Cas placed a hand on my shoulder, compressing my rage down to a manageable level. “Enzo, what makes you think this issomething we can handle? Why don’t you reach out to Max himself?”
Rossi tilted his head back. “I don’t want a relationship with a usurper, especially not one who almost killed a man I trust. The previous generation of Dons overlooked quite a lot to get what they wanted. I am not that man. So, instead, I’ve refused his multiple invitations to meet.”
If what Rossi said was true, maybe we had a chance to create an ally out of him. But it would never come at the cost of Chiara.
“And why exactly is that?” I asked.
“Volpe will offer me a deal I know I don’t want. Let’s just leave it at that.”
I huffed, eyes narrowing into a glare. “But why Chiara?”
“She and I are acquaintances,” he said carefully. “I think she’ll find that my offer will be better than Volpe’s. To the mutual benefit of all of us.”
I inspected every single thing about him I could see. The expression on his face. The slight tilt of his shoulders. The stretch of his shirt around his waist which told me he had a gun tucked into the belt behind him, where we couldn’t see. Was Rossi different from the rest of the men in our world? Or was he just simply more of the same, entitled assholes who believed they could take whatever they wanted?
“I’ll warn you right now, Rossi. The women in my circle, under my care, make their own goddamn choices. We are not pawns to be used. We are not objects to be given and received. Chiara will never be a pawn in this game while I have a say.”
His face turned sad. “She already is. All I offer her is a way out.” I opened my mouth, but he held up a hand. “In a gesture of goodwill, I will give you Vokshi’s location. And I promise I do not intend to hurt her or use her. If you can get a message to her from me, inviting her to my territory, that’s all I ask.”
“A gesture of goodwill,” I repeated.
He was quiet for a moment. “Yes. Do you agree to get her a message?”
He was dangling exactly what I needed in front of my face for something there was no way I could give.
Was he really interested in Chiara? Would he just use her the way Max was using her? Was he trying to test my measure?
But Cas trusted him. Cas thought he was a good man. If Cas was right, Rossi set himself apart from the other Dons on purpose. I had to take a chance.
We needed Orik Vokshi’s location.
The hair prickled on the back of my neck. “If it is possible for me to do so, I will pass along a message from you. That is it.”
He nodded before pulling a phone from his pocket and reading the screen. “Orik Vokshi ran to the Luccheses.”
I stilled. “The Luccheses? How do you know?”
“I have spies in many places. He’s there. You can trust that. No guarantee of how long they’ll hide him before they move him back to his men.”
“Why would the Luccheses take him in?”
We had account numbers and payment receipts that suggested my father was paying the other Dons, but we didn’t know why or for what. Was this the answer? Were the Dons also allied with the Albanians?
Rossi looked over my shoulder to Caspian, then back to me. “Right after I became Don, your father approached me with a request. It was more of a demand, really. He told me he needed access to my streets, and that he’d pay me for the privilege. He told me there was a transport going down, and we only needed to let it happen, let it pass through. He was even doing me a favor, offering me so much money for just a night.”
Payment for using his territory. I shifted from foot to foot. “And did you accept it?”
He shook his head. “This kind of underhanded deal wasexactly what got my father into trouble and exposed our family to ruin.”
Cas shook his head. “I’m glad you came out on the other side of that. You’re the best leader for the Rossis, and everyone knew it.”
“Thanks to your help, Cas, I kept my rightful seat.”
“So what about my father?”
“I was hesitant, and rightfully so. I didn’t know Luciano, and I didn’t trust anyone who hadn’t earned it. I told him he could use my streets as a personal favor, which I expected him to one day return. He accepted, quite pleased with himself that he didn’t end up paying me any money. Then I had him followed, and we watched exactly what happened. What he organized. When I realized he was trafficking and using my territory to do it, I cut ties altogether. We’ve kept the other Dons out of our territory ever since, and I always assumed if he’d make that offer to me, he’d make it to the other Dons. I was the only one who seemed to say no.”
So Rossi was reclusive and kept to himself because he didn’t trust my father, or the other Dons. Another piece of the puzzle slotted into place. Now I could clearly see that he was not the weakest of us. He was the only one with a spine.
