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Noah and I are the only ones who have actually watched the video before now. It wasn’t something we wanted to steal attention or to turn into a celebration. All of the guys know that our plan worked exactly how we intended it to, but none of us have been able to enjoy his suffering.
All of our eyes are glued to the screen as the sound of a door opening and slammed closed comes through the speakers. Joe set up the camera perfectly to capture the look of horror on Romano’s face as he rushes into the room in a panicked state and looks up to spot the body on the bed in the center of the room.
The vodka bottle in his hand goes crashing to the floor, shattering as it hits. He freezes as his eyes widen in shock. If there was any doubt about what type of person Romano is, the way he reacts next would immediately dispel it.
The first emotion to flicker over his face isn’t pain or grief. No sadness. Not a shred of the suffering we all went through as we heard Alec draw his last breath. Not an ounce of remorse or guilt for bringing his son into this life that got him killed. No, it’s fear. Fear pours off him so potently I can almost taste it through the screen.
He rushes to grab his gun from his waistband and in that one simple move everyone in this room can tell he’s no better than average with the weapon in his hand. He doesn’t have near the skill of even our weakest players. We all move with our weapons as an extension of ourselves, comfortable. Our guns are at home in our hands. There’s nothing fluid or concise about the way he draws or aims his. It’s pathetic
It’s pitiful how much we hesitated to go up against this man. I guess it’s true his only talent was in his ability to lead. To hide behind the talents of others. Now that we’ve torn his empire to shreds, he’s nothing. Absolutely nothing but bait for us.
He rushes around the room, sloppily checking to make sure he’s alone and one of us isn’t lying in wait to end him for good. Not once stopping to check his son. Finally, after heaving a sigh of relief he falls to the floor at the side of the bed and looks at his son’s face for the first time.
Maybe I gave him too much credit all around.
Anger lines his face as he holds Ciar’s arm, spewing a litany of curses towards Luca, Kade, and I. At least William hurt for his kid. Romano is only angry about losing to us yet again.
I glance at Rachel to find her shaking her head in disgust as she watches.
The video continues as we watch him scramble to gather his belongings.
“I want to kill him,” Rachel whispers, silent tears streaming down her face once more. There’s an understanding throughout the whole room that she doesn’t just mean she wants him dead. We all do. No, this is her way of saying she wants to be a part of it when it does happen. She wants to draw blood herself. I nod, one small dip of the head to acknowledge her request. My attention turns to Nic in the corner. He’s been silent this whole time, keeping his eyes glued to Rachel as she fell apart. He’ll remind her of my promise when she’s sober enough to remember.
Romano will be our kill. For Harlee. For Marnye. For Jen. And now for Alec too.
He may not have loved his son, but he will feel our grief of losing our loved ones.
It isn’t ten minutes later that he leaves the room. Not sparing another glance for his dead son, as if he never mattered to him at all.
Maybe he doesn’t. He can’t use him now after all.
Never didI thinkI would be wading back into these shark infested waters.
That I would ever actually be excited to attend one of these affairs I detested so much growing up. Where a mask is worn by every attendee, every smile is fake, and every handshake is weighed as a potential deal. It’s all just smoke and mirrors to cover the hidden agendas of every snake in disguise.
It’s a world I was happy to leave, only keeping one foot in enough to ensure I was able to keep my mother safe. I don’t love the woman, not after all the shit she sat back and watched happen. But I can’t bring myself to hate her either. She was always just as powerless as I was. Too weak and timid to ever stand up to my father, too materialistic to ever leave him.
I guess there were some moments where she protected me. Lied for my sake when she could.
For that, I can be grateful. Since my father died, she’s been able to live her life in peace. No longer having to cower in the corner while still being able to flaunt her status and beauty.
I intentionally checked in with the people I have watching her to make sure she wouldn’t be attending the event Scarlett and I picked out. Adding my family history to the mix would only add gasoline to this fire. We don’t need the antics of my mother stealing our opportunity for gaining the information we so desperately need.
No one, not even Scarlett, is in the right headspace after losing Alec. It didn’t feel as if our family, the life we were building, could be broken so easily. The risks didn’t even quite feel real. Not until I saw just what a fight like ours could do to a family like ours. When love and loyalty are at the center of everything you’ve built, it only takes one missing piece for the cracks to be felt by everyone.
We were cocky and naive to think we would come out of this war unscathed. When there’s this much blood and violence, how would we not lose something? There’s a price to pay for revenge, unfortunately we’re all feeling it now.
We need a way to move forward. To make it not all feel like it was in vain. Scarlett just needs to fucking do something. Anything to feel like she isn’t helpless. Sitting on her hands and playing the waiting game.
Our plan to drive Romano out of town worked flawlessly. After discovering Ciar he left in a hurry. Belligerent and out of options. More than the anger and devastation you would expect from a man who lost his son, he radiated fear. At the end of the day, he would always put himself first.
He didn’t even bother to try and take the body with him, not bury his son, or keep his ashes. Nothing. All he cared about was his bags and getting the hell out of the hotel room he knew we could get into.
He was rattled enough to not even bother checking to see if any of his belongings had been tampered with. Something Scarlett would have never allowed to happen to any of us. For the exact reason we are all so grateful.
He led us right to Cherry Hill. A town known for catering to the elite. He must have come to his senses somewhere along the way though, because the tracker went dead before entering the heights of Cherry Hill where any of his contacts would live.
It was still enough to go on. Scarlett wasted no time building a list of possible candidates he could have run to, cross referencing them with names she recognized from her own childhood. The list is too long to take any more guesses without getting closer.
