Page 31 of Marcus

“What, Chris?”

“Hey, why the attitude?” Chris asked, coming to stand beside his brother.

“For starters—”

“Listen, we have an issue, and we need to handle it.”

“What issue?”

Because as far as he was concerned, unless someone died who shouldn’t have died, then he didn’t have a single shit to give about it. That wouldn’t be his usual mood about things when an issue came up, but today it certainly was. And he didn’t feel guilty about it, either.

The boss delegated tasks.

He didn’t complete them.

Simple as that.

“A warehouse—”

Marcus stopped his brother, who for all purposes was acting as his underboss while still managing his duties as a Capo, from saying more by raising his hand. “Deal with it, Chris. I have other things to handle tonight, okay?”

“The maple syrup farms are your thing, man. Dad made sure of that, so no, I can’t deal with it without consulting you first because the last time I did that, you didn’t like it very much, huh?”

Right, right.

“What happened?”

“Just got a call—a warehouse was burned. Take a guess which one?”

Marcus chewed on his inner cheek, willing his temper to stay in check. “Please tell me it wasn’t the one that we use for the new Quebec farm.”

“Okay, I won’t tell you that, but that’s it, yeah.”

Fuck.

“Dad should know the bikers are fucking with us again, you know? If they’re not going to back off, then we need to handle them, Marcus.”

Chris wasn’t wrong.

At the same time … “I can handle it. There’s no need to bring Dad into it. He stepped back for a reason, and that’s what I’m here for. So tonight, you’re going to do what you need to do to handle that mess, and keep Dad from finding out because he doesn’t need to worry when we’re dealing with the situation.”

“But—”

“Chris, it’ll be fine.”

Eventually.

Once he handled those assholes in Quebec.

“Now,” Marcus added, “I’m going to find my date for the evening unless you have something else to tell me.”

Chris shook his head. “That was it.”

“All right, so handle it.”

He didn’t even bother to look over his shoulder as he left Chris in the entryway. Soon enough, he found Cella, but she wasn’t where he expected her to be. Admiring the hall of Guzzi portraits with his father at her side, the two of them seemed to be enjoying their moment with their heads tilted close together as they discussed the large painting of his mother with her boys all grown up.

“Have I been replaced?” Marcus dared to ask.