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“ S o…that was the most uncomfortable family meal we’ve ever had.” Marcus raises an eyebrow at me before sitting at the desk in my bedroom.

Snorting, I glance at him before going back to the paperwork that's spread out on my bed. “What? You didn’t think it was super comfortable to have Tennant glare at me the entire time? Or deliberately hang all over Benjamin like I’d suddenly go crazy and attack him?

Or how he practically growled when I got too close to Roman?

Even though Roman wanted me to do that?”

“Yeah, there’s definitely that. And Hollis and Lio being…

weird. Lio was deferring to Hollis at times.

You know he only does that to Il Padrone.

What the fuck do you think will happen when Il Padrone gets back to that clusterfuck?

Or, let’s see…Lio and Benjamin still being awkward as fuck around each other. ”

“I’m putting Lio and Hollis under the category of ‘not my problem’, because fuck no am I even handling that. I’m doing the same with Lio and Benjamin.”

“So…what are you thinking about the Tennant, Benjamin, Roman scenario?” Marcus tilts his chair, trying to look closer at me. I briefly contemplate if I can make it tip all the way over. Sadly, I’m too far away.

“I plan on courting Roman. You know that. As for Benjamin and Tennant… I’m hoping Tennant realizes I’m not going to step on his toes. Benjamin is an adult. He chose Ten. End of story.” I huff out a breath, annoyed with Marcus. None of this is even important when we’re supposed to be working.

“Uh-huh. I believe you.” Marcus’s sarcasm pisses me off, and I slap my hand on the bed before glaring at him.

“What the fuck do you want me to say? That I still have feelings for Benjamin? Yeah, of course, I do. And yes, I know Benjamin didn’t leave me for Tennant. He left me because I didn’t trust him enough to give him autonomy. Because I smothered him. I clipped his wings instead of letting him fly.

“I. Did. That. I fucked up. I’m not going to make it worse by getting in his face and trying to convince him to be with me. I will respect his decision, since I can’t do anything about it.

“Now, if he gives me a sign he’s still interested?

Then, yeah, I’ll jump all over it. Until then, I can’t do shit.

And Tennant is completely off-limits to me because both Roman and Benjamin love the asshole.

So, I’m dealing. And hopefully, Tennant will eventually back off, because it’s annoying as fuck to see him try to stake his claim when he. Already. Has. It.”

Marcus nods at me. “That’s all I needed. I wanted you to be honest with me—and yourself. The last thing I need is for you to suddenly blow up.”

“Oh, Jesus fucking Christ. Keegan needs to stop trying to get you to be all communicative and in touch with feelings. It pisses the rest of us off when you try to use it on us. But if you’re going to, go talk to Benjamin and Lio.

I don’t have time for this shit. We need to figure out how someone got all of these fucking names and locations. ”

He puts his chair down with an audible thump, but doesn’t say anything more about the shitshow we’re facing now that we're living with the Amatos. It’s fucking better that way.

Instead, he dives into the paperwork with me.

We both have notebooks, and keep adding names to them, but there’s just too many options, and none of them fit perfectly.

None of them would have this information.

Marcus tosses his pen down with a growl. “Nobody in my section can even access a quarter of this info. I’m guessing yours is the same?”

“Yep. Even a network of moles…I just can’t see it.” I run my hands through my hair, wanting to head to the gym and train, to get some of this energy out. The only problem? I have already been warned about where the fuck I could go.

Marcus looks at me with sympathy, and my hands curl into fists before I forcibly relax them. Fuck . This is not going to work living here. “Don’t worry, I’ll figure something out and talk to Lio about getting you some gym time.”

Giving him a partial smile, I relax further. At least, he understands this is an impossible situation for me. There’s a reason I’m called Chaos. I can’t be tied down. And if Tennant doesn’t want to share resources, Lio will need to figure something out.

“Alright, so…network of moles. Yes or no?” I double check with him on my thought process, because fuck, maybe he can see something I can’t.

“I think you’re right. It’s just not possible,” he says carefully, his eyes unfocused as he seems to be going through some mental checklist—or boredom. I know I’m fucking bored of being in these four walls.

How do people just sit around? What level of crazy does that take?

Coughing, he draws my attention and I shrug sheepishly at his sharp look.

I must have drifted off. He finally continues.

“However, even though we don’t think it’s possible, we still need to test it.

Because it could be they’re using a mix of a select few moles and something else.

What the fuck that’d be, I have no clue.

Hopefully, Hollis is able to find something. ”

“Alright, what’s the best way to test it? You still think starting some rumors would work? See who bites?”

“Unfortunately. I know it’ll be quite a bit of trial and error…

not to mention potentially tipping people off if there is a mole.

” Marcus shakes his head, dismissing the concern as the pros must outweigh his cons.

Sighing, he says, “I’ve done a grid list of my men.

I think I’ll need three rumors. Each rumor would go to five people, and if it works, we’ll then need to discover which one of those is the mole. ”

“Hmm. Your number is far smaller than mine. But I know your soldiers are more consistent. Weapons don't really change, drugs always do.” I roll my eyes at it.

My men fluctuate constantly, and even though we make sure to carefully screen them, I’m not willing to put a great deal of trust on the majority. There are a few of the captains that I’d trust, ones that have been with me for years, but some are too new for me to feel comfortable with on this.

“I count seven rumors. About eight men per rumor. Some of them are slightly more or less. We may need to get more granular after this pass.”

Grunting, Marcus reaches for my notebook to correlate it. “Yeah, I expected that. We’ll start here and then see what is kicked over first. I highly doubt we’ll find much—if anything.”

“I really hope you’re wrong,” I murmur. “Living together is fucking uncomfortable, even if I’m happy to see Roman regularly.”

“Let me guess, you’ve already given him some nail polish? We haven’t even been here a full day.”

“Eh, I had already picked some up. You know what I managed with Benjamin.” I shrug one shoulder. “If I can find him his special lingerie and makeup in the middle of the night, finding quality nail polish was easy.”

“Uh-huh.” Marcus pinches the bridge of his nose, not wanting to get into it with me, but unable to stop. “Just watch your back. I don’t know where Tennant stands with everything. And if you do fight, let me know so I can start placing bets.”

I burst out laughing, knowing that’s exactly what he’d do. “Maybe you want Cole to watch? Start teaching him early?”

The scowl Marcus gives me almost sets me off again. “You can leave Cole out of your bullshit. Thankfully, Carter is willing to watch him while we work on this mess, and integrate with the Amatos. Never thought I’d see the fucking day…”

“Neither did I. But you know what they say…you may as well join the insanity while you can.”

Marcus’s jaw drops as he stares at me. “Seriously? Who the fuck says that?”

“Oh. Well, I do. That’s good enough for me,” I respond cheerfully.

There are several minutes of silence before Marcus waves a hand in the air, trying to ignore my wealth of wisdom.

“Whatever. Let’s get some rumors ready and then we can put them in place.

I want it done over the next couple days, and we can see if there are any bites.

The sooner we either confirm or rule this out, the better. ”

I can’t disagree with him, so I bend over the list again and start passing ideas back and forth.

It may have been a stressful and awkward as fuck family meal, but this?

This I know. It’s second nature for us to work together, and while my heart pines for Il Padrone to be here, at least I can say his lessons did stick.

We will always be stronger together. The Martellis won’t break, no matter what others think.