Page 111 of Creed

“You could just point-blank ask Len,” Massimo suggests.

Army shakes his head. “I’d have to give her something if I wanted to her to answer that, because with Len, it's give and take. But even if I gave her something vague, it would give her threads to pull on, which is her specialty. And having Len pull on threads you don’t want touched or even looked at is dangerous.”

“So, unless you’re ready for that, I’d say that’s a dead end for now,” Ash says.

Papálooks at me. “It’s your call, Creed.”

I pace as I consider, then shake my head. “Not yet. We keep everything under wraps for now.”

Ash stands. “If it looks like there’s blowback coming our way with this, we’ll have to reassess. I can’t have the MC in the crosshairs.”

“I understand.”

I know how this world works; it isn’t so different from the non-criminal one. You have your ally’s back; however, yourorganization is always your primary concern to protect. Our family will be the same, so I can’t fault Ash. “If it comes to that, though, I trust you’ll give us a heads up.”

“Of course,” he says, leaning across the desk to shakePapá’s hand. “Reach out if there’s anything else you need. We’ll be in touch if we find out anything further.”

We're silent as Ash, Army, and Bane leavePapá's office. Tension makes the air feel heavy. A different person may feel guilty that I’m dragging my family into this, but I don’t. My father isn’t the only one who has accepted Sophie as a part of the family; Massimo and Vito aren’t batting an eye about this. And this is what our family does; we protect our own.

“Let’s put aside the revelation about Len right now and cover what we know.”Papásteeples his fingers under his chin. “Manuel Morales, a businessman and one of Creed’s competitors, is involved. Geraldo Ortez is Sophie’s father, and is a sicario in the Garcia Cartel; he seems to have had designs on giving Sophie to a cartel lieutenant, who is knee-deep in human trafficking.”

Vito pulls his long legs in and leans forward, setting his empty glass on the desk. He looks up at me. “Ortez seemed to have that idea with Salome before Sophie even came to San Diego for school and met you, baby brother.”

It relieves me slightly that Sophie isn’t being targeted because of me, or at least that she hadn’t initially.

“If that’s the case, this is an amazing situation of two people’s paths crossing by happenstance, including them falling in love,” Massimo says.

Papásmiles. “There are many fated things in the world,mio filgio.”

From the look on Massimo’s face, he disagrees but keeps silent out of respect for our father. Of course, you don’t rely on fate and happenstance when leading a criminal empire, not that our father ever did.

Thinking about the risks to Sophie and our chance meeting makes my head swim. This threat feels like the thread that solidifies everything—that it’s fate, destiny, or whatever you want to call it—Sophie was meant to come into my life and become my everything. And now that I’m in her life, along with who and what my family is, Sophie has the deck stacked in her favor, whereas if we’d never met, she wouldn’t have stood a chance.

“We still haven’t been able to nail down the exact link between Morales and Ortez. Or where they’re hiding,” Massimo says, and I know that is frustrating the shit out of a bloodhound like Daniele.

“I’m not sure if nailing down the exact link between them matters,” I say. “They’re connected either way, and Daniele spotted them together in San Diego. They came to the campus for Sophie. The priority is finding them.”

I pace, clenching and unclenching my hands. I need to move because of the frustration of not being able to figure this puzzling threat out, and because of the anger I feel whenever I think about my rival, Morales, with Sophie’s cunt of a father.

“When did Morales’s sabotage efforts for your project start?” Vito’s brows pull together over his blue-green eyes as he watches me pace.

“Almost immediately after I won the real estate development deal.”

“So, too soon for it to be directly connected or because of Sophie.” Massimo goes to refresh his drink. He holds the bourbon decanter to me, raising a brow, but I shake my head.

“There’s more to this.”Papáfrowns. “A missing piece.”

Vito leans back in his chair. “There’s lots of missing pieces,Babbo.”

“Another unknown third party?” Massimo frowns as he considers.

“That plays.” Vito nods. “And could feed into who's protecting them if Garcia comes after Ortez, Perez, and Salome.”

“Plus, someone is providing them with resources,” I add. "To seamlessly hack and replace the university security feed."

Massimo’s frown deepens. “And they’ve been able to stay off the grid since then.”

“That takes expertise and sophisticated talent,” our father agrees. “Something three cartel soldiers and a corrupt businessman wouldn’t typically have at their disposal.”

---