Page 200 of Forced Vows

The man nods his head and leaves the room.

This is more than Sev or I expected when we came.

We thought we would have to strong arm the godfather into accepting that he needed to name a different capo as his heir.

But he is a man of honor, and his nephew has betrayed the Cosa Nostra.

Sev straightens. "I look forward to meeting the man who will be the next don of the great Lucchese family."

"I will introduce him to the rest of the capos tonight." The Godfather knows how eminent his death is and is determined to impose his will one last time.

For the good of la famiglia.

The call comes in the early hours of the morning.

I snag my phone without jostling Róise's sleeping form. I exhausted her with lovemaking last night.

I crave her body all the time, but after finding out how she reached out to mamma, I had to show her the depth of my feelings again.

"Sev," I say into the phone.

"Caruso had another stroke. He's on life support."

"Why?"

"He gave instructions to do it and assigned me power of attorney to decide when to turn them off."

"Giving you time to finish gathering support."

"Yes."

"We're close."

"We are," my brother agrees. "Salvatore wants to kill Henry Caruso because he sanctioned the hit on Bianca."

"It is not his place. You are the don whose territory was defiled and I am your right arm. Besides, he already killed the men who touched her."

"Would that be enough for you?"

No. It would not. "I'll rock, paper, scissors him for it."

"Whatever works, but the man dies soon."

"Agreed."

I put the phone down and shift back down to lie beside Róise.

She nuzzles sleepily into my neck. "Who was that?"

"Sev. The godfather is on life support."

Róise sits up like someone hit her with one of Salvatore's cattle prods. "What? The godfather is dead?"

"Not yet, but he will be. Sev will turn off life support when the time is right."

"Why your brother and not a member of the godfather's family?"

"He's giving us time to shore up Sev's bid for godfather."

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