Page 72 of Twisted Throne

“Why do you look like that?”

I turned to look back to where Carlos stood across Angelo’s office with Ricky. We were waiting for Angelo and Alec to join us for a strategy meeting about our next move on Sabitino. Although we’d effectively crushed them in the stunt that they had pulled last night, my blood still boiled to think about those bastards daring to come to Angelo’s own home. We needed to retaliate immediately to strike the message home.

“Look like what?” Most other men would have taken warning from my tone and dropped it. Unfortunately, Carlos wasn’t one of them.

Carlos exchanged a look with Ricky then snickered.

“I don’t know,fratello, happy maybe?”

I simply glared at him.

“It wouldn’t have anything to do with a certain lovely lady that went all Black Widow with you in the garden last night would it?”

Ricky snorted, then quickly looked away when I transferred my glare onto him.

Before I could respond to Carlos, the door opened and Angelo strode in, Alec followed closely behind.

Alec took the chair beside me, and Angelo took his seat across the rich, mahogany desk.

I looked over at Alec. His face was drawn, and he looked like he’d had even less sleep than I’d had.

“After what happened last night, there is no question that we need to strike back. Sabitino is already crippled from the men he lost in his failed attack last night.”

Although I doubted if Angelo had rested at all last night, he looked as he always did, alert, sharp and deceptively calm. This was far from the worst situation he had had to handle during his reign as Don, but it was one of the most personal.

“So, ideas?” He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.

Ricky spoke up before anyone else could, and Angelo turned to him, mildly surprised.

“What about those three shipments at the docks?”

Alec shifted in his chair and looked decidedly uncomfortable. The mention of the setup caused an awkward silence to descend on the room. I just watched, my eyes narrowing in speculation. I was curious to see not only where Ricky was going with this, but also how well he could stand his ground in an uncomfortable situation. If he was going to makecapo, it was an important skill.

I leaned back and listened as Ricky went into the details of his idea—an easily tracked attempt at buying the warehouse at the docks, with lots of sound and fury to cover up our actual intentions. He sounded more and more confident as he laid out his plan. Soon enough various ideas were flying back and forth and strategies began to come together. Despite the losses of both men and money, we had cost Junior. We’d survived his sneak attack, and now we needed to punch back in addition to rebuilding what thestronzohad taken from us. The family had to be protected, and we could show no sign of weakness. Revenge would be taken, and I have to admit I was looking forward to it quite a bit. It was crystal clear that we now had the upper hand, and it was going to be a pleasure to make use of it.

I offered input as needed, as did Carlos. Alec was noticeably silent. Although he hadn’t been the one who leaked the info to Sabitino, his wife had. He was in disgrace, and I was kind of enjoying that. For once, he wasn’t trying to steal the show and make certain his plan came out on top. He offered zero suggestions, only speaking when Angelo asked him a direct question. It would take time for him to earn back full trust and respect from thefamiglia.

But hell, having to earn something for once might be the making of him.

Our meeting ended with tentative plans in place for our new operations against Sabitino. While we hadn’t come up with a full plan, we were well on our way. And although I was as anxious as anyone to exact retribution, I had a gorgeous badass of a woman waiting for me to escort her to dinner.

***

“Mother-fucking hell monkey!”

When I left Angelo’s study, intending to head to my suite to get ready for my dinner with Gia, my interest was piqued by the curses and crashes echoing out from the kitchen. I changed my path and entered the kitchen to see Lucy yelling out a string of nonsensical curse words and banging the espresso maker with a spatula.

“Dumb ass piece of shit!!”

She hadn’t noticed me entering the room and jumped a foot—literally—when I addressed her.

“Having some issues?” I asked dryly.

“Jesus fuck!” Lucy turned around and dropped the spatula. “Don’t sneak up on people like that!”

I fixed her with a stern look and she seemed to rein herself in a bit. Or tried to at least.

“Sorry, I’m just super pissed… I mean annoyed, shit, sorry.”