Page 113 of Wicked Rivals

It was hard as hell, but I forced myself to focus on more than just her image, the pained expression on her face. I needed to examine her environment, look for clues, a lead, any small detail pointing me in the right direction.

She sprawled across a marble floor. Her feet partially covered an image or logo embedded into the stone with colorful mosaic tiles, but I couldn't make it out.

I could’ve had one of the boys try a reverse image search, but that would require uploading this image to the internet, and I couldn’t risk putting it out there in the public domain. The last thing I needed was for the FBI to find it and get involved.

I needed to keep this under law enforcement’s radar. I needed to be entirely free, beyond legal jurisdiction, when I struck back.

Tony knocked on the door, and I waved him in. He took a seat on the other side of my desk and stared at his feet instead of meeting my gaze.

“I made the calls, boss.”

“Tell me.”

“The other families won’t help. They say you don’t have the clout to demand this kind of favor. If it was your wife and a legitimate son, that’d be a different story. Then they’d fight to protect your family.

“But for a mistress and a bastard… no. You’d have pull if you and Benedetta were married, but since that’s off the table…”

“If she were my wife, I wouldn’t need their men.”

“I am aware, sir.”

He continued avoiding eye contact, which meant this was about to get worse.

“What else, Tony?”

“The Commission won’t help either. Not until you’re a member of the committee, and that could take months.”

I jumped to my feet and began pacing around the room.

“Fuck! What does that leave us with?”

“Not many options,” Tony said. “But we’re not dead in the water yet. Bruce and Hastings are working on grabbing the security feeds at the train stations. We’re still watching the city’s feeds around Con Amore. There’s always a chance they picked up something.”

I pushed my hands through my hair, pulling it tightly away from my scalp, then let out my breath. Something, some fucking detail, still eluded me. There had to be something I just didn’t see yet.

“One more thing, boss. I spoke to Don Capaldo about the announcement to cancel the wedding. Figured if we could at least get word out there for this psycho to pick up, we might buy the girl more time.”

I turned on my heel to face him.

“That's a great idea. Why aren't we doing that?”

“Capaldo refuses. He says the wedding is still on, and if you're not at the church tomorrow, he'll kill you himself.”

I scoffed at the idea.

“He needs the strength to pick up a gun first.”

Still, Capaldo had created another problem. Another threat I couldn’t afford to ignore, just not the most pressing threat right now.

I had to be smart about this, think things through.

A few options came to mind, and I hated every one of them.

The other families thought I lacked the standing to garner the type of favors that would help me out of this situation…

Val and Enzo weren’t considered my legitimate family, so their well-being wasn’t protected under the Cosa Nostra code.

If I married Benedetta, I would have the Capaldo men under my control, but not until afterthe ceremony. Too slow.

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