Page 145 of Vicious Addictions

“He must have died from his injuries,” Dominic states the obvious. “The Crane twins did a pretty number on him before they brought him. It was just his time, I guess.”

“How disappointing,” Vincent muses, staring at Dimitri’s corpse. “Dr. Goldberg usually does so well with lost causes.”

“Can’t win them all,” I interject, standing in the corner of the room.

“No, I guess you can’t,” Vincent asserts evenly, eyeing me and his eldest son far too attentively for my liking.

Thankfully, Jude keeps his placid mask on and doesn’t quiver under his father’s scrutinizing glare.

“I was able to get a name before he died,” Jude volunteers.

“How fortuitous that Dimitri’s last breath was to help us,” Vincent retorts with a hint of sarcasm.

Vincent isn’t stupid. He knows that something went down in this room. There was foul play conducted here. But let him have his suspicions. He’ll never hear the truth from me.

If he so much as suspected that Jude killed Dimitri just so I could keep a promise, Lord knows what he would do to his own son.

I’m not blind. Anyone with a pair of eyes can see that Vincent has a soft spot for his eldest son. But being a father and a boss are two very different things.

Vincent would have to make an example out of Jude, even if every fiber of his being told him otherwise.

“Well, don’t leave me in suspense. What’s the name?”

“Donato,” Jude is quick to announce.

“I see.” Vincent’s lips take on a scowl, the name obviously familiar.

“I don’t understand. Dimitri confessed to working for theCosa Nostra.Still, I can’t recall the name Donato,” I chime in since it’s blatantly apparent I’m the only one in the room who’s never heard of it before. “Are they a new family in Sicily?”

“They’re not from the old country,” Jude starts to explain beside me. “They’ve always been based in New York.”

“I thought the Irish mob held New York?” I ask with a furrowed brow.

“A part of it, yes. But not all of it. The Donatos still rule the majority of the city.”

“Basta!” Vincent shouts when he’s had enough of Jude’s explanations. “The Donato name has been dead to us for nearly thirty years. If it’s resurfacing now, well… it doesn’t bode well for our family.”

I want to ask a slew of questions about what he means by that, but I know when to keep my mouth shut when the boss is in one of his moods. It’s evident the name Donato has triggered Vincent.

“I need to think,” he says, striding toward the door. “Get someone to handle the body. I’ll be in my office, so if either of you remembers anything else about what really happened here this morning, come see me.”

“There’s nothing left to say. Mina and I fell asleep, and when we woke up, Dimitri was dead.”

“Is this really the hill you plan to die on, son?” Vincent asks, his menacing glare settling again on Jude, causing me to hold my breath, praying he doesn’t crack under the pressure.

If the tables were reversed and it was my father who looked at me like that, I would have spilled my guts out to him. But Jude stays silent under such scrutiny, which surprises me.

I never questioned his loyalty to his family. After all, he chose them over me. So, for him to keep this secret actually thaws a bit of the frost that has hardened my heart.

“May I have a word with you, son?” Vincent asks, the forced politeness causing my hackles to rise.

“Of course,” Jude replies, but he doesn’t take a single step in his father’s direction.

Instead, he stays rooted to the spot, right beside me. He shoves his hand into his pocket, letting me know he’s fiddling with my ivory chess piece to keep him grounded.

Vincent also picks up the underlying message that Jude is trying to convey without words.

Anything you have to say to me, you can say in front of Mina.

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