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I laugh again. “That’s exactly why I’m here. Our checks came back clear. All legit by our standards. So, who am I really to question it? My father has been boss for close to thirty years, and he’s had a handle on things. He knows what he’s doing.”
“And you don’t?”
I bite the inside of my lip. This is a guy I can be real with. I don’t have to pretend with him because we owe each other nothing. We’re on neutral ground.
“I’m not sure I do,” I confess. “I always go with my gut instinct, and right now, it’s telling me no. It’s telling me to say no, but maybe it’s telling me that because I’m afraid.”
“What are you afraid of, Vincent?” He tilts his head to the side.
“The past saw these people wiping out a whole family. Men, women, and children. I already got caught up in a blood war and lost my wife. Could have lost my child too. I don’t want that to happen again for the sake of money.” It’s probably the most heartfelt words I’ve said in a while.
He nods understanding, and his face softens. “I get it.”
“So, I think what I’m trying to say is, I’m conflicted, and that gut instinct of mine might be biased because of my own past.”
My past wasn’t even that long ago to be referred to asthe past.But… the shit started with Frankie’s death nearly ten years ago.
The same man who killed my girl killed Frankie. Stephanou Portaleu. That was his name. The killer of two people who meant so much to me.
Stephanou killed Frankie because he accidentally killed Stephanou’s wife. That was how it all began. Then the shit two years ago was him and the Fontaines trying to eradicate us. They wanted the whole Giordano line of power gone. That’s how Sorcha was killed. Except… Stephanou not only killed her to send me a personal message, he raped her too.
The thought makes me sick and I still feel like I didn’t make him suffer enough before I hacked off his head.
I think that I’m wary because these Bratva guys have the same vibe as him. The same malevolent vibe as Stephanou.
“What’s the status of the situation?” Claudius asks.
“They know they have to wait three weeks to hear back from me.”
“Let them wait,” he says, and I feel some semblance of relief.
“You think so?”
“Yes. First, no harm in waiting. Next, if you distrust them for any reason at all, you need to work through those issues, no matter what the checks say. Want me to get Gibbs to look into it a little more for you?”
I nod. “Thank you. I think I‘d feel more confident if he did.”
Gibbs is already working on Mark. I have every confidence that he’ll leave no stone unturned in regard to any work he does on him. It would be the same here. Not that I don’t trust my people. It’s just that this is a little outside the box.
“I’ll get him on it straightaway.”
“Thanks. Claudius… would you form an alliance with them?”
“No. No fucking way. They would not be bold enough to even mention such a thing to me.”
I’ll consider that too in my thoughts.
“Do you have any idea what it was that happened in the past?” We’ve never had to talk about things like this before.
Claudius is a man of many secrets. He has them and knows them.
“I don’t, Vincent, and there’s not a damn thing I can’t find out.” He eyes me cautiously. Both eyes have the same warning in them that I take heed to. “Have I tried to find out? Yes, and there was nothing to find… a little like how clean your checks are. That’s how they work. They’re bigger than us, more powerful on a worldwide level. When they want to erase a path, they can. They can make something look like it never happened, make people disappear without a damn trace. Those are not the kind of people you want to do business with if you want to control any ounce of power.”
Chapter Fifteen
Ava
I haven’t seen Vincent since yesterday.
