Page 66 of Bossy Ex's Brother

Carlo Moretti was a tall, reed-thin man with a silver beard. His eyes were shifty, and he tapped his left finger against the table when he was nervous. He tended to push his chest out to portray confidence he didn’t feel, and he also tended to smile during uncomfortable silences.

I learned all this during the first minute of meeting this man.

It might seem trivial to some people, but I needed to know as much about Carlo as I could. Everything depended on how well I could trust him, especially since he was asking for such a big risk on our end.

Brandon was seated beside me in this quiet coffee shop at the end of an abandoned road project. I knew he was observing the man too. I could tell from the way Brandon shifted that there was something about Carlo he didn’t like. I was feeling it too.

Still, I wanted to give him a chance.

“You took this meeting with me,” I asked, getting straight to the point. “Why?”

“I want the same thing you do,” the man responded, and he brought the coffee to his lips, sipping and putting it down before continuing the rest of his sentence. “Peace.”

“If you want peace, then why is this the first we’ve heard of it?”

“It’s because my brother does not wish for it. You understand that he lost a lot in the last year, and he’s very angry as a result.” He pinned us with a grave look. “He wants every single Coppola dead because of it.”

We knew that, but at the same time, it didn’t make sense. We knew the Morettis were our enemies, but truthfully, if they wanted us dead, they would have ramped up their attacks after the shoot-out, not reduced them. We suspected they would be planning something huge, but so far, there had been no concrete signs of that. There had been very few escalations in the occasional spats either.

“What’s your brother planning?” I asked.

“No.” The man shook his head. “You first. I need your assurance that if I help you with this information, you will help me too.”

“What do you want?” We already knew the answer to that, but I wanted to hear it from his mouth.

“My brother.” The man shook his head, his jaw clenching as a dark expression flashed across his features. “You have no idea how cruel he can be, how bloodthirsty. He is a shame to be the one leading our group. I want him out.”

“Let me guess,” Brandon said. “You believe that you’d do much better than him.”

“I don’t think that I will,” the man said. “But I certainly will. Look at the men behind me.” He pointed toward one of them, who was wearing an eye patch. “My brother took out his eye because his sister refused his advances. And this one….” He pointed to another man standing next to him. “His entire family had to enter witness protection, and he was left behind because of my brother. Our people are suffering, too, even as much as yours are. That’s why he needs to be outed.”

The man laced his hands in front of him. “I’m tired of blood in the streets, as I am sure you are too. That’s why I agreed to this meeting.”

“And we only had to give you 100,000 dollars to do so,” Brandon muttered but fell silent when I glanced at him. Brandon really didn’t like this guy. Sure, I wasn’t completely sold on him either, but it seemed personal for Brandon. I would need to ask him about it once the meeting is done.

For now, I turned back to Carlo. “You know that we would have to consider this very deeply before we made a decision.”

Carlo nodded. “Of course. I know you must be worried about your people’s safety as well. But rest assured, there are many more men who are with me than those who are with my brother. I can assure you of that.”

“If it were so, then you wouldn’t need our help,” I surmised.

He nodded. “It’s true that it would be easier with your help, and I would much rather do it that way. But we’re running out of time. You don’t know how destructive and depraved Filippo’s plans for the Coppolas are.”

And that was what I was afraid of, but I wouldn’t be hastily moved into a battle out of fear. That was as good as losing outright.

“We have to think about this. I won’t send my men to war with incomplete information.” I rose from the table, giving him a nod. “We’ll be in touch.”

We exited the coffee shop into the street, glancing around to make sure we hadn’t been spotted. We’d put some of our men as lookouts, but Brandon and I had attended the meeting alone. There was no need for more than that. We were in my territory, and we’d confirmed that it was just the three men in the shop. We could take them, in any case.

Once we got far enough, I stopped Brandon in his tracks. “What was that back in there?”

“What was what?”

I turned to eye my second-in-command, watching him closely for the first time in a long time. Brandon and I had been together since the beginning. He’d always had my back and had sworn to follow me to the end. I’d never suspected him of even attempting to betray me.

But I knew him. He was hiding something,

Even as he met my gaze head-on and didn’t change his expression, there was something in his eyes that had suspicion tingling in my gut.

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