Page 31 of Power & Punishment

Tears begin to well up in my eyes, but I hold them back. “I should’ve reached out when I moved back. I could’ve seen him one last time. I could’ve⁠—"

“He was so proud of you.” Dante smiles, looking at me with shiny eyes. “He always kept tabs on you, and every time he talked about you, his face lit up.”

“I didn’t go very far,” I smile, reaching for anything that can make this moment not feel like a nail being pounded into my chest. “I should’ve gone somewhere warmer and with less made men. Boston was crawling with Russo wannabes, but I think that’s what made it feel like home.”

Dante lets out a short, surprised laugh. “Fuck Boston. If I ever decide to leave it all behind, I’m going to Florida or maybe Hawaii. Which one has hotter women?”

I laugh too, my shoulders shaking with a familiar warmth. “It’s good to know your priorities are still the same.”

“Yeah,” he sighs, straightening his posture. “Jokes aside, Vince loved you, and he never wanted you to come back. He loved you so much, Mia. They were going to name their daughter after you.”

The first tear begins to fall, and it’s impossible to hold back as water steadily drips down my cheeks. “Alice is pregnant?”

“Yeah,” he says, his lips pulling into a thick straight line. “He told me a few days before he died. They just found out.”

“Fuck.”

“He also told me he wanted out.”

I blink slowly as my vision becomes blurry with all the pain I’ve tried to hold inside. “He was going to quit the outfit?”

Dante nods, anger floating back to the surface. “Yeah. He said he was tired of looking over his shoulder and wondering if every job he took was the one that’d get him killed. He didn’t want to end up like—like dad. He told me that he had something lined up. Something that would let him walk away clean.”

Blood pumps erratically underneath my skin. “And let me guess, he didn’t tell you what it was?”

He musters up a half smile and shakes his head back and forth. “In Vince-like fashion, he was cryptic and secret. All he said was it was risky, but if it worked, he’d be free. And if it didn’t… Well. We both know what happened.”

Irritation winds up in my gut like a goddamn tinker toy. Pieces were slowly starting to click together in a way that I didn’t like.

“Do you think Leo offered him a way out?” I ask, my voice barely above a whisper.

Dante’s jaw clicks and his fists are curled so tightly, I’m afraid I’ll hear the deafening crack of his fingers snapping in two. “There’s no way that I’d ever believe that DeLuca was playing hero. He’d never help Vince out of the kindness of his heart. I doubt the man even has one.”

“I never said he was doing Vince a favor,” I say, crossing my arms. “He obviously wanted something and believed Vince could get it for him. And now he thinks you can do it too.”

That shuts Dante up as he presses his palms to his eyes. It’s a calming mechanism he taught me when we were young, and I still use it to this day.

“What the hell could he possibly want with us? That rich prick has everything he wants, and he has the Caruso’s eating out the palm of his hand. Why fuck with some low-level henchmen like us?”

“That’s what we need to find out,” I say, wiping away tear residue from my cheeks to make way for new war paint. “That’s why you need to meet with him. Find out what he wants. Because whatever he’s planning didn’t die with Vince. And I have a feeling if you don’t help him, he’ll use you anyway. The bastard is dangerous, and you can’t underestimate him.”

I would know.

Dante doesn’t argue as his eyes dip to the peeling floor tile. As silence lingers between us, resolve bubbles up in my chest.

I don’t know how, but I do know this much: I won’t let Leo corner us again. I won’t let him play God and use my family as collateral damage. He thinks he has me pinned firmly under his thumb, but I won’t go down without a fight.

“If he thinks he can use us, then let him think that,” I say, Dante’s anger mixing with my own. “Right now, he thinks we’re weak and easy to manipulate, but he’s wrong. And when his guard is down, we’ll make sure to tip the power scale when he’s not looking.”

Dante’s eyes snap to mine. “And how do you plan on doing that?”

I let out a heavy breath but smile when I picture Leo’s head sitting on a platter. It’s important to visualize your goals, right?

“I don’t know yet, but he’s not walking away unscathed.”

I have no plan. No idea how to outsmart the devil himself. But all I know is leverage works both ways, and Leo DeLuca isn’t the only one who knows how to play games.

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