelio is not a forgiving man.
There’s silence for a few minutes as Tommy and Vin look at each other and then at me as they try to navigate having this discussion in front of Siena. Valentina yawns loudly and taps her nails on the table.
“It’s good news for you, at least, princess,” Vin grins at us, and I narrow my eyes at him.
He needs to stop calling her that. “Aurelio’s been so busy dealing with the Franco situation that he hasn’t had time to fuck with you.
Until you couldn’t keep your hands off my boy here and started stalking him all over town. ”
Siena’s lips twist into a sneer, and I throw up my hands up with a look that says ‘what the fuck?’ and shoot him a glare as Valentina snickers. “That’s not accurate,” I say.
Vin is tactless on a good day, but at least he didn’t continue by stating what is obvious to us but not Siena: even though Franco escaped the Edge and knows where Siena lives, he didn’t come after her because he was too busy going to war with Aurelio and no longer interested in doing his bidding.
“Easy fix: we hit Luminous today.” Siena says, turning to Tommy.
“Oh, so now it’s ‘we’?” Valentina is livid, the smile immediately dropping off her face.
“That’s exactly what I was thinking, princess,” says Vin, his eyes sparkling.
Tommy, on the other hand, is more reserved, spinning his ring thoughtfully. “Except we don’t have the codes,” Tommy reminds Vin. “And we can’t blowtorch or bomb a safe in a high-profile building in the middle of the day.”
“We couldn’t blowtorch it, anyway, not without triggering every alarm. And, even if we did, there’s a delay on the innermost door, which means we’d have to deal with whoever shows up when the alarm goes off,” says Vin.
Tommy nods in agreement. “It’s huge, walk-in, built into the back wall of a small room behind a code-locked door, the only entrance to which is from the interior of an office inside Luminous.”
“So, how are we opening it?” I ask.
Vin glances at Tommy, whose jaw tightens. “We’re going to incentivize Lorenzo Marino to give up the codes.”
Definitely not ideal. Tommy looks like he’d rather rip his own heart out than mess with Giovanna’s father, but he says nothing.
“So it’s finally happening,” I say slowly, splitting a look between Vin and Tommy.
I knew this day would come at some point, the day we stage our takeover. Once we do this, there’s no going back. Aurelio will go to war, and our only recourse will be to put him down. Vin will step into the big seat, I’ll be the underboss, and Tommy will be consigliere .
“Tommy and I talked, and we’re not going to lose you, Matti,” Vin says. “If you’re out of the Demonio family as it stands right now, then now is the time to make our move.”
“About fucking time,” grumbles Valentina.
Siena turns in my arms, her brown eyes shining down at me. I told her I’d left the family for her, but now she has confirmation. I meet her gaze, and she cups my cheek in one soft hand, smiling softly. Dropping a quick kiss on my lips, she slides off my lap onto the couch and snuggles into my side.
“Today at closing is the best time for us, then,” I say.
“Exactly. Easier access without having to deal with night time security to get into the building, plus crowds are thinning out,” says Vin.
“Fewer employees in Luminous, but hours before Aurelio is supposed to show,” adds Tommy.
“How are we supposed to put this together by tonight?” Valentina asks.
“You’re not doing anything,” Vin barks at Valentina.
“Then why am I fucking here, asshole?” she yells back.
“She could be useful,” Tommy tells Vin. “We need the codes, and she’s a hacker. If Lorenzo won’t give them up, then she’s a backup. And a… distraction.”
It’s true. Valentina is very distracting to men who don’t know that she’s a fucking psycho shit show. Especially men who are psycho shit shows themselves, like Franco.
Vin groans, and Valentina grins.
“What are you smiling at? He just said you’re annoying as fuck,” snaps Vin.
“Fuck you, Vinny ,” Valentina says mockingly.
“I can help,” Siena says, softly.
Valentina sucks air through her teeth loudly, and I nuzzle her hair.
“How, kitten?”
She draws in a deep breath, her shoulders tense. “I have the codes.”