But she was my sister, and whether she liked it or not, I would always want to protect her no matter how capable she was. Aria worked hard to prove herself and worked even harder to be where she's at right now, but that didn't mean I wasn't scared for her. Hence, why I was coming here, eventhough I wanted to spend the rest of the day with Ajla.
"What do we know?" I asked as soon as I walked inside the small office Aria used as her mini base. She looked up from the papers scattered on the table, her dark eyes narrowing at me.
"I told you I could handle this."
"And I told you I was coming. So why don't you tell me what's going on and how I can help."
Aria hated being told what to do, and she hated even more the fact that I was so protective, but I promised my father I would take care of her, Clara and our mother and I was planning on keeping that promise.
"Aria, we don't have time for this whole standoff between the two of us," I said when she kept looking at me, no doubt planning different ways to kill me. "Just tell me, and then I will get out of your hair."
I would never tell her this, but she was the best enforcer we've had. I hated the fact that so many men from other mafia families couldn't see how valuable she was, and how valuable our women were, and not just for staying home and pretending they didn't know anything. They were smart, cunning, soft when the situation needed them to be,and tougher than any men I knew when they needed to be.
Aria and my mother were proof that there was nothing men could do that women couldn't do in our world. But it was tough trying to change the opinions of dinosaurs who were set in their old ways.
"Fine," she huffed, letting her arms fall and refocusing on the papers in front of her. "I've been gaining intel from our inside man for quite some time, and truth be told, I have no idea what's happening inside Mancini ranks."
Walking closer to her, I looked down at the papers on the table. "What do you mean?"
"I mean," her eyes clashed with mine, "the old Mancini seems to be making decisions that absolutely make no sense. People are talking, and I have no idea if it's old age or if he had snapped, but they don't agree with him. He's been sending his soldiers on wild chases, literally tracking ghosts. He has it in his mind that we would take everything from him, and guess what?"
"What?"
"He's convinced our father is alive and is planning to kill him."
Talk about crazy.
The old Mancini was the one whohad ordered a hit on our father. He was the reason I had to take reins so soon and why we were in this shitshow in the first place. Before he betrayed us, our families were friends. Hell, I used to play with his son, and dare I say, we were almost best friends before he destroyed everything. Clara and Aria had spent days at their house when we were younger, playing together, and the betrayal from the old Mancini was not something any of us could predict.
Hell, ever since my father died, Enzo, Don Mancini's son, had disappeared without a trace. At first, I thought he was in hiding because he was the one who killed my father, but something wasn't adding up.
"Has anyone spotted Enzo?" I asked Aria, because I knew she'd been looking for him as well. Aria used to admire him when she was younger, and she was also the one who told me he wasn't involved.
"No," she grumbled. "But if these reports I'm getting are anything to go by, I wouldn't be surprised if something more sinister is at play, Nico. Enzo wouldn't just disappear like that. Hell, he was your best friend. He was my friend."
She was right, but I couldn't see it before.
The Enzo I knew would never betray us. Not like this.
So where was he?
"I'll find him, I'm sure of it," Aria said. "But we have a bigger fish to fry right now." She pulled one of the papers on the top, and I quickly realized what I was looking at. "Seems familiar?"
"Those are the plans for my house." I picked the paper up, looking at the drawings that were made once we had finalized everything. "How the fuck did they get this?"
Aria shrugged, but I didn't miss the fury in her eyes. "I have no fucking idea, but I'm about to find out." I followed her line of sight and saw one of our soldiers walking toward her office, visible through the windows surrounding us.
"Boss," he knocked, looking directly at Aria. "Capo," he nodded at me before turning back to her. "He's awake."
"Brilliant," she chuckled, bypassing me as she went toward the door. "You coming or what? We left one of them alive. For now." Her smile almost seemed soft, but I could see the viciousness hiding behind it.
Shaking my head, I walked toward her and dropped the plans back onto the table, following her out of the office and toward the open space in the warehouse.
A man, probably not much olderthan me, sat tied to a chair with a bloodied face and one eye completely swollen shut. I could see the familiar Mancini tattoo on his neck—the letter M with a snake wrapped around it—and for the hundredth time since our father had been killed, I couldn't stop myself from thinking that snake definitely belonged as that family's emblem.
"Are you ready to talk?" Aria asked, and I had no doubt his swollen and bloodied face was her handiwork. "Or would you like me to talk?" She knelt in front of him and pulled a knife from her boot. "I have to be honest, darling." She stood up and took another step toward him. "I do like the way you scream."
His one barely open eye widened, and as he started thrashing in the chair, trying to break free, I remembered what a vicious beast my sister could be. Had I not known her softer side, I would be afraid of her too.