Undressed By The Mafia God

"Are you saying what I think you are saying?" Renato said.

"I am here to finish what Cassidy started, and I don’t even mind dying along the way." Her voice remained steady. "My life is over anyway."

"How so?"

"You do not have to know," Valentina spat.

Renato gave a short laugh. "You walk into my casino, introduce yourself as Marco Montgomery’s wife. Yet somehow, I am not entitled to ask questions?"

"I came here because we want the same thing."

Renato folded his hands together. The missing finger on one hand was impossible to ignore once she noticed it. "If I am going to even consider what you are offering. I have to know."

Valentina looked away for a moment. Saying it aloud still felt unreal. "I killed my father. And once Luca is gone, I plan on giving myself up."

"Your father is Vito Scalese. So," Renato continued, and now the smile returned, "you are the mystery traitor I have been hearing whispers about." He chuckled. "Oh, this is delicious."

Nothing about this was delicious, but Renato appeared to be enjoying himself immensely.

"Wife to Luca’s loyal bulldog is a traitor."

"I am no traitor. I am just doing what is right for my family."

"Traitors usually have an honourable reason, though the most I have encountered is money."

"You do not know anything about me."

"I know enough to understand that your husband would probably have another of my finger removed if he knew you were standing here."

Valentina’s eyes flicked briefly towards Renato’s hand.

Ah.

So that explained that.

She looked back at him. "Marco is not the problem."

"You want Luciano dead. That is desire. I want to know what you will be accomplishing."

Valentina’s face hardened with conviction, desperate and absolute. "Getting Luca in the ground so everyone else is safe. My sister, my husband and my son."

"And why would you presume I am the one to come to for help?" Renato asked.

"Because you want the same thing I do."

Renato gave a slow shake of his head. "No... no, I don’t."

Val frowned. "Then what do you want?" she asked.

"Commissioned. Can you hand it to me?"

"No."

"Then we have nothing to discuss."

She should have known there would be a price. Men in this world did not hate each other for free. "I should have known you would be too afraid of him." She turned to leave.

"Wait!"

Valentina stopped. A smile tugged at her mouth before she could help it. Men and their egos. Sometimes all a woman needed was a carefully placed insult. She turned around once more. "Finally come to your senses?"

Renato did not look amused anymore. "What’s your plan?"

Valentina stepped farther into the room. The men around them watched her closely, but she no longer cared about the guns. She had already decided she had very little left to lose. Marco was gone. Vee had been arrested because of her. Vito was dead. Once this was finished, she intended to surrender herself anyway.

Fear had become something of a luxury.

"All I want is..."

*****

Massimo looked up from his phone as Vee stepped into the private suite he was using in the house. His expression hardened immediately.

She had barely crossed the threshold and the man had already decided he disliked whatever she was about to say. Massimo had reached the stage where he could reject an argument before hearing it.

"If you are here to say what I think you plan to say, forget it," Massimo said.

Vee closed the door behind her. "Marco is here."

Massimo was on his feet immediately. He started towards the door. Vee stepped directly into his path. He stopped as his gaze dropped briefly to her pregnant stomach before returning to her face. If anyone else had tried standing between him and a man he had ordered brought back to New York, they would already have regretted the decision.

"Move."

She stayed exactly where she was. Vee could almost see him trying to remember that she was carrying his granddaughter. It was probably the only thing keeping this conversation within the general boundaries of civility.

"Regina," he said again, "I’m not Luciano. I do not have the privilege to be a husband first. I will always be Don first." His face hardened. "Move the fuck out of my way."

"I don’t expect you to be anything else, Don," Vee said. "I just need you to hear me out."

"Whatever you have to say, Luca has said the same thing," Massimo said.

"Yes, but..." She took a breath. "I’m not trying to convince you not to take whatever action you want to. I just need you to take one thing into consideration."

Massimo’s expression remained hard. "Let me guess. You want to appeal to my humanity."

Vee almost rolled her eyes. "Your humanity and I have barely been introduced, Don. Think about everything you will be sacrificing if you let Marco go down with Valentina. Think about the people you will lose. The people whose hearts you will break irreparably, especially knowing that he has done nothing but serve this family loyally."

"Luca will never forgive you," Vee continued. "He may obey you. He may stand beside you. He may even do whatever you order him to do because he believes that is what the famiglia requires, but he will never forgive you for making him kill Marco. You’ll lose Carol. I used to think Luca was exaggerating when he would say Carol loves Marco more than him. I’ve come to realise he isn’t."

"You kill him for something he didn’t do, and Carol will never look at you the same way again."

"Ruling the famiglia takes wisdom, ruthlessness, grit. I once gave the woman I love the kiss of death for choosing to leave the famiglia. Luca stepped in and gave his life for hers. He was a child, but even then he understood what was required to buy mercy from this life."

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