Page 146 of Fall Before Her Throne

Leona’s eyes went wide. “When?”

Rossi typed something quickly on his phone. “I just texted you all the details. He invited both Sandrini and me.”

“Are you going?” I asked.

“Depends on what kind of action might be there.” He raised an eyebrow at both of us.

Rossi wanted to know if we’d hit the gala and take our chances against Greco. I looked down at Leona, and her lips pressed together. We needed to evaluate the situation before we could decide.

“We’ll let you know,” I said. Leona slipped her hand into mine and she squeezed. “Thank you, Rossi.”

He nodded tightly before he glanced back at Chiara. “No. Thank you.”

Chiara sighed dramatically and sat down in one of the empty chairs at the two-person table. “Let’s get this over with, shall we? Bye Lee, love you.”

“Love you, Chi.” With one final look, Leona swiped a breadstick from one of the plentiful platters, and we left the restaurant.

We met Giulio at a small pharmacy our men occupied within the old Lucchese territory. We’d been able to retain most of our Vero land and the area we’d gained when we’d killed Lucchese and taken his territory. With Sandrini’s help, Greco was pushing against us from all sides—and especially against the Russians.

I wanted an inventory of our forces. Men. Weapons. Everything. Our reports from Giulio were thorough and consistent, but we could reallocate our soldiers with our reinforcements. I hoped we’d be able to expand, not just defend what we already owned.

“Ciao, ciao,” Giulio said quickly, greeting us all and giving extra nods of deference to Leona. “Did you get through the city okay?”

“Yeah, we’re good,” Caspian said. “Kind of quiet out there.”

“We’ve had the boys monitoring the streets and trying not to get into trouble.”

“I want reports of any run-ins with law enforcement,” Caspian said. At Caspian’s instruction, they were trying to stay under the FBI’s radar, but that was a challenge when our war spilled onto the streets.

Giulio gave a solemn nod. “I’ve also reminded everyone about omertà. Though I’m not worried.” He looked at where Leona stood with Ryuji, Max, and Wynn while they chatted to the other men. Max greeted a couple awkwardly before giving them quiet apologies. “The men are loyal. Every time they see Leona, they can’t stop talking about her.”

Caspian smiled with pride. “That’s because she’s fucking incredible.”

My eyes scanned the crates of pharmaceutical drugs hidden in the back of the pharmacy. Next to them, we had crates of the guns we’d stolen from Greco. “How are the new weapons?”

He clicked his teeth and crossed his arms over his chest. “Good. They’re effective, but if we’ve got reinforcements coming, we’ll need a resupply soon. When is the next order from the Chinese?”

“It should arrive within the week. Caspian will coordinate your pickup from the ports,” I answered. “Plus, Anton Felix and his men should be in the city soon, bringing more of the supplies he could spare.”

“Yeah, that’ll be nice,” Giulio said. “On top of things being more quiet than usual, some of our guys have heard of arrests being made at the ports in sting operations. Like there’s a crackdown on illegal imports. Do you guys know anything about that?”

A smile quirked up the corner of my lips. “That would hopefully be the efforts of Sean Porter, the MTA Director. He’s under our control, and we’ve directed him to use whatever tools he can to interrupt the transit and import of both Camorra men and supplies. It’s good to hear we’ve made some progress on that front.”

Giulio laughed while he lit a cigarette. “Well, that’s great news. If we hear anything else, I’ll let you know. Maybe that’s why it’s been a little quiet lately.”

A commotion drew all our attention to the entrance. The rest of my brothers gathered around Leona.

“Felix is here,” Wynn said with a frown on his face.

A man backed by five others sauntered his way through the pharmacy. Anton Felix. Our arms dealer from Los Angeles. He was dressed in dark jeans, a gray shirt, and a dark jacket, but I could see the shoulder holster peeking out from underneath it. He scanned the room, cunning eyes on high alert.

I’d spoken with him plenty of times by now, and he was always careful with his words and actions. Careful in communication, decisive in action. He knew the business like the back of his hand, and he was fiercely loyal to Leona ever since seeing her kill Kofler.

I liked him.

He’d been a satisfactory employee slash ally. He’d gained even more power over the West Coast since we’d put him in place as the leader of the largest smuggling and dealing business in this part of the world. I didn’t expect that to change or slow.

What I didn’t like was the way he seemed interested in Leona.