Cruel Vows

MASSIMO

“You wanted to see me, Father?” I ask, entering his study.

To my surprise, Luca and Leo are already there.

He nods. “Sit down, all three of you.”

I clench my fists and take a seat on the sofa in the corner, as my two brothers do too. “What is this about?”

“Adrik.”

I straighten at the mention of the bastard who crashed the fundraiser two weeks ago. “He had some nerve turning up at your fundraiser.”

Father nods. “Indeed. I fear he was there to gather intel.” He rubs a hand across the back of his neck. “We have a mole. Lorenzo and I are sure of it.”

“A mole?” Luca asks, brow furrowing. “Who is it?”

Father exhales heavily, shaking his head and leaning an arm against the mantel of the fireplace. “We don’t know. It’s why I called all three of you here, as we need to root them out.” His eyes flutter shut as he draws in a deep breath. “If whoever it is found out we know about Adrik, it would be game over.”

I loosen my tie. “Then we keep it strictly between us, Dante and Lorenzo.”

“Agreed.” Father sits next to me, leaning forward with his elbows on his thighs. I’ve never seen him so utterly broken before. “I’m wondering how long I can keep this up.”

“Keep what up, Father?” Leo asks.

He rubs a hand across his face. “They have diagnosed me with stage three bowel cancer.”

It feels like those words hit me right in the gut, knocking all the oxygen clean out of my body. My mind spins and my heart speeds up at an alarming rate.

“What does that mean?” Luca asks, looking calm considering the news.

“They are running tests to find out if it’s spread and starting me on chemotherapy within the week.” He looks at me then. “I’m going to need you to step up, son, and take more responsibility, as I may not be in good enough health to run everything.” He sets a hand on my shoulder. “The famiglia needs you.”

I swallow hard at the thought of taking on such responsibilities in the middle of a war. “Of course, Father.” I bow my head.

“What’s the prognosis?” Leo asks.

He shrugs. “It’s difficult to say until they found out if it has spread. My chances are relatively good if it hasn’t.”

We all turn silent as Leo swallows hard, nodding in response. There’s a morbid tension that cloaks the air. “When will you tell Mia and Camilla?” I ask.

He winces. “Not yet. I’ll wait until they confirm how bad it is. Keep this between the four of us for now.”

I don’t like keeping things from my sisters, but it’s not so difficult with Camilla since she’s away at school. It’s Mia that will sense something is off if we’re not careful.

“You know Mia can be very instinctive about things,” Luca warns.

Father exhales. “I know. It won’t be for long. They expect to have the results of the tests they ran tomorrow morning.”

Again, silence falls over the room as we all fall into our own chaotic thoughts. If I thought this war was bad enough, trying to navigate it without my father at the helm is far more daunting. He’s been preparing me for this all my life and yet it feels like I’ll never be ready.

“Anyway, enough morbidity for one day.” He claps his hands, breaking us all out of the daze we fell into. “I need all three of you to split up and make enquires at our three main locations.” He gives Leo a pointed look. “You go to secret obsession and check in with the bouncers if they’ve seen Adrik there. Also, check the CCTV for any signs of him.”

Leo nods. “Of course, Father.”

“Luca, I want you to go to what is left of Le Stelle and find the CCTV system. It was still intact, so we might be able to find out if he visited before it was blown apart by Spartak, as this plan has been in place for a long time.”

Luca looks irritated by the order, but nods. “Of course.”

“And you, Massimo. I want you to go to the casino. Check the CCTV to see if anyone spoke to Adrik other than us during the evening.”

“Of course.” I try to push down the clawing doubts that I have the ability to run this the way my father did. If he dies, I don’t know how I’ll cope. This is classic Remy Morrone. Drop a bombshell on us all and then send us off on important tasks. I can hardly focus right now on anything but the fact my father could be dying of cancer.

“Good, off with you all.” He claps his hands and gestures to the door.

Luca leaves first, followed by Leo, but I remain seated.

“Is there a problem, Massimo?”

I rub a hand across the back of my neck and meet my father’s assessing gaze. “What if I’m not ready?”

He approaches and gestures for me to stand.

I stand in front of him, looking into his eyes, which look tired.

“You’ve been ready for years, Massimo.” He places a hand on my shoulder. “I’m tired and struggling to keep up. This is your chance to have a trial run, so to speak.”

I swallow hard and nod. “I won’t let you down.”

He smiles, but it’s forced. “I know you won’t.” He claps me on the shoulder. “Now go and find this mole for me, and bring his head on a platter.”

A sinking sensation ensues in my gut, as I can’t imagine any of our men betraying us. I fear that once we find the leak, it will tear our famiglia apart. Only time will tell and once we find out who the traitor is, his head will roll.

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