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If he offered up his books that quickly, it must mean that he had something to hide. I didn’t trust a man who would easily give up business records, even if we were to take it over. I didn’t trust him to begin with, but I was even more curious to see his books now than I was before.
“She’s only a slip of a girl, but we did get some information. She’s almost twenty-three and severely malnourished. I didn’t think she could be any older than fifteen when I first saw her. She did claim that she wasn’t the only one,” I started explaining, hoping to help cool tensions even further. We needed answers, and to get this disgusting business out of our city.
“The girl described the men that took her as Italian mafia with insignia tattoos,” Angelo continued with his accusations, but he’d lowered the gun to face the ground, thankfully. At least that meant he partly believed something that Marco had said.
“I’ve heard rumors of an outfit that’s smaller and has been working in the shadows,” Marco admitted.
“We, the Romanos, are the fucking shadows,” my father bellowed at Marco as he jabbed at his own chest like Tarzan.
Marco smirked and crossed his legs to get himself more comfortable, “True, but this group is even darker than anything that you’re willing to dabble in. Someone was going to take it up if it wasn’t your group or my group. Now, they have and it’s just a matter of time before they start trying to push both our businesses out of the picture.”
My father glared at Marco. There was no hiding the disgust he held for the Montrelli don.
“You’d better come up with where you heard about these rumors. I’ll need the source. Someone is trying to take us apart by having us fight each other instead of the new person.” Angelo went behind the desk and took a seat finally. “We’ll have a family dinner on Sunday. These will continue until we figure out all the details of how to take over your outfit and what your earnings will be until you’re paid off.
“We’ve always allowed the other smaller fractions to continue working as long as they didn’t go too far. It would appear that they have overstepped their welcome by quite a bit this time. We’ll be getting to the bottom of this, but you had better not have had anything to do with it because we are going to decimate those that are behind this,” Angelo warned.
“Understood.” Marco nodded in agreement. “I believe that concludes our dealings for today.” Marco stood up. “I’ll see what I can find out.”
Impressed that Marco had taken my father at his word, I opened the door to let him out.
He waited in the hallway for me to escort him back to where the women had been taken to talk while we had our meeting.
“Is everything satisfactory with my daughter? Is she behaving herself?” Marco’s question took me a bit by surprise. Since he’d sent her off to his rivals, I would have assumed that he truly didn’t care what happened to her in the first place.
“She is nothing like I expected,” I admitted reluctantly.
“My daughter is super fiery, but loyal to the core when she’s invested. She called me to warn me this morning.” Marco stopped and faced me. “You might have noticed that she doesn’t like me or think that I respect her, but even with all that, she warned me to keep me safe. “With a strong hand to control her, she’ll make a good wife.” He started walking back down the hall.
“I don’t plan to control her. I’ll teach her what she needs to know for our family’s business. Her fiery personality is one of her best assets, and I don’t think you used it to the best of her ability.” I didn’t want to offend or disrespect him, yet I wasn’t going to back down or approve of his treatment of his daughter. She was to be my wife and I demanded that she be respected. I never thought I would have to get it from her own father.
“You’re an idiot.” The words came out of my mouth and I couldn’t take it back. “In less than twenty-four hours, I’ve seen things you’ve clearly been missing all along.”
He nodded as if I’d said something to please him.
Whatever it was, I certainly hadn’t meant to do that. I moved past him and into the room where they were all waiting for us. I didn’t know how Bria put up with him. I’d only spent a few hours with him and I couldn’t wait to be rid of him.
“Hello, ladies,” I greeted them. “Bria, if you can say goodbye, we’ve got some work to do.”
She hid her surprise well at the abruptness and rose from the settee she was occupying.
“Mom.” She nodded at her mother and gave her sister a hug.
“Krysten, thank you for a lovely lunch.” Her mother took my mom’s hand. “You are the perfect hostess.”
Disbelief flitted across my face, I hadn’t expected her mother to be nice to mine.
“You are most welcome dear.” Krysten stood to walk out with Bria’s family.
Marco followed suit and held out a hand.
“Lunch was very nicely done and we didn’t kill each other.”
“Turns out that’s to everyone’s benefit, isn’t it?” My mother flashed a genuine smile at him. “I’ll see you all at dinner on Sunday.”
Bria and I left them to make their way to the front door.
“Come with me,” I instructed as she followed me through the house and to one of the rooms in the back without asking any questions. I guess she could be quiet when she wanted to be.
