Heartless Prince by Brook Wilder
Chapter 54
Lucas
As Rocco drove me into the city, my cell rang. I looked down at the caller ID and felt my blood pressure spike.
You little shit.
“Don Valentino,” Adrian said cheerily when I answered. “I trust you got my message?”
“Yeah, I got your fucking message,” I growled as the car weaved through the crowded streets of Manhattan. “Funny thing. I was just about to give you a call. We need to talk. Face to face.”
I wasn’t surprised when he chuckled into the phone. “Of course, Don. I move at your command. But I just wanted to say that I did warn you about what would happen if you didn’t get rid of the D’Agostino bitch.”
You shut your fucking mouth. My fist balled.
“What I do in my personal life is none of your business.”
“None of my business?” Adrian asked. “I warned you that you brought down the wrath of Carmine D’Agostino down on our collective heads the same day you bought her. But you didn’t listen. And now, I hear that Enzo’s been murdered, places in the Lower East were hit, and God knows what else happened since then. Carmine is pissed, and he won’t stop until you bleed.”
Carmine? Or you?
“Are you trying to tell me that I’m not doing my fucking job?” I asked hotly, hating that he could easily get under my skin in a short time.
“I’m telling you that there are consequences to your actions, Don.” Adrian replied smoothly. “That’s all. Me and the boys down at the Battery are worried. I mean, if we were going up against Carmine’s son, I’d be less worried. But word on the street is the old man is back in the driver seat. So forgive me for taking some… precautions.”
He was baiting me again. By now he knew I would have been briefed on the robbery and the attacks on my own businesses. Instead of waiting for me to bring them up, he was front-running it. As for the “precautions” he was talking about…
He might as well have admitted to me that he was stealing. I refrained from saying what I really wanted to say.
It wasn’t the right time, not yet.
“I think you need to start choosing,” Adrian continued. “Between loyalty to the family and that bitch you are hanging onto. The Mafia needs a leader in this time of crisis. Wouldn’t you agree?”
A leader? The Mafia was barely hanging on because he refused to acknowledge me as the true Don, and if Adrian continued to press his claims, the whole ship could go down from his tantrum. All this talk of loyalty, and family was just hot air.
I definitely should have killed him when I had the chance.
“Look, it’s simple,” he said. “You give the boys a sign that you’re willing to do what’s right for the Mafia. Put her back on the block and let someone else buy the used goods. It will show that you are as ruthless and pragmatic as my uncle was. Get rid of her, and Carmine will back off. Get rid of her, and we’ll all go back to being one big happy family getting stinking filthy rich.
“Isn’t that what you want?” He pressed me. “To be a ruthless Don, respected by all?”
I did want to be a ruthless Don. But not if it came at the cost of giving up Leda.
“Think about it,” Adrian said after a moment. “I would hate for something else to happen to our family. These next few days are about to get wild.”
He ended the call, and I tucked the phone back into my pocket, ignoring Rocco’s probing stare in the rearview mirror. I was in no mood to tell him the thoughts running through my mind.
Adrian wasn’t wrong, and that was the truth that hurt the most of all. If I wanted to stay on as Don, I had to get rid of Leda. The division within the Cavazzo Mafia had its roots in half of the capos believing me to be some usurper. But the fear of retaliation from Carmine because I bought Leda was the water that allowed this division to grow.
What other choice do I have?
My stomach was in fucking knots at what I had to do next. I couldn’t lose the Mafia. I wasn’t anything without the family, and I had worked too fucking hard to get to where I was. The control was slipping through my fingers and the hole in my heart widened.
Leda had only been in my life for a short time, and in that time, I had somehow fallen heads over heels for her. But I couldn’t pick her over the Mafia even if I wanted to. Not at this point with my back pressed against the wall. In the time that I spent with her, I had left my flank wide open.
And Adrian exploited it.
I underestimated him, and now I was about to pay the price for it.
It was a shit move to ignore business for the one person who gave me happiness, but business was what kept me alive. Between my heart and my life, I had no other choice.
I steeled myself against the overwhelming guilt and self-loathing that assaulted me. Hadn’t I just resolved that I wasn’t going to give her up? Didn’t I already decide that she was worth fighting for?
That was before you put yourself in this shitty position. Cosimo’s voice echoed in my ears. You let a distraction take your eyes off the prize.
The choice was clear.
I already broke her heart.
What I was about to do next would make her hate me.
But not as much as I would hate myself.
