Page 103 of Worth of Waste

That was just how this shit worked.

And damn, maybe if he was lucky, Dino might get one of the three people he was gunning for today. Then, he wouldn’t have to worry about doing much after that.

The families of the Outfit were predictable.

Dino had known for a long time that it wouldn’t take much to make them turn on one another like they had done so many times in the past. They only needed someone to blame, or a way to climb higher in the organization, and all hell would break loose.

He fully believed that was what would happen after today.

Once the families were in the thick of fighting amongst one another; once his uncle was dead in the ground and the men who might look to him for Ben’s death were also gone; once the attention was on everyone else but him, Dino was free to go.

He could leave.

Or that was the plan.

He still needed to fill Karen in on it, but he would … soon.

Dino pulled on his black leather riding gloves, and reached for the rapid-fire assault weapon he had sat in the passenger seat. He double-checked the safety, and then the clip just to be extra careful.

He needed this attack on the families to go off without a hitch.

He didn’t have time to consider who else was sitting at the table with his uncle, the boss, and the front boss for the Outfit.

If he aimed high, he’d pepper the ceiling, break the windows, and make a scene. As much as he wanted to direct the shots right at his uncle, Dino knew he couldn’t do that and safely miss everyone else sitting at the table.

He figured making a scene was enough to cause suspicion to brew in the family.

That was always enough to cause a war.

Dino pulled his car out onto the quiet street, rolling his window down as he went and resting the rifle out the window, pointed high and ready to go. He had to do the attack fast, and he wouldn’t have much time from the moment the bullets started firing to the second he would need to get the hell out of there.

His finger pulled back the trigger the moment the windows of the restaurant were in his view and he was able to see the people sitting in the private dining area.

They didn’t even see him coming.

It happened so fast …

They probably didn’t even see his white Bentley leave.

Dino watched the days crawl into weeks, and then a month had passed, seemingly before he even had the chance to blink and watch it go.

All the while, tensions grew in the four families that made up the Outfit. What had once seemed like such a strong foundation of people within an organization that had managed to control the city of Chicago for the better part of almost a century, had now started to crumble under the weight of suspicion and anger.

Dino had made the mistake of assuming that no one would likely be hurt the day he shot up the Rossi restaurant—he hadn’t considered someone might take a bullet and die, because he couldn’t afford to care at the time.

His actions took away the wife of Riley Conti, the Outfit’s front boss. A bullet to her head had damn near blown off her face.

She was a mother of two.

A mother, like his had been.

Publically, Dino did what he needed to by going to Mia Conti’s funeral, and expressing his condolences. He felt guilty for her grieving children, but he felt very little for her angry, agonized husband.

After all, it had been Riley who had once beaten Theo with a metal chair, nearly killing him. It was Riley who didn’t think twice about turning on his boss after his wife was killed, blaming everyone in the Outfit except Dino, the man who actually did the shooting.

Then again, no one knew it had been him.

So, while he felt guilt over killing a woman who was—for all purposes—an innocent, her death had been to Dino’s advantage. Killing her had, essentially, done what he needed for it to do. No one was looking at him, now. No one cared about Dino DeLuca, with his upcoming trial and the official attention that wouldn’t wane no matter how hard he tried to deflect it.