Page 25 of Relentless Refuge

I’m not greeted with applause or cheers. No one says hello back. I see glares and confused looks and realize this meeting should have come months ago when Father first died.

“As you all know, I have assumed leadership of the Family in the wake of my father’s death.” I clear my throat and stare out at their faces. They’re all here—well, most of them, anyway. There are at least two hundred men in this room of all ages and sizes, staring at me sternly. “I’ve taken a husband as an alliance, which again, you’ve all heard by now.”

“Romano’s dangerous! Get rid of him!” someone shouts, but I don’t see who. It riles up the others, who all begin to murmur. They appear to be restless, and I’m afraid they might resort to violence if it gets too far, so I glance at Nicky, who sits behind me. He nods in encouragement, and I continue.

“My husband is a good man. He is here merely to be my partner and to support our Family’s business. Nothing more.”

“He’ll take it all!” Chase shouts. He stands with crutches, propping himself up in the center of the group, and I feel the pain in his words as they slice through my heart. Marco would never take over. He supports me.

“That’s a lie!” I shout, booming over the now growing swell of dissent. I feel like I’m losing control of them, and I glance at Nicky again, who has his back turned on me, whispering something to one of my other Family members.

“The D’Angelos have been at peace for decades. Only when we took on this alliance to your supposed husband have we found ourselves at war. We don’t want to fight someone else’s enemies.”

“We don’t want a woman to lead!”

“You should have married the one your father handpicked for you!”

The shouts come from all over the barn, echoing into the air and causing my temper to rise up and my fear to flare. I didn’t realize how much they all disliked the new direction the Family has taken. The problem is worse than I thought. But I won’t allow them to trample all over me. Father definitely wouldn’t. And with the confidence of what Nicky said in the car goading me, I pull the gun out of my waistband and fire straight into the air to silence them. Two shots, and they are all staring at me with anger in their eyes.

“Enough!”

My chest is heaving, adrenaline coursing through my veins. Nicky comes to stand behind me, his hand in the small of my back, and I glare at them.

“Father would be ashamed of you all.” I feel confidence rising. None of them have made a move for their guns. They’re all attentive now, not a single eye anywhere but on me. I have their attention. “The enemy of our friend is our enemy. The Romano Family are nothing more than good alliances to us. They have brought a wealth of strength and resources, as we have to them. If they fight, we fight.”

Nicky’s hand presses into my back, and I get the feeling he wants me to lay off, but I won’t. Father wouldn’t, and neither will I. “This Family has never been so divided as long as I’ve been alive, or my father before me, or his father before him. You say you don’t want a woman to lead, but you divide yourselves as if you get the choice. We fight together, or you fight against me. And I promise you, you will not win.”

One by one, I see heads dropping. Men who feel shame for rebelling against their leadership. Their concerns are valid, but we aren’t the type to fall back at the thought of a challenge that may lie ahead.

“Until such time as an heir is born and can ascend to the throne of my father, I am your leader. You may not like it, but you don’t have to. You must only trust that I will do what I believe he would want, and we will continue to keep this Family strong.” I sigh into the mic and put my gun away. “Those who want to continue to serve the D’Angelo name are welcome. Those who don’t, consider yourself my enemy.”

I slide the mic back into the clip on the mic stand, and Nicky leads me off the dais, across the dirt barn floor, and to thewaiting car. The engine is still running, and we walk in silence. I’m not sure how well-received that admonishment was, but we will soon find out.

Once in the car and safely on the road away from the horde of angry men, I let the tension out of my shoulders and lay my head back. This would be so much easier if Marco had come along, but I know they would only have kowtowed to his superior strength. Their loyalty to him is only so long as fear presides. The moment they see an opening to harm him, they will. This entire time, I thought it was Marco who would protect me, and in reality, it is me protecting him.

“They are right, Isa.” Nicky pats my knee in a solemn way, and I turn away from him as he continues. “They don’t want to fight another man’s war.”

“Well, like it or not, it is now their war. Marco is my husband, which binds the two families together, and we are one. What man among them won’t come to my aid if I request it? They can’t dishonor my father by turning a blind eye. They took an oath.”

I let my words hang in the air the entire drive back to Marco’s house. I know Nicky fully supports me now. I know he trusts Marco, and I also know he speaks the truth. Maybe I need to bring this to Marco’s attention, but in doing so, I might reveal my own inability to lead my Family and keep them in line. Tonight did not go as I hoped it would, but it did not go as I feared it might, either. For now, they seem content to understand that I’m working on my father’s behest and will do right by his name. That’s all anyone can hope for right now. With our Family aligned as one at war with the Bratva, we have to come together. If not, we risk splintering an already fragile faction that may never recover.

And that is something I know my father would hate.

19

MARCO

Iclimb in and shut the door, followed by Victor on the other side. The driver pulls the car out and heads across the parking lot toward the exit. The sale went off without a hitch, though we knew it would. Victor and I have been doing this for a few years now with this particular gentleman, and we’ve never had an issue, so I left the fanfare of security guards and surveillance crews out of it today. It allows my brother and me to have an honest discussion.

“I think he was the last of our customers to learn about the new alliance, and he didn’t seem fazed by it.” Victor pulls a cigar out of his pocket and his trimmer. I nod at his window, reminding him to put it down before lighting up, and he reaches over to do so.

“Yes, well, Mr. Gentry is an old-fashioned type of man. It’s best we keep the full arrangement secret for now. When he sees what we now have going for us and how he will also benefit from it, he’ll come full support even with a woman at the helm.” I stare out the window at the passing traffic as the car drives onto the street and heads toward the highway.

“Full arrangement? You mean to tell me you haven’t made it clear to that wife of yours that you’re in charge?” Victor holds his cigar over the lit flame of his lighter and twists the stogie. “You can’t honestly believe she’s going to lead that mob of ruffians she calls her Family.”

I let his words fall from the air without responding to him. It isn’t that I haven’t thought of what it would be like to take over her Family and bring them into submission to my authority. I have. And I’ve thought about it long and hard. But Isabella is different. She has a certainJe ne sais quoiabout her I can’t put my finger on. Her determination and ambition make her the exact sort of woman I would date and marry, though I didn’t know it when we signed that marriage license.

Now, though, I’ve found that the woman to whom I’m married is the woman I want to raise my son, my heir. My boy will need a strong female presence in his life, if and when that happens, and I can’t think of another woman I’ve ever met who fits the bill.

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