Page 53 of Secret Baby for the Italian Mafia King

“You know why he sent me, Ren.”

“Because he doesn’t value your life very highly.”

“Because he’s willing to extend an olive branch. Just this once. He sent me for a reason. Not one of his lackeys that might feel a certain way about what you’ve done to him and his men. I’m a—what, aneutralparty, I suppose. Best chance you’re going to get a fair deal here.”

“I don’t need a fair deal.”

“Oh, you do. You really do. Because if it comes down to a fight, won’t be nothing fair about that. He knows you have the girl that killed his son, Ren.”

“So, tell him to come get her, and he and his boy can have a speedy reunion.”

Atlas leans back as if I don’t have a pistol aimed right at his future children.

“I’m gonna pretend, for your sake, that I didn’t hear that.” He grins. “So, here’s the offer: Either you give over the girl, or in three days, we make a formal declaration with the families to have you named as a liability and have you…” he glances toward Harper, choosing his words carefully, “expunged, let’s call it.”

Killed, to spare syllables.

I’m not impressed by his threats.

“The families haven’t been united on anything for as long as either of us has been alive. That’s not going to change over some man who couldn’t handle a simple shakedown.”

Atlas grins like he finds it funny.

“Hell, if I were Dellucci, I wouldn’t be shouting that from the rooftops either. Let the boy sleep with some dignity, you know? But you know how Jon is. He’s just like you, Ren.No mercy.And, sure, the families might not agree on how to cut up your territory among themselves or who gets which politician in which pocket. But one thing everybody can agree on? You’re bad for business. And the vultures will all be happy to pick whatever they can off your carcass.”

We glare at each other, his smile stretching the corner of his mouth as if he’s told me anything I don’t already know. As if I haven’t thought about all this for days, turning it over in my mind like a puzzle, trying to find the solution that doesn’t burn the whole world down with me.

“You know what else is bad for business?” I counter him. “All-out war, which the families will never sanction. What’s actually in everyone’s best interest is to let Jon and me settle this how we will, while the rest stay out of it like they always have. Alliances are just for show and everyone knows it. Nobody is really willing to get their hands dirty for anybody else. Not in this day and age.”

Atlas laughs again, low and unsurprised. “Mori said you wouldn’t play ball.” He runs his hand over his stubble. “Truth is, I knew it, too. If all I had to offer you was a threat, I wouldn’t have wasted my time, which is why I have one more offer,” he says, shuffling comfortably in his seat on the bench. “And thisis the best one you’re gonna get, where everybody goes home happy. Well—alive, I guess, happy’s got fuck all to do with it. We can keep bloodshed out of it. You keep the girl, keep your life, and Jon mercifully forgives and forgets. This can all be like it never happened. And all you have to do is give him…everything. And I meaneverything. Property. Territory. Accounts, national and international. The shoes you’re wearing, right now? His. He doesn’t really care if they fit or not.”

“Like that’s an offer—”

“Ahh,” Atlas cuts across sharply. “You and I both know that is a hell of a better offer than most men get. You can either be alive with nothing, or dead with nothing, Caruso. That ain’t a hard choice.”

He glances down meaningfully to Harper, who has lost interest in the conversation she can’t understand.

“It’s not every day we get to make such an obvious right move, y’know? And I’m telling you, as the neutral party, you better make it.”

“You could’ve made the right move today, Reicher. But you still got up and decided to follow me here. To sit down at my table, with my family, and threaten me. Whatever hell is coming for Jon Dellucci—it’s coming for you, too.”

Atlas nods, as if he expected as much and everything has gone exactly as he predicted it. He stands up.

“I’ll give you in a few days to really think it over. Let your ego settle. We’ll see then if your answer has changed. Have a goodday, Ren. Enjoy your food, sweetheart,” he says to Harper, his hand brushing the top of her head.

I want to beat him bloody.

The stranger heads off down the road, into the hustle-bustle of people meandering cluelessly around him. Anger has made a knot in my throat so tight, it hurts to swallow. My grip on the gun could warp the damn thing, the world fuzzy like static at the edges of my vision.

“Who wasthat?” Harper asks.

The question shatters my rage. She pulls me back to the moment, the girl all puffed up and dramatic. I take a breath. Then another. One at a time. If all I do is breathe, I won’t do anything I’ll regret.

“No one to worry about. Just a dead man.”

Harper gives me a funny look and just laughs, her big smile biting the head off a tiger-shaped nugget. Oblivious.

I take out my phone. I shouldn’t have let Nadia out of my sight, not even here, in such a public place. Reicher must have followed us all the way from the house. Who knows how long he’d been waiting. Stalking. He could have gone right after Nadia himself if he’d had the means to take her.

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