Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 80536 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80536 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
Now it was onto the next. And, arguably, the much more difficult one. Though, luckily, she was only around temporarily. She was just the bait to draw the wolves out into my neck of the woods.
Alessa Morelli wasn’t the typical mafia sister and daughter and cousin. Meaning she didn’t stay at home and cook and raise kids or just live a normal, working life. No. She was actually in the Family. Which was surprisingly progressive for the Morellis. Though they didn’t officially give her any sort of position; they just hired her out to do jobs. She did the work with none of the respect. It fit with how I was currently feeling about the Morelli men.
The men who’d made my brother disappear.
I wasn’t a fool.
Men in our business didn’t simply disappear.
They got killed.
And their bodies were disposed of.
In this case, my brother, Due, got killed by Alessa Morelli’s brother who had been in hiding ever since. Which was why I needed Alessa on top of Isabella Costa.
With Isabella, I would get her brother, Emilio, and the Capo dei Capi, Lorenzo. But to get the Morellis to the meeting as well, I needed something of theirs.
Alessa was all I had to work with.
And she was a fucking spitfire. Trained and capable with a hell of a fucking mouth on her.
I liked her spirit.
Even when she was trying to stab me with a knife as I fetched her from my office, taking one of her cuffs and attaching it to my own wrist, dragging her along with me while I worked, not sure I trusted any of my men fully with her.
Men in our businesses tended to underestimate women.
Not me.
I knew there was nothing more fierce than a woman in a male-dominated industry. Of any sort. They were not to be underestimated. They would slit your throat and then step on your bleeding-out body to get a step higher in the organization.
I gave that ambition the kind of deference it deserved.
So I kept her at my side.
Even as she berated me about being a neanderthal for my plan to form an alliance between the families with an arranged marriage.
Was it old school?
Sure.
But it worked.
History had shown it again and again.
They wouldn’t come at me because I had one of their loved ones in my camp. And I would have the peace of mind knowing I had Isabella as a bargaining chip.
“They’re never going to go for it,” Alessa Morelli said as I dragged her around the conference room.
It wouldn’t be long.
Pretty soon one of my scouts would get word back to us that the Morellis and Costas were on their way to come pick up Alessa.
They didn’t know about Isabella yet. That was the part I was going to go ahead and keep to myself until the right moment. Until we got shit ironed out with Alessa’s family.
“I heard you the first five times, babe,” I said, rolling my neck. “I think you overestimate how good of men your family and the Costas are.”
“Better than you,” Alessa shot back, full of fire and spit. When we’d made the video call to her loved ones, she’d attempted to slice my throat. I had to give her credit for the attempt, even if she ultimately failed.
“Yes, well, that goes without saying,” I agreed.
From my position near the windows looking down on the street, I could just barely make out the first whistle. Then the second. Then the third. I got to watch as my soldier out front reached for his phone just a moment before mine buzzed in my pocket.
“Just the Morellis and Costas,” I reminded him.
They wouldn’t come alone. But their men had to stay on the street with most of mine.
Alessa and I watched as the cars pulled up, the men filed out, and the rules were laid out.
In the end, it was Alessa’s father and her brothers who were allowed up. Then there were the Costa Capo dei Capi, Lorenzo, his brother (and Alessa’s man) Santiago, as well as Isabella—in the storage room’s—brother, Emilio. Then, of course, because this crew never went anywhere without their rabid dog, was a man by the name of Brio. Brio was the kind of cold and vicious that gave even me pause at times. I’d never seen a more capable torturer or killer. In my opinion, he’d been born into the wrong Family. He would have been a great Esposito.
“Let her go!”
Those were the first words spoken during this important meeting. They were spoken by Alessa’s brother, Ricco. The same man who had murdered my brother.
“Maybe,” I said, waving toward the conference table. “We will see about that.” I watched as they all took their seats before taking my own. “Want a seat, baby?” I asked Alessa, waving at my lap. Really, I just wanted a rise out of her Family by the comment. And I got it.