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I’ve been gone for years and have had next to no contact with the man. I could be anyone, feel anything for him by now, but he isn’t treating me like someone who could be dangerous. He’s treating me as he has always done: like a child. Worse…like a girl.
Father leans back in his chair, twiddling a gold-plated ink pen in his fingers. When he speaks, it’s to come straight to the point. No niceties, no small talk.
“I’ve been informed that Luca Marzano and the O’Hanlon girl have arranged an alliance.”
The breath catches in my lungs, and for a second, I’m drowning.
An alliance. That means they’re engaged. Luca was telling the truth.
I steady myself, bringing my hand up to curl around my necklace. “How lovely for them.”
“It’s nothing more than a power move,” he continues. “With both Marcus and Damon Papparado dead, Evie O’Hanlon has control of the Irish and the Italian branches of her family. Marzano saw his chance and took it.”
“Okay…” I struggle to contain both my irritation and my hurt. “Did you bring me all the way from California to tell me this?”
He looks at me from over the rims of his glasses, the expression in his eyes dampening my momentary boldness. I press my lips together, refusing to offer the apology he silently demands. After a moment, he continues.
“I’ll not sit by and let that Irish bitch take everything the Italians have worked for. I don’t fully trust the young Valachi Don—“
“Angel.”
“Yes, Angelus. They married into the Papparado and O’Hanlon clans, so there’s the chance he’s formed secret alliances.”
“Even with his sister dead?”
Recently, the Valachi family went tits up. The old Don Valachi died, and in the absence of young Angel, Damon Papparado seized temporary control by marrying the daughter, Luciana ‘Lulu’ Valachi. His boldness did not please the Commission, though, and both he and Lulu ended up dying at Angel’s hand. It turned out that Angel had been secretly working for the Commission all along and was able to step right into the vacuum created by Damon’s and Lulu’s deaths.
It was a cautionary tale for all of us who had ever considered defying the power of the Commission.
“Especially with his sister dead.”
“What do you want, then?”
The pen taps against his desk as he eyes me consideringly. “I believe it is time to unite the Scarpetta and Marzano families.”
Anger gathers within me with the speed and force of a tsunami. Sensing my unrest, Baccio whines, and I sink a hand into his fur, anchoring myself.
“Are you—”
—fucking kidding me right now?
I clamp my mouth closed on the words, knowing my father would hear nothing but the disrespect. “What are you saying, exactly?” I ask instead.
He rolls his eyes. “Don’t be dense, girl. Break them up, of course. We will form our own alliance.”
I feel ill, physically sick of the smell of God complex in the room. “That’s why… But you sent… You know that would have happened years ago if you hadn’t interfered in my and Luca’s relationship.” All these years spent away from my home, away from my family and friends… being forced to become an entirely different person…all of it was for nothing.
Father waves his hand, the pen glinting in the light. “Yes, well. Things change. I had expected Enzo to wed the Valachi girl, but if that fell through, my goal was to arrange something between you and Angelus. But then he disappeared, and everything went to shit.”
The chess moves are staggering, the logic behind them ill-conceived at best and crazed at worst.
“Angel is back now.” I don’t know why I bother to remind him. I have no interest in being linked to Angel. I shake my head.
Father notes the movement of my head, and his expression hardens. “Angel is Commission, even if he doesn’t yet have his seat. I can’t control him. Luca is an Untouchable now, and he can give me what I need. You did as you were told back then. You’ll do it now, too. Ruin their engagement and cement your own alliance.” He looks down at his desk and shuffles a stack of paper. “That will be all.”
With a sharp inhale, I turn on my heel and leave the room, Baccio trotting at my side. I shouldn’t be surprised that he would go to such lengths, manipulate me in such a way, but I can’t deny the stab of pain his maneuvering generates.
Luca was the one man I loved. The one person I trusted with everything—my heart, my body, my legacy.
