Page 27 of His Broken Queen

“I’m going to ignore your tone, and the fact that you asking me to come here today insinuates that you think I’m responsible for such a hideous act.” He scowled. “It’s disgraceful and makes all of us look bad that someone would be so animalistic as to kill a woman who had nothing to do with our business.”

“Stella wasn’t supposed to be there, so if it was a botched hit on me, she surprised them and paid with her life.”

“Frankie LaVanza’s son was gunned down in Brooklyn an hour ago,” he said. “That was not a botched hit.”

“What?” Gio took out his phone and did a search. “What the hell?” He nodded at me with confirmation.

“If you remember,” Antonio continued, “two of LaVanza’s top soldiers were taken out a few months ago with no explanation. His family is being targeted. Your house was targeted. The other families are laying low. Dante Marchelli has increased security and won’t let any of his family leave the compound.”

“Santino is in Brazil,” I said.

“Dante is trying to get him home as soon as possible.” Antonio took a seat across from my desk. “I know his family stands with you, so I figured you would want to know.”

“We need to call Dominick Marchelli and tell him we can help with whatever they need to get Santino home,” I said to Gio.

“I’ll do it after this meeting,” Gio said.

“What’s going on?” I asked Antonio.

“These occurrences are not coming from any of the lead families,” Antonio said. “We’ve all been paralyzed these past few months because of the Feds and the cartel.”

“Everything was fine before you came after me.” I gritted my teeth. “Was it worth setting in motion what you have?”

“Was it worth you marrying my niece and exposing my son’s paternity?” Antonio slammed his fist on the arm of the chair. “You seem to have made out pretty good.”

“Those things happened because of you, but I will never regret finding Luciana and getting her away from you and your crazy wife.” I controlled the urge to pull out my gun and shoot him in the head. “As for Rocco, that was not my doing. If you hadn’t taken Lu from me, none of that mess would have been exposed that night. You only have yourself to blame.”

“That’s a fair point.” He sighed. “That is a problem for another day. We have bigger concerns. I’ll admit, I came after you because when you came back to New York, I thought you would eventually want to take your rightful place as your father’s heir. You were a threat to all of us.”

“I never wanted a seat at the table.” I pointed at him. “I was fine with working peacefully with the families. I would move my products through your harbors and you all would get your fair share. I never crossed anyone. I never took more than I was owed.”

“I didn’t trust you,” he said.

“Obviously,” Gio said. “You went through great lengths to stop us.”

“I miscalculated.” He stared at me. “I’d heard things about you. I had good reasons to believe you were in the city to take what was mine.”

“Giancarlo?” I waved my hand in the air. “He was a traitor playing both sides, but you couldn’t figure that out.”

“Which is why he’s nowhere to be found?” Antonio arched his brow.

“I don’t know where he is, but he won’t show his face in front of me again.” I made sure of that. “You acted on assumptions and someone else's lies. That doesn’t make for a very smart businessman much less the top Don on the East coast. You sacrificed your niece, knowing if I found out I could kill her.”

“You did find out and you didn’t kill her,.” He smirked. “I’d say it worked out rather well for you.”

“Except for the part where I can’t move my product in the states.” I balled my fist by my side. “If you left me alone we’d all be a little richer right now and maybe none of us would be worried about being taken out.”

“That’s in the past,” he said. “None of us are safe until we figure out who is targeting us. We’re going to have to work together to figure this out.”

“Are you kidding me?” I laughed at the absurdity. “What? Do you want to make an alliance? I’ve been there and done that. No fucking way.”

“Romero, don’t be like your father.” He stood. “Now is not the time to let your pride get in the way.”

“I’ll accept that you aren’t responsible for Stella’s death, but that’s all the courtesy I’ll extend to you. I can protect my own. Stay out of my way.”

“I thought you’d say that, so I’m going to give you something as a show of faith.”

“What?” I rolled my eyes. “You don’t have anything I need.”

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