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VINCENT COLOMBO
I spent a long while trying to figure out what to do with Mia. Luca and Caterina both gave their input and admitted that they couldn’t stand by and watch me kill the innocent woman, and Alessio, for the first time, said he’d support my decision regardless of what it was. I knew my brother well enough to know it was a formal way of saying he agreed with the other two, and I had no idea what to do with that.
Mia had engrained herself into our ranks, and if she was the mole as some of my family suggested, I would have to do away with her. But I didn’t think she was the one we were looking for. I didn’t think she was guilty of any of the things her father had done, and punishing her as if she were felt wrong. I was the fucking boss of a crime family, and I knew brutality was essential to keep my title, but the thought of hurting Mia ground on every sensible nerve in my body. She had fought for us; even if it had been a ruse to engrain herself in our ranks, she’d done it well. She had earned some of our trust, but she was the only one to use against her father. How had my father made these decisions?
I sent Caterina to gather Mia for breakfast and made my way to the kitchen, starting on some eggs and bacon. It was time we settled this—that I evened the playing field and opened up about this situation and my plans with her. I needed to give her full disclosure that I was feeling unsure anymore about using her to hurt her father. I wasn’t sure it would send the right message, especially when he had made it clear that he didn’t care about where she ended up as long as she fetched him a good price. My jaw ticked, the thought making my stomach churn.
The patter of footsteps approached from behind as I pulled the last piece of sizzling bacon from the stovetop. “Good morning,” Mia said, phrasing it as more of a question than a comment. I only nodded as I gathered both large plates and brought them to the long dining table. It had already been set for six people, so I chose my usual seat and gestured for her to sit in the one beside me. “This feels serious,” she said. “Not at all like breakfast.”
We both sat, and I scooped a heaping portion of each dish onto my plate, passing her the serving spoon next. “It is serious. I feel like, after everything, it’s important I level with you. You deserve to know where I plan to go from here and how I plan to face your father’s threats to me and my people.”
“I was under the impression you were going to usemeto face my father’s threats.”
I looked her up and down, from the knotted hair she still hadn’t touched after a night of sleep to the oversized pajamas that swamped her. She hadn’t even bothered to get ready for breakfast with me, and that realization brought my mind to a screeching halt. It was almost as if she trusted me with this side of her—the vulnerable, barely awake side. It shouldn’t have mattered, but somehow, it did. “That was the plan,” I told her.
“Was?”
“Let me be upfront for a moment here, Mia. I have every reason to want to kill your father, but I have no reason to become someone like him. Taking you out of this world would make me a monster, just like the monsters that I fight every day, and it’s not something I want to do. Do you know what he did to make me feel this way?”
She stared into my eyes and gave a small nod, but I needed to repeat it. I needed to make sure she understood everything that had gone into my decision to kill her, and then she needed to know what had gone into my decision to spare her instead. I needed to give her the chance to continue down the correct path, especially if the rumors of her being a mole are true. I didn’t think she was, but it was my duty to explore all the possibilities.
“Your father called a peaceful meeting regarding our arranged marriage, so my father brought my sister. She was just learning all the different dynamics of the mafia life, and she was beginning to understand how delicate some situations were. My father brought her so the day would serve as a teaching moment.” My heart raced as I recollected the events of that day, but I continued. “When they showed up, he killed them. I could barely identify their bodies.” She gave me a sympathetic look, and I knew it was genuine. “I wanted revenge for my father, but I would’vekilledto have revenge for my sister. And you—well, you seemed like Pete Genovese’s biggest weakness.”
“I understand why you made that decision,” she told me.
“Youcan’tunderstand!” I shouted, taking a deep breath and calming my breathing. My sister’s loss was still so fresh—too fresh to properly remain calm—so I focused on my father. I faced a different kind of anger when I thought about him. It was still fresh, but I could use reason when I considered it. “My father was killed by yours, but the commission ordered it to be done. My sister, though…you were going to pay for that. I was going to either send pieces of you back to him or get you pregnant and kill both you and his next heir. And until I knew you, I didn’t care.”
All this shit had my blood thumping in my ears, and the only thing that calmed me enough to take a deep breath was her unblinking gaze that remained locked on mine. Her emerald eyes peered so deep into my soul that I almost believed she could see the dark chasm there—the shattered pieces the loss of my family had left behind. “I already knew all these things,” she said gently. “And I’m sorry for what he did. I truly am.” I remembered when she hadn’t been sorry at all. I remembered when she’d claimed it had been justified, and I could see so clearly that she wasn’t thinking those things now. I didn’t know what had changed her perspective, but something had. She continued, “Can you tell me about her?”
I knew who she meant, and the question took me aback. I began speaking before I could think better of it. “She wasn’t meant for this world. She was too good for all of us. All she ever wanted was to be an artist, but she felt obligated to join this life so she could be with us. She painted small murals and designs all around the house, and even though Dad would give her shit about it, we all loved them. We all lovedher.”
Mia finally looked toward the plate in front of her, sadness wafting from her. “She sounds like a beautiful person.”
“She was.”
The conversation between us fell silent for a few minutes, and I took a bite of bacon, chewing it as I considered the other things I needed to tell her. First, I needed to calm down and get myself under control. The sadness made way to a deep rage that hadn’t fully left me since seeing their bodies, and I didn’t need to push that rage onto Mia. But even after three minutes of silence, I couldn’t shake that anger, so I continued anyway. “The Commission ordered the death of my father, and they did it because of the fucked-up ideologies that had been passed down through the generations. As boss, my father had every right to create new made men, but unlike the other families he never cared about using full-blooded Italians.”
“It’s for the safety of our people,” she said, shaking her head. “It prevents undercover people from infiltrating, and it keeps everyone safe and loyal.”
Her father had conditioned her so goddamned well that it sickened me. “Blood means nothing. Loyalty means everything.”
“The reason they have a problem with it is the made man who started a shooting at one of the conventions, Vincent.”
I wasn’t arguing with her about this. “We use orphans who have nowhere to go,” I reminded her. “The ones who want to join us are loyal to us entirely. It’s the reason nobody’s been able to take what’s ours. We have too many people who would lay down their lives for my family. Genetics should mean nothing, so we don’t let it. That’s a part of my father’s legacy I intend to continue.” I could tell that this was a point she didn’t understand or want to accept, and my frustration only grew. “One person betrayed us and the Commission killed my father for it. They killed him because he was generous enough to give children a path in life when they would otherwise be on the streets. And now, half of my family is dead.”
She didn’t say anything as she moved the eggs around on her plate. She disagreed with a lot of the things I’d said about the Commission, and that’d be something I’d remedy tomorrow. “You’re the only one who can give me the means to retaliate, but I can’t use you like that, not when you’re innocent in all of this,” I said, going back to the main discussion at hand. I hated saying it. I hated admitting to both of us that I no longer had the plan to retaliate and get the justice I was owed.
She moved her hand to my lap and squeezed before shifting it to the left and grabbing my hand. The feeling of that gesture sent sparks shooting through my arm. Something as simple as her touch obliterated me, so I jerked away and stood. She was trying to comfort me, but I didn’t need comfort from her. Not when she wasn’t on the same page about so many crucial things. I hatedthat I wanted her. I hated that she was innocent in all of this. I hated this entire fucking situation.
“I’m not weak, and I don’t need your comfort,” I snarled, bending until my face was an inch from hers. “I need this whole situation to go away, and until you can offer solutions, I don’t want anything from you. Not a goddamned thing. But if you betray me, Mia, just know that I’ll be forced to act. Neither of us will enjoy what comes of that. Do you understand?”
She gaped at me for a moment as the words sank in, and finally she nodded. I turned and walked out of the room, hoping the mole wasn’t the person everyone said it was. Itcouldn’tbe her.
15
MIA GENOVESE
Caterina came in and gathered me the next day for a “meeting,” and no matter how much I prodded, she wouldn’t tell me what it was for. All she’d said was that Vincent had insisted I go, and that she wasn’t to explain until we got there.
