Chapter 47
Alcer looked at Torq nervously. “That went horrible.”
“Did it?” He looked up at Tite, “I think it went great other than the hiccup where Amal drew attention to herself, but we have it managed. We’ll let your father know,”
“He hates Don Mariani with a burning passion after what he did to Alere.” Amal shrugged as she made her way back to the sofa next to her sister. “I can’t believe I was so stupid to speak though. He taught me better.”
“yes I’m sure he did but even I was struggling not to respond to his bullshit, and I deal with wads like him every single day.”
“What do you mean you didn’t respond to his bullshit?” Alree looked at Torq incredulously. “You played right along with him.”
“Sweetheart, he played right into my hand. Everything I did today ran almost to script.”
“What? You were arguing and bickering with him, and you threatened him at out.”
“Do you know what else I also did?” Torq rubbed her cold fingers between his hands. “I fucked with the Mariani family in a way which is likely Jirreparable.”
“I don’t understand.” Susana spoke up. “You let him blaster and blather, but you were egging him on. I thought he’d try to shoot you more than
once.”
“Oh, he’ll order a hit on me before he’s in the car,” Torg gave an arrogant smirk, “but I did far more damage to him today than he ever did.”
“How?” Alcee asked quietly. “What do you think this all accomplished other than starting a war and putting our lives at risk?”
“Do you know what I saw today?”
“What?”
*1 saw a man scrambling, I saw a man, who grows weak with every pass of the minute hand on the clock of Efe. Only a few bad choices in investments and business deals and they’ve come back to bite him in the ass. There was a time when we shared many business dealings together, but your father Just a massive shipment to the DEA when you were in high school age I would guess. Roughly ten, eleven years ago. My grandfather needed to put some distance between them. You and I met. I called off the wedding. A year later my grandfather gave up his ring. 1 took it from my father the morning of his funeral. I’ve been facing more, he searched for the word, “pressing issues since then and so for the most part i haven’t been doing much business in New York other than buying up a bunch of companies which had links to my grandfather before my father could get his mifts on them. In the last five years, I’ve been facing my own problems and growing my empire. I honestly ignored quite a bit of what was happening here with the families, other than a select few. It’s rattled some cages I’ve come back. Your father however no longer has the stronghold he once held.”
“What does this have to do with the way you ruffled his feathers?”
wasn’t meant to ruffle his feathers as much as it was to create the little,” he held his fingers apart, “crack in the foundation”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, your father has four boys, and they all jump when he says jump. Today was the first time your brother really truly looked at your father as something other than his hero.”
“Holy shit, this was all a play to bring them down from inside. Susana blurted out. “You knew Mercurio didn’t know the money was so bad.”
“Mercurio also didn’t know the bride price wasn’t for the family. I made sense to him. She didn’t do anything other be a bit disrespectful and facked around. She broke the covenant as she called it the other night but really, it was her money to lose. My Intel came back telling me Edgardo has been telling his family her actions cost them ten million dollars and,” he held up his finger, “it is why they aren’t doing all the fancy things they grew used to. Your mother’s lavish trips with her girlfriends, the boys and their sports cars, the fancy houses, all of it, he’s let them think you blowing the arrangement fucked with the money he was banking on. There was a deal with a family out of Europe who were waiting on his ten–million–dollar investment which might have been able to pull him out of the mess. Today was the first time Mercurio realized not only was he selling your hymen like a pimp but then he was going to steal your money from you.
“You took the blinders off,” Alcee said seriously. “Its not even about me or knowing he would steal from me. It was about the fact Dad lied to them and gave them excuses for why he tortured and threatened me. He lied and made it sound like it was all about the fact I embarrassed the family, and you shunned the family after. It was nothing to do with pride and everything to do with the fact he was going to steal the money meant for me and he made it seem instead I stole what was rightfully the family’s.”
1/2
“Exactly,” Torq made a face. “I will say Michele not being here today did tell me a lot.”
Alcee shrugged, “Mercurio, Falco, Alfio, they do Dad’s bidding without question, well some question but they still do it, I don’t know if it’s because Michelo knows he’s the third born so he’s not baby Alfin and he’s not the pride and joy in Mercurio, so over the years he’s been putting a bit of distance. He doesn’t bother with me, but Amal and Susana heard more than once how he and his wife have been doing legitimate business and Dad doesn’t like it.”
Chapter Comments
POST COMMENT NOW
SHARE
