Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 93425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 374(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 374(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
I’m the last one to arrive at the mansion, my uncle’s and cousin’s cars are already waiting in front of the house. The interrogation I was busy with took place in a warehouse across town, and I had to wait for a clean-up crew to arrive before I could leave. The last thing I need is some teenager trespassing and poking their head in there to see a dead body. We pay the police handsomely to avoid our properties being searched, but they would need to respond to the call to avoid further speculation from the media. It's an unnecessary expense to pay off the police and shift the blame elsewhere when they find a body, proper disposal is a cost-saving measure.
Andy is waiting at the door for me. “You’re late,” he says as I enter through the front door. He’s got an infuriating smirk on his face that never leaves. If I didn’t love him so much, I would hate him. Still, I’m glad for Bianca. She may be the only woman alive capable of humbling him.
“I was in the middle of something,” I tell him.
Andy snorts. “Yeah, it’s a good thing you didn’t get pulled over. You still have blood on your shirt.”
I don’t look, not wanting to become a victim of the weird games he likes to play. I nod my head down the hallway where my father’s office is located. No need to keep him waiting. He doesn't gather all my uncles and cousins if it isn't something important. Being together makes us vulnerable.
Our property is heavily guarded, and we have the best security system known to man. We’re more secure than the White House here, but we know better than to get cocky with our safety. Having us all together makes for a tempting target. Taking out the entire line in one swoop is a rare opportunity, the kind our enemies would make a Hail Mary attempt to not miss. Our meetings are rare and far in between for that reason, the last one being Andy and Bianca’s wedding.
I shake my head as Emma pops into my head again. She spends more and more time there. I’m growing anxious waiting for her. The only ones who know I intend to claim her are Andy and my father, but everyone can tell something has me on edge. My family has taken to avoiding me like the bubonic plague.
Eric mentioned in passing she is in her last semester, but then he noticed I was in the room and didn’t say anything more. He doesn’t speak about her anymore. At least he doesn’t when he knows I’m around. It adds to my suspicions he knows something happened between the two of us and thinks he’s protecting his daughter.
“Not the office. Basement.”
“Basement?”
Andy only answers by wincing and nodding his head. When my father mentioned Eric, I assumed it had something to do with one of our business acquisitions or mergers. We wouldn’t be heading to my father’s torture chamber if that was the case. He may call it his interrogation room, but the Don doesn’t do interrogations. He torments them until the truth pours from their lips in between broken cries. His interrogations make what I do look like child’s play, and I had been prepared to break someone’s femur earlier.
My eyebrows shoot up towards my hairline. “We’re having a meeting with Eric in the basement?”
Eric mainly deals with our legal and law-abiding companies, helping us to funnel and launder money made from our less legitimate businesses into something that can enter the system. It can be a complex process, as the government watches our every move and waits for us to fuck up. One wrong receipt, one suspiciously profitable business, and the feds will send their agents out like bulldogs. And unlike the city police, they’re much more expensive to pay off, if they’ll take a bribe at all.
It was the IRS that took down Al Capone, and we will not make the same mistakes he did.
“Enzo, glad you could join us. We couldn’t start without you,” my father greets us as we enter the room. Never once does he take his eyes off Eric, who he has tied to a chair in the center of the room. All of his favorite toys are out in case Eric doesn’t want to cooperate. Andy and I go to stand next to Angelo and Luca, Andy’s brothers.
“Do we know what’s happening?” I ask them. They both shake their heads, indicating they’re in the dark about this as much as I am. Normally I’m fine not being cued in with what’s happening. I trust the Don will make his intentions clear. But seeing Eric tied to the chair, seeing Emma’s father in a position nobody survives, leaves an uncomfortable weight in my stomach.