Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 96129 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96129 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
“My father has a certain way of conducting business,” Loren explained. “He’s let Tommy think he has control, but it’s only a matter of time before he takes it from him, and Tommy knows it.”
“I figured he’d be fine with it seeing as Tommy sends a percentage of his earnings to Angelo.”
“Tommy’s a ticking time bomb.” Loren finished his whiskey and set his glass down on the coaster in front of him. “He wants to take him out but hasn’t found a way to do it without making a mess.”
“Smart man,” Dean said.
“I think the word you’re looking for is cunning,” I said.
Lorenzo smiled as if that was the ultimate compliment. Angelo Costello and my father, Giuseppe De Luca, reaped everyone’s benefits without lifting a finger, but no one was going to go against them because of who they were. Those two especially had the ability to ruin your life with the snap of a finger. As far as I knew, Angelo didn’t exercise that as often as my father did. Where my father liked to play twisted games, Angelo liked things done in a way that couldn’t be traced back to him. That didn’t make him any less ruthless, though.
Gio’s phone vibrated on the table. He glanced at it, was about to put it down, but decided to answer it at the last minute. He held it to his ear. I wasn’t sure if it was Petra or Nadia on the other end of the call, but it had to be one of them, as serious as he looked.
“Give me a moment, P,” Gio said, looking directly at me. I waited, stomach clenching, even though I couldn’t imagine what his right-hand woman could possibly tell him that involved me. “Tommy’s out of the country.”
Could Gabe be with him? “Do we still have eyes on him?”
“We do.” Gio hung up with Petra and set the phone down. “She says there’s talk about him wanting to sell the club.” Gio looked around. “Isn’t this the place he remodeled to look like Devil’s Lair?”
“Oh shit.” I frowned, realizing that Tommy’s club did actually remind me of Gio’s renowned nightclub, Devil’s Lair. “I see it. I mean, it looks like the Walmart version of Devil’s Lair, but I see what he tried to do.”
“Why would he be selling if he just remodeled?” Gio frowned and picked his phone back up.
“Maybe he remodeled it so that he could sell it,” I said.
“Dom, my guy is going to forward you the last few texts that came through before it was shut off,” Rocco said, interrupting.
“Thanks.” I looked at Gio again as a thought occurred to me. “If someone was interested in buying the club, what would they have to do?”
“Speak to Tommy and have his people send a profit and loss report for the last year.”
“So you’d essentially have to speak to Gabriel,” I said.
“Yeah. If he’s the one who does that, it would be easier to just talk to him.”
I would bet money my brother was definitely in charge of that. Tommy would have to be an idiot to not have Gabe do anything and everything involving numbers for him. I looked at my phone again. The camera feed file hadn’t finished downloading, but a text did. At first, it was just a phone number, but then a name appeared in the place of the number.
Rosie: I need to talk to you. Come to my place tonight. Make sure you’re not followed.
She followed it up with her address, which made me think my brother hadn’t gone to her place yet. Yeah, they definitely weren’t fucking. Something wasn’t adding up and I fully intended to find out what it was.
3
ROSIE
“I wish you’d listen to me and go talk to John,” Yari said across from me. “You know he’d treat you much better than Tommy and Anthony do.”
When we moved here, I’d been completely unwilling to open up to anyone, but Yaritza was persistent and stuck around, so I had no choice but to be her friend. She’d tried talking me out of working at Tempt, even after I told her that Tommy was going to ignore the interest rate and just let me pay him back the rest of the money my father owed with the money I made at his club. The entire time I’d been working here, she’d been trying to convince me to work as an escort at the company where she worked, since it promised much higher pay and would help me pay the loan back faster. It sounded great, but according to Dad, Tommy’s interest rates were worse than Bank of America’s in the eighties.
“You know my schedule sucks.” I wiped the glass in my hand before moving on to the next one. “And it’s going to get worse as soon as The Nutcracker starts.”