Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 75737 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75737 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
"I get it," Lorenzo agreed, shrugging. "You know me better than to think every disagreement will be seen as an affront. I got too much shit on my plate to worry about creating petty grievances. Sweetheart, can I have another of these to go?" he asked, calling out to the waitress who was hanging around, but far enough back that she was sure not to overhear anything. Her boss had taught her well. "Anything else we need to know for the next sit down?"
"I don't think so. Not right now. But when the next box comes in, and once we know some more, we will be in touch. If nothing else, one of us can come meet you halfway to have a talk about it."
"Alright. Sounds like a plan," he said, getting to his feet as the waitress came out the door. "Thanks for the update. I will talk to my father about the Russians," he told us, handing what looked like a couple hundred bucks to the waitress. "Buy yourself something nice," he offered when she tried to insist it was too much. "I think red might be your color," he added, getting a fierce blush out of her as she stammered out a shocked thank you and scurried away. "Alright, I've got another hour and a half drive ahead of me. I am going to get going."
"It was nice seeing you, Lorenzo," I told him, standing, reaching out my hand.
"Oh, you were shitting yourselves about this meeting, admit it," he teased, smiling. "You should know it's never a big deal when it's me. Alright, I have to go," he said, turning to walk back toward his car, pausing a bit at the trunk as the car jiggled. "Bad gas, what can you do?" he said, shrugging as he rushed into the driver's seat, peeling away.
"Ah, I'm gonna go ahead and say it," Lucky said when we were alone again. "He has somebody in that trunk."
He sure did.
That was why he'd left the car on.
Why we'd been able to hear a slight thump of the radio.
To keep whoever it was cool, to mask any cries there might have been for freedom.
"Poor schmuck. I wouldn't want to be at the mercy of Arturo. He won't last long."
See, I wasn't so sure it was a he.
Not with those comments' he'd made about a woman being a pain in his ass lately.
That sounded more like work to me than a woman he was dating. Much like Matteo and Lucky, Lorenzo was not someone who spent more than a good time with a woman.
But the old rules were supposed to still apply.
No kids.
No women.
If Arturo was going behind everyone's backs, and making his son kidnap a woman, there was about to be a violent shift of loyalties among the families. And when loyalties were tested, bodies piled up. People scrambled for positions of power. New rules came trickling down. New problems became an everyday occurrence.
Fuck.
That was the last thing we all needed.
But if everything was already in play, there was nothing we could do to stop it. We were too far away. New York would feel the pain first. And then it would find its way down to us, over to Philly, and, eventually, Chicago.
"You're quiet. That went well. As well as can be expected anyway."
"Where the hell is my father?" I asked, looking around, reaching into my pocket to find my phone.
"I've never known him to be late," Lucky agreed.
"Get a call out to the restaurant. I'll call Dario."
An hour and endless calls later, no one had seen him, no one had heard from him.
Matteo was called back in, all of us sure things had just hit the fan, that possibly, Lorenzo was a distraction, that someone was making a move on the family by taking out my father.
"Where the fuck is he?" I demanded, grabbing his guard by the lapels, slamming him up against the wall of the restaurant.
"I don't know, Luca! I've been looking like the rest of you."
"You're not supposed to have to look. It is your job to be right by his side, to keep an eye, to fucking protect him. That's your fucking job."
"He was in the kitchen. I was there with him. Then he went to the bathroom. And I haven't seen him since."
"And you didn't call me because..."
"I called Leandro. He said to wait until you checked in since you were dealing with New York."
"I will deal with you and Leandro later," I snapped, slamming him back one more time before dropping him, my heart hammering in my chest, fear snaking around my throat.
"Alright," Lucky said, pushing the door open, walking out, holding up a hand. "From what the new guy in the kitchen said, Uncle Ant waited until everyone was turned, then rushed out of the bathroom and out the back door."