Page 81 of Caught in the Crossfire

Vokshi must have known there were no cameras there, and that’s why he asked to be dropped off on those street corners. Where did he go from there? How did he evade us? We’d need to install our own surveillance, just in case the Albanians came back.

Leona sighed, giving me a disappointed look before turning back to Lucchese. Her knife pressed harder against his neck. “Any other information you want to give us, Guido?”

He shook his head. “That’s all I know. I swear.”

She withdrew her blade, nodding to me as she stood from the bed. “We’re done.”

“This is the night you lose your Family, Lucchese,” I said, training my gun on him.

“We made a deal! I gave you what you wanted! You’re supposed to let us live!”

Letting him live was never part of the plan.

“I do not care.” I pulled my trigger, spraying his brain matter across his pillow and onto the carved wooden headboard. His mouth hung open in a grotesque gape.

“Bring in the sons,” I said. Shortly after, Ryuji and Caspian dragged the two young men into the room. When they saw the state of their father, they began shouting and screaming, yanking against Caspian and Ryuji.

They dropped the men at Leona and my feet. Innocent or not, we couldn’t leave them alive. We needed complete control over this Family.

Two gunshots later, one from me and one from Leona, the Lucchese family line was finished.

Caspian pulled out his phone and recorded a video showing the dead bodies, and then of me and Leona standing side by side.

“The Luccheses are dead,” I said into the recording. “This Family belongs to the Shadows now.”

“There will be no more trafficking,” Leona added. “Anyone caught aiding the Albanians or turning their heads the other waywill meet death. We’re coming for them next. Fall in line, or fall at our feet. The choice is yours.”

Caspian ended the recording and sent it to each of our strike teams, along with the order to close in and secure their locations.

One by one, the notifications rolled in. There were some casualties from men unwilling to adjust their loyalties, but most had committed to our syndicate.

The plan was a sweeping success. The tide was turning in our favor.

Rossi had revealed himself as a neutral non-issue—at least for now. The Sandrini Family were the only Italian Family left. Between us or Volpe, they wouldn’t survive long.Wehad to be the ones who took their power for our own.

I pressed a kiss to Leona’s forehead while we wrapped up at the Lucchese estate. Tonight had put us in a much better position. We were one step closer to ending the Camorra once and for all.

28

CASPIAN

The warm water of the shower cascaded down my body after a long fucking day.

I’d needed this to clear my head.

Our numbers had more than doubled because of the Lucchese takeover, which meant we had more men on the payroll, more assignments to give out, more mouths to feed, more backs to watch. More everything.

The organization of our Italian forces fell to me, and I worked with Giulio to reorganize and structure the new men within our ranks. While I’d been worried about loyalty problems, the Lucchese Family had been going downhill for a while, so the men were ready to jump ship. What a relief.

To manage the takeover, we’d promoted Giulio to an actual underboss, reporting to me as my right-hand man. He’d stepped up since that fateful night at the Tommaso estate when we’d locked eyes across the front yard. On top of regular duties, it was his job to ferret out stronger men who could manage their own teams and report to him so our structure could get stronger. Our syndicate needed underbosses and capos and leaders to keep everything running.

Meanwhile, we’d put our new men to work, organizing hits against Max. We’d busted up one of his underground fight clubs, and we’d been strong-arming his drug dealers to push them out of their turf. The drugs we got from the Russians were higher quality, and Makarov had been great with his supply, so our customer base was expanding. Money flowed, and we were already paying our people more than before.

With our increased numbers, we were growing from a thorn in Max’s side to a two-by-four. The goal was to keep bleeding him until he couldn’t keep up with it. It filled me with great pride every time I got a report from Giulio that we’d stolen something or intimidated one of his men into backing off.

We finally had the resources to win the game.

I washed my body with soap and scrubbed my hair with shampoo while my thoughts turned back to our life within the penthouse.