Total pages in book: 152
Estimated words: 144979 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144979 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
Nobody says a word in his defense, which doesn’t surprise me.
“First order of business.” I pull the Beretta from my shoulder holster.
I fire two shots—one to his dick and the other to his head. It’s over quickly, but I don’t have the time or patience for much else today.
“Anyone else have something they’d like to say to my wife?”
The only response is silence.
“Good.” I slide my gun back into its holster. “Now we can discuss Ray Dalton.”
The men take their seats, and I pour myself a drink at the bar while Michele joins me. He’s here to break down the information Romeo’s extracted from Ray so far.
“Ray is Grant’s muscle,” he tells the men. “He was hired to keep tabs on the mistress after she tried to run off a couple of times. When Ray brought her back to him, Grant roughed her up pretty good. Ray says he had to keep her locked up in an apartment for a month while she recovered.”
“Jesus,” one of the men mutters.
“He also admitted to disappearing that journalist a few months back,” Michele adds. “Ray says she had a confidential source who knew about the abuse, but she wouldn’t give up a name.”
“You think Grant hightailed it because the story might leak?” Cal asks.
“It’s possible.” Michele shrugs, but I can see he’s holding something back. “We’re still working on him.”
“We need to put this to bed so we can figure out how we’re going to work with Holloway,” Cal mutters.
“It’s already settled,” I assure him. “He’s going to work with us.”
“Really? I thought that son of a bitch wouldn’t bend.”
“Everyone can be bought for a price,” I answer vaguely. “He’s given me his word he’ll publicly greenlight the new waterfront project.”
“Well, that’s a fuckin’ relief,” Frank grunts. “So we’re all squared away on that, then?”
“Yes. You can get to work on the union reps and contractors.”
“I’m on it.” He nods.
“Good.” Cal claps his hands. “Let’s reconvene next week, and you can update us on the Ray situation. I have to get back to the city.”
I walk the men outside and see them off, waiting until I’m alone with Michele to dig into what he didn’t say in that meeting.
“What is it?” I ask.
“The journalist didn’t give Ray a name,” Michele says. “But she did have some notes in her house.”
“And?”
“There weren’t any specifics,” he says. “But she was digging into The Society—specifically an underground network of women called Aegis.”
“Aegis?”
Michele nods. “Ray says they help abused women disappear. He thinks that’s how the mistress got out.”
I let that information sink in for a moment. “Well, let’s keep that between us for now. Does he still have the notes?”
“He hasn’t confirmed one way or the other yet.”
“Excavate everything,” I tell him. “If they exist, I want them.”
41
ABELLA
Angelo slips into bed, his warmth pressing against me as he wraps an arm around my waist. When I feel his erection, my body stiffens.
I don’t want to tell him.
I really can’t bear to see that familiar flicker of disappointment in his eyes. I’ve let this go on for far too long, and I don’t know what the hell I’m doing anymore. It’s reckless, stupid, and selfish.
He deserves to know the truth, but every time I consider telling him, it makes me want to vomit.
“What is it?” he asks.
I close my eyes and release a shaky breath. “I started bleeding.”
It’s light, but it’s there.
His muscles coil with tension, and we linger in that silence for a long moment before he releases me.
“Let’s go to sleep.”
He rolls onto his back and stares up at the ceiling, leaving me without his warmth. I stay on my side so he can’t see how close to tears I am.
Everything about this situation is unfair, and sometimes it feels like I’m being punished, but I don’t know why.
After I got my diagnosis, I went down the internet rabbit hole, scouring forums for even the smallest sign of hope. But all I found was despair in the vacuous echo of empty platitudes women with infertility hear every day.
Everything happens for a reason. It could always be worse. Be happy with what you have. Maybe it’s not meant to be.
I read story after story of marriages destroyed, painful losses, and aching emptiness that never goes away. It only confirmed what I already understood from observing my own parents. In the Mafia world, if you can’t bear children, your value is less than zero.
I stopped hoping things would work out for me when I let Angelo go. I tried to do the right thing, so he could eventually fulfill the treaty and have everything he’d always wanted.
I needed him to loathe me because I wasn’t strong enough to stay away on my own. Matteo offered the perfect solution with our arrangement. It would guarantee Angelo’s hatred and my protection from other marriage prospects.