AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He sits down on my right, and Pietro sits diagonally from him, just to my left.
“Glad we got a chance to get the boys together for this impromptu meeting,” he adds. “By the way, I think congratulations are in order for the new boss man!”
He lets out a cheer, but his eyes show zero fucking emotion.
Who does he think he’s playing? I’m not a fucking child anymore.
“First meeting since Niccolò’s been promoted.” Pietro raises a glass of pre-poured whiskey, and the rest of the room follows suit, everyone congratulating me as I sit still, unable to act like this is some happy moment.
“To what do we owe the honor?” Stefano pries.
“I don’t like being lied to,” I say, my tone laced with annoyance.
An immediate hush swallows the room whole, and silence overtakes the men sitting at the table. I allow myself to stare at each man for a brief moment, wondering if any have tells—I’m sure there are others hiding shit.
After all, this family has never truly felt like a fucking unit.
It’s been fucked from the start.
My mind flashes back to when I was younger. When I found my mother’s box of secrets.
When I learned the truth about who I was and that, while my mother is who I’ve always thought, my father isnotGabriel Amato.
The DNA analysis is etched into my mind’s eye like an unforgiving scar.
I was young, and it took me a while to look at it as anything other than a betrayal. Now, I’m fucking glad Gabriel and I don’t share blood.
It amazes me my mother’s been able to keep this secret all these years, although she probably knows her life depends on it. It’s why I’ve never approached her about it. Especially because I found the other DNA paperwork in that box, too.
The one confirming who my real father is.
My mother is many things. Among those is a complicit party in the many fucked-up things my father has done. But she doesn’t deserve to die.
As far as I know, no one else knows about our dirty little secret. And I plan on keeping it that way, even if it’s always hurt me to keep it to myself.
“Care to share, Nicco?” Stefano asks as the rest of the men look around at each other.
I stand from the table so quickly my chair falls over, my anger reaching new heights.
“Sure will. Thanks for asking,” I grit out as I place my palms on the table. “I visited Roy Underwood yesterday.”
I meet Stefano’s gaze, and his expression gives away nothing.
“He let me in on a little secret that’s been kept from me. I don’t know if the rest of you know about it, but it was quite the fucking thing to hear about my own family’s fucking business from a goddamn banker.”
Dom pounds his fist on the table three times and then shouts, “Somebody’s got some fucking explaining to do. Because I sure as shit don’t remember anything about Roy Underwood being on our payroll, and I see all the reports.”
Now that Dom isn’t able to shoot like normal for the foreseeable future, he’s been aiding me while also learning about how we pay our men under the table. We keep a log that’s foolproof using a couple of our hackers, and we leave zero trace. We’ve got the records if we need them, but the only people who can access them are the hackers who hide them in the first place.
“Evelina Greco. She was bid on and bought for a pretty fucking penny. Thought it was weird that the winner was on the phone taking orders from someone. Thought it was even more fucking strange when he led me to a banker who told me somebody at this table has offshore accounts and has been bidding on women andchildren, moving large sums of money around and trying to cover it up by funneling money into the accounts using Roy’s help to drain unsuspecting bank customers’ accounts little by little.” I pause, once again looking directly at Stefano. “So why’d you do it? What are you up to, Stefano, and why am I, your boss, in the dark?”
Stefano remains silent as he takes my words in, but a majority of the rest of the men are talking amongst themselves. Pietro is no doubt already trying to figure out how he can deescalate this situation.
It doesn’t matter, though. Because my mind is made up, and it has been for longer than I care to admit.
“We’re waiting, Stefano,” Dom grits out.
He’s never liked him. Dom comes from a long line of assassins, and he and his father and his father’s father have had a quiet feud with Stefano’s lineage for a long time.
