meeting place and right to the entrance. It didn’t matter that I was blocking the way for anyone else because it meant Lorenzo was safe. I switched the engine off and we both got out at the same time, Lorenzo in front of me, his attention focused forward, but I knew he was as aware of what was around as I was.
Neither of us spoke as we walked inside. The other four men were already seated around the table in their usual chairs. I followed Lorenzo to the head of the table and stood a couple of feet behind him to the left. I wasn’t just there to jump in if Lorenzo needed me, but I was also there to record the entire meeting without any of them knowing.
What was said in these meetings wasn’t meant to leave this room, but Lorenzo was forging his own path. He needed it not just to protect himself, but his family too. And nothing was more important than family. I knew that better than anyone.
“First order of business,” Lorenzo started, placing his hands on the wooden surface. “Does anyone have anything they want to bring attention to?”
I glanced at each of them in turn, reading their expressions and body language. You could tell more from a person by their actions than the words they spoke. Alessandro Roti leaned back in his seat, looking bored out of his mind, but I knew it was an act. He was the one who wanted to be in charge and hated that Lorenzo had been voted in. Stefano and Neri kept their positions, not moving a single inch. But it was the newcomer, Gio Pozzi that lifted his hand.
“I wanna talk about territory,” he said, his voice trying to sound in control, but we all heard the squeak in the middle of his sentence.
“Territory?” Lorenzo asked, turning his head to look at me. His ink-black hair was pushed back in its usual style, and his give-no-fucks expression was firmly in place. His lips quirked at the corner, his eyes narrowing on me. He was silently telling me to take note of what was about to happen, but he didn’t need to because I was fully focused.
“Yeah.” Gio shuffled in his seat, so I took a step forward. It would only take a second for him to grab his gun and fire off several shots. I slowly moved my hand to my waistband where one of my two guns was placed. “We have the smallest territory. I want to expand.”
The silence echoed around the room until Lorenzo softly said, “No.” He turned to face Alessandro and Neri. “Anything else needing to be—”
“What do you mean, no?” Gio stood, his chair scraping against the wooden floor.
I lunged forward, standing side by side with Lorenzo, but he didn’t make a single move. He simply stared up at Gio, tilting his head at him. “You’re new here, so I’m gonna let that slide.” Lorenzo planted both hands on the table and slowly pushed up, his attention not moving off of Gio. “This is your one and only warning.” He paused; the tension so thick there was no way you could cut through it. “Never fuckin’ interrupt me. Ever.” Gio swallowed, his face turning a bright hue of red as he plopped back in his seat. “Got it?”
“Got it,” he whispered, hanging his head like he was a kid who had been told off. And in a way he had. Lorenzo was the head of The Enterprise for a reason, and he needed to learn that—fast.
“Now that Gio has had his tantrum…” The room filled with chuckles at Lorenzo’s quip, and I took that as my cue to step back. “Let’s discuss Paolo.” The temperature in the room plummeted at his words. Even I felt a shiver run down my back. No one but the closest to Lorenzo knew what had happened when his uncle had taken him and Aida. We’d witnessed the aftermath, and now we were about to be part of the anger that would follow.
“He’s dead,” Alessandro commented. “What’s there to discuss?”
I rolled my head, the bones in my neck cracked from the force. I had to keep a lid on what I was feeling but it was harder the longer I stood here. I’d had access to things in the last couple of weeks that I’d never known about. It wasn’t until you were given a position of authority that you realized just what went into running a