Page 19 of Where the Wicked Reign

I wasn’t surprised she was taking everything in, given that this was her first time ever stepping in here.

I’d expected her guard to be right behind her, but the door closed thanks to Hazel, and my mom remained here alone.

“Where’s your guard?”

“I made him wait outside in the town car.”

“So this is about Santino then,” I determined with her need for privacy giving it away. Although the guy in question washerguard, he worked for my father at the end of the day.

“Before we get to that, aren’t you going to give your mom a hug?”

“Sorry,” I said, rising from my chair. “I’m just swamped right now.”

I rounded the desk, and she met me halfway, throwing her arms around me and holding me to her.

I tensed up at first from the contact—I didn’t like to be touched as a rule. But I managed to sink into it and not offend her after a couple of moments, and I returned her embrace.

As we eased back, she held onto my hands and looked me over in my black and gold Versace pantsuit, my hair in a chic half-up, half-down do.

“You’re always so busy. You need to take a break every now and then, my sweetheart.”

“I can’t build an empire by taking breaks.”

“But you don’t want to burn out either.”

I smiled. “Touché.”

I gestured to one of the two chairs in front of my desk. As she took a seat, I settled back in mine, too.

Clasping my hands on my desk, I took her in, noting how tired she looked, worn down really. “So, what’s he done this time?”

She sighed heavily. “I debated whether to tell you about this. But the fact is, you’re the only person I can come to with it. If your father had any idea I knew about it, let alone that I was going against him on this—”

“Mom, I know,” I said, reaching out and laying my hand on hers on the desktop. “I know exactly how he is, how controlling, and how unhinged he can be sometimes. Especially when he feels there’s a threat to the Family.”

She scoffed. “It’s not a family anymore. It hasn’t been ever since he pushed you out with his bad decisions and then subsequently shoved me away too in favor of his whores. All he cares about is grabbing power any way he can get it and maintaining his rule over his territory in the city.” She shook her head, worry spilling forth. “But this… what he’s trying to do here… it’s moving beyond his territory… it’s a threat to the Marchettis and the Benzinos, and they won’t take that lightly.” That worry gave way to true terror as she uttered in a conspiratorial whisper, “It could mean war.”

“What is it? Is he planning to open a rival casino to the Benzinos? Get into the drug trade and thereby piss off both them and the Marchettis? Put up one of his luxury apartment buildings on their territory because he’s run out of space within his?”

“Trafficking.”

“That’s nothing new.”

“Of young women and men.”

I started. “No. I stopped something similar when he brought inunwilling participantsto work at one of his strip clubs.”

After she’d tipped me off back then too, I’d hacked into the security cameras they’d had all over the place to keep an eye on their strippers and to ensure their clientele didn’t rip them off by not paying for certain despicable services in the back rooms. I’d sent the footage to my father anonymously under the guise of being a potential rival of his, ensuring he didn’t suspect members of the other two families, so that war didn’t break out. And the threat had worked. He’d closed down that up-and-coming aspect of his business before it could really get off the ground.

But this… this was another level altogether.

“You’re certain, Mom?”

She nodded. “He sent Angelo to pick me up after my shift at the children’s hospital, citing an urgent matter. That demented Capo took me to an empty condo in one of his Luxe Condos buildings and there was a young woman there with a stab wound. Your father was there also and asked me to treat her discreetly. When I had them leave the room so I could do so without them hovering over me, she told me she was in danger—from them. She was so scared, she wouldn’t tell me the whole story. But that was enough for me to worry. And to know that your father was violating the truceandthe sanctity of the Leone Family—women and children aren’t to be harmed. Ever. So, I convinced them that the wound needed major medical intervention—surgery—or the woman would die. I got her out to Tolhurst General, where she only really needed a few stitches, and then I gave her some cash and helped her get out of the city that night. Your father believed that she escaped.”

“You mean, you hope he believed it?”

She grimaced. “Perhaps it’s wishful thinking. He hasn’t said a word to me about it. If he didn’t believe me—”

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