Page 34 of Vengeance

Waiting for us is another entourage of people. But I don’t get the sense that they’re a threat. Not yet anyway. At the head of it in a tailored suit is a man who looks startling like Stephen Pray. The only thing that stops me from pulling a gun on him is that he looks younger and his hair is a darker gray compared to the stark white of Pray’s. And where Pray is lean this man is fat.

“Adrian Blake. I’ve been looking forward to meeting you,” the man says. He takes a glance at the baby in my arms and says, “Ah. I see congratulations are in order. We’ll have to celebrate later.”

“Who the fuck are you?” I say, what little filter I might have had gone after the stress of the last twelve or so hours.

The man laughs and looks at Eileen.

“Well, you weren’t lying when you said he could be a little rude, were you, Iliana?”

I look at Eileen and ask, “Iliana?”

Eileen only shrugs at the man and says, “No man can be fault free, Uncle.”

Uncle?

“I can’t be held responsible for what I’m going to do if someone doesn’t give me answers,” I say calmly because I donothave the patience right now.

“You’d threaten your gracious host while holding your newborn in your arms.”

“I’d do a lot more.”

He laughs once, and then a change suddenly overcomes him as he goes from boisterous and unserious to severe and smirking as he looks at Eileen.

“You’re right. He’s going to fit right in.”

I’m two seconds from pulling a gun on this man. The only reason I haven’t is I haven’t figured out the logistics of getting into a fight with half a dozen men with a baby in my arms. That and this man has Dele and my other children in his grasp.

Finally the man holds out a hand to me. I stare at it for a moment before reluctantly taking it.

“The name’s SabinoFantoni,” he says. Before I can react tothatrevelation, he says, “We have a lot to talk about concerning my brother. But Iliana tells me it’s been one hell of an adventure getting over here. My drivers will take you and Iliana to our villa. Your family is probably already there.”

Before I can demand any answers, the man turns and walks away with half of his entourage ushering him to one car while the other half takes Eileen and I to another. The door doesn’t even get a chance to close before I growl, “What the fuck, Eileen? Or should I say, Iliana?”

“I’m still Eileen. It’s been a long time since anyone has called me Iliana.”

“Eileen,” I growl in a warning.

In my arms, the baby fidgets in annoyance, and I instinctively rock her in my arms to calm her.

“Yes, Adrian.”

“You never worked for the CIA.”

“I did.”

“But notforthe CIA. You infiltrated it for the fucking Italian mafia. TheFantonis,” I add because that’s an important distinction.

In the last year since I found out my ex-wife was the secret daughter of Stephen Pray who was rumored to be part of the Fantoni Italian crime family, I’ve done quite a bit of research. They’re legend, to say the least. They aretheItalian crime family. They can trace their bloody legacy and their family’s involvement in professional crime back centuries.

They have a lot of power and sway in their home country, but never had a lot of interest in taking their exploits to the US… until Stephen Pray’s, AKA Sansone Fantoni’s, father got the idea to expand their power west and started Pray Drinks, trying to capitalize of the obsession with prayer and God and Christianity that his initial target customer base had.

Or at least, that’s what Cres and I could find out. They’re shrouded in so much secrecy it was hard to get much.

“I knew you were smart,” Eileen responds. “I wanted to tell you before but it was too risky.”

“Eileen,” I growl again, preemptively rocking my daughter to make sure she stays asleep.

Eileen sighs and says, “My family has been working for a long time to try to bring down Sansone Fantoni. Ever since he murdered my father and stole our western business. But he acquired so much power, not even the might of the Fantoni family was able to touch him, especially not when we had the scrutiny of the CIA on us. So I was sent to infiltrate the CIA so one of our own could be assigned to watch and spy on us while I could also use US government resources to spy on my uncle. But it became increasingly clear that we weren’t going to be able to get to him except from the inside.”

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