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“Dad?” Alessio scoffed.
“Well, he’s trying to boss us around like one,” Caterina said. “I invited Mia here because we’re not shitbags, and we’re not going to treat her like she wronged us when she’s done nothing but help us the entire time she’s been here. I mean, for Christ’s sake, it sounds like she hates her father as much as we do, am I right?” I immediately nodded, holding up pretenses, but it felt far too easy. I knew I nodded with the intention of lying, but why did it feel like it wasn’tentirely untrue? “She’s a part of this family for now. At least until a decision’s made.”
“It can’t be much more dysfunctional than the other family you have, am I right, Mia?” Alessio asked.
It had been ingrained in me for so long to be deceitful and lie to my father’s enemies, but I didn’t feel like I needed to. I hardly knew them, but just sitting here and watching as they coexisted and teased one another felt like a place I belonged. It felt like somewhere I could speak openly to an extent. I shrugged. “Probably less dysfunctional,” I admitted. I caught myself before I said anything else.This isn’t where I belong,I told myself repeatedly.These people want nothing to do with me. They want to end my father, and that’s it. They don’t care about me.But no matter how much those thoughts pierced my mind, I knew they weren’t entirely true.
Alessio went off about finding a small tendon in his chicken, tossing it across the table at Luca before they got in a teasing verbal battle with one another. Caterina began speaking to Vincent about unimportant parts of each of their days, and I could only watch as they acted as a family—one that deserved to stay together. I knew I had a duty to my father, but I couldn’t do this. There had to be another way.
If I killed Vincent, I’d be cutting the head off of this inseparable team, and it’d be a tragedy to see that die. I could see that Caterina came from a past I didn’t understand and would likely never learn. I saw that this was the sole place she belonged, and without Vincent and this group, she’d be nothing more than a wanderer. Alessio had already lost the rest of his family, and without Vincent, I didn’t even want to think about what he’d become. I didn’t want to think about the blossoming tension between Caterina and Alessio that would surely turn sour upon Vincent’s death. And Luca…well, I couldn’t even imagine where the quiet and strong Luca would end up without this team. Vincent held these people together, and I was beginning to understand that.
I had to get in contact with my father and end this. He couldn’t rely on me to be an inside source when the connection I felt with these people was too strong to ignore. There had to be another way to give my father what he wanted without ruining these people’s lives.
12
VINCENT COLOMBO
Luca and Alessio sat to my left and right as the table slowly filled in around me. Alessio, as the underboss, greeted men on my behalf as I took in the scene, ensuring everything ran smoothly. I had Luca as myconsiglierekeep a close watch for any conflict that might arise. All thecaposwe hosted sat around the table, and most of them seemed to get along well. They all had the last name of Colombo, but that meant little when it came to rank. Luca was the only one in the room without our last name, but none of the Colombos would ever take his place, and everyone knew it.
My father’sconsiglieresat next to him sat two seats away, keeping a close eye on the crowd just like Luca, but he didn’t show a hint of animosity toward the new arrangement. Luca had been my best friend and right-hand man for years, and the closest members of the family could never understand why my loyalty to him ran so deep when he wasn’t a Colombo. But no other Colombo had ever taken a bullet in the leg for me, and I didn’t trust that anyone aside from Alessio and Caterina ever would. When my father was murdered, I took his place and named the two as my top lieutenants. My uncle, Christian, had been in Luca’s role for years, and he still took on some of the duties without the title. For that reason, he sat right below Luca in the hierarchy. Almost no other Colombos respected my decision to change the personnel my father set in place, but they didn’t seem to agree withanyfacet of change set in place.
There were still a handful of missing members of the family, and I took note of who wasn’t there as I stood and the room fell silent. “Thank you all for coming. I know I haven’t called one of these meetings in my time as boss, and I’d like to start by thanking you all for making this transition as effortless as possible.” Formalities were bullshit, and we all knew it, but I made a point of eyeing each person who made the transition less than effortless for me. They each stared back with wide eyes.
“Is there a reason you called an official meeting?” Christian asked. “Or is it for mere introductions?”
I sighed and shook my head. “It’s no secret that we’re in the middle of a hostile situation with the Genovese boss after what he did to our family. We have a few things to discuss regarding that conflict, and we have other recent mishaps with the Irish mob that came to light recently. Pete Genovese has been keeping many of his soldiers close to the ground, and hiscaposare nowhere to be found. Either he went off the rocker, or the information I gathered is good.”
“A Genovese off his rocker isn’t something unusual,” one of my distant cousins said from the other end of the table.
“It’s also not unlikely that he finally managed to infiltrate with an inside man. He’s been trying for years, as we all know. Nobody has been successful, but I received word that he finally accomplished it.” Everyone in the room stared silently.
“You can’t think that it’s one of us,” another cousin asked. “We were all loyal to your father for years.”
“I’m not my father, and plenty of you have shown that you’re less than content to have me as your new boss. It was bound to happen eventually, but when nobody expected it, many of you showed your true colors.”
“Many of the people in this room were shocked and absolutely flabbergasted to hear that we lost two beloved members of our family,” Christian admitted.
“And your sons showed up to the emergency Commission meeting where I was named heir, and they tried to fight it. They used the names of people in this room to justify their decision—people who still haven’t come and pledged their loyalties.” I looked around the room again. “It’s been over a month, and I still haven’t heard from many of you.”
Christian sighed deeply, but he had nothing to do with what his sons decided to do. They controlled entirely different sectors of my investments, and they worked together to do so. It was only because of their father that they each survived their betrayal that night, but I didn’t doubt for a second that they would turn out to be responsible for the inside person attempting to ruin my career.
“You’re accusing some of us, then?”
I leaned into the table. “I’m asking that all of you keep your eyes out for anything that may seem wrong, and I’m giving one last command to make your allegiance to me clear, or you will regret it.” I knew that my message would cross the room stiffly, and the tensions rose immediately. The people here weren’t subject to my brutality the way the others in my life were, and they never hesitated to hold their tongues. At my father’s meetings, there would be constant arguments and outrage over decisions, but everyone knew their place and knew that once the meeting ended, they trusted and respected their boss.
I wasn’t sure if all the people here still felt like that, but I couldn’t imagine any of them intentionally betraying me. Not when they’d been loyal to this regime for so long. However, I still needed to make my truth clear. I still had to rule with a firm fist if I wanted to demand the respect I was owed.
“Have you not considered that you have a mole under your nose?” a first cousin asked—Christian’s daughter. I knew she held resentment that I kicked out her father from a role of power, despite the way he didn’t seem to care. “You kidnapped his daughter and married her for legal purposes. How involved has she been in your affairs and with your inner circle?” she asked. “It makes more sense that she’d be the cause.”
I opened my mouth to deny the accusation, but I clenched it shut again. Up until she was taken, there had been no large-scale withdrawal. There had been nothing unusual about the Genovese businesses or people, and I knew instinctively that Christian had to be onto something. Why had Pete Genovese been adamant about keeping her and using her as I pleased? I’d thought he genuinely didn’t care for his daughter at all—that it was a perceived weakness that we’d gotten wrong. But I’d seen what Mia could do with her words and with her bare hands, and a woman didn’t become that skilled without a purpose. I couldn’t think of a single way all of these variables made sense outside of the suggestion at hand.
Mia was the only part of this equation that hadn’t made sense from the start. We’d wanted to kill her, but when her father hadn’t shown any interest, we’d let her live. We continued letting her live for that reason. Was it possible that we were all being played? I looked between Alessio and Luca, and they seemed to be considering something similar. It made sense, but it didn’t make sense why she would’ve fought for us. She’d been adamant about fighting her father’s men, and she didn’t seem to care how it affected him.Thatdidn’t make sense.
“Regardless, I’d like everyone to keep their eyes open and make sure there isn’t anyone else infiltrating our ranks. I trust each of you to do right by me, and I would hate to regret that decision.” I paused and kicked Alessio under the table, glancing at him. He nodded and stood, stepping out of the room. He knew where my mind had gone, and he had his phone in his hand before he fully left the room. “The next order of business is the Irish mob moving into town. They’ve been causing an uproar for all of us recently—more than usual.”
“Pete had a kill-on-sight order,” another cousin said. “It’s keeping them from getting their roots too deep in our territory because it’s so close to his.”
“We’re going to have to implement something similar, but only if the man is approved by me before being questioned and killed. They’ve been trafficking in bad drugs, stuff that’s been killing our customers. They’ve laced in so much shit that we have to be more careful about where we’re storing it.” I glanced at Christian. “Your boys are responsible for the safeguarding of those assets. Have them double the guards, and have the details sent to my desk by tomorrow morning. I want to clear each name before they’re around our shit.”
