Ruthless Monarch

“I don’t have a lot of information for you,” he says. “What I can tell you is that you’re on everybody’s radar. Governor Marino, is really out to get you. You can’t use any of the original routes.”

“This I know.”

“My best advice is don’t store anything in the new one either.”

I lift my brow.

“Marino has been speaking one-on-one to everyone at the Port Authority. He’s also been taking meetings with the dockhands, Coast Guard, etcetera.”

“Busy man.”

“He’s determined to take you down.”

“And get in bed with my cousin,” I grit out.

“We can’t allow that to happen, Matteo.”

“I concur. On both matters, actually.”

He knows as well as I do, if that happens, no one is safe.

Salvatore won’t be happy dealing with just pills and blow.

He only has one thing he wants to deal with . . .

A billion-dollar trafficking enterprise left wide open when Cyrus Reed got involved and shut it all down.

No one wants the Italians to take up the void the Russians left.

“My advice, if you choose to take it, is bring it in and transport it right away. Place it someplace no one would think . . . until it’s ready for transport again. I don’t want to know anything. I don’t want my name brought up. I don’t like—”

“That part of the business is being phased out. Unfortunately, until my cousin is out of the picture, I can’t jeopardize my men being angry.”

“Move it fast. Off the radar. I’ll do what I can to get Marino off your back.”

I stand from my chair and shake his hand.

“Thank you.”

“You can’t lose, Matteo.”

“I won’t.”

Losing isn’t an option. I will burn everything down to the ground, burn it all if I have to, before I let a sadistic man like Salvatore lead.

Now back on the plane, I face Lorenzo and Roberto.

They’re sitting directly across from me.

“He wants us to move the cargo as soon as it comes into port. He doesn’t think the docks are safe. Governor Marino has been on a rampage ever since I married Viviana. The man will do anything in his power to right the wrong he thinks we did him. Governor Thomas believes the best plan is an obscure location, one with enough storage space but not obvious.”

Each of us goes quiet. Finding a close location that no one will think of is the hard part.

“What about Marco’s family restaurant?”

“You want to store our drugs in a restaurant? Do you plan on putting it with the sugar? Maybe the herbs are more like it?”

I shake my head at the banter between Roberto and Lorenzo.

But that has me thinking. If Lorenzo thinks it’s a silly idea, then maybe it actually holds some merit.

“Okay, when we get back to the compound, I want to talk to Marco. We will give his family a nice incentive if they agree. The bottom level has a tunnel.”

“That’s why I suggested it. It was used to smuggle in booze back in the Prohibition days.”

“That’s right. Roberto, I think you are onto something. The location is perfect and the tunnel is a bonus. We can bring the drugs in and out without anyone being the wiser. Also, I can check in often. It’s a restaurant. It wouldn’t be unheard of for me to take my wife there . . . often.”

The more I think about this, the better it sounds. Now that this is settled, I turn my attention away from my men and stare out the window for the remainder of the forty-five-minute flight back to my home.

I have a lot to work on once back.

It’s time I talk to Viviana about her father. It’s time we find the location of Salvatore.

I need to see where my next shipment of guns is as well. It feels like my work is endless, and all I want to do is take another day off and have my way with my wife.

I’m not sure when it happened, but I realize Viviana has gotten under my skin despite my best efforts.

She’s like an addiction.

One taste will never be enough.

29

Viviana

* * *

With Julia gone, there isn’t much to do. My life has become rather boring. I need to talk to Matteo about it. I need a job and a purpose. I want to make a difference.

There is no way I can spend another day doing nothing.

Without thinking about it, I head down the stairs, all the way to the bottom floor. To the floor where I know Matteo goes to when he is not with me.

I’m not sure if I’m allowed here, but I’m doing it anyway. Flinging open the door to the surveillance room, Luka and Tony look up at me.

They’re not shocked that I’m here. How can they be? Right on the giant screen in front of me is the hallway I just came down.

“You shouldn’t be in here,” Luka says.