By Virtue I Fall (Sins of the Fathers #3)(28)

“No way. I won’t let him off so easily. He thinks he can order me around. I know he wants me. And I won’t give up until I’ve made him eat his words.”

“I have a really bad feeling about this. What do you want to do?”

“Santino thinks he knows the game I’m playing, but I haven’t even started playing. In Paris, all bets are off.”

“I’m really worried about you, Anna. You still have feelings for him. What if you get hurt?”

“I don’t have feelings for Santino, not anymore. But I’m attracted to him. I’ll just have a fling with him in Paris. He’s like an itch. I just need to scratch it.”

“My itches always get worse once I start scratching, and usually I can’t stop until I’ve scratched myself bloody.”

I shook my head. “I have it under control, don’t worry.”





I couldn’t remember the last time I’ve been this pissed.

Anna was playing a dangerous game, and unfortunately, I was a sucker and kept getting sucked into her games.

I went in search of Leonas. I finally found him in one of the guest bedrooms with a dark-haired girl kneeling in front of him, giving him head. The room smelled of pot, and judging from the sappy look on the girl’s face and Leonas’s shit-eating grin, they’d both smoked weed.

The Cavallaro kids would be my downfall. Eventually I’d kill one of them.

“Put your dick back where it belongs,” I growled.

The little shit actually gave me a smile that suggested it was exactly where it belonged. I took out my phone and snapped a photo. “I’ll send it to your mother. Maybe she can reason with your horny, stoned mind.”

Leonas staggered back from the girl and tried to storm toward me. “Shit, man. That’s no joke.”

“Do I look like I’m joking? I’m fucking done with you and Anna grating on my fucking nerves. I don’t care if you fuck half of Chicago but don’t do it on my watch.”

I slipped the phone into my back pocket.

“Did you send it?” Leonas asked, worried as he pulled up his pants.

At least, the little shit had enough respect for his mom not to want to have her see a photo of him in a situation like this. Considering how much he loved provoking his dad, he probably wouldn’t have reacted the same way if I’d threatened to send it to him. I was the same way. That’s the problem if you love your kids and can’t torture them to see reason. My dad had given me a thrashing a few times but I’d never been a pussy so it hadn’t had the desired effect. Dante faced the same problem with Leonas. The boy was tough as nails and strong-willed, a shitty combination.

I grabbed his collar and pushed him out into the hallway, then walked past him.

“Not yet, but I’ll keep it in case you give me trouble in the future.”

He stalked after me. “That’s blackmail.”

I gave him a look as we made our way down the stairs and past increasingly drunk teens. “Blackmail is the currency of choice for your sister and you,” I said as I stepped outside, glad to be away from the party and Mrs. Clark. I could tell she was one of these lonely, clingy types. One fuck and she thought there was a deep connection.

“You don’t have to vent your troubles with my sister on me. I don’t give a fuck if you two are getting it on, but leave me out of it.”

Anna glared at me from the back seat. Women usually left me cold. They never got my blood boiling from anger or any other reason, because I didn’t care about them. But Anna?

Fuck. She was my goddamn gasoline.

“Get in the car, or I’ll send the photo off, and stop talking shit,” I ordered before I rounded the car and slid in behind the steering wheel and started the engine.

“What about Riccardo and RJ?” Leonas asked as he sank down beside his sister.

“They aren’t my wards, and if anyone asks, I never saw them. I didn’t even know you were on the party.”

“You’re an asshole,” Leonas muttered.

“He knows, and he likes it,” Anna added, giving me the evil eye.

I hit the gas. I needed to get Anna off my back. This was getting too dangerous between us.

I reached inside my pants and found the handkerchief where Dolora Clark had written down the number of her second cell phone. I rolled down the window and tossed the piece of white fabric out.

“What was that?” Anna asked haughtily.

“Dolora’s panties.”

Anna gave me a disgusted look while her friend Luisa’s eyes were so huge I worried they’d pop out. “They were red, just for your information.”

How the hell did she know what panties Dolora had worn? That girl was the bane of my existence.

“As in Dolora Clark?” Leonas asked. “You banged Mrs. Clark?”

I didn’t say anything.

Leonas let out a whistle, then his expression became calculating. “How about you delete the photo and I won’t tell anyone that you’re a home wrecker.”

“Sure, bring a scandal down on the family that’s supposed to bring new glory to the Outfit,” I muttered.

“We don’t need outsiders to bring glory to the Outfit,” Leonas gritted out.

Preach it, kid.

“Once you’re Capo, you can help your sister dispose of Cliffy. I’m sure by then she’s tired of his boring antics.”