Page 55 of Depths of Obsession
“Thanks,” I say, hanging up. I take a long swallow of my drink, steeling myself, and then answer my brother.What do you need?
I just had a personal visit from Gazzago.He’s not at all happy.
I bet.I frown.What are you doing in Milano? You should’ve let me know you were in the city.
I wasn’t planning on it. Mia wanted to attend a dinner with some potential investors for a new project she’s thinking of taking on.
Gone are the days when Renzo says no to Mia. If she wants it, they do it. I shrug mentally. It’s none of my business.Gazzago came to my place, and one of his guys shot Antonio.
Is he okay? As you might imagine, Gazzago failed to mention that part.
Of course he did. I take another sip.Antonio’s fine—just a flesh wound luckily. No one called the cops. His head of security, though, put his hands on Rocco. Twice. Rocco restrained himself, but when he tried a third time, Rocco dropped him. He’s got a few broken bones, but he’ll recover.
Renzo lets out a loud sigh.I heard all about it. Or at least his version. It doesn’t matter. He’s pissed and saying we need to make good for his cousin and now his man. He says we’re disrespecting him and he can’t let it stand.
He’s disrespecting you, and all of us.I grind my teeth.It’s time you shut him down. He’s only pushing to make a case for himself. The more he engages with us, the more he claims we owe him. We don’t owe him jack shit. His cousin tried to rip him off and paid the price. End of story.
But it’s not the end,Renzo says, impatience clear in his voice.I can’t replaceGazzago as the middleman in this deal I’m making. I need him to make the deal go forward. It’s important.
How is Gazzago involved? You’re making a deal for a blood supply. Gazzago doesn’t know anything about that. He’s not one of us.
Renzo’s frustration floods through the connection.He’s fronting the other deal. I don’t care about the heroin, but the guy making the heroin deal likes him. I’m trying to make a deal for the blood supply with one of the others involved in the heroin deal, but he doesn’t want to meet unless the heroin deal goes through first. If his boss trusts me, then he’ll trust me.
I grind my teeth.There must be another way to get this done, Renzo. Gazzago is out of control and pushing hard. He needs to be put in his place, or it’s going to look bad across the board. Others will think they can push back. You could lose control of the family over this. Are you willing to risk that?
Renzo’s frustration and anger are mounting. Too fucking bad—so is mine.
Brother,he tries again,we’re talking about the blood trade—our sustenance, our survival. If we secure a source, we won’t have to worry anymore. We won’t have to deal with the Americans. We’ll have freedom.Freedom, Luca. That’s a huge fucking deal. Father will also be able to negotiate with the other vampire kings. This could be the best thing to happen to us.
Or it could take us down, I think, trying to make him see the obvious.
I’m not going to fail as head of the family. I can handle Gazzago and Giordano.
Mia’s father is involved? That’s not good.
Fucking hell. He called before I reached out to you. The old guard is telling him he made a mistake choosing me. He feels like he’s losing face. He wants me to deal with Gazzago, too.
What does Father say?I fight to keep my mounting frustration from my voice.
I haven’t heard from Father. He’s off dealing with something in the magick realm, or so he said last time we spoke.Renzo pauses, then continues.Look, Luca, I need to placate Gazzago just a while longer. The meeting with the Afghans is in two weeks. After that, we can take him out. You can do the honors if you like.
Fine. Two weeks. I’ll keep Pippa here with me until then.Renzo’s silence unsettles me.What?
Gazzago wants her as collateral. He says he’s owed and will take her as payment. He won’t marry her until an acceptable mourning period has passed. I agreed.
I want to kill my brother. He must feel my rage.
Luca, he will keep her safe. He knows I’ll kill him if he hurts her.
As long as it’s after the deal, I snarl.I can’t believe you’d even consider this. Does Mia know you’re selling out her best friend?
This has nothing to do with Mia. Bring Pippa back to Milano. Gazzago wants her ASAP. We have no choice, Luca. This deal is everything.
He breaks the connection. Over my dead body, I think. I am not giving Pippa to Gazzago. He’ll marry her immediately to try to save himself. If he’s married to her, it might just buy him time to come up with some other plan to keep himself alive—maybe even organize a coup against Renzo. If he gets enough capos on his side, it could work, or so they think.
I stand and hurl my glass against the wall. The whole situation is extremely frustrating. Anger courses through my veins. I have worked for a long time to be able to control most things in my life, but Pippa is beyond controlling. I have a plan to protect her, but now I need to convince her to go along with it. I thought she might agree before, but now I’m not so sure. This panic attack worries me. I need her to see the benefits of my plan, but she won’t if she can’t get over me being a vampire. I take the stairs two at a time. I’ll just have to convince her.
I enter the bathroom and find Pippa drying herself off. She holds the towel in front of her body, her eyes darting nervously to mine. “I’m almost finished,” she says, her voice small.
