The conversation around the table continued without me, while I jumped on the box over and over again. Words were stuck behind my teeth, but I couldn’t bring myself to say them.
We’d find information about the buyers another way.
“Leona?” Cas’s voice shocked my system back to reality.
I blinked rapidly. “What?”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, of course,” I answered. I had no idea what they’d all just said, but I played it off. “How can we be more vocal and clear? Trafficking of any kind is no longer allowed in New York City, and anyone we catch will answer to us.”
“Ciel and I can spread the word through our contacts,” Obi said, exchanging a look with my hacker, who nodded.
“Same,” Ryu said. “I can make it clear to the people in my clubs.”
“We can also put out a bounty or reward for information,” Wynn said. “Increase the incentive.”
My hand squeezed his thigh. “That’s a great idea.”
“What about Max?” Cas asked.
“What about him?” I asked carefully.
Max was…an issue. I knew it. They knew it. But I didn’t know what the fuck to do about it.
“Kill him next,” Ryu mumbled, mouth full. He poured theopened bottle of wine into my glass first, then the rest of us. The deep red color swirled around in my glass. “If we knock him out, we can absorb his territory and enforce our rules easier. The Lucchese territory helps, but we need to own everything.”
Ryu was right to challenge me during the car ride home. I didn’t know why I didn’t kill him, or why I didn’twantto kill him. Was it because of what we went through together?
Or something else?
“We can’t kill him because of VCI,” I said. It was as good an answer as I had right now. “It’ll throw a huge amount of doubt my way, and I guarantee Max has some backup plan prepared in case he dies.”
I’d only recently been voted onto the board of Vero Construction Inc. during an extremely tense business meeting, and killing Max now would cause upheaval where we needed smooth sailing. Our legitimate business had to operate smoothly so our gun smuggling could continue.
“Plus, there are the other Families to consider. Rossi. Sandrini,” Obi pointed out. “Any other news from Rossi?”
Cas glanced at his phone. “He said he’s keeping an eye out, but nothing new.” He cast a sideways glance at me. “He also asked if we had any updates on the Chiara situation.”
“Fuck,” I grumbled. “I haven’t heard from her since the VCI meeting. What are the odds Max has her tucked away somewhere safe, outside of this entire mess?”
“They are high,” Obi said. “She is critical to his control over the Tommasos. He can’t risk her safety, either through his own hand or through others. She’s fine for now unless we care to intervene.”
I exhaled through my nose. The one thing I wouldn’t do was rescue her only to drop her into the hands of another mafia Don only out to expand his own territory. Rossi had said they knew each other, which was somewhat relieving. But Chiara also knew Max, and he still basically kidnapped her. I needed to talk to her,see what she wanted to do. I had a feeling she was exactly where she wanted to be. Still, I owed Rossi the message for the information he gave us about the Luccheses.
“Ciel, any chance we could try to get in touch with her?”
“I can try,” he said. “With Lucia back in Italy, it might be easier to hack into Max’s systems.”
“Okay. Cas, tell Rossi we’re trying,” I said, then drummed my fingertips on the table. “And see if he wants to meet up again. Maybe we can get him on our side more officially. As far as we know, Max hasn’t yet approached Sandrini, but if we have Rossi in our pocket, we have more firepower to keep pushing against them.”
“Will do,amore.”
“How’s Giulio and our newly gained men?” I asked. Cas had been the organizer of the Italian men under our command. He’d been acapounder my father, and had been doing an amazing job using his skills to manage our growing Family.
“So far, so good. We’re making money. We’re needling Max. Our street cred is growing every day,” he responded.
I took a drink of my wine, embracing the warm taste as it trickled down my throat and settled in my stomach. “While we’re focusing on the Albanians, I want our men to keep bleeding Max. Guerilla tactics. See how they can hit him from all sides and draw his attention away from us.”
