Nico (Ruin & Revenge #1)(93)
“Forever only lasts until one of you is dead.” He looked up and held her frozen with the cruel smile on his lips. “That gives you about one hour to enjoy your marital bliss.”
Dread crept over her, leaving goose bumps in its wake. “What are you going to do?”
He gave her a haughty smirk. “The question is not what I am going to do, it’s what have I done? I’ve sent someone to deal with the problem. I can’t run a business when Dante is being chased around the city by that Toscani bastard who just can’t give up the pathetic vendetta that he’s clung to for ten fucking years.” His calm facade slipped and he pounded his fist on the desk. “Nor will I tolerate being disrespected by my own daughter who is determined to dishonor the family.”
“You put a contract on him?”
Her father laughed. “I didn’t just put a contract on him; I baited him. I’ve turned his fucking quest for revenge against him. I’ve sent him around the city hunting down false leads on Dante, and tonight I’ll put him out of his misery. He knows where Dante is, and he’s on his way to whack him. Except Dante isn’t the one who’s going to be whacked. And just to be sure nothing goes wrong, I’ve enlisted some help. I’m not the only one who benefits if Nico Toscani is dead. The rest of his family wants rid of him, too.”
She stared at him aghast. “You’re working with Tony?”
“Soon to be my new son-in-law, and a man who shares my vision for how to make Cosa Nostra great again in Vegas.”
Fury rose up in her chest like a fireball. “If you hurt him, I will destroy you. Everything you’ve built, everything you have, I’ll take it away. I won’t rest until you are nothing.”
“Another vendetta.” Her father raised an idle hand. “I am not afraid of you, Mia. You’re a woman, and for some reason you’ve never been able to accept that. You are no threat to me. I am bigger than you, stronger than you, and more powerful than you can ever imagine. I’ve known you since the day you were born, and although you were desperate to prove yourself to me, your compassion was a fatal flaw. You would never be able to pull a trigger and take a man’s life. And until you do, you will never be enough; you will never be worthy of my respect; you will never be as good as a son.”
For some reason, his words didn’t hurt her like they usually did. Yes, she was a woman. And she had never realized just how strong a woman could be until she met Nico again. In the last few weeks, she had learned how to embrace what it meant to be a woman, and she had found a man who accepted her and loved her for who she was.
“I don’t want your respect,” she spat out. “And especially not if you measure a man’s worth by his ability to take a life.” Her hands balled into fists so tight her nails dug into her palms. “Character makes a man, not the circumstances of his birth or the power he holds or his ability to shoot a gun. It’s about the choices you make and how you treat people around you; it’s about the mercy you show when you’ve been wronged and the things you do when no one is around to see. You have no character. There is nothing about you I respect or admire. I don’t care what you think of me anymore, because I think nothing of you.”
She moved to leave, and one of the guards grabbed her arms. Before she could stop him, he snapped a pair of handcuffs around her wrists.
“What is this? What are you doing?” She tried to run but the guard grabbed her and forced her back down into the chair.
“You’ll stay here until I get word that our little problem has been solved,” her father said. Then you’ll get ready for your wedding tomorrow. Tony and I didn’t see any reason to waste time.” He gestured to the guards. “Tie her to the chair. One of you comes with me. The other stays outside the door and guards her.” He looked over at Mia and smiled. “I can honestly say nothing will please me more than giving you the fuck away at your wedding.”
*
“We’ve got a location on Dante.” Luca burst into Nico’s casino office, uncharacteristically breathless, with Vito on his heels.
“I told everyone to stand down.” Nico had stopped the hunt after spending the night with Mia, resolved to find a way to fulfill the family honor without spilling her brother’s blood.
“We did. But Frankie got a tip and he called Vito to check it out. Dante’s here. In the high stakes gaming room. Frankie’s on his way.”
Nico leaned back in his chair. Out of habit, he reached for his pen, but he had put it away last night as a statement to himself that he was letting his father go and moving on with a life that was more than a quest for revenge. “Is he fucking crazy? Why would he take such a risk when he knows there’s a contract on him? I thought he’d hit the mattresses.”
“He’s got a gambling problem,” Vito said, smoothing down his silvery suit jacket and crisp gray tie. “All the casino managers in the city know about him. There aren’t many bookies who will deal with him because when he runs up the debts too high Don Cordano sends out one of his enforcers to clear them off, if you know what I mean.”
“That’s bad business.”
Luca shrugged. “He’s only got one son. What’s he gonna do?”
Nico’s father only had one son, and he’d expected him to fill his shoes by following the family traditions, as his father had followed before him. But now Nico had found the other half of his soul, the missing piece of his life. He was forging his own path—maybe even his own faction of the Toscani family—and he had resolved to find another way to make Dante pay for his crime.