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His eyes bulged when I pressed my forearm against his throat. He started choking, face turning purple. Tommy lunged toward us and put a restraining hand on my arm.

“Easy, Sandro,” Tommy warned.

“You try to cause trouble between me and my wife again, I’m putting you in an early grave,” I told him. I stepped back and let him go.

Gian wheezed, bent over, and clutched his knees. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” He was having trouble getting the words out. “Griselda is being a pain in my ass because you ditched her to marry a De Lucci. Might want to try to calm that bitch down.”

“Hey, that’s my sister you’re talking about,” Tommy snapped.

Griselda could be a bitch, but guilt tweaked at the center of my chest. I wished she wasn’t a Scavo so I could send her away.

“You shouldn’t have faked being the father of her baby,” Gian told me. “We had a good thing going with the Philly mob.”

“We want nothing to do with the Philly mob,” Tommy told him and I let him take the lead.

“No? Or should we discuss how Rossis should stop faking pregnancies?” Gian made a jab against my parents.

“Enough!” I growled.

“Guys,” Sloane piped in behind us. “I’m still here. If you’re going to discuss mob family secrets, I’d rather not hear it.”

I walked over to the couch where they’d transferred Al. “How is he?”

“He’s fine. The bullet lodged itself near the bone but I was able to extract it. No artery.” She blew out a breath. “Same with the one in his arm.”

“Thank you,” I told her. “Send Divina the bill and she’ll take care of it.”

Al groaned on the couch. “I want my bed and a warm body. Take me to mygoomah, Tommy.”

“What? You don’t want Griselda taking care of you?”

“She’s going to drive me to an early grave with her nagging.” Al opened one eye. “She’s pissed at Sandro, and a pissed Griselda is not a picnic to be around.”

“Neither is a grouchy Al,” Tommy teased.

“Hey, show some respect, pup.”

When Sloane left the room, I said, “So what are we doing about your Albanian friends, Gian?”

“Got a text from them. They said it was a misunderstanding. They expected to see me, and not you. Thought you were there to whack a boss.”

“You serious? Didn’t you communicate that you’re no longer in charge?”

Gian scratched his chin. “They don’t like last-minute changes.”

“I don’t want that pallet of cocaine sitting in our warehouse. I want that out.”

“This has nothing to do with the change of plans,” Tommy said. “They don’t want to take it back because they’re going to lose money.”

“We’ll just have to sell them direct to dealers,” Gian said.

“That’s even worse than handing them off to the Albanians,” I said.

“Then you’ll have no choice but to eat the cost. We can dump it in the ocean, but if you ask me, that’s money we’d lose and we can’t afford it,” Gian said smugly. My cousin was up to his passive-aggressive attitude. Outwardly, he seemed to be all about the good of the family, but inwardly he was seething. However, he was strategic. There would always be doubts about him being the next boss unless I failed spectacularly, then no one would question if Gian took over. That was why he stepped aside without so much as a glare and a grumble.

“There’s always a choice,” I told them. I looked at Tommy. He wasn’t sure what I meant either, because we were out of options. I hated keeping my backup plan from him because I was going outside our crime family.

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