“Word on the street is that Bastian Gallini, his cousins, and a few of their soldiers from Italy just landed at LaGuardia about an hour ago.”
“Yeah, I got the message and that’s what I’ve been busy dealing with. Seems we have a fucking problem. They’re coming for what they think is owed.”
Fuckwad doesn’t trust me enough to tell me even though I carried Anna out of that shithole the Gallinis had her trapped in and brought her to the safety of his house. Fucking asshole. Myjaw locks tight, ready to hang up and forget the information I can share, take matters into my own hands, but one thing I know about Massimo is that he loves the fuck out of Anna’s sister. He’s just protecting them both, and I can’t blame him for that.
And who the fuck knows if someone is listening in. Secure line or not, we all know the best of the best can get onto a line, seemingly easier and easier these days. Especially when our waters are infested with rats.
“I know everything, Massimo. Remember that problem I told you we were having a while back?” I know he’s going to recall me talking about the rats in our organization, the ones we were trying to flush out and are still dealing with today.
“I remember.”
“We still got ‘em. And maybe some of them, or patrons of our club saw something they shouldn’t have seen, Massimo, which means trouble for you. You did me a solid and now I’m returning the favor. That number you once gave me, that one night when I owed you a favor?”
The line is silent for a moment, but Massimo is not dumb. He’s one of the smartest men of all the families that I know. “Yeah.”
“Is it still secure?”
“Yes, the securest we have.”
“I’m going to use it.” I disconnect. That long pause of Massimo’s told me everything he wanted me to know and all that I needed to keep Anna’s name off that line. Even mentioning the Cassone estate probably just pulled my family into the shitstorm of the Gallini’s revenge in the off chance someone was listening but better that than leading them right to her.
Nicolo bursts through the door. “The guys I have underground in Jersey City? They say the Rosellis just sent a shit ton of soldiers to the Dunlap house. All hell is breaking loose right now. They were told they were supposed to pick up Addie’sfriend, the one that’s been staying with them, but she wasn’t there.”
My jaw tightens. “Get our soldiers around a two-block perimeter, every street and highway leading from here back to Jersey City, I want covered, I want more men at the door, and I want more troops at the fucking Atlantic City entrance. Capisce?”
Nicolo growls. “This fucking shit went south in an hour.” He doesn’t waste one second getting on his phone though, issuing orders to make it all happen, while I hit the contact number that Massimo gave me in the heat of trying to save both his mother and sister-in-law just six months ago.
Massimo picks up in one ring. “Tell me something Vincenzo. We just hit the Dunlap house. Things aren’t as they should be.”
“The package you’re looking for isn’t there, it’s on the way to me.”
“The fuck!” he growls. “You had a debt, we showed you mercy, let you pay us back after your brother fucked up, and now you want to wage war on my family?”
“Calm the fuck down, Massimo. Of course not. If I wanted war, you’d damn well know it. And don’t you ever fucking disrespect me like that again. We have bigger issues to deal with right now. That package? It’s arriving here any minute. I will keep it safe. You get your men here as quick as you fucking can. Our soldiers will let you through without question.
16
ANNA
Ishould have known Barcelo wouldn’t have died without leaving a legacy of family vendetta behind. It’s not their way, our way, or anyone’s in a crime family. Massimo and Sophia were right to be so overprotective. Maybe I should have taken their advice and gone underground, moved in and out of the Roselli family networks as they wanted, my identity wiped. Who knows, maybe I’d be living a new life with no ties to a crime family at all right now.
But doing that would mean I wouldn’t be able to call, talk to, or see my sister or any of my future nieces and nephews. Not their births, their baptisms, birthdays, or anything at all.
My chest tightens with heartache, regret, and resolve. As the eldest sister of the Cassones my father’s decisions, while he was alive and right before he died will haunt me and Sophia until the ends of our lives. But I made my decision, and no matter the consequences, I’m not taking it back. My sister, her family, her children, they are all that matter to me.
Always groomed as the daughter who would marry a member of another family and secure the Cassone place in the crime world, I accepted that obligation without any resentment oftenfelt by others in modern times, but not me, because it was my duty as first-born daughter.
No matter it was made easier by Barcelo convincing me that he loved me, and like Mamma I thought I had found my happily ever after in a family corrupted by sin. Besides wanting the territory and power that would come with marrying me, and of course having me be the incubator for his future son, Barcelo Gallini wanted nothing else. The devilish bastard is probably still laughing from his grave that I ever thought he loved me.
But no matter the past, what I wanted, he wanted, Papa wanted, one thing that I know for sure is that after learning what Barcelo really wanted, all I wanted was to run, and now, from his brothers, his cousins, and all of his allies, no matter who they are.
Addie doesn’t push me to say things I don’t want to say. She’s quiet the entire rest of the trip, until we’re about thirty minutes away from the DeLuca Casino and Hotel. “You okay?”
My heart races with fear but remorse for putting her in danger. “I’m so sorry, Addie. I never meant to get you involved in something like this, a war that’s been going on for so long between the families and that you should never be dragged into at all.”
She hugs me tight as the driver pulls up in front of the DeLuca Casino and Hotel. “Listen to me. None of this is your fault. Actually, now that I’ve had a little time to think, the safest place you could be is here. Right here, where an enemy of the Gallinis has no idea that you’re here and the Gallinis wouldn’t think to look for you. They will never look for you here. They’ll assume you’re still at Massimo and Sophia’s estate. They’ll never get through there and you can bet your ass the minute they landed stateside Massimo Roselli found out about it.”
I let out a huge exhale. “When Massimo finds out, he’ll have the soldiers bring me back from your house to his. And then every…”