Page 51 of The Boss

“Yes,” I hissed. “There could be a target on Willow’s back. Fuck. I don’t like the way this is going.”

“Maybe that means Leandro wasn’t the main target.”

“No one would be stupid enough to enter our club and kill one of the Nomikos brothers unless they knew what they were doing. But if what Eros told me is true, the entire family is in the bullseye.”

“Whoever it is has a damn death wish,” Christos snarled. “We need to keep Mom and Pops away for a couple days.”

“Make it happen. Just know Pops won’t be pushed away for long.”

“Tell me something I don’t know. Right now, you can’t trust Shane.”

“True. I don’t think he’s the killer. However, if Shane does indeed have something to do with our brother’s death and that of his parents, it’s up to me to find out.” And to bring all three justice if necessary.

“You can’t carry all the burden on your shoulders, as broad as they are,” Christos huffed in jest. “I realize she was given a raw deal, but you can’t tell me you trust her.”

“No, I can’t. At least not yet. But she might provide assistance and success when I doubt Shane would allow himself to be found otherwise.”

“She’d need to be locked down and you can’t seriously think our men are going to guard her twenty-four/seven.”

“They’ll do what I tell them to do.”

When my brother whistled, I gave him a harsh look. “You really do care about this girl. I have a suggestion for you.”

“Meaning what?” I poured out more of my drink.

“Meaning you need to keep her on a short leash while parading her around as lure. I know safely. There’s only one way to do that. Marry her.”

I coughed, spitting out half the gulp. “What?”

“Why not? You need to secure a family at some point. I know Pops has been pushing you to accept the full role as the head of our family. Godfather of the night. Only a fool is going to crash that party unless the person is the Stalker.”

He had a good point, but I wasn’t so certain I could wrangle Willow into accepting. Yes, I could force her to marry me, but that would only push her further into a nice padlocked box mentally and emotionally. I was cruel. But even I had limitations.

He was laughing but was also right. Our father had pushed, gently at first, but I knew he wouldn’t let up on his request. Soon,it would become a demand, maybe even a condition of being head of the family. “Marry her.” Why was I repeating the words? To get used to them?

“That way she’ll be permanently attached to you. Maybe Shane will take that seriously and come out of hiding.”

“Time for the meeting, gentlemen,” Havros said from behind us.

While I normally loathed interruptions, this time I was grateful to have time to think. I followed them back into the room. Thirty of my people were there, all in high positions with the Nomikos regime and all longtime employees. While most were a part of the old businesses, some handled managerial aspects of our legitimate side.

My brothers flanked both sides as soon as I entered the room. We didn’t need to tell the employees to quiet down. They did so on their own. Meetings like this were rare and usually involved difficult information to deal with. Including murders, but not this close to home.

“There’s no easy way to say this. Our brother Leandro was murdered a couple days ago.”

I noticed Nico’s face. He was still as angry as my brothers were. He’d also been fond of my younger brother.

“What the hell?”

“By whom?”

The exclamations were to be expected. I let it go on for a couple of minutes before throwing up my hands. “Enough. The murderer has yet to be found.”

“But we suspect who the killer is.” Atticus was speaking out of turn, but he was doing so in case there were already rumors.

“We have someone under suspicion, but no one is to consider touching him. That’s our job for when we’ve determined the accuracy of what we suspect. Is that clear?”

My people knew better than to defy me.

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