Page 90 of Pretty Lies

Calm and unbothered, she stared back.

Inside, he bet she was screaming.

Oh, well.

Time for business.

“Leave Mace with your ma,” Cory said. “Work calls.”

•••

Cory remained by the doorway of the office. The conversation inside the space between a Capo and the Outfit’s boss passed along the information dealing with the attack on the warehouse and what Frankie was currently planning to do for his own business. It really wasn’t a conversation that Cory had any place stepping in considering it wasn’t where he worked with the Outfit, and he was really only there with the Costello’s for one reason.

She was sitting beside Tommas.

Opposite to her father.

Della glanced over her shoulder at him. Cory gave her a wink. That had her turning back around fast. On another day, he might have laughed.

Not on this one.

“The very nature of this business—”

“Tommas, my family has been in the loansharking business since before you became the boss of this organization. And when it was you and yours tearing the streets apart to rebuild the mess that those who came before you had created, my family stayed firmly behind your line. We had your back. Don’t tell me about the nature of this business when I know it all too well.”

“Then, what do you plan to do?” Tommas asked.

Frankie sighed and leaned back in his chair. “J and I were in the process of merging it all.”

“And now?”

“It’ll take a little longer.”

Cory felt like he missed something.

Apparently, so did Della.

“Merging what?” she asked.

Frankie’s gaze cut to his daughter.

Tommas didn’t look away from his Capo.

“Every person handling loans from the Costellos,” her father said. “The plan was to move every moving part under the same umbrella of control. Yours. Meaning—”

“I deal with everything. Everyone,” Della said quietly.

“It was the only option that made sense when J sat down and explained everything to me about how you had been handling things.”

“But it’s a big operation,” Tommas added. “How much a year?”

“Thirty million,” Frankie said. “She only handled a small part, Tommas. You’re talking moving her from one aspect of the business to heading the entire thing. Alone, now, however, because the original intention was for J to also—”

“J is dead, and so you will do what you have to. You will because she can, and she will learn. You cannot be everywhere at once, Frankie. You were already trying to do that, and it got messy. J was picking up the slack where he needed to while you worked out how you wanted to hand off the rest to your daughter, but now we’re down to the wire. I’m no longer giving you the option. Start to merge it under her, sit back, relax, and collect our money. It’s time.”

“Wait,” Della said, moving to the edge of her seat and staring at her father. “Why didn’t you explain this to me before? Or tell me that’s what you wanted to—”

“Because I wasn’t ready.”