Page 22 of Where the Wicked Reign

“What’s that deeply etched frown for?”

I blinked out of my thoughts and looked up from the documents in my hands to see Milo lifting a sharp brow at me.

“Earnings are up fourteen percent from last quarter. You’re also leading the other two Capos as usual. Cassio’s only up seven percent and that shithead, Giovanni, is sitting at a weak-ass two, even with his territory boasting weapons shipments.”

Weapons shipments.That was part of the issue. Especially the fact that Gio wasn’t earning for the Family the way my father wanted. As much as I wasn’t a fan of Gio and his reactive and shortsighted approach to being Capo, this particular situation wasn’t entirely on him. My father’s ridiculous expectations that he’d rolled out at our last meeting were nearly impossible, even for me to live up to. And everyone knew I was the best out of all three of us. I’d always reigned supreme over them.

“It’s not enough,” I muttered, sinking back in my leather desk chair and eyeing Milo across the desk of my home office. “Twenty-five percent was the stipulated expectation.”

“Unreasonableexpectation is more like it.”

“Whether it is or isn’t, it’s a directive.”

He nodded. “From on high, got it.” He shifted his weight on his chair. “We could double the protection money we charge to—”

“No. I’m not doing that. It’s already been increased enough over the last few years. It could break them, weaken their enforced loyalty to us, and push them to going to the other families, which would risk destabilization.”

“Then we secure another couple of buyers for our coke operations.”

“I’m already looking into it, searching for viable buyers who can remain discreet and not distribute dangerously and conspicuously, as some dealers are known to do.” I sank back against my chair. “But that’s not the focus of my concern.”

“The military-grade weapons deal Marco’s been trying to lockdown?”

I nodded. Then I lifted my laptop and put it down in front of him. “Take a look at this. It’s everything I’ve found.”

He raised an eyebrow and started studying the data it had taken me a long time to compile, ever since rumors had reached me about my father’s intention to go this foolish route. There had been so much cloak-and-dagger bullshit involved that it had been like pulling teeth to obtain anything whatsoever—at least at first.

Marco Marchetti was becoming unhinged.

That had become more apparent to me than ever when I’d found out that thisdealthat had been on the table involved him partnering with a literal madman.

Mercenary leader, Malcolm Lynch.

It would involve the Marchetti Syndicate moving from dealing in street-level weaponry to military-grade arms. The idea itself came with its share of issues, not least of which would be risking exposure and gaining the unwanted attention of the Feds. The smooth, careful, and strategic way we ran our other illegitimate operations ensured we kept off their radar. But the deal that he was working with Lynch would fly in the face of all of that. It would jeopardize the Family. All in the name of his greed.

We had a truce with the Leones and the Benzinos, but if that deal went through, it would risk that, destabilizing the balance, and coming very close to an actual call to war. There were very clear terms established and allying with somebody like Lynch and venturing into the likes of military-grade weapons would definitely violate said terms.

So I was trying to put a stop to it.

However, it was much easier said than done, especially without revealing my involvement in nixing such a lucrative business arrangement.

“No longer rumors,” Milo uttered, looking up at me from the laptop screen, his worry about the entire fucked-up thing coming through loud and clear. “You’ve got enough here now to prove his intention to get into business with this creepy covert organization,Osiris.”

“Yes. A deal is even on the table now. A few more weeks and it will be solidified, things will already be in operation.”

“The leader of this outfit is a psychopath.”

I nodded. “Malcolm Lynch.”

“An enemy of Roman Knight’s. He kidnapped his son, for fuck’s sake, did some messed-up shit to him, too.”

“And the girl who was taken along with him, yes.”

“He was run underground.”

“Worse, he was believed to be dead. Hence it being so difficult to get solid intel, and why the intel I do have is all over the place, bits and pieces.Andwhy I can’t pin him down, or even his allies either, or identify the members of his organization. All we know so far is that Malcolm Lynch is the leader ofOsirisand that my father has a deal on the table to trade in military-grade weapons. He admitted to working on such a deal during the lastSummoning of the Capos, as he likes to call it, but he didn’t mention who he was intending to partner with. That I found when I accessed some of these coded communications off his desktop.”

“Thanks to Cassio causing a distraction so you could do so.”

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