Chapter 16: THE MAFIA

DANTE

The war room was made up of thick concrete walls with no windows, a table that had seen more blood and bodies than most morgues and Around it sat twelve men who ran the city from beneath.

My father, Don Voss, sat at the head of the table. He was sixty three years old and still the most dangerous person in the room. He'd built this family from nothing after his brother's death with a vow to make this Voss name one that people whispered about in fear.

And he achieved that.

I sat at his right with Marco to my left and the other men spread out around the table.

"The Shen are vulnerable," my father said, going straight to the point. "They're stretched thin with the dock expansion. This is our window."

Salvatore leaned forward. "I agree. If we hit them now, we can take three territories before they regroup."

"Four," someone else added. "If we move fast."

My father's eyes swept the table then settled on me. "Dante. You've been quiet, what are you thinking about?"

I was thinking how close Mia was to those territories and if things go south, it could cause a war which could end up in people becoming casualties and I feared she could be one of those casualties.

"I think we're rushing." I said.

The table went quiet.

"Rushing." My father repeated. "Explain yourself."

"The Shen expansion makes them look vulnerable but it also means they're expecting a move and want us to play into their trap. If we hit them now, it'll be a bloodbath.” This made more sense than talking about Mia which wasn't an option. “We have to wait for them to overextend themselves and when we strike, we'll face minimal loss.”

"Minimal loss?" Salvatore looked at me like I'd grown a second head. "Since when do you care about minimal loss?"

Since I cared about someone who could be collateral damage.

"Since I started thinking beyond the next level for this mafia.” I said instead. "We've been playing the long game with the Shens for two years. Why abandon logic now?"

My father was watching me too carefully and probably seeing something I didn't want him to see.

"The Dante I know would be pushing for blood," he said quietly. "What changed?"

"Nothing changed. I'm just being strategic."

"Or you're being distracted." He accused.

Fuck.

The old man had a keen eye that I didn't need right now. Everyone at the table stiffened because they knew what it meant when the don questioned your judgment.

I held his gaze. "I'm focused on what's best for the family."

"Are you." It wasn't a question.

Marco cleared his throat. "Dante's right about timing. The Shen docks are bait for us and it's obvious. If we go now, we'll get pinned down for them to wipe out, so it's best we wait.”

My father looked at Marco for a long moment then back at me. "Fine, we’ll wait. But not for long. I'll give you one month then we move whether you're ready or not."

The meeting continued after that as they spoke about other plans that used to be all I cared about but my mind was elsewhere. On Mia and how I could keep her safe from what was coming.

After the meeting ended, my father pulled me aside into the hallway outside the war room. It was empty except for his most trusted guards who knew better than to eavesdrop.

"Is there something you're not telling me?"

"No."

"Don't lie to me, Dante. I've known you since you were sixteen years old the day you showed up at my door asking to join the family that killed your father. I know when you're distracted."

He'd taken me in after my father's murder, trained me, made me his second and gave me a purpose when I had nothing but rage.

I owed him everything. Even my life.

But I couldn't tell him about Mia. He raised me as his son to take over the mafia and not a man who was making decisions based on keeping one woman safe instead of what was best for the organization.

"I'm being careful," I said. "That's all. The Shens are unpredictable right now so moving too fast is a mistake."

"You've never been careful before."

"Maybe I'm learning."

He studied my face, looking for cracks and a weakness. But he didn't find anything, I had learned how to hide things from him because he taught me how.

"One month," he said finally. "Then this needs to be resolved. Whatever is distracting you—fix it or remove it. The family comes first. Always."

"I know."

"Do you?" He put a hand on my shoulder. "Because right now I'm not sure you remember that."

He left and I stood in the empty hallway trying to control the rage building in my chest.

I made it to my office before I lost it.

I closed the door, locked it behind me then stood there for three seconds trying to breathe and control myself. But I failed.

I grabbed the nearest glass and hurled it against the wall. It was satisfying to watch it shatter but it wasn't enough. I wanted Ren dead. I needed him to be erased from this world to the point that Mia would forget that he ever existed.

Rage blinded me to the point where I wanted to walk right into his office, put a bullet in his head and watch him realize in his last seconds that he'd lost her forever.

But I couldn't yet.

I didn't need my father’s eyes on me, asking questions as to why his death had been so personal to me because that would expose Mia to the kind of violence I was trying to protect her from.

I couldn't risk her getting caught in it or being used as leverage. No one in my world could know she existed.

So I had to wait and continue to watch that bastard breathe the same air as her, thinking he had a chance to win her back even though every cell in my body screamed to eliminate him.

The rage was eating me alive.

I pulled out my phone, opened the surveillance app and found the feed of her apartment.

She was at her desk editing. Wearing an oversized sweater that made her look smaller than she was, hair piled on top of her head and completely focused on her screen.

Just watching her calmed me. The rage didn't completely disappear but it became what I could control instead of letting it control me,

She had no idea what she did to me and that just seeing her work was the only thing keeping me from burning the entire city down to get to Ren.

"You're saving me," I said to the image of her on the screen. "And you don't even know it."

Ultimately I needed t—

A knock at the door cut off my thoughts.

"What?”

Marco entered without waiting for permission and his expression was not at ease.

"We have a problem."

I closed the surveillance app. "What kind of problem?"

"Someone's been asking about the building. Questions about ownership, rental history, tenant records and all that sorts"

My blood went cold. "Who?"

"Yuna Chen. Mia's friend."

Everything stopped.

I'd warned Yuna and told her to back off. I thought she'd understood the threat but apparently she had decided to keep digging anyway.

"How much does she know?"

"Not much yet. She's being careful by going through public records and calling property management companies. But if she keeps looking—"

"She'll find the shell company then the holding company and eventually she'll find us."

Marco nodded. "What do you want me to do?"

Yuna was the only person standing between Mia and complete isolation. And I needed her to be isolated so that she would lean on me alone, so I needed to stop Yuna.

"Handle it," I said quietly. "Quietly."

"Handle it how?"

"Scare her somehow. Make her understand that some questions don't get answered and that if she keeps looking, she'll find things she really doesn't want to find."

"And if she doesn't stop?"

I looked at him and held his gaze until he understood that I didn't care about her friendship with Mia if it would jeopardize my building relationship with her.

"Then YOU will stop her by any means necessary, got it?."

Marco's jaw tightened but he nodded. He knew that it was best he did it instead of me because he had seen me do worse things to people who interfered with family business.

This was just family business of a different kind.

"Make it clear," I said. "But don't hurt her yet because Mia will never forgive me."

"And if Yuna tells her what we do?"

"She won't because she knows if she does, Mia will think she's crazy. She has no proof. Just suspicions and a gut feeling."

After Marco left, I pulled up the surveillance feed again where Mia was still editing, unaware that her best friend was about to receive a very clear message about the cost of asking the wrong questions.

I watched her work and tried to feel guilty about what I'd just ordered him to do, but I couldn't. Yuna was a threat and I eliminated threats. That has been the foundation my life has been laid upon.

The only thing that had changed was that now I had something worth protecting and I'd destroy anyone who got in the way of that.

Even her best friend.