Page 78 of A Life Imagined
There they were—the missing pieces falling neatly into place.“I have you to thank for that?”
Enzo shrugged.“The Albanians worship the ’Ndrangheta, and I still have a few friends in Calabria.They won’t be bothering you again.”
“You have my gratitude.I can only imagine what I owe you in return.”Mathias fixed him with a hardened glare.“Why don’t you tell me why the fuck you’re here?”
“I see your self-imposed exile has left you rough around the edges.”
“I was always rough around the edges,” Mathias snapped.“And it wasn’t self-imposed.Bianchi pushed me out.”
“I figured as much.I don’t think he quite realized the pressure that came with the position.Russo made it look easy.But that’s because he was a ruthless bastard.He had us all under his thumb.Things got to Giovanni, and he started making some bad calls.”
“Yeah, well, looks like he got what was coming to him.”
Enzo’s face darkened, and he placed his drink down on the desk with a dull thud.“The city is in chaos, Mathias.”
Mathias took a long swig from his glass and let the liquor burn his throat.“That’s not my problem anymore.”
Enzo studied him carefully.“That’s a rather shortsighted view.I think you’re missing the bigger picture here.Can’t you see it’s ripe for the taking?Not just Montreal—I’m talking the whole fucking country.”
Mathias was beginning to understand why the man was here.
“We need to right things, for stability’s sake.There are a lot of interests at play, some from far afield.This upheaval does no one any good, and the quicker it’s squashed, the better.None of the Quintino are strong enough to make a bid at leadership.We don’t have the skills or the sway.We’d only end up easy targets.But you, on the other hand…”
Mathias would be lying if he said he wasn’t tempted.A part of him itched at the prospect of that much power, the whole organization laid down at his feet.If my old man could see me now.
But the sentiment passed quickly.His father no longer had any hold over him.Instead, he thought of Rayan.Would I hide him away, put him up in a nice apartment like some glorifiedgoomah?Just like his mother—who’d spent his whole childhood sequestered so she could be ready and waiting any time his father wanted her.
Mathias would be expected to marry someone the council approved of, to keep up appearances as he drowned in a farce of domesticity.And children.That would be expected too.Perpetuating the torment that was supposed to end with him.
No.Even if he was the most powerful man in the country, nothing was worth that.
Mathias let out a low laugh.“You were just telling me how taxing the job was.”
“For some.I have a feeling you would prove the exception.You have what it takes, Mathias, you’re—”
“A ruthless bastard?”he said coldly.
“Well, yes, if you excuse the word choice.”
“Interesting, considering how quick the family was to overlook me for that very fact.”
Enzo sighed.“I know you’re still sore about how you were treated—”
“The family didn’t want me until I showed you what you were missing.And then you needed me because I worked harder than anyone else.I broke my back giving you exactly what you wanted.”
Because I needed it too.I needed to prove that I could.
“But that’s nothing new, is it?Using me, knowing there was nothing I wouldn’t do.Knowing how desperate I was to be more than some illegitimate afterthought.And I did it all.After Piero sent Junior to whack me, I didn’t retaliate, as was my due.Piero fucked me over, and I spent six months sitting on my hands for the good of the family.Waiting just long enough for Tony to get himself killed.Left for dead, face down on the concrete.”Mathias’s jaw clenched, and he swallowed the hard lump of guilt.“Giovanni wanted me six feet in the ground or rotting in prison, and now you expect me to come back for more?For the good of the family?”Mathias shook his head ruefully.“The faces change, but you’re all the same.I needed it once.I don’t need it anymore.”
Enzo scowled.“Have you fooled yourself into thinking that this menial life is worthwhile?That it makes up for everything the family has to offer?”
“Maybe I have.”
Enzo began to laugh.He lifted his glass to his lips and downed the contents.Setting the glass back on the desk, he stared at Mathias with a vague sort of curiosity.“Then perhaps I’m the fool.”
He rose from his chair, and Mathias did the same, steeling himself for the repercussions that would follow.It wasn’t as though they could force him into the position, but they could make his life difficult for turning them down.Mathias had been lucky to disappear this quietly in the first place—he figured Giovanni had something to do with that.Enzo might decide that courtesy had lapsed.
Instead, Enzo offered Mathias his hand.Mathias hesitated, gauging the man’s intent, before reluctantly extending his own.They exchanged a firm shake.
