take him, but he might lose a few teeth in his efforts.
“That’s half the fun,” Enzo replied with a smirk. He seriously liked to think of himself as the most twisted Romero brother, but maybe he should have taken a closer look at me before he went awarding himself any trophies.
The maid set down a large plate of cupcakes in the centre of the table before bowing her head and hurrying from the room. The brightly coloured icing seemed like an odd choice for a bunch of gangsters to discuss our latest business dealings over, but as Roccos’s wife Sloan was the one who made them, none of us were going to complain. That girl had a way with food which had my mouth watering at the mere sight of anything she created.
Rocco reached out and grabbed a cherry cupcake from the plate, smirking at it like it held some secret before taking a big bite.
I snared a strawberry one for myself and took a long sip of my coffee as I looked at the empty chair at our table for four. That was why we were here after all. Sure, we had other business to discuss, but the reason all three of us attended these meetings so diligently was because we were desperately trying to figure out where the hell our brother Angelo had run off to. Which was easier said than done because he’d basically disappeared into thin air the moment he’d checked himself out of hospital almost an entire year ago.
“Any progress?” Rocco asked with little hope to his tone. He knew if there had been, I’d have called before this meeting to update him.
“The guy is like a fucking ghost,” I growled. And I really was pissed about it. I was the one who got called when a problem needed fixing, when a witness needed dealing with or an informant tried to run. I was damn good at flushing people out of hiding. I’d never taken this long to find someone. But I guessed I’d never gone up against a Romero before either. And even if Nicoli didn’t want to face his real identity, he was going to have to at some point. He was our brother. There was no escaping that truth.
Rocco swiped a palm over his face with a growl of frustration. “I have some guys over in-”
His cellphone started ringing loudly and I arched an eyebrow at him as he lifted it from his pocket. He didn’t even bother to apologise as he answered the call and I exchanged a look with Enzo. If either of us had done that he’d be losing his shit. He was such a fucking hypocrite sometimes.
“Principessa, I told you, I have to-” Rocco leaned back in his chair as he listened to whatever Sloan had to say. Enzo mimed striking a whip and I smirked into my coffee. “Right. But I-” He pushed a hand through his hair and started nodding as he shoved his chair back and got to his feet. “Yeah, I’ll come and try. But I’m really not sure if…yeah, yeah, okay.” He held a single finger up to us as he headed for the door and didn’t even bother to offer any further explanation before leaving the room.
“Merda, if I ever get soft over a woman like that, I want you to swear to beat the shit out of me until I forget all about her,” Enzo said, snorting a laugh as he started on his third cupcake. He’d shrugged out of his leather jacket and his shirt sleeves were pushed back to reveal the sleeves of ink which coated his skin. That coupled with the topknot he’d tied his hair in and the stubble lining his jaw made it hard to see the resemblance between us most of the time, but if you looked closely, it was there. All of us had Papa’s strong features and dark hair. I just preferred to be more clean cut than he did in my appearance.
“Not much chance of that,” I agreed. “For you to fall in love with a woman, it would require you having a heart. And I’ve never seen any evidence of that.”
Enzo grinned like that was the biggest compliment he’d ever gotten and I turned the conversation to some business dealings we had with the Devil Hearts MC club. It was nothing major, but those MC stronzos liked to try and push the boundaries of our power from time to time. It