Page 130 of Mob Princess

Short of pounding his finger into his chest, he couldn’t puff up more.

“Okay. You poached a bratva guy. Who told you to look for Lucy? There’s no way you just stumbled upon a woman who happened to be involved with Sean not that long ago. Who made her your mark?”

“You don’t need to know that.”

“But I do. You want me to believe it’s safer to be with you than with Sean? To my ear, it’s going to piss the bratva off when they find out you hired one of their guys. Then the guy got himself killed by the mob boss’s cousin. Maybe you’re not working with Maks if you think this is still moving forward. Albanians? Mexicans? Polish? There are plenty to pick from, but the list isn’t endless. We can play twenty questions, or you can tell me, so I don’t nag.”

“Besides the bratva, there are only two other families who matter in this city. The O’Rourkes aren’t one of them.”

“The Diazes and Mancinellis. This is about Enrique getting pissed I canceled my meeting with Pablo. He wanted the chance to dick Ewan over in whatever deal I was supposed to make. He’s butt hurt because I chose Sean over having a pointless conversation with his nephew.”

“No.”

“So, Pablo’s the butt hurt one? He was a little pissed when Sean and I ran into him the other day.”

“Your brother wanted you at that meeting to distract you from the one Colt had across town.”

What the hell? Ewan went to Baltimore, and Colt was here? No.

“Justin.” I flash my gaze to the ceiling and back to him as I sigh. Fucking idiot. “You’re lying.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are. You clench your jaw with the last word of any lie. You’ve done it since we were kids. Colt wasn’t here. You were. You told Ewan you volunteered to guard me. You were at the restaurant when I had lunch with Sean. But you weren’t at my meeting with Nishida. You had your own meeting. Salvatore?”

His left thumb just rubbed between his first and second knuckle of his index finger. I’m on the right track, but not quite.

“The underboss?” Wish I could remember his name.

He says nothing, but he doesn’t have to.

“Bingo. The don’s nephew.”

“What?”

“You rubbed your finger, which told me I was close. When you cracked your knuckle, I knew I got it right. Did he act alone?”

“You’re barking up the wrong tree, Nik.”

“Justin, I’m the only person you have who knows you as well as your know yourself. Everyone else is gone. Ewan and Colt never cared enough about you to learn your tells. I did. I did it to protect you against them when they’d pick on you. It kept you from losing your shit. I know when you’re lying and when you’re hiding a truth someone is way too close to. Did the underboss work alone?”

“Nik, stay out of this.”

“Stay out? You dragged me into it kicking and screaming. Does Salvatore know?”

He glares at me.

“Fine. Don’t tell me. But when this inevitably fails, which it will, they’ll leave your ass out to dry. You refuse to believe me when I say the O’Rourkes will not let you live. If you fail, the Mancinellis will kill you. Hell, even if you succeed, the moment you got into bed with them, you picked the first syndicate to get in line to kill you. The O’Rourkes, the Mancinellis, the Kutsenkos. Have you done anything to piss off the Diazes yet? Or is that tomorrow’s epic fuck-up?”

“Fuck you.”

“Been there, done that, didn’t want the t-shirt. If, by some psychedelic stretch of the imagination you got me to leave with you, and somehow the O’Rourkes didn’t get to you, I deserve to know who’s likely to make me a casualty of war. The Mancinelli underboss and who else?”

“His capo di tutti capi.”

“Fancy. Your Italian isn’t that great. You can just call the guy capo dei capi. Still means boss of bosses. Who’s the third in command in the Mancinellis? There are as many of them as there are O’Rourkes.”

“Luca’s the underboss, and Marco’s the capo dei capi.”

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