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“Sienna,” Domenico bites out his sister’s name. “You fucking knew he killed Mom and kept it from us?”
“I-I,” she starts, but I cut in.
“Sienna was given an order that I made damn clear she followed through with. If either of you wants to be pissed off, then fine, do so, but aim it at me and me alone.”
“He knew too, before us, didn’t he?” Dom juts his chin in Giovanni’s direction.
“Yes.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Dom blows up. “Why am I your second, when clearly I am not, Dad?”
“You are my second and one day you will be the boss. It might not seem like it, Domenico, but that is the truth. I won’t apologize for my actions. I’d make the same choice again. It was the right call whether you agree or not.”
“Are we done?”
“Not even close. Take a seat for this.” I gesture to the accent chair in front of me, the accent one next to Giovanni.
“I’m fine where I’m standing,” he says, crossing his arms and leaning against the bookshelf.
Breathing in deep, I exhale a breath that is not the least bit calming. “You’ll walk your ass over here and do as I fucking say or I’ll come over there and drag you back like the two-year-old you’re acting like.”
He bares his teeth, his jaw hardening, and I’m positive it’s taking everything inside him to hold his tongue. He wants to lash out, but he knows I don’t make threats I’m not willing to carry out. After a long beat, he pushes off and walks toward me with measured steps.
He’ll make a fine boss one day. As his father, it’s on the tip of my tongue to tell him, but as the head of this family, of our organization, I don’t. I simply nod my thanks.
“As I was saying before you cut me off, Sal and Marcel are why I summoned you all in here.” I pull in a breath, my anger getting the best of me, then I exhale and continue. “Effective immediately, we’re taking over Salvatore’s operation. Domenico will assume the role of the acting boss until the transfer is complete, and Lorenzo, you’ll be his underboss for the duration of your stay in New Orleans.”
“I’m sorry, but I have a job here. Let Ren go play boss. Hell, his little bitch can even be his underboss. It’ll be good for her. Let her learn her place in this family.”
“No, thanks.” Sasha crosses her arms from where she’s seated on the opposite end of the couch to her husband, and the farthest she can be from where Matteo and Si are on the loveseat.
“She is going. I’m not in the business to break up marriages,” I aim at Lorenzo. I’ll continue busting his balls until the day I die. “But that isn’t her role. You are going, Domenico. You will be acting boss and will take possession of everything they own and control. Am I clear?”
“Crystal, boss,” he grits out between his bared teeth.
“Sienna will also be going. She’ll serve as consigliere. You’ll have to take out their current one, but it’ll be good experience for when Sienna becomes your consigliere one day.”
“That position is filled. It’s for life. The only out is through death like the former,” Domenico sneers in Giovanni’s direction, but not before I caught the way his eyes reacted to the announcement of my plans for her. That has always been my plan. Well, that isn’t exactly true. I didn’t want this life for them, but it became the plan after my wife died and I didn’t have a way out of this life—or maybe I didn’t want one without Ari.
“Oh, I’ll be here until someone offs me, kid. Don’t you worry.” G smirks at him when he knows damn well that Domenico is above him in rank. That is something Dom will need to put him in line over, but also something I have no doubt he will do, and soon.
“Address me as a kid again and I’ll be the one to off you right here.”
Giovanni laughs when he shouldn’t. Dom is the last person someone should set off. “You can’t. We have laws against that shit, boy,” he gloats. I swear to God, the De Salvo’s are stupid motherfuckers. I jerk up, reaching over my desk as Dom snatches the handgun from inside his leather jacket. Grabbing my son’s forearm, Dom fires with the intent of killing the man sitting next to him. Giovanni doesn’t even flinch as the round narrowly misses him, and only because I pulled his arm milliseconds before Domenico pulled the trigger.
“Do not test me. I don’t care who you are, what position my father gifted you, or what wrongs have been done to you,” Domenico tells him with a calmness I’ve yet to see my son display. He knows Giovanni was set up for a murder he did not commit. I’ve had Domenico looking into who did it and why. Someone needs to pay for the years G lost. It’s something I promised myself when I got him out of prison a while ago. I never made that oath to Giovanni, but if he knows me half as well as I know him, then he knows it’s in the works.
“Fair enough.” G lifts both hands in surrender, pride staring Dom back in the eyes. He does like to push motherfuckers. It’s his specialty; one that gets on my nerves and serves me well at the same time.
“Dad, I can’t go to New Orleans,” Sienna joins in. “And consigliere?”
“I’m sorry.” It’s a statement, not a question directed at my daughter, and everyone knows it. “Did I say it was optional?”
“I have businesses to run. A wedding to plan,” she argues.
“G will manage your shit. I have your wedding covered. Any other excuses?”
“How about I stay here and do his and my job, seeing as you just said it’s my future position in this family. I’m more of a get tossed in the deep end and learn to swim on my own kind of girl.”
