Page 101 of Fight Me Little Pearl

I walk across the desk to the alcohol cabinet to grab a bottle of whiskey and two glasses. On the desk, I fill each of the glasses before handing one over to Roberto.

“Thank you.”

“Your family must have told you the truth,” I say. “About when your three brothers tried to poison me.”

Roberto’s face falls, and there’s genuine hurt in his eyes. “I was so disappointed when I learned of it. I’m so sorry, Valentino. How did you live with this for years? No wonder you hate them. I’d hate them, too.”

“I don’t hate them. I just don’t trust them; there’s a difference.”

Roberto laughs, and I narrow my eyes. “Roberto, you were asleep when they were planning to assassinate me, if you were awake, you’d most likely be in that room with your brothers too.”

“Valentino, no.”

“Are you saying you would have stopped them? Done something different?”

“Valentino, why do you think the meeting was conducted while I was asleep? They knew I would never support them and would be on your side, and they were right.”

It was a great question. I watch Roberto struggle with relating his emotions, and I stay quiet, letting him get everything off his chest.

“I’m never going to say this again, Valentino, but I love you,” he says. “You’re my brother and I love you. I don’t know how to show it, but it’s true. You can trust me. I won’t let you down.”

“I can trust you?”

“Yes.” He nods. “You can.”

“Okay.” I swipe the document on my table towards him. “That’s how far Vinny and I have progressed with the other bosses.”

He glances at the document. “Really?”

“Yeah. After I took Joseph to Terra de Barbieri, the bosses reached out to me. Just like I knew they would.”

“Oh, yes, you called it!” Roberto chuckles. “You really are the Boss for a reason. So what did Vinny tell Sal?”

I shrug. “I don’t need to know.”

“What do you mean?” Roberto’s eyes widen.

“Vinny is a wily old snake and Sal is a greedy, careless upstart. Vinny will always outmaneuver Sal. There will never be a situation where Sal beats Vinny at anything. Sal’s next move will be to organize a takedown to push me out of the picture.”

Roberto frowns. “You turned yourself into bait. Why?”

There’s a knock on my door, after which Dutch peeks through. “Boss, we just got exclusive information from our source. Sal is planning a hit on you in the next few days.”

My smile widens as I return my attention to Roberto. “What do you say, brother? Are you ready to take that fucker down?”

Chapter Forty-Four

FRANCESCA

“What’s going on?” Louisa meets me by the car, her face drawn with worry. “You sounded terrible over the phone.”

I glance at the house before pulling Louisa into the car and shutting the door. As the car pulls out of the driveway, I hit the button that triggers the partition between the driver’s seat and the backseat.

“Who is the driver?” Louisa asks. “I’ve not seen him before. Where’s Dutch?”

“His name is Romero.” I answer.

Looks like he’s been put in charge of driving me around. I haven’t seen Dutch or Vance in days, along with my husband. Valentino hasn’t called, and neither has he shown up at the house. So many times I’ve been tempted to call him but have chickened out. What I want to say to him can’t be done over the phone. I’m going to take the bull by the horns.

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