I place my palms on the table right next to Becca and lean forward to look at her face.
“Right, Becca?”
“There’s always turnover,” she replies.
“There is.” I stand up and walk partway around the table to stand behind Paulie. “After Mario’s mishap, there was a need for new security, for instance.” I watch Paulie grip the edge of his chair with his left hand. His right is on his lap, poised for easy access to the gun under his jacket. I grin and point over at Beni. “New members of the family, fresh from the homeland.”
Beni’s eyes narrow, but he says nothing and doesn’t move at all.
“There was even a club shrink when I first arrived, but she didn’t last long.” I shake my head slowly as I place my hands on Lucia’s shoulders. I feel her tense under my palms, but she relaxes quickly. “There are also the old standbys. You never really know how long they will last though, even when t
hey are family.”
I release her and walk back to the head of the table. She turns her head to watch me walk away, but I don’t look back at her.
“And now, there’s new leadership.”
I scan the table, taking in the immediate reaction of each person. Beni is just to my left, and he keeps his eyes on the table. I can see the tightening of his jaw as he clenches his teeth. Paulie is on the other side of him. He’s looking right at me and trying to remain passive, but his forearm is tight. He’s preparing to draw his weapon. Becca licks her lips nervously.
Jonathan is on my immediate right. He continues to tap his cigarette against the table as he looks at me and nods slightly.
I control my slow, steady breaths as I make them all wait. Some of them are beginning to fidget. Only Jonathan, Lucia, and Becca remain in eye contact with me.
I pull out my Beretta and aim it at Beni’s head.
“Hey, Beni,” I say slowly, “did you know someone’s been skimming? There’s a Cayman account being fed from the meth money being laundered through the car lots. Close to five million.”
I stare straight at him, but my peripheral vision holds fast to Paulie, where he sits next to Beni. He looks at me, then at Beni, and his hand moves away from his piece. I change my aim and fire. Paulie plunges backward in his seat as his head explodes and fragments of skull and brain cover Beni and Cody.
Cody has no chance to react before I put a bullet in his skull, too.
“Jesus Christ.” Beni only whispers the words as I move the gun to Becca.
“You’re very detailed.” I use the gun to point down at the ever-present spreadsheets in front of her. “How exactly did you miss that?”
Becca shifts her eyes from the barrel pointed at her face to the papers on the table, then looks back at me.
“I didn’t,” she says quietly. “I brought it up to Rinaldo several months ago. He said he was going to have someone look into it. That was right about the time you came back.”
She isn’t saying anything I don’t already know. There’s sweat forming on her forehead, but she does have a gun pointed at her, so a little nervousness is to be expected. I’m not going to kill her, but I want to make sure I have everyone’s attention.
I think I do.
I shift my gaze to Rinaldo’s daughter as I lower the gun. I walk around the table and stop behind Lucia again. Leaning down a bit, I pull her hair back off her neck and place a kiss on her temple.
“You never did like Paulie, did you?”
Her hands are shaking, and she doesn’t answer.
“Did you know that Beni plans on marrying you?”
She tilts her head to look at me, then looks across the table at her almost-cousin.
“That’s not going to happen though, is it?”
“No,” she says softly, “it’s not.”
Beni glares. He probably thinks I don’t notice his hand moving under the table.