Page 11 of Saint Of Envy (Tangled Hearts, Sinful Hands #2)
LUC
J ust when I think my day of tending to the family’s business is over, and I’m looking forward to heading back to the hotel suite to spend a nice evening with Valentina, Gabriel Reyes waves at me from the bar and motions for me to come take a seat at one of his barstools.
That usually means he has information to share with me.
Normally, I don’t mind having a brief chat with Gabriel.
He’s been a trusted, confidential informant of mine ever since I first hatched the plan to be the Saint, and I credit him with secretly gathering intel for me, even without Vincent knowing.
Gabriel always has an ear to the street, and he hears every secret in the city.
I swear he has some sort of crazy, impressive web of “bartender spies” that he uses his charisma and his funny as hell personality to manipulate and extract info from.
But today, the look on his face reads less like he’s going to be helpful and more like he’s going to make my night a lot less pleasant.
Before I even sit down, he has a drink poured for me. That’s a clear sign he’s prepping me for bad news.
“Alright, so you’re going to want to have that drink before I share what I’ve just found out,” he says as he stops and stands in front of my barstool, leaning over the counter toward me so that no one can overhear us.
I take the drink, not wanting his intel to ruin my mood.
Things have been going well, all things considered.
Even during the ongoing threat, the growing relationship between me and Valentina, and the prospect of fatherhood, makes me feel more hopeful and optimistic than I’ve ever felt before.
I like that feeling, and I don’t want to lose it.
“So, I have a bit of alarming information to pass along to you,” Gabriel says, immediately turning my mood sour, even with the drink already swallowed down. “Angelo Barone is back on the scene.”
“What exactly does that mean?” I ask, recoiling at the mention of the Barone name.
The Barones have remained quiet and caused little trouble since Vincent expelled Angelo Barone before going to Italy.
“It means that Angelo and his crew have resurfaced and resurged with a new strength because they’ve formed a new alliance—with Leonardo Conti.”
Fuck. That’s exactly what I didn’t want to hear.
That isn’t just a new alliance, it’s an incredibly dangerous one.
Angelo Barone is a ruthless man. If Leonardo has formed a pragmatic alliance with him, then he intends to use Angelo’s resources strategically to achieve their shared objective—the complete downfall of the Moretti family.
“No doubt their collaboration is mistrustful,” I remark, trying not to look flustered by the news. “Both of them want to be the alpha. Neither Angelo nor Leonardo will put up with the other for long.”
“That may be true,” Gabriel points out, “but they have a mutual contempt for you and Vincent, and even if they each have their own self-serving motives, they have a common goal. Their combined resources aren’t a small matter, Luc. They want to overthrow your family.”
“That’s nothing new,” I remind him. “Angelo Barone has wanted to destroy this family ever since Vincent first came into power.”
“True, but Leonardo Conti didn’t. You’ve now given them reason to team up against us, and I think that the intensifying threat means that we should fortify our defenses here. Of the two foes, one is formidable, but both? I don’t know, man—I think we might be in over our heads with this now.”
I don’t discount his warning, but I also don’t want to overreact preemptively.
Sometimes, Gabriel has a tendency to exaggerate the severity of things, and I don’t think that the Barone and Conti families teaming up means the end of the world.
Yes, it’s definitely not good, but I still think that I can handle it.
“How did you hear about all of this, anyway?” I ask, curious about how reliable Gabriel’s sources are.
“Leonardo sent a package here to the bar,” he says, to my surprise.
“What kind of package?”
“A gift—for Valentina.”
Instantly, my back raises when I hear Leonardo has attempted to contact her. “Why wasn’t I notified?”
“You just were,” he says, snider than I’ve heard him speak to me before. “I had one guy take it up to her a little while ago.”
“What? What if there was something dangerous in that package, Gabriel?” Now, I’m angry—angry that someone didn’t notify me immediately about any communication intended for Valentina, and angry that Gabriel was stupid enough to let a package from Leonardo Conti enter this building.
“Relax, I had it examined. The only things inside were a necklace and a note.”
“What did the note say?” I demand to know.
“That’s between you and your girl to work out.
The delivery made me curious about what Leonardo is up to, so I reached out and asked around my bartending circles in the city to see what I could find out.
That’s how I found out about his involvement with Angelo Barone,” he explains.
“Turns out that Leonardo and Angelo have been having secret meetings in the city.”
“Hang on a second,” I say as I shift my anger to a keen focus on the escalating situation. “Leonardo is back in Vegas?”
“Yeah, of course he is. You didn’t think he was going to stay in Italy after that botched wedding, did you?
He’s been back for a while and just been lying low.
Angelo has been lying low too, but my sources could track him to several meetings with Leonardo and the Conti crew this past week. They’re up to something.”
“What are the meetings about?” I ask. “Can any of your sources get inside or get close enough to hear what’s being said?”
“No. But one guy heard Angelo talking at the bar last night. He wasn’t able to get a lot of details, but whatever they’re up to, it’s big.”
“How do you know?”
“Because,” Gabriel says as he lowers his voice to a hush. “I’ve never seen my sources shaken before, but this time, my bartender friend could barely get the sentence out. He stated that Barone’s entire crew was heavily armed, and the whispers now carry a different tone.”
“What kind of vibe?” I ask. “I don’t want to go basing my next actions on rumors and vibes. Gabriel, I need to know specifics.”
“Well, I don’t have specifics,” he grunts. “You try being an informant to the mafia and see how well it plays out for you. Listen, Luc, I’m telling you that things are bad. Whatever Leonardo is planning, it will not be good. You need to notify Vincent.”
“No, I can handle this on my own.”
“I think that’s a mistake,” he insists.
In all the years that Gabriel has been feeding me confidential information, he’s never once questioned me or my methods on handling things. This is a first, and it doesn’t sit well with me at all.
“Are you questioning my ability to handle things in Vincent’s absence?” I asked him point-blank. I sense Gabriel’s sudden conflict, and considering my long history of trusting him as a reliable spy, I expect a new, unexpected conflict between us.
“I think you can handle yourself just fine,” he says with a sigh.
“And I think you can protect Valentina just fine, too. But what I worry about, Luc, if I’m to be straight with you—is that the joint force of both the Barone and the Conti crew coming at our guys will be too much for any of us to handle.
I think Vincent deserves to know. He’s the Don, after all, and this is going to explode in front of his face. If you don’t notify him, then I will.”
It's the first time that Gabriel has ever challenged my position on how to handle something, and the first time that he has ever threatened to betray our confidence. I can’t tell whether he’s doing it out of a sort of noble attempt to save me from what might be my own clouded judgment, or whether he’s got his own interests in mind.
Either way, I don’t like it. That said, Gabriel is probably right—it’s time for me to let Vincent know what is going on here in Vegas.