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I don’t verbalize that question, though. There’s no need when it’s clear he’s going to tell me. “Cormac ordered Romano to come forward with a false confession of a murder he hadn’t actually witnessed.”
“Giovanni?” It’s a known fact that the rat bastard testified against Matteo’s uncle over fifteen years ago, earning him a life sentence behind bars for a murder he hadn’t committed. I’ve always wondered why Dad allowed him to continue breathing, but I chalked it up to knowing his friendship with Giovanni had ended on sour terms. I figured hewantedhim to rot in a cell, but knowing now what I learned a while back, Dad kept a lot from me that he shouldn’t have. Unresolved anger resurfaces at that thought.
“Cormac had dirt on Romano. Rico liked underaged girls. Fitzgerald had him on video.”
“And he’s still breathing?” I sit up, my back straightening into a steel rod, ready to go find this sick fuck to end his miserable life once and for all. Despite knowing or thinking I knew the details of Giovanni and my father’s friendship ending abruptly, I’ve always thought Romano should have been dealt with years ago. I would have put him through unimaginable agony before killing him, and that’s before learning about his kiddy fetish.
“Not for long,” Dad enlightens me. “He will be handled in due time.”
“Yes, by me, and I say there’s no time like the present.” I’m sick of this bullshit. This is yet again something the boss kept from me. I should have heard the recording at the time he listened to it. Romano should already be rotting in a gutter.
“No. You’ll do no such thing,” he reprimands in a tone that provokes a challenge.
“Excuse me,” I bite out and then clamp down on my teeth and lock my jaw as something inside me claws at my chest. He took out his old man and didn’t include me even though the motherfucker killedmymother. Now he wants to take this one away too?
I don’t fucking think so.
“Rico didn’t ruinyourlife, now did he?” My father’s voice is razor-sharp and full of authority, but even that doesn’t make me relax back against the chair or the rage that I’m sure is pouring out from my dark gaze. “His statement sealed Giovanni’s fate. It is his pound of flesh, not yours, son. It’s not even mine. He took more from Giovanni than you can imagine.”
“Enlighten me,” I demand through clenched teeth.
“That’s not my secret to share, especially when it could hurt people I care about or damage our family,” he says in my calmer tone.
“That’s horseshit. We don’t have secrets in this family.Secretscause harm and rifts that don’t need to exist.” What the hell is he thinking? Seems to me, his longtimefriendis far too important in his life than I like. Giovanni is not one of his children. He’s not blood. Being Matteo’s uncle doesn’t count as being married into the family in my book. Fuck this!
“When you become the boss, you can run this family the way you see fit, but since I’m still the head, what I say goes for everyone, Ciera included.”
“Fine,” I bite out, knowing he isn’t going to budge whether he agrees with me or not. Since when did Giovanni become so goddamn important to him? That’s what I’d like to know, but that isn’t what I ask. “What does Ciera have to do with any of this? Why do I need to marry her so fucking bad?” My question comes out like a snarl, but frankly, I don’t give a damn.
“The day I found out Cormac had a girl, I knew I had to take her from him. The plan was for her to be at least twenty-one, but that’s not how the cards fell. For a long time, I thought I’d have to go to Dublin and kidnap her myself, but then her relative sent her back to Fitzgerald last year after she graduated high school. I’m still not sure why. I know Cormac doesn’t want her. It wasn’t until you were on the plane headed to New Orleans that I found out she was there.”
“You aren’t getting to the fucking point, Dad. Why doIneed to marry her? You marry her if you want her so goddamn badly.” That statement sours my stomach, and it has zero to do with my mother’s memory, but I won’t dwell on the reason why. I won’t allow myself to even go there. There’s no point, really.
“That asinine statement makes you sound like a petulant child, Domenico. Lose the animosity you have toward her. You’re marrying Ciera because, I’m telling you, you’re going to marry her. Doing it now instead of later has everything to do with Cormac’s role in Giovanni going to prison.”
“If you have a recording that proves his innocence, why don’t you get the verdict overturned?” There is literally no reason for me to marry her. He knows he hasn’t given me a good enough reason, yet he continues going in circles.
“Owen Donovan won’t allow it. The tape has already been turned over anonymously. He made sure it was lost,” Dad says through gritted teeth as his nostrils flare.
“Then go around him. He’s just the police commissioner. I’m sure you made a copy.”
“Of course I did, but the motherfucker has every dirty politician and corrupt judge in his pocket. I knew when I handed it over, it wouldn’t do any good. We’re doing this my way. You’re marrying Ciera, and then we’re ridding the city of its trash once and for all.”
“Jesus, Dad. Just kill them all, then move back to the city and make our presence known. You want them out, then take them out. It’s that fucking easy. Why am I the only one that sees that?”
“Cormac doesn’t die until after you marry his daughter. Mass murder just doesn’t hit the same way, son. Besides, taking out Fitzgerald and his crew only slices the arm off, not the head. I have a plan, Dom. Give me a year. If you want out of the marriage on your first wedding anniversary, I’ll have it annulled. I give you my word.”
“Answer me this,” I say, leaning forward. “Is this your way of trying to get me to stop fucking Krishna?”
“No,” he says without hesitation. “Who you bring to your bed is your business, not mine.”
“You do realize by the end of the first year, if not before, she’ll be broken or dead, right?”
“Maybe you’ll surprise yourself, Dom. Maybe she’s what you need to soften the ways of your heart.”
“Don’t lie to yourself, old man. I’ll never love her, not the way you loved Mom. Or even half as much as I love the twins. My heart is at max capacity. There’s no room for her or anyone else. There never will be. But since you’re hellbent on forcing a monster on her, the consequences are on you.” I stand but don’t walk away quite yet. Instead, I stare back at him for a beat. “I don’t want what you gave Sienna. The wedding will be here and kept small. Everything, including her wedding dress, is to be black. Make it a funeral. It’s her death sentence, after all.”
CHAPTER 7
