Page 12 of The Mafia Enforcer's Temptation

He sighs. “Probably not, but you look like you want it to be. And that’s what makes me worry.”

I ignore Tor as he slaps my back and leaves to join Dec. I wait against a wall as the Don and Pakhan check the bodies. Romanov pulls down the sock on one of the corpses. Then another. He holds the leg by the sock, showing us what he found. A tattoo on his ankle.

I narrow my eyes at it.

“Lev group. They’re a gang of hardcore traditionalists from various bratva who don’t like my modern ways.” Romanov lets go of the sock and the leg drops down on the table.

I swallow a laugh. This man isn’t modern. There’s not a lot of room in the traditional bratvas, mafia, and cartels for modern. We’re a crime family, more modern than them, but we still understand the rules and play by them.

So maybe there’s more here than meets the eye.

“It’s true,” Giovanni Assisi says. “And this group is not just made up of Russians. They’re Italian, Polish, a few disgruntled others. This group aside, we’ve had our share of dissent over this marriage union.”

“But the world moves on, and we are, at our hearts, businessmen,” Iosif says, nodding to one of his men who then brings over a box of cigars.

He offers one to Assisi first, then to Callahan, who I know fucking hates cigars. My brother takes one but refuses the lighter. Instead, he tucks it in his pocket and pulls out his pack of Carrolls and lights up a cigarette.

The man offers one to me, but I decline, and finally he gets to Iosif. Then the Russian and the Italian leaders puff away.

I don’t mind a cigar on occasion, but my job here isn’t as Callahan’s brother or right- or left-hand man, or whatever the fuck we’d call it. I’m the man on the ground.

The enforcer.

So, I just fold my hands and wait.

They discuss their future business plans in pretty grand, sweeping statements, and I know Cal’s bullshit quota is fast reaching its limit. He wants to get back to his wife, Lucie. And I want to track the girl who managed to escape me.

I just need that tracker to hold until she gets somewhere and stops, hopefully at her home.

“Does this Lev group work with bombs?” I ask.

Romanov’s eyes narrow as he focuses on me. “Not usually. They like big weapons. Whatever they had planned… I don’t know… why wouldn’t they attack on a bigger level?”

“That bomb was pretty big,” I say. “The first one I dismantled.”

The two men still, both mid-puff.

“It has the feel,” Callahan says, taking a drag on his cigarette, “of a plan meant to cause dissent and mistrust. To break up the fucking band. You two will have a lot more power by working together as an alliance. Turn you against each other and you’re weaker.” He shrugs. “We did that kind of thing all the time back in the day.”

“The best way to get to a tight-knit group and break up the power was through dissent and planting seeds of doubt,” I say. “This attack wasn’t meant to hurt you, just to cause damage to your alliance. And there was no calling card to identify any one particular group.”

“How would that work?” Giovanni asks.

“Like this… No real damage could mean Iosif did it to himself to try and gain the upper hand with Giovanni,” Cal says, leaning against a stone wall, smoke curling up in the air. “Or it could mean Giovanni’s trying to do a power grab.”

“And the wedding?” Romanov asks. “What about that? Doesn’t that give this alliance legitimacy?”

Callahan shrugs. “It’s just a theory. But it could work both ways, especially if other groups think this union is forced.”

The two men nod, getting it.

“It was encouraged, but… they fell in love and the bride and groom aren’t high up in any sense.”

“Marriage gives legitimacy to the two families aligning without anyone trying to claim you sold your side out.” Cal takes another drag and slowly blows out a ring. “It makes you untouchable by mafia and bratva standards unless, of course,you both turn on each other. And an attack always makes people suspicious.”

Giovanni, who Cal turned down when he made an offer to move our organization under the Assisi wing, studies him. “No one sold anyone out, Murphy.”

“I’m aware. Trying to start an internal fight or sow doubt could rip this alliance apart. It hasn’t,” Callahan says. “But be aware of third parties among us and stay honest to one another. Mutual benefits only work if they’re mutual.”