Page 10 of A Vendetta That Ruins

Vincenzo

I watch Anna from across the room visiting with our cousins while Nicolo and I confer in the back of the room. “How’s Ma and Lanah?”

Nicolo grins. “Ma’s good. Lanah wants to kick your ass for marrying Anna at a time when she couldn’t come. She’s going to chew your ass good when she sees you next.”

I laugh. “Glad to be forewarned. I need a favor, Nicolo.”

He takes a drink of the champagne. “Anything.”

“Keep an eye on the party, on the cousins and Anna. I need to call Massimo.”

“Yeah, probably a good idea before word of this wedding gets back to him. Seriously Vincenzo, I’m still not sure why you didn’t let him know before.”

“For the same reason that you wouldn’t have let him know if you were in my position, Nicolo. Rats, it’s always the rats that we have to be looking out for and they’re everywhere. Even if you think your organization is sealed up, completely airtight, it’s not. You never give anything away until it’s over, capisce?”

Nicolo tips his champagne glass into mine. “Capisce. Go call Massimo. I’ve got things covered here but when you’re done with that, I think you need to do a video call with Lanah and Ma.”

The minute I’ve closed my office door I pull out my cell and hit the secure line to reach pa. I give my watch a glance. Almost three in the afternoon, he should have been here an hour ago. I dial again and again, but time after time just no fucking answer. It’s a long journey and any number of things can go wrong with the way he has to travel. I resign myself to having the patience that I need to have when everything inside is telling me something has gone horribly wrong.

I dial Massimo’s secure line before folding myself into my desk chair, bracing myself for the hellfire that’s to come.

The clicks moving from one line to another, and the scrambling to another can be heard in the background and once the secure line connects Massimo answers. “Yes.”

“Vincenzo here.”

“Any word yet?”

“I didn’t want to do this over the phone, but it seems I have little choice. I had to take action first to keep Anna safe and then tell you. There are a lot of rats in the water, Massimo. The package that we were looking for, she’s with me, and she’s safe.”

“You have Anna?”

“Anna’s safe Massimo, she’s with me and has been under my protection. We had rats, and I didn’t know if we were the only one who had rats. The night I told you she was here, she was. She left the club just like I said, got into an enemy’s ride. But my men and I, we followed her, found her and cut them off. We rescued her and brought her back to the safety of our home not knowing who was after her.”

“You fucking lied!”

“Listen!” I made sure the fucks on the other end of that call, the Gallinis, didn’t know where she was or who had her, you got me?”

“I will end you if you’ve hurt her!”

“Listen to me you fuck. I rescued your sister-in-law. She was barely breathing when I brought her out of that fucking lair. You made me think she was dead but then she showed up in my club one night. I rescued her again. I would never hurt Anna, I love her, Massimo. I’m protecting her from Bastian.”

“You love her?”

“That’s what I fucking said and it’s not one sided.”

“How do you think you and your family are in a better position to protect her from the Gallinis than the Rosellis? Tell me that?” he growls.

I suck in a breath. “Because the Gallini elders in Italy gave Bastian the blessing to merge with the Sarones in Jersey because he sold them a load of bullshit. Bastian told them that his brother Barcelo had old man Cassone’s contract giving Anna to him.”

“That’s bullshit!”

“I know it’s bullshit, Massimo. He only had a verbal. That’s what I’m trying to tell you, but this whole time Bastian has been hunting Anna, we’ve been keeping her protected because I knew they were going to be looking at all of your safe houses, your warehouses and penthouses. They weren’t going to look here because she was taken heading away from here, capisce?”

There’s a building quiet on the end of the phone. “And just how do you expect to keep her protected in the future? We’ve heard the Gallinis have scooped up all the Sarones in your area. What are you going to do now?”

“Well, for one, we annihilated most of the Sarones when they captured Anna, we got her back and I married her today. When the Gallinis learn that I’ve married Anna, they’re going to have to get permission from the elders to move forward with a war. That gives us time.”

“You married Anna?” he growls.