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“You carrying a bomb?” Roman asks with a smirk of his own.
“Nah. If I was, we’d all be blown up by now,” I tell him, taking a seat in front of him without being told to.
Jason stands beside the closed door, arms crossed over his chest. Roman’s blue eyes flick over to him inquisitively.
“That’s my best friend, Jason,” I inform him. “He’s kind of like my Tony or Michael. Except he’s not as unhinged as Tony or as good with computers as Mikey over there.”
“Hey,” Tony speaks up, affronted.
Mikey’s expression only flickers while Roman’s jaw clenches.
“You’ve done your research,” he says with a short nod.
“Of course. I make a point to get to know my business partners,” I tell him, leaning backward in my chair.
I undo a button on my suit, letting it fall open. I’m the picture of ease, something I’m sure will annoy Roman.
“Business partners?” he asks an edge to his voice.
“Yes. As soon as we can come to an agreement.”
“You keep talking about agreements and deals. But I’ve never given you any inclinations that I’d like to enter into one with you. I don’t know you; I don’t like you,” he states.
“That’s really mean, Rome. You know much more about me than most people,” I state. “For example, you know my name. You know my face. I’d say that’s plenty information.”
“I also know how it feels to want to put a bullet in your skull,” Roman tosses out.
“Woah,” I chuckle, “easy with the threats. We haven’t even gotten to the good stuff.”
He tilts his head to the side and shrugs. “Alright, fine. What do you want, Russo? And it better be worth my time.”
I lean forward. “Like I’ve been saying since the first time we spoke, Roman, I want a partnership. You and me, we’ve got the potential to do something really amazing here. You’ve just got to be open-minded. I want you to not only see the big picture, but imagine it in your mind.”
“Get to the point.”
I pause, scratching an eyebrow before saying the words, “A marriage alliance. Between our two families.”
Roman stiffens. In my periphery, I see Tony’s eyes widen. Michael’s the only one who doesn’t seem to react.
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
He wasn’t expecting this. But he could have at least given it some thought. Turned it over in his mind. I inwardly sigh.
“Alright, listen. There are currently four powerful mafia families in New York. After you obliterated the Gallos, no one has come up to take their place. It leaves the Russos, the D’Angelos, the De Lucas, and the Mincettis. We’re the top dogs. Now, imagine how great it would be if the two top dogs had an alliance,” I explain. “I’m aware you already have a close friendship with the D’Angelos, but the Don and his two brothers already have wives. It makes sense for you to align yourself with us.”
Roman’s eyes are darker than ever. But he manages to get a word out.
“And the Mincettis?” he asks.
Very subtly, I grit my teeth. “We both know they’re not partnership material.”
Except when they send their daughter to sleep with me and get information.
It was fucking hard to find out who the blonde was. And it was even harder for me to decide what to do with what she said. But at the end of the day, I decided to go with my gut. The Mincettis are unpredictable. There’s not a lot I know about them. And despite their offer of an alliance, I’m going with the De Lucas. Better the devil you know.
Roman could have killed me when he thought I kidnapped his kid, but he didn’t. I admire that. I may have killed him if I thought he was involved with my kid’s disappearance, Or maybe he somehow knew I didn’t have anything to do with it.
I came back home and found the kid just laying there in the dark. I was pissed off that my uncle kidnapped a fucking child. Itold him he needed to make things right or the De Luca’s would have his head but he lost control. He wanted to be a hard-ass and it cost him his life.
