Page 90 of Now and Forever

It went against the omertá to kill the capo dei capi. If I chose to take my father’s life, I would never be capo. I wouldn’t be the first son to murder his father. Recently, there was a situation in the Chicago outfit. While no one can prove the son was responsible for the boss’s death—he had an alibi—that didn’t stop the rumors. I’d met the father more than once. With the son in control, Chicago was now a better outfit.

Dante was seated shotgun while Giovanni drove the bulletproof SUV.

“He’s in the city,” Dante said after a series of text messages with some of our top soldiers—the ones we knew we could trust, or at least we thought we could. My brother was speaking of our father.

“Take us to his apartment building,” I said.

Giovanni took the next turn and headed toward our father’s penthouse.

“Fuck, I’d rather not see Alesia,” Dante complained.

“I don’t want to see our father either.” The fucker broke his word again about stepping down, claiming the famiglia needed him. Last night, we had two shootings and the bratva robbed a liquor store under our protection. Father took that as a sign he shouldn’t retire. I took it as a sign that he should.

“Tell me more about what happened last night,” I said. “Did you have a talk with Hoss?” Hoss was the owner of the store that was robbed.

“You could call it that,” Dante said. “I talked and he listened.”

I met my brother’s gaze. He could be a sick fuck when necessary. We both could. Dante had a knack for interrogation. “Was there a problem?”

Dante nodded. “Too coincidental. The timing. It doesn’t make sense. When I checked out the security camera footage, Hoss tried to backtrack.”

“You should have told me.”

“Your plate has been fucking full today. I handled it.”

“Does Father know?”

Dante inhaled. “I told him I was looking into it. Fucker screamed at me and told me not to doubt his word.”

Gritting my teeth, I had a fleeting thought that they might crack from the pressure. “You don’t think it was bratva?”

“The shootings, yeah. One was down by the shipyard. They tried to take some of our new product from the cartel. We have one of their soldiers soaking in acid. The other one was a drive-by outside Trattoria. The location was too precise. There was a meeting there last night of regional underbosses. Someone must have tipped off the Russians. We lost two soldiers.” Dante shook his head. “One was only twenty.”

“Name?”

“Elio Rossi.”

This was a part of our life I hated. “Fuck. Isn’t he the brother of Leandro?” Our father wouldn’t be able to pick these men out of a lineup. They sacrificed their lives for him, and he couldn’t bother to learn their names. I knew each one. Elio was the younger brother. His older brother, Leandro, had been killed about a year ago.

“Hewas.” Dante nodded. “I paid a visit to their mother.”

“That should have been me.”

“It should have been the capo, but he’s too busy fucking his mistress to give a damn.”

“Thank you.” Notifying family was a responsibility I assumed years ago. Being the grim reaper wasn’t on my list of favorite duties. However, I believed that if a man or a woman perished while doing the famiglia’s business, their family deserved the respect of the famiglia of being told personally of their loss. “How did the Russians know about the meeting? It’s like they fucking have inside information. Tell me more about Hoss’s place.”

“Security footage was too clean. It wasn’t the damn bratva. It was an inside job. Hoss tried to say the cameras malfunctioned.”

“Do you think he was trying to scam us?”

“He denied that—at first.” There was a glint in my brother’s eyes. “After some persuasion, he said a man paid him to make it seem like the Russians were responsible. The man said Hoss would get paid twice. Once from him and once from us when we recouped his loss.”

“Who the fuck?”

“Yeah, he didn’t get a name.”

“Who would benefit from a robbery looking like the bratva?” I asked aloud, knowing the answer was the man we were about to see. The more chaos, the more reason for him to hold onto power.

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