Total pages in book: 17
Estimated words: 16236 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 81(@200wpm)___ 65(@250wpm)___ 54(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 16236 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 81(@200wpm)___ 65(@250wpm)___ 54(@300wpm)
“I’m willing to risk—”
“Enough.” Vinnie yelled.
Tom placed a hand on Vinnie’s arm. “Remember when we met? Remember how hard it was for me to admit I wanted to stay with you?”
Vinnie scowled at Tom for a moment, but it looked like he was fighting a smile.
“I need a laptop,” I said.
“You need to learn when to keep your mouth shut,” Vinnie snapped.
“Do you want to solve this problem, or do you want my father breaking down your door?”
“If your father starts something with me, he’s starting it with Lucien Marchesi. I hope he’s not that foolish.”
“I can promise you if my father is challenged, he’ll accept it, and he’d fight God himself if the family honor was at stake.”
“Why do you need a laptop?” Tony asked.
“I’m the one asking questions,” Vinnie said.
I rolled my eyes. “I need to make sure Billy didn’t wipe the contents of this drive.” I pulled it from my pocket. “If he didn’t, then I have some proof of a secret my father desperately wants to keep. I can use it to get what I want.”
Vinnie focused on me again. I could see the calculations going on in his mind. “And what exactly is that?”
“To be free of my family and able to choose my own path.”
“Unless that path involves swearing allegiance to my family, you’re out of luck.”
I refused to back down. “Unless you want a war with the Barruchis, you’ll let me live my own life.”
“Why don’t we see what he’s got on the drive?” Tony asked.
I scowled at him. “No, this is for my eyes only.”
Vinnie took a step toward me, and Tony moved to block him.
“Enough,” Tom said. “Come on, Elio. You can use my laptop.”
“No,” Vinnie growled. “Not until he tells us what kind of information he has that will make Giacomo roll over for him.”
“There’s no point in trying to use this for blackmail if he knows I already told you and you can use it against him. This only works if I keep the secret.”
Tom looked at Vinnie. “He has a point.”
“So I’m supposed to let him put a drive into our computer that could be doing no telling what to our system, pulling any amount of our data, and then I’m supposed to not look at what he uploads and let him communicate with his father without knowing what they’re talking about. You think I’m stupid?”
I sighed. “All I know is that I have a peaceful solution, but you’re going to have to trust me.”
“Why should I do that? There’s absolutely no reason for me to think you want anything but the worst for my family.”
“What I want is to get free of my father’s control. I don’t hold loyalty to him, I don’t want to be part of his organization. I don’t want to be part of yours. I want to be a free person who directs my own life.”
“That’s not how things work in our world,” Vinnie said.
Tony laid a hand on my shoulder. “He’s right. You’re with us now. You’re going to have to trust me.”
I shook my head. “You want to control me just like they do.”
I expected him to deny it, but he didn’t. “That’s because you’re mine now, mine to protect.”
I wanted to shout that I could protect myself, but unless I got very far away, I really couldn’t do that. Even if I ran to the other side of the globe, how long would it take before my father tracked me down? Was he really going to let me go when I knew his secrets. Was I being naïve? Would my own father put out a hit on me?
Tony looked at Vinnie. “Can Elio and I please have some time? If you’ll let me talk to him, I think we can work this out.”
Vinnie narrowed his eyes. “How do I know you’re not just going to run?”
“Because if we were going to run, we would’ve done that after I killed Billy. I never would have brought him here. Maybe that’s what I should’ve done.”
Vinnie’s face contorted with fury. “You don’t run out on your family. We’d find you and make sure you regretted the betrayal.”
Tony tensed. I wanted to reach for him. I wanted to be able to comfort him the way he had me. This was all so insane. What was I doing here? How had I ended up getting myself even more trapped? If I ran, Tony would be blamed for it. I wouldn’t let that happen.
I wished I had the power to protect us both, but despite being Giacomo Baruchi’s son, I didn’t have any power of my own. In my family, power had to be earned, and all I’d wanted to do was get out. Maybe I should’ve learned all the lethal skills my brothers had, maybe I should have turned myself into a cold-blooded killer. Because now it seemed like I was destined to work for one criminal family or another.