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“Why are you in such a hurry to ruin him?” Sal asked.
“Because he is an asshole.”
“There are many powerful assholes out there.”
I almost growled at him. “Let me change my answer. He hurt my wife, and I don’t want him to enjoy the rest of his life.”
Alessio nodded. “I can understand that.”
Sal sighed once more and focused on me. “Valerio, I promise you we will deal with that man. I promise he will be in pain, and he will know he is in pain because he hurt Luciana, but in order to do that, we have to be smart about it. There is a reason I don’t act without consulting Antonio. If we act foolishly out of anger, we will lose. I just want to make sure we will succeed when we attack.”
I hated that his words made sense. Salvatore had the power to attack pretty much anywhere. His reputation after defeating Chicago’s Pakhan grew. He had New York as an ally, thanks to Antonio’s marriage to Priscilla. No one would want to be his enemy, but being at war was no easy thing. If he got to war with L.A., he would weaken the Outfit, and friends could turn into enemies during weakness. It was a dangerous act.
The war was unnecessary when there was a better way to handle this. Thanks to my newfound closeness to Tommaso, we had a good plan. Only that plan meant we had to wait. I couldn’t wait, but maybe I could bargain.
“Okay,” I said with a nod. “I’ll compromise. I am not going to push you about an attack. I just want to take Elsie here.”
“How?” Antonio asked. “Are you going to kidnap her?”
“It isn’t kidnapping when she is my daughter.”
All three men got silent for a second, looking at each other meaningfully, no doubt to my way of referring to Elsie. I didn’t care what they thought about that. The fact that she didn’t have my blood didn’t matter one bit to me.
When Salvatore focused on me again, he didn’t seem convinced at all. “Valerio, I understand your concerns, but Elsie is young, and despite everything he did to Luce, Gino seems to love that little girl. He is not going to hurt her. She is going to be safe with him until we act on our plan.”
My body tensed, and my hands turned into fists. I tried my best to stay calm. “All three of you have children, but I guess you don’t know shit about safety. She is not safe just because Gino is not hurting her. He will not protect her like Luce and I will. She is a little girl. At that age, a person would be so easy to hurt.” Even the thought of Elsie going through something like I did because Gino was not careful enough tore my heart to pieces. I couldn’t let her be there.
At my words, Antonio looked at me with narrowed eyes, and just then, I realized my hands were shaking. I quickly pressed both my hands down to my legs. I never lost control like that. I was always great at hiding my pain from my family.
I worried that Antonio was up to something. Thankfully he was not one that would ask about those things so easily.
Sal looked at me with soft eyes. It was not suspecting like Antonio’s. He was most likely thinking about his own children, but that didn’t make him say yes. Instead, he said, “I agree with you, Valerio. Danger can be everywhere for a kid, but still bringing her here right now is not a good idea.”
That was the point I realized I was not going to be able to convince them. It was not a good strategy, so they were going to refuse no matter what I said. It was time to really put my foot down. I already guessed I was going to have to do this, but out of kindness and respect, I still tried to come to an agreement with them.
It didn’t work.
I slowly stood up, nodding my head. “I see. You are not agreeing then.”
“No,” Sal said.
“Okay.” I looked at my brother and did something I had never done in my entire life. I went against his orders. “I just want you to know it doesn’t matter what you decide, Sal. I am going to go to L.A. and bring Elsie here. If you want to punish me for this, I will gladly take it, but I am bringing her here, no matter what you say.”
My brother’s face wrinkled in confusion and anger. His voice was stern when he spoke. “Are you going against my orders, Valerio? Are you going against your, Capo?”
“Yes,” I said without hesitation. “I am doing it for my family.”
Sal’s eyes filled with fire, and his jaw tensed so much that I thought it was going to snap. He looked at me like he wanted to shoot me right there. He almost murdered me with his expression, but in the next moment, something like pride passed his hard eyes. He nodded to himself and said, “I always knew you were going to be a good husband.”
Alessio stood up and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “He is also going to be a good father.”
I looked around. Sal still looked proud, Alessio smiled, and Antonio only nodded in agreement. I just couldn’t help my grin.
Chapter 36
Luciana
I kept pacing in the living room, nervously teething my nails. It was too late. Something definitely went wrong. Something horrible happened.
