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“Do you think so? What I mean to say is, do you think it was just an accident? He goofed the hit on you. You’re still alive. Did Sonny truly fall for the false intel and the bait and switch?” Lorena asked seriously.
Thomas and Lorena sat on either side of the pride leader’s desk. They reviewed footage of what seemed to be a failed hit on Thomas earlier, one they suspected Sonny had orchestrated. Had it failed because of their attempts to mislead Sonny? Staring eyes to bloodshot eyes, Thomas could tell Lorena wasn’t as confident as he was.
Stained coffee cups, some filled with coffee now cold, half-eaten burgers and their greasy wrappers, and a pizza box not even opened lay strewn around the office. Thomas’s tie and Lorena’s high heel shoes were long abandoned. And so were their well-kept looks.
The desk’s hardwood surface was covered in the Leone pride files from the group’s inception to the present day. File folders piled high like mini Leaning Towers of Pisa teetered on the floor and on every level surface they could find.
The pair was searching through the history of the pride … membership lists, past transactions, contracts, and events … where they could conjure up fake loopholes Sonny would be eager to exploit on the ruthless mobster’s way to a complete pride takeover and the successful assassination of Thomas Leone.
The pair had stayed well past the office’s closing time and poured through every word on every page in every file. As the wall clock softly ticked, the evening turned into late night, which turned into dawn, the sun finally bidding the two sleep-deprived souls a bright good morning.
Stifling a yawn, Thomas reassured her. “Hell, yeah. Look at the false intel you’ve given Sonny. And right away, he acts on it. The blunder is blatant. Sonny could only make those missteps on your false info.”
“But, Thomas, we can see Sonny is upping his game. It’s no longer about swaying members to legitimately usurp you as the leader. Sonny wants you gone, and by gone, I mean dead. Killed. Murdered. He wants complete dictatorial control, and he wants it after your body is on a pyre.”
Thomas leaned back in his chair and flashed the biggest smile.
Lorena looked dumbfounded at Thomas’s reaction to his own planned death. “Why on Earth are you smiling? Did you not hear my words? Dead. Killed. Murdered? Sonny means business, you know?”
Thomas put his arms behind his head and rocked gently in his chair. “Oh, yeah, I heard you all right. And I know about how that weasel works. Here’s the thing about blind hatred. The operative word isblind. You can trip up a blind man quite easily with his own stick if you get my drift. Look at how he fell for our ruse. Man, that was priceless.”
“Okay, fine. But for how long? Sonny isn’t a dummy. He’ll know the next time I give him info on you, and he still misses the mark. It’ll be because of me and the planted intel.”
Thomas’s smile waned as he thought back to the clean sweep he did after his mother’s passing. There were so many rats in the pride. Manipulators and opportunists who would do anything for the right price. And they would not give a thought to who their actions hurt or how destroyed the pride would end up being.
And all those rats more or less sided with Sonny and his diabolical ways. And Thomas knew Sonny’s M.O. from back in the day. Take. Exploit. Destroy. Abandon. And move on to the next target.
Thomas would rather he be gunned down than have his mother’s pride home burned to the ground, figuratively or literally. Sonny and his gang had to be permanently removed from the Leone pride. One way or another.
Lorena’s cell phone rang.
Thomas stopped rocking.
Lorena jumped.
She fished under a pile of folders for the device and hit the green phone icon.
“Ms. D’Augustino?”
“Yes,” Lorena cleared her voice. “This is her.”
“Good morning, ma’am. This is Nurse Windwood calling from the Sunnybrook Hospital. There’s been a development with your father. Would you please come to his floor as soon as you can?”
“What’s happened? Is he all right?”
“He’s stable. But please, Ms. D’Augustino, come to the hospital. We’ll talk with you here.”
The nurse hung up.
Lorena looked at the blank screen, swallowed hard, and ran for the door.
“Lorena! Hold up. What’s going on?”
“It’s Papa. Something has happened. The nurse wouldn’t say what over the phone, but I heard in her voice it’s bad. Thomas, I fear it’s Sonny.”
Thomas bolted from his chair and grabbed Lorena’s arm. “Let’s go. I’ll drive.”
The couple tore through the building’s front doors as Daryl arrived to start his workday. He stared at the disheveled pair, wondering what the Alpha and his secretary were up to. He knew it wasn’t romantic. The fear on his face proved that fact.
