Page 68 of The Bonventi Secret
"Yes, ma'am."
"Can you please tell Enzo I'll be in the library and to come see me when he can?"
"I'll let him know."
"Thanks," I say with a forced smile and walk into the library.
I toss my bag onto the desk and walk around to take a seat.
I feel my chest tighten and my nerves coil into a ball. I'm scared and a bit nervous because I know what I did wasn't right. Deep down, I know that's why I haven't brought it up. While I was self-sabotaging myself, thinking,Oh, you'll tell him when the time is right.
Perfect moments don’t exist when you’re the one forced to admit fault—a mistake you wish you could take back. It’s the realization that you've allowed something so small to become something so big that cuts deep. And to make it worse, you can’t pass the blame; instead, you're forced to sit with the guilt and take everything that comes with it.
An hour goes by, and then my heart leaps up into my throat as I hear the door open and see Enzo walk in.
ENZO - 24
Ileave Livia in the dining room and head to my office. I'm dreading this meeting as it's the one where they are going to look to me for the answer to the Rossi family attack on our warehouse.
Entering my office, I see Gio and Marco sitting.
I take a seat behind my desk. There's no time for anything but business, so I look at Gio and say, "Tell me what you've got."
He stands, chest out, and dives into all the intel he's gotten. He's throwing everything at me in an attempt to make up for the delay. It's been weeks since their attack, and gathering intel was a bit more difficult than initially thought—something I'm going to fix.
"...and that's all we've gathered so far," Gio finishes, his fists clenched together.
I lean back in my chair, processing the intel. The Rossi family's operations are more extensive than we initially thought, hence the delay. They've been quietly expanding their territory,encroaching on our turf while we've been distracted with other matters, most specifically the deal with the Greeks.
"Good work, Gio," I say, my voice steady despite the rage simmering beneath the surface. "Marco, police willing to do anything? Hit any of their warehouses?"
Marco shifts in his seat, straightening his tie. "We've got a few key players in our pocket, but the sudden retirement of the commissioner is proving a little difficult to navigate while everything's up in the air."
"Mayor still in office?" I ask.
"Still there," Marco says.
I nod, a plan already forming in my mind.
"So what's the play, Zo?" Gio asks.
"We hit them where it hurts," I say, leaning forward. "Their new shipping route through the harbor, the one they're not supposed to have," I say, standing and walking around my desk to lean against it. "We intercept their next big shipment, destroy it, and leave our own damn message."
"That's millions in product," Marco says, eyebrows raised. "They'll be furious."
"Good. Let them feel a fraction of what we felt when they took out our warehouse, not to mention, poor Little Nicky."
The memory of Nicky's body, riddled with bullets, flashes through my mind. The kid had been loyal to a fault, barely out of his teens.
"Gio, I want you to personally oversee the operation. Take our best men, leave no survivors."
Gio grins. "With pleasure, brother. I'll get those fucking roaches."
"Marco, your job is to make sure we have an ironclad alibi. I don't care how you do it, but make sure there's no way this can be traced back to us. New commissioner or no commissioner, see that it's handled. No arrests."
Marco nods, already pulling out his phone. "Consider it done."
As my brothers discuss the finer points of the plan among themselves, my mind drifts. I think of Livia, still warm and soft in our bed this morning. The way she looked at me, her eyes full of trust and something dangerously close to love.
