Page 174 of Vega

By the time I walked into Marcus’s office, I felt like I was going to have a mental breakdown if I couldn’t ease my wife’s fears ASAP.

Marcus closed the door behind me, asking, “What’s going on?”

“Renee’s scared. She thinks Prodigy is going to find Renzo.”

Marcus released a hard breath and walked behind his desk. “Renzo isn’t coming back.”

I took the chair across from him. “That’s what I keep telling her, but she’s convinced Prodigy will succeed, and I’m starting to believe so too. He is not giving up, and he can afford to use resources unknown to us.”

Marcus had created this problem. He knew what Renzo’s return could expose and whose lives would be destroyed once the truth came out.

Marcus dragged his palm over his head. Irritation pulled his lips into a hard line. “That boy don’t know when to leave shit alone.”

“He wants his father.”

“I’ve been there for every birthday, graduation, every time he got into some shit and needed somebody to rescue him. I’m so sick of watching him chase a motherfucker he doesn’t even know anymore.” Marcus plopped down in his chair with frustration. “I wish they would’ve let me kill Renzo when I had the chance. Then we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

I’d heard him say it before, but he meant it more each time Prodigy got closer to finding his father. Killing Renzo had never been an option. Because he saved the life of a made man, Vittorio Carbone, he was protected. Even though Renzo wasn’t involved in the criminal world, Vittorio had put word out that no harm was to ever come to him, or else the debt to be paid would be too steep for any man to stomach.

That was the only reason Renzo was still breathing in Michigan, and I appreciated it because if Marcus could, he would have killed Renzo long ago to get rid of him.

“You need to move him again.”

Marcus waved a hand. “Moving him will get him noticed.”

“Prodigy is getting closer.”

“He doesn’t know where that house is.”

“You don’t know what he knows. If he hasn’t found something yet, he will. Renee needs more than hope. She needs to know Renzo won’t show up at our door one morning and ruin our fucking lives.”

“He won’t.” Marcus’s expression hardened. “Renzo knows what happens if he comes back.”

I held his stare.

There were things Renee and I had spent years protecting. Decisions that had kept our family together because nobody knew they had ever been made. Renzo knew enough to tear through all of it.

That was what kept Renee awake at night.

Marcus eased the worry in my eyes. “Renzo knows that if he wants Prodigy to remain on this side of the earth, he has to remain a ghost. That was the deal.”

“He might decide seeing his son is worth the risk.”

“No father who gives a fuck makes that decision.”

“Move Renzo,” I insisted. “Somewhere farther. Somewhere Prodigy won’t find him.”

“No.”

“Marcus—”

“Every move creates a new trail. The house is secure because Renzo has been there long enough to disappear into it.”

“And if Prodigy finds him?”

“Renzo won’t answer the door. He won’t let Prodigy find him. He’s been smart all of these years. That hasn’t changed.”

“Tell Renee to stop worrying. Renzo isn’t coming home.”