Page 2 of Pet


Font Size:  

They planned on killing her.

I wasn’t going to let them.

Her mother had been like a sister to me. She’d gotten herself into a messy situation and I hadn’t been able to save her, but my life was different now than it had been back then. Now I’d be able to ensure that her daughter would survive.

I raised my drink and took a stand. I strode over to the round table in the back of the club and sat down. The four other kingpins followed my lead and took their places at the table. Nick glared back at me with a dark heated gaze. I ignored him, trying to rein in the impulse to roll my eyes at his petulant behavior. Sometimes it was like he was a fucking teenager with a stick up his ass.

Dickhead.

“I called this meeting to discuss the existence of Isabella Genovese’s daughter. It is in all of our best interest to find and destroy her, before she takes over the family as queen,” I began, blatantly lying to all of them.

The four mafia lords looked at each other as if all of them had something to say and I preemptively cleared my throat. I took control immediately before they started arguing about what would happen next.

“We won’t discuss the breakup of Genovese territory and their assets tonight,” I added carefully, and Nick huffed in annoyance. He took a sip of his drink, gin by the looks of it. Or vodka. Or probably water like the little pussy he was. To his credit, he didn’t say anything more.

“Let’s open the discussion. What do we know?” I continued. “We’ll start with Leonardo Columbo, then move onto Vincent Gambino, Mike Bonanno, and finally Nick Lucchese. In that order.”

The four men nodded in approval, some more reluctantly than others. I took note of those who followed my lead. As expected, Nick didn’t. I sighed with blatant agitation. If he kept pushing me like this, I was going to have to remind him who was in charge.

“Leonardo, what do you know?” I said as I sat back. I wanted to hear everything. I didn’t want to wait any longer.

“Thank you, Silas,” the older man responded. He carried with him a rather distinguished aura. He’d been in power for nearly forty years and always conveyed himself with integrity in everything he did. Of the four kingpins at the table, he was the one I respected the most.

“I heard that Vittorio had sent her to a high school in Connecticut. It’s called Choate or something like that, but I haven’t heard anything about college or where she went after that,” Leonardo replied.

“I had heard the same,” Vincent piped up.

“There are whispers she could be in Rhode Island at one of the private colleges along the coast,” Mike said calmly. He was a little younger than Leonardo and just as respectful of me, but he was unpredictable in his decisions as a mafia boss. He was dangerous and one who I kept a close eye on often. Sometimes I had to remind him that he wasn’t as powerful as he thought. I wondered if I was going to have to tonight.

For a while, the men talked and casually traded rumors and information about the whereabouts of the Genovese daughter. They didn’t really know much at all, which didn’t surprise me and offered some measure of relief. Important though, they knew far less than I already did. I had been working on finding her for a long time and had wanted to ensure that they weren’t any closer than I was. It’s why I was here in the first place.

Her mother Isabella had been important to me. We’d grown up together in the same neighborhood. Her parents had been involved in the lower ranks of the Genovese family and she was left alone often. My parents took her in as if she were their own and she’d grown up to be a beautiful girl who was highly sought after, which included much more dangerous suitors than I’d wanted for her. The notorious kingpin Vittorio had set his eyes on her and as soon as she reached legal age, he claimed her as his wife. He wasn’t a good husband, however. He hit her. A lot. His underboss Tony knew it too.

She’d gotten involved with Tony. He’d known it was forbidden and he got her pregnant anyway. Knowing that she and her child wouldn’t be safe, she went on the run and before she escaped, she’d been able to send me a message. At that time, I worked for the CIA and despite every one of their resources at my disposal, I hadn’t been able to protect her. Vittorio discovered her secret and before she’d been able to contact me for a second time and tell me her baby’s name, the mafia kingpin had her killed.

I had been able to figure out a few things though.

I slide my hand over the interior pocket in my suit. Inside was Isabella’s journal. She’d been able to toss it out of the car before it collided with the eighteen-wheeler and no one else knew of its existence. It didn’t give away the baby’s name or even the names of the man and woman looking after her but using a coded entry at the end of the diary, I was able to deduce that Isabella had given birth in northern Vermont. It gave very few details about the baby, except for one defining factor that would help me find her. It told of a baby with a birthmark on the right side of her neck in the shape of a star. I also had access to both Isabella’s and Tony’s DNA profiles that were once collected as a part of the investigation into her death, but none of the mafia bosses knew that either.

I sipped on my whiskey and carefully scanned the perimeter of the room. The rest of the members of the various families were drinking amongst themselves. Some were getting drunker than others and I lifted a finger in a silent signal for Dean to stay on high alert in case anything went down while the bosses were talking. He was my right-hand man and I would trust him with my life no matter what happened. The rest of my team moved away from our starting point in order to listen and observe all that occurred while I was busy overseeing the kingpin’s table.

I’d convene with them all later to exchange intel so that we could come up with a plan moving forward.

Someone swore loudly at the table and broke my train of thought. I turned back to the bosses and quickly caught on to what was happening. It soon became obvious that Nick had said something to set the others off and I’d need to run some damage control. Fucking asshole.

“I bet you found her already and want to take her for yourself,” Nick sneered at Vincent.

“The fuck I did,” Vincent glared.

“Throwing accusations isn’t going to help,” I warned. “It’s clear that none of us know enough to find her. We have nothing but rumors, and we aren’t any closer to finding her than we were yesterday.”

“Silas is right,” Leonardo replied. “All we have is misinformation and gossip of this girl’s existence. She could be in Connecticut or Rhode Island still, so we should focus our searches there. We know her age and we have some idea of what she may look like based off of her mother’s appearance. Other than that, we have nothing else.”

Nick sat back with an exasperated sigh. It was more than clear that he was suspicious of the others and was just barely biting his tongue. Sooner or later, he was going to do something rash and get himself killed.

“Why don’t we do this? If anyone learns anything pertinent in the coming days, I shall meet with you. If it’s relevant, I’ll call another meeting here and we can all reconvene. Until then, let’s enjoy a few drink

s and the musical act that Bar Emporia has prepared for us,” I said, cutting off the rest of the discussion before we all turned our guns on each other.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
Articles you may like