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"If you wanted the mafia taking care of Lenny Smith, you wouldn't be working so hard to do it yourself," Zeus says, clearly thinking he's got a point.
But I'm not letting him believe that. "The don might not keep him in his facility because of the entrenched belief thatit stays in the family, whether that's good for family or not. But Lenny won't be homeless, and they won't hurt him on purpose."
That doesn't mean my brother-in-law won't be hurt, or that he might not hurt someone else if he is put back into a family household. Yes, that makes me feel guilty, but not enough to stay here and run Nuovi Inizi for the Hades Brotherhood. Whether they buy it, or not, my club won't be mine anymore.
I am emphatically not running sex workers out of my club. Atlas tried to tell me he saved Nuovi Inizi from being taken over by the bratva and used as a hunting ground for women. As if.
"Who is your don?" Zeus asks me.
"Does it matter? Do you want any of the Cosa Nostra to have a foothold in your territory?"
"Why give up a club you've worked so hard to build? You would make so much more money stay—"
"As a glorified manager? No, thanks," I interrupt him to say. "I'm not running your money laundering or a brothel out of the unused space upstairs. Like I said, I have no intention of ending up dead or in prison."
"No one is going to kill you," Atlas barks out, sitting up, all pretense of insouciance gone. "And you will never be a fall guy for the Hades Brotherhood. As my wife, you will be protected."
"Did we get married and I don't know about it?" I ask with sarcasm. "Only, I think I would remember."
"We aren't married yet."
"Or ever," I tell him flatly and turn back to his brother. "Do we have a deal?"
"Would you stay and run the club if you have my word you would be protected, married to Atlas, or not?" Zeus asks.
I don't know why he would offer that, or if I could trust him if he did. But it does not matter because it's not going to happen.
I am done.
"You can either agree to buy the club. Now." I'm not giving him time to come up with a plan to counteract my failsafe. "Or not. If the only way out is for me to give it to the don, then that's what I'll do."
The mafia will take care of Lenny. I did my best to protect my brother-in-law, but I can't do that from behind the bars of a prison cell. One way, or another, Lenny's safety will end up reliant on someone else.
Better I control who that someone is and what they do for him, than leave it to chance. Lenny deserves better. I deserve better.
"I’m not afraid of Russo," Zeus says mildly, like he's letting me down gently and letting me know he's aware I'm from Detroit. "He couldn’t hold onto his territory; he’s not taking mine."
Zeus knows I learned about running a nightclub from my husband and that my husband is dead. If he knows about the clubs in Detroit being taken over by the Irish and the Russians, he can easily work out that my husband is one of the men that died trying to protect them.
Which means he also knows who my husband was and probably who Lenny is too.
"Who said anything about Don Russo? Five years ago my husband and his father were murdered during the mob-bratva takeover," I say like I'm telling him something new. "Russo couldn’t protect my husband. Why would I trust him to protect my brother-in-law?"
"You named a different don as his guardian and owner of the club," Atlas says, drawing my attention back to him.
Though, if I'm honest with myself, and I try to be, he's been the center of my focus since arriving. No matter who I'm looking at.
"Only the most powerful don in the Five Families. Everyone knows that when Don Caruso dies, Severu De Luca will be named Godfather of the Cosa Nostra."
Finally, Zeus looks like he's listening and not just humoring mylittle drama.
"If I buy the club, I want three months for you to train the new manager," Zeus says in a complete about face.
"No. I'm not staying."
"You want me to keep Leonardo Revello in that fancy facility? You will train your replacement." There's no give in Zeus's tone.
Worse is the look of utter implacability in his eyes.
