Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 96129 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96129 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
“All emotional and sappy? Yeah.” She smiled sadly.
I squeezed her hand back. “I love you.”
“I love you too. Now, are your feet in too much pain to dance? Because this is my jam.”
I laughed and stood up. Hell yes, my feet were in pain, but never too much to dance.
23
DOMINIC
“Can we go?” Rocco asked beside me, annoyed. “We either go inside and get a drink or go take care of business, but I refuse to sit here like a fucking stalker.”
I sighed heavily and looked away from the bar that Rosie and Yari were in. They’d been dancing for half an hour and drinking for much longer. She looked so free, so happy, with her hair pulled up into a high ponytail as she threw her head back in laughter. Seeing her like this did something to me. It made me wish I’d put that smile on her face. It was a gift, seeing her this unfiltered, and a curse, knowing I couldn’t provide that kind of peace. We’d all worked hard to go completely legit, or at least as legit as we could get. Russo liked to call it the eighty-twenty method, like it was a fucking diet. Eighty percent legit, twenty percent dabbling in shit that could put us in jail if we weren’t smart about it.
We had the gas stations, the import and export businesses, the escort service, the nightclubs, gambling rings in the laundromats and bodegas, two casinos, a private sanitation company, a trucking fleet company and as of now, Loren was also working with his friend Enrique to invest in a private jet company. These were all things we’d either inherited or started with the money we made from the things we’d inherited. Instead of keeping everything close to our chests, the way our fathers did, and only coming together once in a while to meet with the other bosses, we decided to bring it together. We agreed there was less of a chance that any of us, or our kids who would inherit this from us, would stab each other in the back and try to take it all.
Lorenzo’s father was on board, probably since he was at the tip-top of the command chain and knew it wouldn’t affect him. My father, on the other hand, didn’t agree with it, which was understandable. Some people are afraid of going into business with their lifelong friends, and since my father had both screwed over and been screwed over by his, he thought this was a stupid idea. We liked to think we were better than our fathers, though. We also had a shit-ton of lawyers on retainer and every single business decision was reviewed by them. The sanitation company was something we’d been having issues with lately. It had been handed down by the old Marchettis, who lost a lot of employees to the city. We were trying to win over the next generation and bring them back to our side. That was the reason Rocco was sitting in the backseat of my SUV right now.
These companies were legitimate, tax-paying companies. I knew I could explain this to Rosie until I was blue in the face, though, and she’d still argue that it wasn’t safe. The worst part is, deep down, I knew that I couldn’t provide the kind of peace she deserved. She’d always have security with her, always have a driver, always have me looming over her. I wasn’t sure how she felt about any of those extra things. A big part of me wanted to take over her life despite all of that, but this was Rosie. I fucking cared what she thought.
“Let’s go,” I told Nico after indulging in the sight of Roselyn dancing a moment longer. I turned to Rocco. “Run this by me again.”
“We go there, talk to these guys, shoot the shit a little, and tell them to jump ship and come work for our private sanitation company.”
“Why would they do that?” I asked.
Back in the day, when Marchetti’s uncles were heavily involved, the sanitation and construction industries were controlled by organized crime. These days they had unions. They knew how valuable they were and even though I liked the idea of private sanitation, I couldn’t knock these people for going out there and protecting themselves.
“They’re on strike again. We’re going to pay them more, give them better benefits, better vacation time. If they want to stay working for the city that’ll be their choice, but I know I wouldn’t turn this down,” Rocco said, “Besides, some of these guys are part of Costello’s crew. If we get them on our side, it’ll be one more thing we have over Tommy.”
“Huh.” I felt myself smile for the first time in days. It was a win-win all around. “We’re going to steal them away and gain control of the industry again.”