Page 26 of Merciless King
“But the house needs to be done by the time I get back. It’s ridiculous how long it has taken you to unpack.”
“It will be done.” It’s nearly done. He’s just looking for reasons to remind me of what a loser I am.
When dinner is finished, he leaves again, heading to the bar. Elysse and I watch TV and then I tuck her into bed.
“How about you and I go out for a fancy dinner this weekend?” I say as I pull the blankets over her.
“Fancy?”
“Remember how we used to go for proper tea back in England? We can do something like that but for dinner. We’ll dress up nice and go to an expensive restaurant. Maybe we’ll have dessert for dinner.”
Her eyes light up. I don’t see that as often as I should.
“Can we go roller skating?”
I laugh. “Okay.”
She’s smiling as her eyes close, and she snuggles into bed. I watch her for a moment. She’s my strength. My purpose. For her, I’ll find a way to get away from Gabriel.
12
ELIO
I’m not sure what to do about Piper, but I do know that I’m not going to stand around and let her be abused. I’m going to find out who that bastard is and give him a taste of his own medicine.
When I arrive at my office, I do a public records search on the house Piper lives in and discover it’s owned by a Gabriel Collins. Sounds pompous. It takes a bit more research to learn he’s from a rich family in New York but attended advanced studies in economics in England. See… pompous. He works for an international financial firm and was recently relocated to Chicago.
A knock on my door interrupts my research.
“Boss?” Matteo’s voice calls out.
“Yeah. Come in.”
“We got a problem,” he says as he enters my office followed by several of my highest ranking men. That gets my attention. This problem isn’t some little hassle.
“What’s happened?” I push my focus on Piper and her asshole husband aside as Matteo and my men provide reports of retaliation from Vincenzo over my ending the engagement to his daughter.
I rise from my desk and pace the length of my office as I listen to the reports from my trusted lieutenants. The tension between the D'Amato and Rinella families has reached a boiling point, and it feels like the very territory we've fought so hard to control is now up in flames. The tentative agreements we’d already had with the Rinellas are now broken.
I don’t make any decisions yet. My first step is to talk to Vincenzo. Once I dismiss my men, I call him.
“If I didn’t know any better, Vincenzo, I’d think you were glad I broke off the engagement so you had an excuse to come after me.”
“You brought this on yourself, boy.”
My teeth grind as his use of the word boy. He thinks my younger age and fewer years of experience make me weak. I’ll show him differently. However, because I don’t want to fuck with our business or have issues with Don Caruso, I’ll use diplomacy first.
“I told you I’d find a way to make things right. Did you forget, old man?” There. I swipe at his old age.
“What I want is for my daughter to be married to a D’Amato.”
Fucking hell. “That’s not going to happen. But I can arrange?—”
“No. Your father and I put this agreement together eight years ago. He’d be rolling in his grave if he knew you’d do me dirty like this.”
“He’d also think you’re an idiot for attacking me on my turf. It works both ways, you know.”
“All I did was tell my boys to cut you off from the waterfront. If you had any other issues… well, that wasn’t me.”