AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Dinner will be done shortly,” Elio explains. “We can talk as we eat. For now…” He lifts his glass and grins. “We drink.”
“We need a plan,” I repeat for the third time. They both keep dodging it when I say it, going off on their own conversations about other shit. “This isn’t going away.”
Elio sighs, staring at his empty glass like he hopes it’ll fill itself.
“What do we do then?” Marco asks, looking between me and our brother.
“Papa isn’t in the right mind to hand this down to us. If anyone finds out what’s going on, we’re open for the taking,” Elio says.
“Which we will not let happen,” I add.
“Right,” Marco says with a nod.
“We can’t tell them, can’t let them find out, so what? Forge something? Hope Papa has a good day and can make an announcement?” Elio questions, though I know he doesn’t expect us to do either of those things. He’s smart enough to know it won’t work.
I shake my head. “I don’t think that’s the right route either. This will get out eventually. They’ll think us weak for hiding it for so long, for not handling it when we first knew about it. We’re going to lose the other families’ trust and that’s the problem.”
“They’re already hinting at something.” Elio grabs the decanter and fills his glass again.
I point at him. “Exactly what I got from Gaetano too.”
“So we fight back. They come at us, we go right back at them.” Marco shrugs.
“That’s not the right move, Marco.” Elio shakes his head and adds, “We’re powerful, but their numbers are higher. They could easily take us out, one location at a time or all at once. We can’t risk it.”
“We’re running out of time,” I say. “But I had a thought.”
I’d stayed awake most of the night considering this, trying to decide if it was the right thing to do. It’s not an answer, not a solution, but it could buy us some time. I’m not sure what else we have.
My brothers look at me expectantly, and I reach for my glass before draining the contents. Elio is right there, filling it up.
“The last meeting Papa went to, he made them aware he was considering retirement within the next five years. He talked about family and leaving his empire to one of his sons. Everyone was aware of this.”
“Yeah, and then he stopped showing up, causing them to think he’s given up already.”
“That doesn’t matter though. We need to show them we are taking it seriously. Behind the scenes we’ve been working on what Papa wanted for our family, to show we’re working with him, beside him, with his same thought process, and not just shutting him out and planning to overthrow him or fuck anyone else over.”
“How do we do that?” Marco questions, swirling his cup and the bit of alcohol that’s left inside.
“By doing what Papa said. Family. We need wives. Children. Our line needs to continue on.”
Marco flinches and quickly shoots back the contents of his glass, immediately filling it again. We’ve gone through an entire bottle so far, which is why we’ve moved onto the infinity decanter. Something Elio has been working on for quite some time.
Elio chews on the inside of his lip, staring out the window, mulling over what I’ve said.
It’s quiet for a few moments.
“It could buy us some time,” Elio says. “Not much, but maybe a little if we were transparent about it.”
“Doesn’t help with Papa’s problem,” Marco adds.
I shake my head. “It doesn’t, but maybe if we get a suitable nurse in his house to handle him, we’ll know when he has a good day and can have the conversation with him.”
“Bianca is suitable,” Elio growls.
Well, that’s a bit of temper I wasn’t expecting. I narrow my eyes, wondering why he’s so concerned with Bianca.
“Besides the fact he only gets his hands on his phone when she’s working and none of the other nurses,” I quip back.
