Page 27 of Bittersweet Endings
I didn’t speak. I couldn’t.
“Oh, shit.” Now he was the one laughing. “I’m on a tight leash but you’re at the end of a nine mil.”
My hands clenched into fists. As much as I could see through his family, it wasn’t hard to read mine either.
“My Pops is still in charge, but at least he’s not insane.” Lucky paused to take a long breath. “Tell ya what… I’ll do us both a favor if you return one.”
I gripped the phone tighter.
“I’ll kill your father for threatening my sisters and help you not piss off your traditionalists…ifyou get to Peiro first. Then I want my pound of flesh.”
“A pound?” I exhaled smoke, my jaw ticking. “That’s it?”
His voice shifted. “Pops told me what you said at the hospital.”
I froze. Motherfucker was runnin’ his mouth. The truth had slapped me in the face, and my mind was thrown into chaos and deceit. Mario used that to make me appear weak.
“It’s true, isn’t it? You care about her.”
I didn’t answer. Just took another drag. Another cloud of smoke.
“You gave her back to mess with us... but also to protect her.”
I could hear a child crying in the background.
“Yeah. Makes sense.”
“Does it now?” I mocked. “You think you’ll have it that easy killing JP?”
“You think you’ll have it that easy finding Peiro?” He sighed. “If you want peace, we can talk, Carmine. Just us.”
I waited to see what else he had to say. Fucker gave me nothing.
“Happy hunting, motherfucker,” he said, and then he hung up.
I relayed the entire conversation to Matteo. He shook his head, warning me that I was playing a deadly game with anenemy I didn’t understand. Did he really expect me to believe there’d ever be peace?
The world around me started to fade as I recalled my conversation with Mario.
“I should fucking kill you. Right now.”I should’ve pulled my gun.
“You won’t.” Mario paused before sighing. “Because she’d never forgive you. And she’d make it hurt.”
“What do you want?”
“I want to tell you why I covered up your uncle’s murder,” he said, and my fists clenched at my sides. “It was because your father was the one who ordered the hit. Your grandfather and I came to an agreement for peace because he didn’t want to lose his only remaining son.”
“JP wouldn’t do that.” Even as I said the words aloud, I knew Mario was telling the truth.
He shook his head. “He did. He wanted your grandfather to destroy my city. And when he wouldn’t… your father showed up in New York. Threatened me, my wife and my unborn son. But I got a leg up on him and was able to put him back in his place. My silence in exchange for him staying out west.”
“Why didn’t you turn on him? It would’ve started a war that you would have won, hands down. All the families would’ve turned on him.”
“Because of you. Your uncle and I were close. He knew Serafina and I were in love, but breaking my marriage proposal to Isabella wasn’t an option. So, he promised to take care of her for me. We did a lot of business together over the years. He’d wished you were his son. Told me all about you. How you were the right future for the family. Your father was jealous of your relationship with Sal. Yet the fucker didn’t have the balls to step up for you orto do the dirty work himself. Anthony was greedy—the fucker got the cash and the girl. And all it cost him was a single bullet.”
“Again. Why didn’t you tell the families?”
“Like I said. Because of you. Your brothers. Eva. Even if I tried to protect you, the other families would’ve wanted you kids dead. They’d come for you, no matter how old you all were. Your uncle and I wanted peace between the coasts, always did. We’d both done a lot of fucked-up shit to get to the top, and we didn’t want the next generation tainted by it.”
