Chapter 9

I’m not ?affected by women crying, but seeing Natalia upset twisted something in my chest. I don’t like it one bit. When she said it was her sister, it piqued my curiosity. What could her twin have done to her? My beautiful girl asked if I’d kill him had it been a man. Without a fucking doubt, the answer was a resounding yes. It made me wonder if she knew the truth about what I’d done in her honor.

“Dante,” Domenic growls, snapping me out of my thoughts. I glance up at him. “Are your men in place?”

I nod as I cross my arms over my chest. “I said they were, and they are. Georgio will be there to receive the shipment.”

Four other families are rivals: the Bonettis, Lombardis, Rossis, and the Aiellos. The Bianchis made five. However, they were eliminated. That happens when you target a De Luca, any or all of us. Fuck around and find out. They found out. Although it wasn’t us who took Wolf out, if it had been, he would’ve gotten a lot worse than a couple of bullet holes to end his miserable life. After what he did to my brother, Damian, I would’ve gladly tortured him for weeks on end. Unfortunately, he got the easy way out, and I never got my chance. There’s always another enemy trying to take us out. Three days ago, the Aiellos intercepted our shipment. When a rival family pulls that kind of shit, it’s seen as an act of war, plain and simple. They took our product and killed six of our men. That shit won’t stand. That’s why we were all called here today to handle it. We have another shipment coming in and need to be sure the same thing doesn’t happen again. Domenic wants to deal with the Aiello”s appropriately, which simply means ending them.

“I don’t think we have to worry about them coming after this shipment,” Benji, our intel guy, pipes up from the couch, looking tiny, sitting on the sofa between Damian and Drake. It’s almost comical. Next to my brothers, he seems like he’s only about four feet tall, which isn’t the case. He”s of average height, unlike us. Domenic and Damian are over six-foot-five, Drake is six-foot-four, but I’m the shortest at six-foot-three.

Domenic stares at Benji, waiting for his reasoning.

He swallows hard as he meets his gaze and continues, “According to my sources, the entire family has taken their women and children. They are no longer in the country; they are hiding.”

Drake chuckles lightly. “Fucking wise choice.”

Domenic leans back in his chair, arms crossed over his chest, the anger pouring from him, “What country? I want them found.”

Benji says, “Italy.”

My brother growls in response, “Fuck. Who is your source?”

“Luca Bonetti.”

I’m not surprised that Luca is his source because the Bonettis want the Aiellos dead more than anyone. They aren’t any better than the Bianchis were. Their way of handling business is to kidnap rival’s wives, as well as daughters, and torture them until they get what they want. After the Bianchis nearly killed Giada, they took a page from Enzo’s playbook. The Bonettis are a rival family, but I suppose we get along, an alliance of sorts, because we will help each other if needed. We don’t fuck with them and they don’t fuck with us. Of course, if that were ever to change, we’d retaliate.

Domenic picks up his drink and takes a long pull of his whiskey before setting it down. He’s frustrated. My brother likes things to go as planned; he hates nothing more than when something he wants is out of reach. I know the feeling with my Natalia. I want her so fucking badly I can barely focus on anything else, but she keeps saying no, which is not something I’m used to.

We all know Domenic well. When he’s quiet, he’s always thinking, so we wait for him to decide how he wants to handle things. Finally, he says, “Alright. I want men in Italy. They have to come out for supplies or have them brought in. I want our best men there watching and waiting. Nobody approaches them without my word. Drake, get a hold of Monte; his team can go. They are the best at staying unnoticed.”

He notices me arching an eyebrow, “I want Georgio on shipments here.”

I want to tell my brother he is a fucking idiot and that Georgio’s men should be in Italy, but I don’t because he’s in charge. We’ve come a long way since Jewel Aiello, the biggest fucking mistake of my life. She nearly cost me my brother. If Domenic said we were eliminating the entire Aiello family, I wouldn”t be sad. I’ve been waiting for it and hoping for it. I wanted to go to war with them when my brother was lying in the hospital with a hole in his chest, but I was firmly told that would not happen. Through harsh breaths, Domenic told me we wouldn’t make a critical situation worse. I heard him but never understood it. We never allow someone to ambush us like that and look the other way. To this day, I do not know why he made the choice he did. I know there’s a reason. My brother does nothing without a cause; I just don’t know what it is.

Drake narrows his gaze at Domenic. “Are we done here?”

He nods silently, and all five of us file out of his office. When I approach the kitchen, I overhear Giada and Natalia discussing her dating life.

“I don’t get a second date ever. What’s wrong with me?”

Drake comes over to me and listens as well. We are both obsessed with one woman, and she won’t give us either of the time of day after our one night with her. A little arm twisting may be in order because I fucking need her.

“How many first dates have you had?”

Natalia answers, her voice sounding tight, “Six in the last month. I go out with them one time and never hear back.”

Giada giggles, “Maybe stop putting out. You know how guys are.”

I poke my head forward slightly to see my beautiful girl; she has a glass of wine in her hand, and her long dark hair hangs to her ass in soft curls. Fuck, she’s gorgeous, “I haven’t.”

My dick twitches at her admission like she hasn’t been with anyone other than us because it’s as if she knows she’s ours. Only ours. I’ve been obsessed with her for two years, and I’d sell my fucking soul to have her again.

Natalia rises off her chair and approaches us, looking at her feet as she walks. She gasps loudly when she crashes into not only me, but Drake. Her gaze travels from my black shoes up to my eyes before she darts her eyes to my brother.

“Can I get by?” she squeaks, and it’s fucking adorable. I move to my left slightly, allowing her to pass. Whenever Natalia is here, this is the way it goes. We watch her, and she knows, yet she seems utterly unaware that both of us have been in her house countless times. Fucking her didn’t douse the fire; it only stoked the flames.