Page 21

21

CASPIAN

H alf of me was missing.

Not having her here, within reach, was unnatural. Against my nature. We’d been glued to one another’s side for years. I’d spent almost every waking second thinking about her, planning for her, trying to get back to her.

The only time we’d been separated for so long in the eight years since I’d been her bodyguard was when Max had captured me, but she was even farther away now, and I felt no better.

She was on the other side of the country, on purpose.

Fuck. I couldn’t fucking concentrate.

I could barely think without worrying whether their meeting was going well, without counting down the hours until they were supposed to be back.

“You need to focus,” Wynn said as we pulled up to the coffee shop where Giulio had agreed to meet so late at night. It hadn’t been difficult to get in touch with him, especially with Ciel’s help. We had no reason to believe he’d snitched on us, but the possibility was there. And I still couldn’t fucking concentrate.

“I fucking know that,” I snapped, glancing at Wynn before quickly looking away. “Sorry. I’ll be fine.”

The Shadow and I had found some sort of companionship. By far, he was the one I felt most okay with—probably because he’d done exactly what I asked of him, and he kept Leona safe. I respected him. Much more than I respected Ryuji, the dickwad.

We were in neutral Russian territory, in full view of Ciel’s security cameras. Giulio had agreed to meet us here if we could swear nobody would know, which made me think he had his own reasons for keeping the meeting a secret. Ciel would make sure no eyes but ours were on this meeting.

Wynn sighed, glancing at his phone. A muscle feathered in his jaw. “This is torture.”

He wasn’t talking about the meeting. “You’re telling me.”

“She’ll be back soon,” he added. Was he comforting me? Or himself? Our phones dinged and we both glanced down to read the message. “Looks like the meeting was successful.”

Despite my anxiety, my chest swelled with pride. Of course, it was successful. “Leona always gets what she wants.”

“Now it’s our turn.”

He was right. Leona did her job, now we had to do ours. Since I’d failed to kill Max at the Tommaso estate, I’d been looking for a way to make up for it—and this was it. We needed an army, people on the ground to fight back, take territory, and make money if we wanted any chance of winning this war. Wynn and I couldn’t afford to fuck this up.

I studied him from the corner of my eye. The first time we met, he seemed like if someone even so much as flicked him, he’d freak the fuck out. He had been tense. Tight. These days, he seemed lighter.

Leona had told me before that the more she got to know each of the Shadows, the more layers she found beneath them. Maybe she was right.

A car turned down the road and parked a few spots from the coffee shop. Giulio hopped out, and I jerked my head in his direction. “He’s here.”

“No one else in the car,” Wynn confirmed. We stepped out of our vehicle—a fucking armored SUV they kept stored in the parking garage beneath the penthouse—and followed Giulio.

“I have eyes on you,” Ciel said in our earpieces. He had decided to stay back at the penthouse this time around, but that was fine. We didn’t expect a fight, and if we ran into something, we’d agreed to run. “I’ll watch the streets for anyone else approaching.”

Yeah, hopefully we weren’t walking into a massive trap. Giulio had been a good man. We were taking a chance by trusting him.

“Thanks, Ciel,” Wynn said before turning to me. “You remember the escape routes?”

I nodded as he grabbed the doorhandle and pulled. Giulio’s eyes locked on us as soon as we entered the shop. He stood from his spot at a small table, tucking his gloves into his coat pocket.

“Caspian, sir,” he said before extending his hand. I was younger than him by a few years, and even though I was Leona’s full-time bodyguard, I still acted as a capo within the Family.

I clasped it. “Giulio. How are you?”

“Fine, fine.” He gestured for us to sit. “I hate to ask this of you, sir, but are you wearing a wire?”

I exchanged a glance with Wynn. “We have communications established with one of our men.”

Giulio eyed the transmitter in my ear. “Any chance we can get rid of it?”

Wynn’s body went tense. “And why would you want that?”

“If any word got out that I was talking to you, Max would destroy me.” Giulio frowned. “You know that, Cas. I like my fingers attached to my hands, and my head attached to my body.”

Max and I had tortured plenty of traitors together. He started at the end of the body, working closer and closer to the heart, piece by piece. Traitors didn’t get second chances. Everyone in the Vero Family knew that.

“I don’t like it,” Ciel said in both our ears. “But I can still see you on the shitty little security cam in the corner. No audio, just video. I’ll try to figure out how to get a warning to you, if necessary.”

I nudged Wynn’s shoulder as I pulled the piece out of my ear. We needed to earn Giulio’s trust. If this was a gesture that would do it, it was worth the risk. Wynn’s eyes glinted like hard silver, but he did the same without complaint.

Once it was off, I briefly held it up and then tucked it into my pocket. “A gesture of trust, Giulio. So we can both speak freely.”

“Thank you, sir.” He sighed in relief before pulling a pack of cigarettes from his other pocket. “I was surprised to get your message.”

A shopkeeper came to our table, asking something in Russian. Giulio responded without a beat, though his accent sounded like shit, and he tripped over quite a few words. The woman walked away, scribbling something in her notebook.

“Ordered us a few coffees. Hope you don’t mind.”

“I didn’t know you spoke Russian,” I said.

“ Un po’ di,” he replied in Italian while smacking the cigarette pack against his palm. “A little. I’m bad at it. My sister’s husband is Russian.”

I raised an eyebrow. How did we not know Giulio had connections to the Russians? He wasn’t high up in the Vero Family, but he was a made man. That should have raised lots of red flags.

He raised his hand. “Not in the Bratva, just an immigrant. I’ve picked some up over the years. Figured this place would keep us out of prying eyes.” He pulled a cig from the pack. “Don Vero approved the marriage. Everything was above board.”

I watched him light the cig. If Don Vero approved the marriage, maybe Giulio’s family still had some loyalty to the old Don. Maybe he saw good in Luciano. That could work in our favor if there were still men who felt sentimental to Leona.

I sat back in my chair. “Thank you for that night at the Tommaso estate.”

He met my eyes in the same moment he pulled a long drag. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about. I didn’t see anything or anyone. We’re still not sure how those men got inside.”

I smirked. “Right.”

He held out the pack to both me and Wynn, but we both waved him off. He leaned forward, his voice dropping low. “Cas, what actually happened the night Don Vero died? Did Max really kill him? Did he try to kill Leona, too?”

My jaw clenched as memories of that night surfaced. Not one single man had defended the Don. Max had taken over so completely that the coup was seamless, except for Leona and I escaping. Was Giulio among the men who let the Don die?

“He murdered the Don in cold blood, and then he tried to kill both of us. We barely survived.”

Giulio sighed. “Fuck. I mean, it’s not like Max has been trying to hide it. But Leona, too?” He shook his head. “The men can’t quite wrap their heads around that one. She was always the sweetest girl. Spoiled, but kind.”

The absolute fucking sweetest. “I don’t know what the fuck he was thinking.”

Wynn shifted in his seat. “There are others like you? Who might take issue with Volpe’s choices?”

Giulio rubbed the stubble on his jaw. “You’re the Shadow, huh?”

Wynn stared at him through those light eyelashes, and that deadly feeling he carried when we first met returned. He went so fucking still. Even I felt a little chill run down my back at his expression.

“Yeah,” Giulio finally answered. “Well, not a lot of men. But a few of us that are wondering what Leona and you are doing. You’ve always held the respect of the Family, Cas. At least as equally to Max.”

“What have the men been saying?”

He leaned back in his chair. “For one, they’re surprised you’re both still alive, and they’re wondering why you didn’t just run and hide. For two, they’ve heard rumors of the Shadows.” He raised his chin at Wynn, exhaling a puff of smoke. “A lot of people don’t believe you allied with them.”

“All true.” A partnership with the Shadows. An alliance with the Bratva. Would the Italian men see that as a threat? Or as a promise that Leona was serious?

“I’ll be damned.” He looked between the both of us. “But that’s not all. Before the Don died, we all thought Max and Leona would marry. Now? Everyone knows women don’t inherit the Family, but…”

“But?”

“But you both survived. They’re speculating over what you’ll do to get revenge. Who does the Family belong to if Leona gets married? And what if she marries you? ”

I almost choked. Marry me? The men thought that might happen?

I’d barely got her. She’d only just confessed to me. The idea of marriage…yeah, it was something I’d dreamed of for years. I used to lie awake at night hoping I could call her my wife one day. My wife .

I glanced at Wynn. His stare was impassive, just like that night he sat in front of us at the safe house and said he’d kill us if we couldn’t pay our contract.

“And what if she did?” I rasped. My fucking dream . But now that there were four other guys in Leona’s life, would that ever be possible? Would she want that?

“If she married you, you’d have rightful claim to the Family.” He shrugged. “Everybody would know that.”

A claim to the Family.

“She has rightful claim to the Family now,” I argued.

Giulio raised an eyebrow in confusion. “No, she doesn’t. You know she has to be married. Her husband becomes Head.”

I rolled my eyes. “Come on, Giulio. That’s older generation shit.”

He took another puff from the cigarette. “It’s tradition. I’m not saying it’s right, or modern, or whatever, I’m just saying that the Five Families run off tradition. Without it, we lose our stability.”

The Five Families had generations of tradition keeping us all in line, including years and years of politically arranged marriages, but still it made my chest tighten. She might not want Luciano’s legacy, she might be forging her own, but getting the men of the Family on our side was necessary to building our new empire.

“And those men? They’d support Caspian?” Wynn asked. His voice was tight and hard. “Support Leona?”

The Russian woman finally returned and placed three cups of coffee in front of each of us. Giulio thanked her before she left.

The man took a deep drink and then ahhhed . “I’m not making any promises, but yeah. We’ve heard some shit about the old Don, but we’ve also heard Leona’s trying to be different.”

“Leona is different,” I insisted. Those men would barely recognize her for how much she’d grown. She wasn’t the spoiled princess anymore. She was a queen, and she deserved to be treated as such. “She’s seen the problems of the underworld, and she’s determined to fix them. We’re going to own New York, Giulio. Bet on it.”

Giulio grinned. “I heard she’s a badass now. Stabbed Max in the thigh.”

I snorted. “Fucker deserved it, and more. It’s only a matter of time before she finishes him.”

“But she wants the men of the Family,” he said, snuffing out the cigarette in an ashtray on the table. “An army.”

Wynn nodded. “She wants to know if there are men who would support her over Volpe. The Family belongs to her.”

Giulio didn’t argue with Wynn, but he did look back at me, tilting his head back. “If you marry her, it’s an easy sell.”

“She doesn’t need to marry me to deserve claim over the Family. She fucking deserves it.”

Giulio raised his hands. “Hey, I’m not arguing that. I’m just saying that a marriage would send a very strong message. If you want to split the Family’s forces, that’s how you do it.”

“What else?” Wynn pressed, crossing his arms over his chest. The movement highlighted the guns beneath his jacket. “If not a marriage, how else can we convince them to join us instead?”

“I don’t know.” Giulio shook his head. “I guess I could get more men together and you could try to convince them, but you’d get more on your side if they knew you would become the Head. The men trust you. You’re proven, just like Max is.”

Fuck.

I did not want to put Leona in a position where she felt forced to marry me. That would be the last fucking thing I’d want.

“We can offer protection and a pay increase if anyone switches sides,” I said, mind racing. How could we get them to work with us without marriage on the table?

He raised one shoulder in a half-shrug. “Pay isn’t bad right now.”

“But with the extra Tommaso men, you know the jobs will start to thin.” The Italian Families worked together, when necessary, but absorbing one army into another would come with its own struggles. Capos would need to be figured out. Hierarchies established. Everything would have to be restructured under Max’s leadership, and that always affected the grunt soldiers. “Pay will decrease. Plus, the Russians are going to cut off your drug supply. Big shipments might come to higher capos, but the lower guys will probably get little to no product to sell.”

Giulio’s eyebrows furrowed as he thumbed his nose. “If you can promise better pay and promise that Max won’t slit their fucking throats, maybe you’ll get some men to listen.”

I nodded. We could work with that. It was a start, and it was what we had hoped for from the beginning. “Get us in front of them and we’ll lay it all out.”

“So, what then? You’re not going to marry her?” he asked, looking between me and Wynn. “It’s the easy solution.”

“It’s not that simple.”

I wasn’t sure what rumors Max had spread about Leona’s relationship with all of us, but I wasn’t going to feed anything. Some people might be judgmental fucks about it, some people might not care. But it was a card that held power, and Leona should be the one to play it.

He rubbed his eyes and cracked his neck from side to side. “Well, if you want the men, that’s the best way to get their loyalty. The longer Max is in power, the harder it’s going to be.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. Giulio had a strong point. If we wanted to fracture Max’s forces, that would be the fastest way to do it, and we were working on such a short timeline.

But I couldn’t make a promise for Leona, and especially not with Wynn sitting right beside me. The whole idea of marriage was still soaring through my brain. She’d be devastated if it changed things between her and the other guys.

And me? I couldn’t bear it if she only chose me because of this politics bullshit. Arranged marriages were common in our world, but they were loveless and lonely. I’d seen plenty across the Five Families, and it was not what I wanted. Leona herself rebelled against the idea of an arranged marriage, wanting Max instead. I couldn’t push her into that position.

My jaw clenched. “Just get us the meeting.”

“All right, I’ll ask around. When I have a group ready to hear you out, I’ll let you know.”

I shook my head, pulling a giant chunk of cash from my jacket pocket. I placed it on the table and slid it his way. “As fast as possible, Giulio.”

He swallowed. That amount of money was bigger than the Christmas bonuses the Don used to hand out during good years. But it was worth it. We needed to get men on our side, and quick, if we were supposed to fight against Max’s army, the Tommaso army, and the South Americans.

The longer this was drug out, the bloodier it would be.

“Fast. Right, Giulio?”

He nodded as he grabbed the cash and tucked it into his pocket. I pulled one more bundle, just a bit smaller. He spluttered, choking on his coffee.

“This is for anyone who wants to hear us out. No strings attached,” I said, holding it up before sliding it across the table.

Wynn reached across and placed his hand on the cash. “An incentive. Our pockets are deep, with only more coming. Split it among anyone who wants to listen.”

Giulio inhaled. “Fuck, guys. This will help, for sure.”

“Discretion, Giulio,” I warned. “You know what Max will do to you if he finds out anyone has whispers of turning.”

He swallowed. “Everyone is aware of what Max does to traitors.”

“Good. But you should know, if we’re betrayed in any way, Wynn here is so much worse.” I jerked my head at the pretty boy. At that, humor filled Wynn’s eyes, but quickly he shuttered them back to the stoic assassin. “He might look like all bark and no bite, but he’ll blood eagle anyone who so much as whispers about what we’re doing. Tell everyone else. Betraying us is betraying the Shadows. They don’t want to take that risk.”

His eyes went wide. “All right, all right. I’ll keep you posted, Cas.”

“You have my number.” I stood. We were done here. Now I wanted to get back to the penthouse and call Leona. I needed to hear her voice. “Contact me if anything goes wrong and let us know when and where to meet.”

The Italian extended his hand to each of us before we parted ways at the door.

Wynn and I slipped back into the SUV, with him in the driver’s seat and me in the passenger. As soon as the door shut, my head fell back against the headrest.

“Well, fuck.” That went both better and worse than I expected. We had hoped that the other Italians would hear us out, but Giulio had opened a can of fucking worms with his suggestion to marry Leona.

Wynn gripped the steering wheel. “Did you expect him to say something different?”

“Maybe.” I gripped the oh fuck handle on the SUV’s roof. Truthfully, ever since Max used his engagement to Chiara to secure the Tommasos, I had buried this deep question whether that would be our future.

What would Leona think? Would she get engaged to me if it meant turning her father’s army against Max? Would the guys allow it?

I scowled, picturing Ryuji acting like a pissy little bitch at every fucking turn. There’s no way that dick would agree to a marriage.

“What do you think?” I asked quietly.

Wynn frowned. “I…”

“You wouldn’t agree to it.” I exhaled. Shit. If the guys said no, Leona would never. She already felt frustrated as all hell with our tension so far. This could break us.

“I was thinking it’s not really my decision. It’s Leona’s.”

I dragged my hand down my face. It was her decision. But it was also something that would fuck with her head when right now she needed to focus.

If I could get Giulio and the men on our side, it wouldn’t even matter. I could convince the Italian men she deserved to be Head. The whole question could become moot.

“For now, don’t tell her.”

His brow furrowed. “Why not?”

“I don’t want to force her into a decision she doesn’t want to make.”

My lips thinned. She had just told me she wanted a future with the Shadows, too. What if she felt forced to marry me, but it drove a wedge between her and them? She’d hate it, and that would kill me.

On the flip side, if she outright rejected me—that she didn’t want to marry me, even to turn men against Max—my heart might break.

Would she pick me, if it came down to it?

I knew she loved me. I’d finally heard her say it. But after years of being second in her heart…I still wasn’t sure if she would. She was my everything, but I knew I wasn’t hers. Not with all the guys in the mix.

No, we could figure this out without forcing her into marriage. I would do anything in the world to keep her close to me, to not risk what we had now. If I could get her in front of the Italians, if we could show them how we’d be better leaders than Max, she wouldn’t have to worry.

I wouldn’t have to worry.

She could stay mine.

Wynn eyed me. “Hiding it feels like a bad idea.”

“Just until we get further down the road,” I replied. We would bring it up later, if we needed to. But if we didn’t need to, then she didn’t need to worry about it. “If she has more leverage against Max, she’ll have more freedom to make a decision that makes her happy.”

It was better, for now, to not tell her. Not until we had more power under her belt, and she felt like she had options.

“I will tell her, Wynn,” I repeated as I stared at the window. “Just keep it between us, for now, all right? The other guys are just going to get upset and it will influence her decision.”

If Ciel, Ryuji, or Obi knew, they’d obviously have opinions—and those opinions would not make her choice any easier. But Wynn and I could get out in front of this.

“I won’t say anything. For now.” Wynn turned the key in the ignition. “In the meantime, then, we’ll meet up with Giulio and some of the others to convince them Leona deserves to be Donna.”

I grabbed the oh fuck handle again as we pulled into the street. “It’ll take convincing, but the younger generation might be open to it. They might not care about all the marriage shit.”

Hopefully, they’d see her, and they’d recognize her power and capability. We had visions for a better future. A better New York. She didn’t need any of us to prove she could bring those men into our organization, one with a safer future for everyone.

My mind raced, and my thumb swiped over my phone screen. No new messages.

We could make as much progress as possible while she was gone. And once she got home, my head would finally feel centered again.

We just had to stick to the plan until then.