Page 18 of Saint Of Envy
Before I can make it out of the casino bar and back up to the hotel suite to talk with Valentina and call Vincent, all hell breaks loose.
Several of our men come rushing into the bar at once, two of them bloodied and one with a frantic look on his face.
“Luciano! There’s been a strike at the new casino!” Alonzo shouts as he races through the door towards me. “It’s bad—the whole place is torched.”
This is exactly the thing I feared—that Leonardo would take out his revenge on the entire family instead of just me. I pull out my phone to dial Vincent now because this simply can’t wait any longer. But before I can even place the call, the men inform me that Vincent is already on his way back from Italy.
“We called the boss as soon as it happened,” he says. “He and Isla are already on a plane heading this way.”
Great, now not only do I get to deal with my cousin’s fury over his newest casino being torched, but I also get to deal withexplaining to him in person about how The Barone and Conti families are now teaming up against us.
I get in the car with Alonzo to head back to the new casino and assess the damage. As soon as the building comes into view, it’s clear that Leonardo’s retaliation was a brutal one.
“Holy shit,” I whisper under my breath as we pull up in front of the still flaming building. The fire has destroyed the entire casino. There are small fires still smoldering that the fire department is trying to put out. The fire blew out all the window glass, charred the casino’s walls, and destroyed everything inside.
This casino had just opened a few months ago. It was the family’s newest business establishment and one that Vincent had left in my care to tend to without feeling the need to return for its opening operations. The top floors were high-roller levels, and the lower levels were where our more illicit and illegal trading went on. Now, there is nothing left.
“Was anyone hurt besides the injuries that I saw from a few of our men?” I ask Alonzo as I step out of the car.
“Thankfully, no,” he shakes his head. “The casino hadn’t opened for the night yet, so there were no patrons inside. A few of our guys took a beating when they chased out the attackers.”
“What attackers? Were some of Leonardo’s crew here?” I ask, wanting to sort this out before Vincent arrives so that I can at least assure him I can handle it.
“Not sure whose men they were,” Alonzo says as he runs his hand through his thinning hair. “Our guys chased them, and they fired shots. They made it out and into a getaway car before anyone could get a good look to ID them.”
“What about the security cameras?”
“Haven’t had a second to check that video feed yet. First thing we did was come to get you and notify Vincent in case there were any other attacks in the works,” he answers. “You and I know Leonardo Conti will want more than one hit. This one was likely a diversion for something even bigger that he’s planning to execute.”
I find no reason to keep Gabriel’s intel a secret from Alonzo, especially not now, after there’s already been an attack that has created major damage and interrupted business operations at a brand-new facility.
“It’s not just the Conti family,” I say, knowing that this is likely just the beginning. “There’s credible intel to suggest that he’s working with Barone now, too.”
Alonzo says nothing, but the look of shock on his face and the dropped open jaw relay that even he didn’t expect things to get this bad. A partnership between those two families is a definitive threat to us all.
“Luciano,” he says as we watch the cops take an assessment of the damaged casino and talk to witnesses still standing on the street outside. “This whole thing is going to be a mess to clean up.”
“Trust me, I’m aware.”
After assessing the damage and talking to the cops to smooth things over, I head back to check on Valentina. I know that she’s safe inside the suite, but it’s unsettling knowing that Leonardo could get a package through to her. I need to step up her protection before something else happens.
As soon as I return to the casino hotel, Vincent is there waiting. His eyes are fuming with anger and palpable annoyance. And before I’ve even fully stepped into the building, he’s already scolding me.
“I told you that this would happen,” he scowls as the two of us walk into the casino together.
We sit down at a table to talk. I had hoped to get up to the suite first to talk with Valentina before dealing with my cousin, but since he’s already here, there’s really no chance of avoiding dealing with him first.
“Where’s Isla?” I ask, hoping that she’s with Valentina now so that she at least isn’t up there alone.
“She went up to the suite to visit with Valentina, and to give the two of us some time alone to talk,” he says, still audibly angry. “Luciano, I told you to inform me if Leonardo leveraged any threats. I wasn’t expecting to be notified by my men without warning that our newest installation was just blown up.”
“Yeah, my apologies, neither was I,” I say with a regretful sigh. “Honestly, even for Leonardo, that was a big attack.”
“I told you not to underestimate him,” Vincent repeats. “And I knew that the stunt you pulled in Italy would come with steep consequences.”
“It wasn’t a stunt, Vincent,” I say as I try to appeal to the common ground which we now both share. “I did it for love. Come on, you of all people know what it’s like to go to war for the woman you love. Valentina is that woman for me, just like Isla was for you. I love her, and she’s carrying my child.”
Vincent’s eyes widen at that news. After a few moments of uncomfortable silence between us, he backs off his anger-infused scolding a little. I see him shift the focus from being upset with me to dealing with the situation pragmatically.
