Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 73663 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 368(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73663 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 368(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
One week, and she’s been even more quiet than normal, keeping her distance from me and hiding whenever I’m moving around the building.
One week since she entered my bloodstream, wriggled into my brain.
One week since I began stroking myself in the shower to thoughts of her.
Fucked up, I’m aware, and not something I’ve experienced before.
And now Saul’s in my office looking like he’s either tweaking out of his mind or terrified to give me bad news.
“Get it over with,” I say through my teeth. His anxious vibes are starting to feel contagious.
“Right.” He clears his throat. “I was just on the phone with Spire—”
“What the fuck was Spire doing talking to you? Lisa’s supposed to be dealing with them.”
“She was until she reached out this morning and asked me to help.”
I lean forward. My heart starts racing. “Why would she do that?”
Saul only stares at me. He doesn’t need to say anything because I already know. Lisa’s good—she’s very good—and she’d never in a million years ask Saul for help doing anything. The girl despises my brother and for good reason. He tried to feel her up at an office party one time a couple years back and she gave him a black eye for his trouble. In his defense, she’d been flirting with him all night, but at some point their signals got crossed, and they’ve been enemies ever since. Saul got in a lot of trouble for that stupid, drunken move.
“Spire sold,” he says at least. “Sorry, bro. But they sold.”
I take a calming breath. It doesn’t work. “I assume they didn’t sell to us, or else you wouldn’t look like you’re walking up the steps to your own hanging. Who did they sell to then?”
“I’m just the messenger, okay?”
“Tell me.”
“Aslanov.”
I stare at him. One beat. Two. “Motherfucker,” I say softly, sitting back in my chair.
Saul relaxes slightly. “You’re not going to throw something at me?”
“No, brother, I’m not.”
“Well, shit, that’s good. I was really worried you might.”
“I’m going to hunt down Aslanov’s shit-eating pakhan and murder the old cocksucker in front of his entire organization.”
Saul grimaces. “That’s probably worse. You should throw something instead.”
“How the fuck did this happen? Aslanov is nothing. They’re a fucking minnow and we’re goddamn sharks. Why the fuck would Spire ever sell to those fucking Bratva motherfuckers?”
It makes no sense. Lisa’s been working this deal for months through the Famiglia’s real estate business. Spire’s a mid-level developer with too much debt on their books looking to unload some prime real estate for quick cash, and it makes sense to sell to an organization that has proven time and again that we can deliver. We’ve been practically begging them to let us write a few fat checks.
Yet they went with the Bratva. It’s unconscionable, this fucking sleight. Someone has to die tonight—someone from the Aslanov family and someone from Spire. That’s the only way the Rossi name will retain its power in this city.
If a second-rate crew like the Aslanov thinks they can fuck with us, then any of the other five families will start taking chunks away from my empire.
I can’t have that, not right now, not when I have so much to protect and so much to lose.
“I’m trying to find out,” Saul says at last, sounding uneasy. “I tried to work my magic on the Spire guys but they weren’t interested in talking. They just said the papers were signed and the deal was done and there’s nothing they could do about it. I’m pushing for more info from my sources on the inside—” But he only makes an uncertain gesture with his hands.
“Fucked,” I say, leaning forward with a snarl. “This is absolutely fucked.”
“What do you want to do?”
“Call a meeting of the Capos. All of them, brother, and tell them to bring their top soldiers. I have a feeling Philadelphia is about to get very bloody.”
His eyes widen. It’s rare to bring everyone together—putting the entire power structure in one place is dangerous and invites disaster.
And I’m not the kind of man to talk of war without backing it up.
He holds up his hands. “Are you sure about that? We can keep working this, see what the Aslanov fuckers have to say for themselves—”
“No.” I cut him off with a slicing motion across my neck. “We’re past talking now. The soldiers are bored? They want business? We will give them business.”
Saul shifts in his chair. “You’re talking blood in the street, bro. Over a land deal?”
“Over our fucking land deal.” I stare at him, barely keeping myself under control. It’s not like me, this simmering rage, this need to storm off and smash. But Saul doesn’t understand how precarious things are right now. “Call the meeting. We speak tonight.”
“Alright, Don Rossi. Whatever you say.” Saul sinks into himself, looking unnerved. “When’s the last time the Rossi Famiglia went to war? Did it ever happen when Papa was in charge?”