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In short, putting Silvio in the hospital is somewhat akin to walking up to the dividing line between two tense armies and pissing over that line onto their boots.
“Luciano is calling for blood, Dante. There’s even rumors he’s going to use this to push for a vote to remove you from Venom.”
“That little shit Silvio attacked my fuckingwife!” I roar, lurching toward Vito and slamming my fists down onto the coffee table. “I won’t ever apologize for responding accordingly! Not to you, not to Don Amato, and sure asfucknot to Silvio!”
The office goes quiet. Vito strokes his jaw, leaning back as he eyes me cooly.
“The Commission pushed for this, Vito. They wanted me to marry?—”
“To keep your club!”
“Which I’m doing!” I snap. “And now I’m following through with the rest of it!”
Except that’s not all, and I fucking know it. Everything changed the second I fell for Tempest.
The second I knew I’d kill for her.
Yes, this whole marriage thing has gone further than I ever intended. And I fuckinghatethat I’m going to lose her, far too soon. So until then, there’s nothing “fake” about this to me. Not anymore.
I’m about to say as much to Vito when I see his mouth curl into a grin. His brow arches as he starts to chuckle quietly to himself.
“I suppose this means you won’t be needing that goomar after all, huh?”
Some of the steam rumbling under the surface of my skin lets up. I exhale slowly, shaking my head.
“No. I won’t.”
He leans over the coffee table to pat my knee before he leans back again.
“You and your in-laws,” Vito sighs. “Your relationship is…prickly, to say the least.”
I scowl. “Alistair and Gabriel aren’t exactly my biggest fans, no.”
“Well,” Vito sighs. “We both know why, and wealsoboth know you could clear that up with a simple conversation?—”
Not him as well. “That isn’t happening,” I hiss quietly with finality.
“Tempest’s brothers are one thing,” he presses. “Her grandfather is another story.”
My brow furrows. “I don’t follow.”
He sighs. “Look, I don’t like Charles Black any more than you do. He’s no don, even though he acts like one. He’s just a glad-handing, self-serving prick. But the balance is shifting.”
Sometimes Vito forgets that I make knowing everyone else’s businessmybusiness.
“You mean that he’s getting very cozy doing business with Luciano and Massimo.”
Vito nods. “Exactly.”
I don’t usually pay much attention to the workings of the Commission. But even I can see that Massimo is a walking hand grenade that’s missing a pin. Luciano is far more level-headed—the guy’s been in this game for forty-plus years—but he’s power-hungry, and it’s never enough.
“Dante, you know I don’t like to push you to get involved with family politics…”
He really doesn’t. I’ve always appreciated that about Vito. He’s got every right to call in every favor he wants from me, given the life he set me up for. But he never goes there. So the fact that he’s asking right now speaks volumes.
“But IneedCharles to stop working with Massimo and Luciano. Not just me. Michael Genovisi and Cesare Marchetti feel the same. Charles working with those guys is dangerous for all of us, and I need it shut down.”
I do owe this man almost everything I have, after all.
