Fuck no, we’re not stupid.
He thinks that I fucked up, and when I look around the table, I can easily see that the other guys think so, too. Okay. I take a deep breath and hold it for a moment while I think.
It’s fucking hard for me to concentrate when I know that she’s in the other room, her hot little pussy just waiting for me to come sink my dick into it.
Yeah, right. I’m fucking crazy if I think that I’m getting anywhere near her cunt for a while after this. I bet that she’s hung up a sign. Closed for business.
“I’ll take care of it.” Even as the words leave my mouth, Pops starts to shake his head. I know that he’s not going to leave me out to dry, no matter how frustrated he is with me right now. That’s not how our family works. We may be mad as hell, but we don’t back out when someone needs us.
Before Pops can speak, though, Arlo pipes up, turning to Ricky. “You think that you can reach out to some contacts and see who in the family has enough of a beef to try to take one of us out? It’s kinda weird that they would have Roque in their sights if they want to take down Pops.”
It was weird, but I honestly hadn’t thought about that until just now. It would make much more sense for them to wait until they had Pops on his own and try to take him out so that the cousins could battle for the position of don.
“Unless they’re interested in taking everyone out, one at a time.” Valentino isn’t the one with great contacts but he has his phone out and is scrolling through it. Normally, Pops would go crazy that one of us wasn’t paying attention, but he’s probably the best bet for one of us finding out information quickly.
Ricky takes the hint and pulls out his phone. Matty, Arlo, and I wait for instruction from Pops.
“You,” he says, turning to me, “need to calm down that hellcat you brought into the house. I don’t know what you’re going to do to get her to simmer down, but we can’t have her screaming and causing a scene while she’s here.”
“I have something for that.” Arlo reaches into his pocket and pulls out a baggie with some pills in it. “They’ll just put her to sleep, but they won’t fuck her up or anything. You want one?”
I don’t want one, but the look on Pops’ face tell me that I better get over that really fucking fast, so I take the baggie from him when he slides it across the table to me. There are four small white pills inside, each stamped with a letter on one side, and I’ve never seen them before.
“What are they?” I ask him, unwilling to give my sweet Eva anything without knowing exactly what it is. The thought of drugging her at all turns my stomach, but Pops is right. She can’t be causing a fuss while she’s here, not if we’re going to be able to think through what we need to do and take care of this threat.
“Just a sleep aid.” He shrugs and looks away.
A sleep aid. Right.
I leave the pills on the table, swearing to myself that I’m not going to use them unless I absolutely have to – and then I’m only going to use them after I’ve looked up what they are. I don’t get the feeling that Eva takes meds for anything, but I’d hate to be the reason that she had a bad trip or something.
Ricky slams his phone down on the table. “Got it,” he says, looking up excitedly at the rest of us. We’re all waiting to hear what he has to say, and he probably fucking loves the spotlight, but now is not the time, and he knows it. “Mutual friend, more mine than his, says that Vince Lanetti was the person hired to do the hit.”
We’re all silent and turn to Pops, who nods. “You guys know what to do.”
We do. Fuck yeah, we do.
My finger has been itchy ever since that bullet came flying at our heads, and I can tell by the look on everyone else’s face that they’re ready to find Vince, too.
“The girl?” Pops asks, reaching out and putting a hand on my arm as I stand up. I hesitate. The best thing would be to give her one of those pills, make sure that she passes out, and then go hunting for Vince, but I’m a little nervous to do that without knowing what they are.
“She’ll be fine.” I’m surprised to hear Arlo stand up for me, but I try to keep it off of my face. “The rookie will keep her under control, Pops, and we won’t be gone very long, okay?”
It takes a moment, but Pops finally nods. Arlo flashes me a smile and I walk out of the room with him, Matty, Valentino, and Ricky. We’re going hunting, and there’s no way that we’re coming back until we’ve handled our shit.
That’s what the Torenti family does. We handle our shit. That’s why everyone knows not to fuck with us, and when people make the mistake of thinking that they can try something without repercussions, they quickly learn that they’ve made a big fucking mistake.
I don’t know what rock Vince crawled out from under, but he better fucking go hide again, because we’re coming, and nothing can stop us.
Chapter 9
Eva
I have no intention of stretching out and taking a nap, which is something that Roque wants me to do. There’s no way that I’m going to lay down on this bed and close my eyes, no matter how
