Page 37 of Bastard Prince
“Three so far, not including Dino, who is technically still just missing. But the cops are all over our asses about these bodies, and it’s making everyone so fucking suspicious of each other. Nothing has been the same since the night Giovanni was arrested, but now? It’s like the fall of goddamn Rome here, son.”
Running my free hand through my hair, I took a moment to consider his words. Chaos in the ranks was only good for those who wanted to cut you down. It served no one for the Family to tear itself apart from the inside—except for the fuckin’ vultures who were waiting to pick at the corpse.
So the question was, who stood to benefit from this shake-up?
It was a question I didn’t have an answer to, at least not yet.
“Anything else I need to know, Pops?”
“Just watch your back, son. Trust no one. I mean it. There are too many moving parts to keep track of all the ways someone could hurt us.” He sighed. “I’m sorry I got you involved in this, Enzo.”
“Hey,” I said, cutting him off before he could say anything else, “I knew what I was signing up for. It’s not like my life was all sunshine and roses before this, you know?”
“Yeah, I know. But still. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”
The door to the office swung open, Rocco tromping in, looking as rough as I felt. I guess neither of us had gotten a good night’s sleep lately.
At his questioning look, I gave him a chin lift, letting him know I was almost done.
“Alright, Pop. I get it,” I replied awkwardly. This sentimental stuff was new for him, and I didn’t like the feel of it.
It was almost sounding like he was saying goodbye.
“We’ll talk soon, yeah?”
“Of course, Enzo. Soon.” The call ended without anything further from either of us, leaving a heavy feeling in my gut at the words we’d both left unsaid.
Tossing the phone on my desk, I blew out a heavy breath and rubbed both my palms over my face. I felt about a decade older than I had just a month ago, exhaustion creeping up on me like a back-alley mugger. I had thought I knew stress before this, but I was wrong. A death threat against someone you care about takes a lot out of a man, and I was betting all the coffee in the world wouldn’t help today.
I needed to talk to Francesca, but goddamn if I wasn’t being a fuckin’ coward about it.
I hated to admit it, but I wasn’t ready to face her yet, knowing that she had been working a hustle in my city, likely against me, right from the beginning.
Had that been her plan all along? Come here, act the timid, unwilling wife, all the while working to take my empire from me?
I considered it, but only for a moment. Everything she had done, every move she had made, had only served to help me. From the addition ofLilith’s Playgroundto her smooth handling of Jerry, right down to the way she traded verbal blows with the Russians, Francesca had proven time and again that she was on my side.
It was time I gave her the benefit of the doubt.
And fuck me, I still had the Russians to worry about. Things were just fucked up on all sides, it seemed.
“So,” Rocco began, his words cutting into my dark thoughts. “You gonna tell me why you spent the last two nights on the couch here instead of going home to your ridiculously appointed house and sleeping with your ridiculously attractive wife?”
I shot him a dirty look, which only served to make him laugh, but I considered my words before answering.
“I think Francesca is Frankie the Wolf,” I finally said, deciding to just lay it out.
“No shit?” Rocco responded, his eyebrows raising in surprise. “I guess that makes sense.”
I gaped at him. “Makes sense? In what world does my wife being Frankie the Wolf make sense?”
“Enzo,” he replied, his tone letting me know he was exasperated with me. “Come on, man. The woman is a fuckin’ power house. She kicks ass at everything she does, making the rest of us look like chumps. Did you really think she was gonna just be content to be your little wife? Sit home and wait while you did all the heavy lifting? Not a chance. Francesca is a beast in all the best ways. It seems fitting she chose to be a wolf. That woman is all alpha.” He laughed then, shaking his head. “No wonder you slept here. I’d be afraid to face her, too. Sometimes, she scares the fuck outta me.”
“I’m not afraid,” I insisted, even though I sort of was. Not of Francesca, really, but of the conversation we had to have. Rock’s words hadn’t helped either, because he was absolutely right about one thing.
Francesca didn’t need me.
And I wasn’t sure what to do about that.
