Page 14 of Forbidden Vows

“Listen, I’m all for setting an example these days. Another family disrespects you in public, you do what you have to do. And what Tommy did is not easy to forgive. But we’ve got a bigger issue on our hands, brother. There’s been a shift in the organization.”

“Yeah, yeah, I heard all about it—”

I cut him off. “No, you didn’t hear all about it because I come bearing bad news. Kuznetsov is making his moves, just as I suspected.”

Andrei gives me a startled look. “What moves?”

“There are several smaller players stepping onto the board, which is why I agreed to the Donovans’ business offer. If you kill Tommy, you can kiss the Camorras’ support goodbye. There’s a power play happening, Andrei, and we need to be on top of it.”

“They wouldn’t dare,” my brother mutters.

“Theywoulddare. They keep daring. Kuznetsov will soon be announcing his engagement to Eileen Donovan.”

His eyes grow wide. “Fuck.”

“Precisely. And that’s just the first step. You know as well as I do that some of the families within our organization have repeatedly voiced their displeasure regarding our business decisions. More than once, they have called for a vote, which, I might remind you, we narrowly won. We can’t risk this getting bigger, so we can’t forfeit the Camorra’s support. Right now, they’re still with us. But if you take Tommy out, the Kuznetsovs or anybody else looking to wage a coup will benefit from the Benedetto family’s blessing.”

“I don’t like this,” Andrei says. “In the old days, we could’ve resolved it easily.”

“Sure, a couple of Kalashnikovs would’ve done the trick. It’s the twenty-first century, Andrei, and we’re spinning billions of dollars in and out of this city. Our alliance with the Italians is one of our strongest assets. We don’t want to forfeit that.”

“No, we don’t.” He shakes his head and runs his fingers through his dark, wavy hair. It’s only a matter of time before he starts getting his first silver strands. I got mine in my early forties. He’s thirty-eight, and the clock keeps ticking. “If I let Tommy go, he’ll want to retaliate,” Andrei says, giving him a sour look.

“He will not,” I reply, then look over to Tommy. “You won’t; will you, buddy? I mean, you have to realize that you’re the one at fault here.”

Benedetto stares at me for a moment. I’m almost expecting a rebuttal, but he just nods frantically, his eyes wide with fear. In the span of a single second, I’m transported back to last night. It was a quick decision. A hasty move. But it was the only reasonable thing to do when I saw Tommy being thrown into the back of the van and my brother’s men rushing toward Eileen. Grab her and bolt. They recognized me and didn’t decide to come after us. That would’ve led to an unnecessary mess.

“Fine. Tommy gets to live another day,” Andrei concedes. “But he’ll owe us big time.”

“Big time,” I repeat.

Andrei may be my younger brother, but we are equal partners in the business and in the family. I need his approval on certain matters, and when I interfere in his affairs, I have to make sure that I’m able to get him on board and back on my side. The others must always see a united front.

“I’ve called my men off the girl,” my brother adds.

“Thank you.”

“Who was the broad, anyway? Tommy’s last catch?”

I shake my head. “No, but trust me, it would’ve led to a civil war had your men gotten to her. By the way, you really need to be more careful about the orders you give them. The whole no-witnesses thing doesn’t apply when said witness is Eileen fucking Donovan.”

“Oh, shit,” my brother gasps. “The boys didn’t mention that.”

“They probably didn’t recognize her. She’s not the popular sister, the one that’s always in the limelight from what I’ve learned. And she was petrified. I’m not sure she would’ve managed to identify herself in time.”

I remember the way she trembled in my arms when I grabbed her in that alley, and when she came later, as I buried myself inside of her.

Damn you, Eileen, you have no idea what you’ve done to me.

“Then it’s a good thing you intervened,” Andrei sighs deeply. “Dodged quite the bullet there, eh?”

I nod in agreement. “She was kind enough to agree to keep the entire incident to herself, which will keep Kuznetsov off our backs in the future.”

“And Ronan Donovan on our side still, I hope?”

“Yeah, we’ll see about that,” I reply.

Andrei glances back at Tommy. “I can see now why you were so adamant about this asshole. If we lose the Irish support, we’ll definitely need the Italians and the Puerto Ricans to stick by our side.”

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