In the car, I opened the envelope, and a DVD, pictures, and a stack of papers stapled together floated out into my hand. I sifted through the numbers on the papers and didn’t have to look hard to see the numbers weren’t adding up. From the looks of it, some other product was in the mix with ours, but it wasn’t clear what it was. The pictures were a bit grainy, but several were of Zan talking with another player in the field, Johnny. He had been a rival to the Lambardoni’s for years, trying to take over our claim, which would never happen, but that didn’t stop him from trying.

Entering the hotel room, I pulled out my laptop and plugged in the DVD. Sure enough, Zan, Johnny, and some guy I had never seen and couldn’t make out were in several different meetings. Fuck.

First thing’s first, I had to figure out if it was legit info. Then, uncle or not, I had to gut the motherfucker.

***

“Is this shit legit?” was the first question I asked my bosses at the meeting later that day. It had taken me a bit to come down from the seething anger that swept over me at having the hood pulled over my eyes.

How in the fuck did I not see this shit? With having our major distribution in California and then our sellers here, it gave us a lot of wiggle room to hide shit when necessary. A cross country sting by cops was much trickier, but with this new development, I might not be able to stay that far away.

“We had our computer guy, Techie whatever…” Vino waved his hand dismissively. He had never been a tech person; he was always more hands-on. “Unfortunately, yeah. This is why we called you here and didn’t discuss it over the phone. No idea if anything is bugged. We are having all offices, meeting rooms, and houses swept as we speak. This won’t be pretty.”

“Why not just talk to me instead of having that fuck-ass Capella?” Did they not fucking trust me?

When Vino and Sal laughed, I glared.

“Remeo wouldn’t get off our asses after he brought the information about your uncle to us, so we figured, if he saw you, it’d shut him up for a while. He didn’t summon you; we did.” Sal said.

That sounded so much better than that little half-wit calling me at his whim. I was still fucking irritated at the whole damn thing, though not as pissed.

“It was also best that you learned about Zan here and not in California.” I could see his point. “And truth be told, we didn’t want to be the ones to tell you.”

I seethed at the last comment. Why in the fuck did they not want to tell me?

I decided to let it go for now. “Do you have a plan?”

Vino’s face turned deadly in a flash. That man had been doing this shit for longer than I had been alive, and he knew it well. He also knew exactly what to do in all situations: big, small, and in-between. That was why he was the boss.

“Trap him. Make one hundred goddamn percent sure Zan’s a disloyal piece of shit, and then dismantle his distribution and wipe him out.”

“You want me to set it up?” Even though Zan was my blood uncle, he was bringing the family down, and that shit would not be tolerated.

“No. We have it in play as we speak. The three of us along with Val and Matteo will come back to the table and evaluate the evidence. We’ll have to fix that whole line, and Remeo is giving us that out.”

Retaliation on my uncle and Johnny would be a fucking bitch, but no worse than anyone else. Handing everything to Remeo on a silver platter was not something I would take lightly, but like Vino had said, we would reevaluate.

“Are we bringing Zan in?” I asked.

“Not yet. We don’t want to tip him off,” Sal said, steepling his fingers and placing his index fingers to his lips.

I nodded in understanding. We would need to catch him in the act before taking retribution.

“We have eyes on Johnny, but so far, it just looks like he wants a dig with us and is using Zan to do it. I’ll have some guys on him and get it taken care of,” Sal concluded.

“That’s enough of this shit. We can’t do anything else until we get the proof, and I’ve got a team on it. You coming tonight?” Vino asked, pointing his finger in my direction, the personable gleam coming back to his eyes.

“Yep, I’ll be there.”

Vino was having some high-priced party for his business associates while I was in town. He wanted me to meet them personally, which I didn’t balk at. I was even putting a suit on for that shit.

“Jag, I want to thank you for taking care of the Antonio situation.” Sal sighed deeply in exasperation. “I told my Catarina that he was no good, but she is stubborn like all of us Lambardoni’s.” A small smile played on his lips. “She’s a good girl—a good woman. Smart, so damn smart. That’s why I don’t know why she picks these men who are not fit for her. She needs a good, solid man.”

I nodded at Sal, not quite knowing what to say. Yes, she had picked a dick, but the fire in her was like nothing I’d seen before. The way she stood toe-to-toe with her brother and didn’t back down was admirable. It showed her grit and strength, that she wouldn’t take anyone’s shit, but growing up in this life, I would expect nothing less.

Chapter 3

I WOKE TO the penetrating, annoying ring of my damn phone singing the same song, over and over again. Only for the assault to stop and start up all over again a few seconds later. I moaned and rolled to my back. Even with my eyes still closed, the brightness of the room came through my lids.

The place I shared with Kiera was anything but small. Our fathers had the bright idea to put two four-bedroom, full-sized houses together and connect them in the middle with a large, open living area and kitchen that we shared. One of the things they had wanted was the big connection between the two to be full of light. In order to do that, windows were put on every possible surface of the living room, including some in the ceiling. The sad thing for me was I had crashed in it. It was beautiful, but when you had a hangover from hell, not so much.

Don’t get me wrong. I loved the house and so did Kiera, but it was a bit much. Overindulgent. Our fathers wanted us to be together yet have our own space. We both knew they loved us and were protecting us in their own way, so we didn’t put up any resistance.

I cracked my left eye open and tried to adjust it to the light before opening the other. I squeezed the bridge of my nose as the throbbing in my head kicked up a thousand notches. I should have drunk water before I fell asleep and taken some damn medicine.

I rolled my body until I was sitting up on the couch and searched for my phone, finding it on the coffee table in front of me. Reaching for it, I glanced down at the screen, seeing six missed calls: two from Val, one from D, and three from Mom. Shit. That was never a good combination. It meant they were searching for me, and the fact that I hadn’t answered was probably sending my mother into a fit.

In my family, there really wasn’t a safe route to follow when everyone was looking for you, but I went to Mom first. She answered on the first ring like she was sitting by her phone, willing it to ring.

“Where have you been, young lady?” she scolded, just like when I was a child.

I stood up slowly and headed to the kitchen. I needed a Gatorade, food and pills. I didn’t give a shit in what order.

Opening the fridge door, I grabbed the lone bottle of purple liquid and cracked it open, gulping it down. The coolness floated down my insides.

“Asleep. What’s going on?” I grabbed the bottle of ibuprofen from the cabinet above the sink and gulped four tablets down with the Gatorade.

“You have a meeting with your dad and brothers.”

I groaned. Why so fast? What was the rush? It was definitely common for my family to pull together when something happened, but they usually gave me a day or two before putting me up against the firing squad.