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“Carmine told Paulie who you are. I think he’s tired of watching us argue and wants to see bloodshed. I’m not sure if he knows who you are to me or what, but for right now, I think he just sees you as a vehicle. Paulie called me threatening you. Said he was either giving you to the highest bidder or taking you out. No Russos means the family is vulnerable.”
I chew on my lips.
“I froze, Lilah. I needed to buy time. We need to win Paulie’s and Carmine’s men over. We need to get shit stable with your family. They are gonna need time. If war starts, we need to be strategic. I needed to buy time.”
“So you sold me for time?”
“I didn’t fucking sell you, Delilah. Honestly, what was I supposed to do? In a room with Carmine, my whole fucking life falling apart because I realize you were right about what a fucked-up person he is. No idea what my mom saw, if she was just so wrapped up she missed it or what. But my father was smiling watching Paulie and me fight like the sick fuck you told me he is. Then he says, he freed up the pathway to the head of the Russos for my brother, that he fucked that up by letting your mom say no. You were right. He knew who you were all along. Made plans for a goddamn baby, the sick fuck.”
My stomach churns, and I lick my lips.
“Why not offer to marry me?”
“I couldn’t look too eager, Lilah. The way these two work, I seem eager, they start sniffing. They start nipping at you, see what I’m so excited about. This wasn’t my plan, but now you get what you wanted, baby. You get to be neck deep in this.”
“How the hell do I help with this?” He smiles that devilish smile I love so damned much.
“You’re a siren. You’re going to use that to tear Paulie down.”
A shiver runs down my spine with the words.
A sick form of excitement.
“While I’m married to him? Dante—”
“We have nine months. A summer wedding. Teresa insisted.”
Teresa. Paulie’s mother.
“Nine months for what?”
“To help Paulie dig himself a hole.”
“How do I do that, Dante?”
“You don’t even have to try, really. Look at what you’ve done to all my men. Roddy, Marco, Tino. They all love you. You just walk around, smile your smile, and they fall at your feet. We need them to love you. You need to make them swear fealty to you, so when you try and take down Paulie, they’re not loyal to him, but to you. We’re clearing the path.”
I don’t know what to say.
It makes sense, in a way.
He stands, smiling and walking over to the bag he left on my vanity.
“Come on. Let me feed my wife and then fuck her. After that, we’ll work on the plan.”
And really, who am I to argue with an offer like that?
THREE
-Lilah-
“You’re going to have to go to events with him,” Dante says much later, hands running through my hair.
It’s been three hours since he walked in and told me everything.
That Carmine knew who I was.
That he needed to revise his plan on the fly.
