Page 71 of Say I Do

“Sorry about my brother,” he said.

“Mine as well.” I glared at Giancarlo. “Sit down.”

“He started it!”

“Pay him his money,” I snapped. “I mean it this time, Gin. If you don’t do it, I’ll make your life hell.”

My brother sat down and shrugged. “Fine, fine.” He waved a hand. “Don’t take my side then.”

I stared at him until he must have seen I meant business. Gin straightened up as Enzo took a seat beside him. I waited until everyone had calmed down before I spoke.

“Someone has been running their mouth,” I said as I walked around my desk and leaned on it. “Reporters have all kinds of information on both myself and Harlow.”

“Your fiancé?” Alessio interrupted.

“Yeah, my fiancé,” I confirmed. “Shit, people shouldn’t know. I’m not stupid. Whenever things like this happen, it means someone is speaking when they should be silent.” My eyes scanned over the crowd. “I’ve heard some rumors and gained some information. Does anyone want to speak up?”

The atmosphere in the room grew heavier. Dead silence filled the space except for the tapping of toes or the shuffling of clothes against chairs when someone squirmed. My eyes fell on all of them, picking apart their patterns and behavior to see if I could spot the traitor.

“Benito, I can assure you that we would never do anything to compromise what we have in place with your family,” Andre said. “It would be counterproductive. None of us wants to start a war.”

I turned to Richie. “What about you?”

The man grunted out a laugh. “I make a lot of money by being loyal to you.”

“Yes, but if you thought I was losing my edge by going legit…” I trailed off.

Richie waved a hand. “I don’t think you’re losing shit! This going legit angle is exactly what we need to advance in the world. The time of cowboys and rogue gangsters is long gone. By legitimizing your operation, we all benefit.”

Everyone in the room nodded in agreement. Once upon a time, I would have believed them. After all, everything that I’d put in place was mutually beneficial for everyone involved. That was how I kept the wolves from my door and the cops out of my face. However, now, someone had decided what I offered wasn’t enough. They wanted to sabotage me.

“Which should be the case,” I said as I adjusted my jacket. “Yet I’m still hearing about the Acetos working against me. Why is that?”

The Aceto brothers paused. I stared at them while they looked at me with shock written all over their faces.They weren’t expecting me to call them out.At first, I wasn’t going to. I had planned on making my accusations and letting them dangle in the air as a warning that I knew what was going on. However, after seeing the info Harlow had collected, I wanted answers. Maybe I’d been around Harlow too much, just blurting out things. Although I had to admit, the shocked looks on their faces were almost comical.

“I— I can assure you that I have done nothing to jeopardize the agreements we have in place,” Andre said. “Maybe your info is skewed.”

“Fuck that,” Richie snapped. “If you know it’s him, then bring it to the council.”

“We haven’t done shit,” Lee bit back. “Where did you get this info? Your goomah? Because—”

Andre stood up and yanked his brother back. The room fell into silence as I looked Lee up and down. It was one thing to disrespect me, but to call Harlow my goomah, as if he was some cheap side piece, was another.

“Myfiancéis none of your goddamn business,” I bit out. “I have the info. That’s all that matters. Right now, I have some evidence, and I’ll gather more. Hopefully, whoever is pulling this shit knocks it off so we can move forward,” I said as I crossed my arms over my chest. “Is that okay with all of you?”

The simultaneous nodding and agreement eased the ball of tension in my chest. My eyes flickered to Andre and Lee once more.

“If I find outanyoneis conspiring against me, I’ll take the appropriate action to handle it,” I said calmly.

I didn’t have to spell it out for them to know what I meant. Any act of being a fucking rat would be met with swift and sure punishment once the council approved it. All they had to do was screw up, even just a little, and they would be dead.

“That’s all for now,” I said as I straightened up and grabbed my phone out of my pocket. “Keep an eye out for anything suspicious. We don’t want to get on the cops’ radar. If you see anyone acting strange—” I shook my phone. “Call me. Got it?”

“Got it,” they called as a collective.

“Good.”

One by one, they filed out of my office. I still had no idea if it was Andre Aceto, but I knew Lee would get his ass kicked for speaking out during the meeting. For now, the chaos I had sewn was satisfying enough.

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