Page 4 of Revenge & Ruin

“What about his wife? Ida?” I demand.

The only face I remember from that night, the one that still haunts my nightmares.

Rocco shakes his head. “She’s like a ghost. No one has seen her since I took over the Guild…”

“...But Leon will know where she is,” I finish for him, a plan already forming in my mind.

“Rocco?” Cas calls again, closer this time.

Rocco steps away from me. “I meant it, Teo. You’re the only one I could trust with the Guild. Don’t let me down, all right?”

“No pressure then, boss?”

Rocco smirks as he reaches the door. With one last look over his shoulder, he says, “You always work better under pressure.”

2

ISABELLA

It feels like someone is grabbing hold of my windpipe and slowly crushing it between their fingers.

Every second I spend staring at this goddamn entree, the more trapped I feel. But can I bring myself to move? Apparently not.

Apparently, the news that Teo Vitale will be the new don of the Guild is too much for my stupid brain and even stupider body to handle.

This is not how tonight was supposed to go.

There’s a buzz in my earpiece. At the very least, I seem to have the wherewithal to lean forward, allowing my blonde hair to cascade over my ear as I oh-so-casually reach up to press the receiver.

“What the hell is going on, Issy?” My brother’s voice crackles in my ear.

I hide my grimace with a dazzling smile, pretending to be absorbed in the conversation across the table. The Californian mafioso is regaling everyone in earshot about his thirteen-hour flight to Brooklyn because “he wouldn’t miss this wedding for the world”.

The fact that the Morettis deemed him important enough to sit at table thirty-five doesn’t seem to be putting a damper on his theatrics.

I tap my finger against the small device in my ear. Dot, dot, dot. Dash, dash, dash. Dot, dot, dot.

S.O.S.

This is not how tonight was supposed to go.

The Prince’s Hand has known a seventeen-year alliance with the Guild. It’s one that so very rarely demands something from the other. It’s more of an agreement to stay out of each other's way, really.

But it’s an alliance nonetheless.

One that my brother desperately needs for his mafioso to feel secure in their operations. But one that was brutally severed the second Giuliano Moretti drew his last breath.

I glance over to the head table at my once-target. Cassandra Bellini, now Moretti, I suppose. The sweet little songbird who captured Giuliano’s son’s heart. As green as they come, new to the underworld, and in desperate need of some powerful friends.

I’d dug up everything I could about her, even visited her hometown in Ohio to establish a connection with her past. I know her favorite coffee shop, her favorite clothing store. I even dug up her high school records.

Average, average, average. The perfect target to befriend and manipulate.

Do I feel shame for taking advantage of a pregnant woman? No, not really. My family needs this. Which means I would have secured the alliance by the time they returned from their honeymoon.

Not that it matters now.

“Pick up in ten minutes, Issy. Hang tight.”

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