Code of Silence: Cosa Nostra #2 (6 page)

“Make me Consigliere,” he said. “Think about it. Once the merger is complete, you’ll need someone to oversee the united crews. Someone to run messages back and forth, supervise the joint ventures. And, all of that hatred and resentment isn’t going to just vanish, not without some help.”

“And you think you can help?”

“I know I can,” he said, a feeling of confidence coming over him once again. “I know both sides. I know how the others work. If you’re going to appoint anyone to mediate, it should be me.”

“Right now you’re just an associate,” Sal said. “You’d have to swear in and become a soldier first.”

“I know,” he said. “I’ve thought about it. This is what I want.”

“Once you swear in, you can only leave after you’re dead.”

“I know how it works,” he said. “I never took the oath for my father. I want to take it for you.”

“Just so we’re clear, it’s not money you want, but power?” he said. “That position makes walking away from Bela—watching her marry your brother—worth it?”

His instinct was to swallow hard, but he fought it. Poker faces were important in his line of work. “Absolutely.”

Sal stood and reached his hand over the desk. “Then get ready, Vincent,” he said as Vincent shook his hand. “You’re about to become a made man.”

Brother to Brother

“How could you do something so stupid?” Bela exclaimed in a low, but still enthusiastic whisper, once Vincent told her the news.

Sitting in the back of a restaurant, they huddled close so they could talk in private. At the bar a few feet away, Gio had stationed himself. Every once in awhile he glanced at them to check up, but he gave them their privacy for the most part.

“I wanted you to hear it from me first,” he said, keeping his voice low. “My handler says I need to get closer to the top. Being Consigliere between both families puts me there—right under Sal and Dante.”

“You mean right between them.”

“How else do you expect me to get close enough to bring them down?” he asked. “Associates never know anything. But advisors…”

“Are in the loop,” she finished, shaking her head. “Still, do you honestly think you can get something big enough to have my father arrested before July 29
th
?”

“What’s the 29
th
?”

She narrowed her eyes. “You haven’t heard?”

His expression fell as he realized what she meant. “The wedding date,” he said, his voice a whisper. “It’s been set.”

“And the clock is ticking,” she said. “Very loudly, I might add.”

“That’s not even a month away,” he said.

“I know.”

“If I don’t have enough by then, I’ll just move in with what we have,” he said. “I don’t care if the charges stick or not—it’ll be a big enough distraction for us to slip away.”

Reaching across the space between their seats, he took her hand in his and gave it a comforting squeeze. 

~~~

Vincent opened the door to his hotel room, surprised to find Rafe standing outside. In his fancy, lint-free suit, he looked out of place at the dumpy, by-the-hour motel.

“Come to kidnap me again?” Vincent asked wryly, leaning against the door.

“Of course not. I was hoping we could talk,” Rafe said. “Brother to brother.”

Leaving the door to swing open, Vincent walked across the room to the mini fridge and took a beer out of a six-pack. He offered one to Rafe, and he accepted it, even though Vincent knew he never drank anything but high-end liquor. Bud Ice from the convenient store on the corner wasn’t Rafe’s scene.

“I know it’s been awhile since we’ve talked and a lot has changed,” Rafe began as he took a seat at the small dinette in the corner of the room. “But I want you to know how sorry I am about this whole…arrangement.”

Vincent raised an eyebrow. “You’re sorry?”

“I had no idea what Dad was planning,” he said. “I found out with the rest of you. And I’m not blind…I see what this whole thing is doing to the both of you and it…well, sucks. I hate doing this to you.”

“If you’re so sorry,” he said. “Then let her go.”

“I wish I could,” he replied. “It’s out of my hands, though.”

“You’re second in command, you work right under him,” he said. “Don’t tell me you don’t have some pull.”

“I do, just not enough to pull off something like that. Besides, this merger is about so much more than just you and me and Bela. Do you have any idea how many other organizations are trying to take the city? The damn Russians, the Triad, even the Mexican drug cartel wants a piece. The Cosa Nostra has to stick together; we can’t keep fighting each other all the time. This wedding is a way to bond our families together so we can tackle any threat that comes our way.”

Because Vincent was supposed to be one of them, supposed to obey the laws of the Cosa Nostra, he was supposed to understand why tackling opposing threats was so important, but he didn’t. To him they were all the same. The Bratva, the Triad, the drug cartels and trafficking rings—they were all criminals. They all needed to be stopped—even if it was by taking each other out.

“You just don’t understand,” he said, shaking his head as he looked at his older brother. “You don’t know how hard I had to work to get the DeLucas to trust me, how long we had to wait to get to the place we were in before you came in and yanked the rug right out from under our feet. And Bela—if you knew her at all, you’d know how much she hates being tied to the Cosa Nostra. There’s nothing she can do about her bloodline, but now she’s supposed to marry into it, too? And I’m supposed to stand back and watch while she’s forced into a life she hates?”

He was quiet as he listened. Those wisdom filled eyes searching his brother, taking in every word. “Nobody ever claimed peace was easy.”

He clenched his jaw, chewing on those words.

Rafe stood. “The only ones who don’t want this wedding to happen are the two of you,” he said. “And if you want to try to stand against the entire mafia…well, you can try. I don’t see it ending pretty, though.”

Boiling Point

In the parlor, Bela sat on the couch, flipping through the bridal book Claudia had assembled for her. Most of the preparations were made, all of them except for the rehearsal dinner. Rafe was supposed to have arrived at one o’clock to finalize the arrangements, but he was half an hour late. She hated the way he always kept her waiting, as if his schedule was so much more important than hers, and one of these times, she was just going to leave before he showed.

That wouldn’t work this time, though since she was at her own house. “What do you think of china patterns, Gio?” she asked.

He was standing by the window, looking out. Never far from her side. He glanced over at her. “What about them?”

“Do you think, for example, that the world has way too many china patterns? I mean, how many ways can you decorate a plate? Some things are just overboard.”

He chuckled.

“You think that’s funny?” she asked. “You should see the different ways to fold napkins.”

After flipping to the right page, she held the bridal book up to show him the pictures of the different folding styles. “There’s more, too,” she said. “Three pages more.”

They were still laughing at this when Rafe entered the room, followed by one of his men. She recognized his face, but didn’t know his name.

“You’re late,” she said, placing the book on the coffee table. “Again.”

“Compared to your indiscretions, tardiness is nothing,” he said.

She looked up at him. “What?”

“Does this alliance mean nothing to you?” he asked. “Is it all just a joke?”

Though he spoke in the same bossy tone and calm inflection, she could see hints of anger in his eyes. “What are you talking about?” she asked.

“Why am I still getting reports of you sneaking off to see my brother when I’ve specifically told both of you to stay away from each other? Do you know how that makes me look?”

Bela glanced away from him in guilt.

“If I can’t keep my personal life in order, how is anybody going to think I can run my business? If my own fiancée is disloyal, my men will think they can pull the same stunt. Do you understand me yet?”

Crossing her arms, she gave a single nod to answer his question.

“What’s it going to take for you to take this seriously?”

“I do take this seriously—”

“For you to
leave
him?”

“I can’t!” she exclaimed, standing to her feet in frustration. “I love him. So much more than I’ll ever love you.”

He stared at her a moment; his fist clenched at his side. For a second, he looked like he would strike her. Instead, his fist uncurled and he reached inside his blazer and came out with an envelope.

She was confused as he handed the envelope to her. “What is this?”

“Your punishment.”

With a mix of anger and fear, she tore open the envelope to find a letter from the dean at her school. As her eyes scanned the typed page, her mouth dropped in shock. “You had me expelled?”

“He owed me a favor,” he said.

“You can’t do this,” she said, glaring at him. “I’ve been busting my ass to get that degree. You can’t just get me kicked out!”

“Who’s going to stop me?” He raised an eyebrow at her. “You think your father’s going to pull some strings to get you back in? You think he’ll find the time to make the call? I doubt it. He’ll probably thank me for killing this ridiculous dream of yours.”

“You’re despicable,” she said.

“And you’re being selfish. If this little affair of yours doesn’t end before the wedding, I’ll have no choice but to take Vincent off the playing board.”

Her mind racing with millions of enraged thoughts, she glowered at him in contempt. “You’d kill him? Your own brother.”

His jaw tightened. For a moment—the quickest of seconds—she caught a glimpse of regret in his eyes. Then it vanished. “I won’t have a choice. We all have an image to uphold.”

A visceral fear took hold in her gut.

“Nobody is going to be loyal to a man when his own wife isn’t.” Giving her a wicked smile, he took her chin between his forefinger and his thumb. “Make your allegiances carefully, princess. You hold my little brother’s life in your hands.”

Gio eyeballed the door as Rafe and his associate left, as if contemplating going after them. He stayed with Bela instead. “Are you okay?”

No, she wasn’t okay, she thought bitterly. She was trapped in an engagement-of-convenience with the heartless man who had just crushed her future when she was in love with his virtuous brother. And it didn’t seem like there was any escape.

~~~

Bela confronted Trey when he came home. Meeting him inside the entrance of the home wing, she stopped him just short of going to his bedroom.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, looking at her in concern.

“What’s wrong?” she repeated. “Where do I start? Dad is forcing me to marry a guy I hate. And if I don’t walk away from the man I love, I’ll get him killed.”

She could see pity on his face, but not enough. “I
am
sorry, Bela, but you just have to let Vincent go. In time…you’ll get over him. It’s just an infatuation, anyway. I know it feels real, but—”

“So that’s why you haven’t been helping me?” she demanded. “Because you think this is some kind of crush? You’ve never taken Vincent and I seriously, have you?”

“If you really love him as much as you say,” he said. “Then you need to let him go. You know infedility is punishable by death.”

Yes, she was well aware. It was that code that had killed her mother. She wouldn’t let it kill Vincent, too. “So, that’s it, then? You won’t help me get out of this?”

“I can’t,” he said. “There’s too much riding on this peace treaty to risk disgracing the Marcanos.”

As her anger faded, a feeling of decisiveness settled over her. She knew what she needed to do.

Biding her time, she waited until she was sure everyone was asleep or settled into their beds for the night. Then, she grabbed the duffel bag she kept—always packed and ready—under the bed. Tossing it over her shoulder, she snuck out of the house. Using the spare key she knew Trey kept under his tire, she borrowed his car and took off.

Trey would probably view the security footage in the morning and see that she’d left, but hopefully she would be long gone by then. When Vincent let her into his hotel room, he took one look at her and said, “What happened?”

“I can’t do it.” She dropped her bag by the door and focused her attention on Vincent. “I can’t live one more day pretending I’m going to marry Rafe. And I can’t wait for you to arrest them, because they’re always one step ahead.”

His dark eyes studied her carefully. “What are you saying?”

“I’m leaving town. Tonight.” Her heart thumping with trepidation, she gave him her ultimatum. “And I really hope you’re coming with me.”