Page 142 of Assassin's Obsession

Perla presses her lips together firmly in mute denial.

"Let me guess. Lora Revello. I knew letting her live was going to come back to bite us in the ass." Miceli shakes his head.

"And we're not going to off her now. She is my wife's aunt and Catalina cares about the old bitch."

"Sounds like her retirement solution needs to be addressed," I say.

Whatever they decide to do with Lora is probably what we should do with Perla once my grandfather is dead.

"Lora is part of our mafia now. You have no jurisdiction over her." Don Messino is as deluded and arrogant as his daughter.

Severu's patience snaps at that arrogant claim. "Like you have no jurisdictionanywherein North America?"

"I was attempting to right a wrong. You had Henrico killed to get rid of your competition and killed your own godfather to take his place."

Severu doesn't dignify the ridiculous accusation with a reply, but asks, "If you had succeeded in having me killed, what do you think would have happened?"

"A better godfather would take your place."

"Maybe, but his name would be De Luca too."

"You're not roping me into that headache," Miceli mutters sotto voce.

"And my brothers would have destroyed you and obliterated the Sicilian Cosa Nostra to extinction," Severu finishes.

"You only have one brother unless there are more skeletons in the De Luca closet than we know about." There's a snide twist to my grandfather's lips lost on Severu because he can't see the screen.

"Wrong. Miceli is my brother by blood. Rafael Mancini is my brother by marriage. And Angelo Caruso is my brother by choice. Both his and mine."

"What do you want?"

"I already told you. Promise a truce on your vow as a godfather and I will send your daughter home alive."

"You can have your truce but we are not allies."

"Not as long as you are godfather of the Cosa Nostra in Sicily."

Don Messino doesn't look worried enough to have taken that as the warning it is.

Severu makes a cutting motion with his hand and I end the call.

We both turn to Perla, who is staring at her dead husband, not with grief, but with shock and more than a little dismay.

"You return to Sicily tomorrow," Severu tells her. "You do not return to the United States ever."

Her return to Sicily is key to the plan that's been in the making since we first learned about Messino's disapproval of Severu becoming the next godfather.

Chapter 39

CANDI

His hand on my arm to make sure I don't trip again, Derian and I jog back to the house I escaped from.

"This is not necessary." I tug on my arm a little.

He doesn't let go. "I already fucked up once today protecting you. Nothing else is happening to you on my watch."

"Unless you gave Nina the drugged wine, it wasn't your screw up," I pant.

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