“They aren’t the same because I respect your privacy and you don’t respect mine.” I hadn’t realized how angry I was until I had to look at his face, until I had to see unjust disappointment. He acted like I’d opened his safe and stolen his cash or I’d givenprivate information to his enemies. “I’m amazed how quickly you can forget everything Wolfe has done for us. He was right about Luigi, and you walked right into his bear trap. You and Leo would both be dead if it weren’t for Wolfe. You think one of your other men would have gotten to me in the office the way he did? He taught me how to use a knife, and I would have been captured if he hadn’t. Every single one of us is alive because of him—and you conveniently forget that the second he does something you don’t like.”
“Something I don’t like?” he asked coldly. “He screwed my daughter behind my back?—”
“I’m not your property.”
His eyes started to seethe.
“When you said you wanted me to run the business when you’re gone, I took that as a compliment. But now, I’m not sure how I feel about it anymore. Do you actually want me to be in charge, or do you just want to use me as a bargaining chip?”
“Of course I want you to be in charge?—”
“Then who the fuck do you think I am?” I yelled. “You think I’m going to let you decide who I get to be with? You think I have what it takes to run this operation but I’m some kind of pushover who will only marry whoyoulike? Not a fucking chance.”
The rage started to simmer in his eyes as he regarded me. He hadn’t changed his position in the chair. On the other side of the house, the sound of drills could be heard intermittently as construction continued.
“I’m sorry that you feel betrayed—but no betrayal took place.”
“I trusted him against my better judgment and initiated him into this family,” he said calmly. “All the while, he was screwing my daughter in the shadows. I understand you’re a grown woman who can make her own decisions, but what he did was disrespectful. I don’t want to hear excuses or your warped perspective.”
“Your perspective is warped if you’re going to invalidate all the good things he did for us because of this.”
“I don’t trust him.”
“Well, I do,” I said coldly. “I trust him with my life.”
He gave a slight shake of his head. “He leaves Cosa Nostra over a disagreement he doesn’t disclose and seeks employment with the only arms dealer on the island…right when the Skull King decides to monopolize the powder business. I should have seen the signs then.”
“There are no signs, Dad.”
“He destroys the Lombardis to earn our trust. He outmaneuvers them to show his value. Then he earns an initiation to become part of my inner circle. Now I see his plan clearly. To learn our business and destroy our main competitors so Cosa Nostra can seize it.”
I shook my head. “I don’t see how having a relationship with me is proof of that.”
“Because he doesn’t respect me. He doesn’t respect this family. And he doesn’t respect us because he was never one of us. He always intended to defeat and absorb us. He says he loves you, but that’s manipulative bullshit. He just wants to pump and dump.”
My eyes narrowed when I heard what he said, words that Wolfe had never said to me. “He—he said that?”
“Said what?”
“That he loves me…?” I swallowed when the emotion caught in my throat.
My father held my stare with slight apprehension, like he wasn’t sure how to move next.
“He’s standing there covered in blood from the bullets he took to protect me…and he says he loves me…and you call bullshit?” I understood the depth of our relationship because I was in it every single day. Knew that Wolfe meant those words long before he said them because he showed me every single day. And for my father to just disregard that declaration…was inexplicable.
“Like I said, I don’t trust him.”
I finally looked away and released an angry sigh. “Well, I don’t trust your judgment. Not when you can’t see past your ego. Not when you’re making this entirely about yourself. Wolfe says he loves me, and I love him—and that means nothing to you. The most important relationship of my life means nothing to you.” My eyes came back to him full of disappointment.
“Frankie, we have a mole in our midst. You know this.”
“And I know it’s not him.”
“He’s a master manipulator and liar?—”
“No, he’s not. He’s the best thing that’s happened to all of us. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s the only reason the real rat hasn’t killed you. If you dismiss him, you leave us vulnerable.”
“We were fine before him. We’ll be fine after him.”
