Page 114 of Betraying Family Vows

No one speaks.

I sit there for a few seconds, trying to gather my thoughts. Trying to figure out where to start.

Theo looks at me.

"You good?" he asks.

I lean back in my chair. "Define good."

Ares lets out a huff and takes a seat at the desk opposite us.

"He watched us bury our father," Ares says, rage lining his words. "He stood there. He put a hand on my shoulder, told me he was sorry. That son of a bitch shook all of our hands."

"And we thought George Zervas was the motherfucker to watch," Theo says and sips his whiskey.

"I just don't understand it. What? Twenty-five fucking years Stavros knew our father. They may have not been on the same page all the time, but Dad treated him fair. Never would I have thought he was capable of this."

"Speaking of," Theo says and leans forward, "Ares, how's Katerina?"

Ares stands and walks over to the window, his back to us, shoulders rigid beneath his tailored suit.

"She's upset. She wants to head over to his house right now and kill him," he says, shaking his head. "I'm about to let her."

Ares turns around and looks at us, his jaw flexes, fists ball at his sides.

"He wrote that note then. 'Sons will follow the father.' He wanted to break us. Not just kill him, but ruin every fucking thing we've built."

"And from Cosmo's phone, his sole focus has been to wipe us off the face of this earth," I say, feeling the rage starting to rise in me.

"He wants Greece," Theo says and stands up and moves behind his chair. "Being number two wasn't good enough. Our grandfather told our father expanding into Chicago was overreaching and with that he wouldn't be able to trust anyone. It took some time, but he was right."

We all stay quiet, each remembering our own version of the story. Of our father's great heroic journey to unify the Greeks in Chicago and broker a deal with the Bonventis.

"Well, makes no difference," I say. "We need to go and kill him. His son, Niko, too. We can't leave him around to seek vengeance like we're doing."

"Yeah, well this isn't like taking down Rodrigo in Milan or the Vega family in Barcelona," Theo says, setting down his glass. "Stavros Petrou has been preparing for this for years. He's the second most powerful don in Greece. His compound is a fortress. Always surrounded by at least a dozen armed guards."

"I don't give a fuck if he lives inside the most secure building in the world," Ares says, eyes burning with rage. "I'll cut through every last one of his men to reach him. I will fucking call in every favor we have. Bring families in from outside. I'll have the Kill brothers, our Irish friends, come and help. They swore loyalty. They've been allies for quite some time."

"Still. We need a plan," Theo insists. "Not blind rage. Or he might succeed in his little threat if we let our anger dictate what comes next. We need patience."

"Fuck that. How much patience did our father have when Stavros put a bullet in his head?" Ares's voice rises.

"What about the other families?" I ask. "If we move against him?—"

"Fuck the other families," Ares cuts me off. "He killed our father and faced no backlash."

"That's precisely my point," Theo says, his strategic mind already turning. "He worked that angle for years. Paid off the right people. Created the perfect conditions to avoid retaliation. Look at the shitstorm the Athenian Warriors caused us. We don't have that luxury. We want him dead now."

"I don't give a fuck about any of that," Ares says. "I care about ending him."

"Well, you should," Theo says, moving around his chair to the edge of Ares's desk. "Because if we do this wrong, we don't just lose men. We don't just lose territory. We lose everything our father built. You think our allies won't smell blood if we come at Stavros like amateurs?"

Ares's lip curls. "Fuck our allies. They weren't the ones kneeling next to his body. I don't care if I have to burn down all of Greece. I will kill him."

I rub my face, feeling the stubble beneath my palms. The image of Athena, her body bruised by Stavros's men, him putting his hands on her, flashes in my mind. This isn't just about my father anymore. It's about all of us.

This motherfucker has become too cocky and power hungry that he forgot who he's dealing with.