Page 60 of Mafia Don's Secret Baby

“Send out word that we are working closely together, and if anyone stands against Lilianna, they stand against me. She is mine, and this alliance will stand regardless of any pissing competition among our allies.” I slammed my palm onto the table. A couple of them men jumped at the crashing noise. “Tell them what happens if they stand against either of us.” I pointed at the body lying on the floor in a pool of blood to remind them.

“I think the message is loud and clear that neither of you will stand for backlash,” Jay replied.

“We’re all going to work together to end this feud with the Russians,” Lilianna said, her voice strong and firm. “Our people are dying, and we’re both aware of it. I have men living and fighting on the front alongside Matteo’s men, and I won’t stand for it. Once you all get over your fucking problems with me and my gender, we can start discussing the real issue at hand. Believe it or not, you can love this family with or without a cock.”

Lilianna smiled thinly when nobody spoke.

“Nobody will talk down to me ever again. Matteo isn’t the only one willing to shed blood to quell a rebellion. I want you all to know that I never swore an oath to the mafia. Never to my father or my brother. When I left, I did it without ever swearing any vows. I left because I was still free, but that is no longer the case. I have sworn myself to each of you, and by the end of today, I expect the same loyalty from you.”

I’d grown used to seeing this entirely different side of Lilianna. I’d seen her as an empathetic and loving mother. I’d seen her as a sister and a daughter. I’d seen her dedication to avenge her family, but I had never seen such cold brutality from her in the past. She had been struggling with the idea of rejoining the mob life for weeks. She knew what it meant to swear herself to this life, and she didn’t take it lightly.

But I’d forgotten who had influenced her.

I sometimes forgot that Lilianna was more equipped to handle this life than men who had been living the life for twenty years. While they had a past before the mob life, Lilianna had always been here. She’d always been surrounded by death and gore and loyalty that might cost your life.

It was ingrained in her DNA.

She was a born leader, and she didn’t need me to hover and make decisions for her. Lilianna knew what to do, and I knew I could trust her.

She began talking to a few advisors, and they looked at her differently this time. I saw the cool assessment in their eyes, but I also saw approval as she spoke as if she’d spent her entire life leading men like them.

She’s been raised by a man who had spent his life leading a successful crime family, and it showed.

Of course, she knew what to do.

Her turned-up nose crinkled at something one of the men said, and she plunged deeper into the conversation, taking note of the soldiers and made men who would be most effective in the fight against the Russians. She learned the names of her father’s best spies, and she wrote down their names and specialties.

She learned everything, and once she did, she delegated.

She rearranged the places where her father had stationed his soldiers to best accommodate the threat. I listened to each of her choices and allowed her to make them. When she went to pull forces from one border, I explained a threat that she hadn’t been made aware of, and she reevaluated.

I saw the way her men approved of each of her decisions, and when they questioned her, she listened. Alessio had never listened, and he’d lost people and money because of it.

Lilianna made the final decisions remorselessly, but she didn’t make them blindly or without acknowledging feedback.

“Starting tonight, everyone will be in their new positions,” she said with a nod. “I’ll send undercover men into the territory to scope out the possible attack routes, and we’ll strike within the week.”

Everyone seemed pleased to hear that.

“It’s time for the ritual,” she said, standing and smoothing a hand over her shirt. “I spoke with all of you, and you heard my plans for change. I allowed you to consider. But you all swore your oaths to my father, and you know what that means.”

They either had to swear to her, or they would die. There was no avoiding it. Leaving traitors alive could end in further bloodshed, and judging by her stoic expression, she knew it. She’d been merciful once, but not anymore. Not now that we were this close.

She grabbed a blade from her pocket and glanced at her hand. A line had already scabbed over from where she made a promise to her brother’s grave. This time, she angled the knife a little lower.

Blood welled in her hand, and she squeezed her hand into a fist to create a small pool of ruby red.

“As it has always been done,” she said with a nod. “I swear myself to the Italian mafia. I enter of my own free will, and only death will separate me from my duty.”

One by one, the men came to her and swore themselves with the same official words and blood. Not a single one hesitated, and nobody bothered trying to talk their way out of it. My men made their way from the room, too, leaving Lilianna standing straight and eyeing the exit. Blood dripped from her fingers onto the mahogany table.

Only as I came behind her and put my hand on her lower back did her posture loosen. Her back expanded with a deep breath as she turned and pierced me with a bright gaze.

“We did it.”

“You did it.”

When she smiled up at me, there wasn’t a single thing in the world that mattered more.

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