Page 6 of Because I Need You
“Why’d you call this little meeting? Because of the empty seat?” I asked him, then looked over at Nadia. “You shouldn’t be in here for this.”
“I don’t think I’m going to be dragged into jail for this conversation.” She shrugged. “And what I have to discuss is related to this.”
Interesting. My eyes cut to Loren again. “You think Vinny will claim it?”
“Fuck, no.” His answer was definite.
“He came after Cat last time.”
“Under a completely different circumstance. He’s not a threat, G.”
“He got Frankie killed.”
Nadia flinched. I felt bad, of course, he was her brother after all. He’d been my brother, too, but in a different way.
“Vinny won’t come back. His family is too precious to him,” Loren said. “Your dad already killed his mother, you think he’s going to risk losing his wife? His kids? I know I wouldn’t. He wants out of this life. He changed his name, forfeited everything.”
“He forfeited everything when he faked his death, but that didn’t stop him from coming back and kidnapping my sister.” I pointed out. “He should already be dead.”
Loren’s jaw worked. It was the only indication I got that he was still pissed at the situation. He took a second to stop grinding his teeth and address me. “You think I didn’t want to kill him? Cousin or not?”
“But you didn’t.”
“Your father didn’t either.”
“My sister begged him not to,” I said, knowing I struck a nerve when his jaw twitched again, his eyes growing cold.
This was the Loren people worried about. He was a lawyer and was a boss when it came to racketeering. He didn’t exactly get his hands dirty, he didn’t have to, but if he wanted to, he would. I’d heard enough stories to know that to be true. With the look he’s giving me, I knew this was the guy you didn’t want to fuck with, but I did it anyway, because I liked pushing buttons and I knew my sister would kill him if he killed me.
“Enough about Vincent,” he snapped after a moment. “He’s out of the picture. Period. He won’t be back.”
“You’re sure about that,” I said.
“Gio, I swear to fucking God…” He let out a rough laugh, shaking his head, and I knew this was my final sign to stop fucking with him. I did, mostly because I was tired and didn’t want blood on my new Prada suit.
“Let’s move on,” Nadia said. “If Vinny was going to come back, he would’ve showed up at the lawyer’s office and claimed at least the money Charles left behind.”
I rolled my eyes. Fucking Nadia always taking Lorenzo and my sister’s side. It was because of her brother that she had this job, overseeing my nightclubs and any other business ventures I decided to get into. I didn’t want to hire her at first. I kept hearing my father’s voice in my head. “Women don’t belong there, you fucking imbecile.” Every couple of days, when he called me and I chose to answer the phone, he said those words to me. Every time, he’d tell me to fire the women I’d hired. Every time, I’d stayed quiet, which was enough of an answer. I didn’t really give a fuck about patriarchal bullshit. For the most part, at least. It wasn’t like I wanted my sisters or Nadia involved in anything illegal. I couldn’t say the same for Petra, my other right hand. She knew what she signed up for and she enjoyed getting her hands dirty.
“Do you want the seat?” I asked Loren. “Vinny’s your cousin. You’d be next in line. You should probably just take it.”
“Me?” He barked out a laugh. “Have you met your sister?”
My lip twitched. My point exactly. “They say you can’t let women make your decisions.”
“Who said that? A single man?” Loren asked.
Nadia snickered. “Definitely a single man.”
“I’m good with acting as an advisor and putting my two cents in when necessary.” Loren shrugged. “I don’t want or need it a seat in that table.”
Obviously, Midas over here didn’t need it. The stingy motherfucker had more money than he knew what to do with and he was the consigliere’s son, which put him higher than me in this hierarchy, and he was full Italian, which I wasn’t. It didn’t matter how much time passed and how much the world changed, me being half-Italian, half-Colombian, meant I had to prove myself at every turn. And I had. It didn’t change the fact that the only reason I had a seat at the table right now was that my father was a fugitive on the run. Lorenzo, though? He could do whatever the fuck he wanted and still be guaranteed everything. If he didn’t want the seat vacated by Charles, that meant it was for the taking and none of us knew what that really meant. Our fathers, grandfathers, and so on, had wars. Real ones that ended with a lot of people dead. It was a funny thing. People often talked shit about the Mexicans and Colombians and any organization from any other country, when in reality we were all the same.
