Page 224 of The Consequences of Love and Vengeance

And it makes my mind whirl with possibilities. It screams cover for a new method of smuggling shit, so what is he really up to? He’s laid low for the past couple of years, off the radar, but I don’t buy that he actually was. Even Diaz said he was pulling strings from Sicily. Diaz has always just been the middleman, the same as his father before him.

“When were you planning on telling me about the cop you’re seeing.” It takes all the control I have in me not to freeze at the mention of Bri. “Is there something you don’t want me to know, son?”

“Why would I care if you know about her or not?”

“You know how I feel about a badge.” He says that word like it’s the dirtiest word to ever fall off his tongue. “You’re supposed to be with Rebecca, solidifying our family with De Luca’s. You swore to me when I left, it would be done.”

“Rebecca annoys the fuck out of me. Besides, being with her does nothing. Alessandro is no one without you. No one fears him. Not the Mexicans, not the gangs. No. One.” I shake my head.

He waves off my remark.

“Rebecca is half-Italian like yourself. She’s from a good family. The unity would strengthen the power you’re creating here in LA. Would you not agree, son?”

“No.” I shake my head again. “I wouldn’t.”

I breathe, folding my hands together and leaning into my desk.

“Besides, I don’t have time for the wife bullshit that would come with her when I’ve been trying to rebuild an empire.”

“Not much rebuilding that I’ve seen.” He arches an eyebrow.

“Did it ever occur to you that I had to clean this place up? Clean our name, one you did everything in your power to tarnish?”

“And where does the little cop fit into this clean up as you call it?”

“With a respected LAPD detective on my arm”—I shrug my shoulders—“who’s going to dig under the surface? I needed a shield more than a bitch with claws.”

He looks around the small space.

“I really do hope you sweep every inch of this place for bugs on a daily basis, son.”

“No one gets in, or near this place, without me knowing about it.”

I flip my eyes over to his. I hate the way mine are an exact replica. It’s like looking in a mirror. It’s sickening if I think too much on it.

“Which surprises me that you haven’t run anything through here since you’ve been back.”

“I left you in charge, didn’t I? I gave you the empire I started.”

There’s a change in his eyes, the slightest tug on one corner of his lips. He’s thinking about something but doing everything in his power to hide it. If I didn’t know him as well as I do, I wouldn’t have seen it.

“Maybe I’m back for a reason that has nothing to do with business. Maybe I’m back for personal reasons.”

“Which are?”

“I’ll let you know in due time, son.” I hate that word coming off his lips. I may be his son through DNA, but he has never been a father to me or to my siblings.

“Then are we done here?”

“We are.” He stands, buttoning his suit jacket. “Tell my other son to answer his damn phone when I call him. I’m starting to think none of my children are happy to see me.”

“Luca is more of a texter. Send him a message.”

He lifts an eyebrow.

“What the fuck is this world coming to?” He shakes his head.

“It’s been the twenty-first century for nearly twenty years. Maybe it’s time you joined the rest of us.”

---