AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I could only hope that came true, but this wasn’t a movie.
“Then shit hit the fan recently, we may have played a part there,” the man said as he smirked at his companion. The man against the wall mirrored his wretched smile with a shrug.
“Gotta break some more eggs,” the main man said as he focused back on me. “But with you, we could change the entire game. Their little code could benefit us, especially if they value you. We could run the entire family out of the city,” he said as he crouched down before me, resting his hands on my knees once more. My skin crawled at his touch, and I wanted to recoil, to slip away from his unsettling touch that made me nauseous.
“The family won’t just leave if we ask,” his companion said.
“I know, that’d be expecting too much, even if she’s a vital piece to them. They may have a code, but they won’t sacrifice the whole family for one woman,” the main man tutted as he tapped his fingers on my knee and pursed his lips. “That’s why you’ll be bait. Lure those Slade brothers out and that filthy Carbone survivor. Then we’ll cut them down. We’ll get a team out to gofor the head of the snake, too, cut him down at the same time. With all the main heads of the family gone, the whole family will crumble,” he said, his eyes burning with a wicked plan. “But we’ll figure out the details, no need to bore you with it all.”
He pushed off my knees once more as he rose, patting my head like a damn dog as he strode out of the room, his companion following after him like a loyal mutt. I hated not knowing who these men were, but I knew one thing.
They were rivals of the Slade family.
And utter monsters.
11
KIERAN
Ihated every second of this torture, not knowing where Vee was or what she was going through. I wanted to hurt every single person I could get my hands on, but instead, I plastered on my smile, playing my part while I inwardly went insane.
We’d taken the chopper to the city, Zane checking in on his blockades, but they were proving useless. None of the vehicles had been stopped, but Zane had gotten the license plate to our crew, who were hunting through the aliases and companies it was registered to in order to find the exact owner. So far, they’d connected it to the Moretti family, but exact owners and drivers were still being dug up.
I wanted to scour the countryside, banging down every damn door and searching every building until we found her, but I knew it was pointless. We didn’t have the resources despite how far our reach was.
Our father had organized a meeting for after we landed with Stefano, the head of the Moretti family. After the gunfight recently, things were tense, and the Morettis had put hefty priceson our heads. Our father had been working on smoothing things over since it had come about from a territory dispute where we’d reacted as needed. From what he’d informed us of while on the chopper, there was something going on in the Moretti family.
Not that I cared. If they couldn’t manage their own family, that was not our problem. Them taking our princess was. And I was more than willing to burn down every single one of their damn buildings in order to find her.
Blood would be shed, and there’d be no fucking mercy.
I sat in the car with Zane, our father having asked Enzo to go with him to the meeting. I imagined it was because we were the main two who had carried out the return gunfight on the Morettis, so Enzo was more welcome.
“One of my informants has told me of a bar that Jeremy Moretti frequents,” Zane stated, his eyes focused on the road, his face expressionless. He’d been quiet since we’d left the lodge. Too quiet, like a grenade waiting to go off. I knew him too well. There was only so much bottling up of emotions and anger he could do. I’d seen this before, when our mother had passed.
He’d crumbled only a few months after, brutally killing a man who’d dared to hurt a woman of our family. It’d been messy and chaotic, vastly different from his usual style.
This felt far too similar, like I had a bomb seated in the driver’s seat, just waiting to detonate.
I smirked at the thought. We’d both destroy this city for a woman we’d claimed. To think we’d only known her for such a short time and yet she had such a massive hold over us.
How strange and beautiful life was.
“Jeremy,” I repeated the name he’d said with a scoff. That weasel of a man was one of the lowest of the chain, but he knew things for sure, his mother having married Stefano’s right hand man. Jeremy wasn’t exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, so he was mainly used for muscle and intimidation. He’d been onewe’d kept our eye on, knowing he may be of more use to us one day.
Today was that day.
It’d suck to be him.
I drummed my fingers on the windowsill, wanting to roll it down and feel the air tugging at me, beckoning me with its false freedom.
The city lights blurred past as we drove, a dancing mirage of safety in a city we owned. Sure, there were the other families, but we owned downtown, the heart of the city. It pulsed with underground blood money, gambling, drugs, and guns. The Moretti family was the only one who dared attempt to rival us, the other two major families had chosen to join with us decades ago, thriving and relishing the fortune we allowed them to amass. But the alliances we had were always fine things, and all it took was a little too much greed for it all to unravel. We had to be ready for such a day.
“You think he’ll be there?” I asked as Zane floored it through a yellow light.
“He frequents it nightly. He’ll be there,” Zane muttered, his jaw ticking. “You’re going to be on your best behavior.”
“Brother, you know I always am,” I said with a false smile.
