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I pass the keys to the valet and adjust the fit of my black suit jacket before stepping into the elevator coded specifically to work for my father, myself, and our inner circle.
I see that even those security measures aren’t quite enough for the old man, as the red light of a newly installed camera sits in the top corner of the elevator watching my every blink until I reach the penthouse.
I can feel my father's strange mood in the air the moment I enter his residence. It looks more like a sterile art gallery than a home that somebody could actually live in. A cartoonishly sharpversion of hyper modern. All stainless steel, sharp edges and matte black everywhere that you look.
My oxfords make no noise whatsoever as I move to father’s office, where his sweltering fireplace is already lit.
He’s standing with his back to the door and a glass of brandy in his hand, swirling the contents of the glass around the tumbler as he holds it casually near his hip.
I have been told that my father and I look a lot alike.
I haven’t decided yet if that flatters or bothers me.
The man tends to favor heavily on paranoia so he had nearly all records of his history and life destroyed save for a small album of baby photos in my late grandmother’s house. But the album was buried with her for the same paranoid reasons.
He stands at a lean six foot, while I am three inches taller and a good deal bulkier than he is. While his head of thick black hair has turned mostly silver with age, hints of the true color still remain in his full beard and mustache. We have the same deep olive skin and russet brown eyes, though he lacks the dimples that I got from my mother.
“Tell me that you have good news, son.” He addresses me without turning to look at me.
Son? If that isn’t an indicator that he’s in the mood to play games, then I don’t know what is.
Honestly, his constant power trips and games have become almost comforting at this point.
Predictable in their consistency. No point in sugar coating things, get right to the point.
“Levine’s mother? Are you out of your mind?” I blurt a touch more bluntly than advisable.
If it was not just the two of us in this room, he would have had beaten the crap out of me for such a comment.
Instead, he turns slowly, his eyes impossibly darkening with rage over the disrespect that he would interpret my words as.
“It was supposed to bebothof the Levine bitches. A swift strike to eliminate most of the remaining bloodline.” His words are condemnation and explanation both as he slowly sips the contents of his glass. “But apparently, the little bitch managed to give our man the slip somehow.”
The clinking of the ice cubes around the edge of his glass is the only noise in the room between us for a long moment.
I understand that he’s pissed that Alexei Levine’s younger sister isn’t dead but he doesn’t seem to understand how serious of a move he has just made. We’re not supposed to go after wivesand mothers. Women and children are supposed to be off limits and yet my father has chosen to make his move by going after Levine’s immediate family? That is punching below the belt. This war has been going on for too long, I know that better than most, but this is not the way to move forward.
However, even if I voiced my opinion here, my father wouldn’t listen to it. His way is the only way. His opinion is the only opinion that holds merit.
“You know how this is going to go. This war that you’re obsessed with - there will be no turning back now. You’ve opened season onallof us.” Anger starts to bleed into my words as I speak.
He might be the boss, but his long-term thinking has always been severely lacking.
“You have no one, besides me, so what do you care? Is it not as if they can kill your wife or daughter as retaliation.” Enzo shrugged.
“And our men? Those with families? Because you needed retribution for a fewclubsand aslightdip in profits… you felt that this was warranted? Going against all of Cosa Nostra’s values? What does this mean for our clan?”
“Myclan, son. You have a long way to go before you get to claim that you have any rights to this family. Do not speak higher than you can reach.”
“You are telling me that you find your actions to be fair? Especially when you know for a fact how volatile Alexei Levine can be?!”
I take a step forward as father places his glass down on the mantle of his fireplace. “You said no innocents. It was your cornerstone, father, and yet here you are - murdering a woman who had nothing to do with any of this. I doubt that she had even the slightest idea of the war that her son was involved in. You know as well as I that there have been no reports of them even being in contact foryears.”
“Innocent?” Enzo answers, as if that were the only part of my words that he has picked up on at all. “You stand there and have the balls to tell me that any of those Levine bitches areinnocent?!”
His eyes narrow into slits - something that used to cowtail me into submission when I was a child - but that was a long, long time ago.
Now I can just feel the muscle in my jaw clenching, knowing how much his impulsive, reckless actions are going to cost all of us.
