Page 23 of Wicked Villain

Corrado wasn’t an enemy at the time. And now he’s one we have in common with the Irish. The Devlins use his services, too, for their port and container-terminals company, and surprise, surprise, we found out that Corrado has been feeding Moretti their confidential information so he can outbid them for port concession contracts, costing them millions.

With Corrado’s help, Moretti has been tailoring his bids to beat theirs and undermining confidence in every Devlin proposal. Moretti also stole the Devlins’ deep-water terminal concession. A deal worth hundreds of millions. He turned that into a gateway for his hidden transportation network. On top of all of that, and possibly the worst of all, Moretti has been using the Devlins’ company to secretly traffic anything from weapons to people without the Irish knowing about it. All with Corrado D’Auria’s help.

The guys are silent for a long moment. Yannick is the first to break out of thought.

“What are you up to, nephew?” His voice drops to a low beat and he eyes me curiously. “You’re going to tell Kieran about Moretti, aren’t you?”

“Yes.” The deal with Corrado was I’d keep my silence if he gave me everything. But I never promised to keep his fucking dirty dealings from my family. I’ll be spilling all the secrets, but in my own way, for my own gains.

“You want the old alliance back?” There he goes, reading my mind again.

“I do.”

Aleksandr smirks. “Kieran is a whole different brew of psycho.”

“I’m aware.”

Kieran Devlin—boss of the Irish Mafia, the eldest Devlin son, and certified psychopath just took over from his father. Like me.

The Devlins own the other half of New York. His father—Cormac Devlin, my mother’s older brother—is now based in Ireland.

We ship cargo across all seven seas; the Devlins own ports that can get you anywhere, making life much easier and cheaper. Until my mother’s death, we had access to those ports. I want that again.

“Are you going to tell Kieran about Corrado?” Cassian asks, brows raised.

I grin. “No.”

Cassian chuckles.

“I’ll tell him about Moretti and offer a joint effort to find him, but I’ll hold back on Corrado. Kieran will kill Corrado without thought if he learns of his involvement, then he’ll take his chances to find Moretti. We know that’s not the best way. Also…” I pause for a beat and look at each of them. “Corrado is my kill. Nobody gets to end that motherfucker but me.”

They all nod, agreeing without question.

“While we can hopefully track Moretti through Corrado, we can’t allow them to make plans to regroup and find stronger allies,” I explain. “With the Irish’s help, we can get closer to Moretti’s operations without him knowing. Kieran can track everything after it enters the port, and we have a world-class hacker who can dig a little deeper.” I glance at Cassian, who bows dramatically with a proud smile on his face. There’s a reason why he was perfect for the senior enforcement team—no one can hack a system like him and his crew. But they obviously need a trail to follow, especially when that trail is hidden.

“I like this.” Aleksandr smirks.

“Me too,” Yannick agrees.

“Good, then it’s settled. We’ll set up a meeting tomorrow.”

Aleksandr motions toward the door. “What about the girl? Do you think she’ll sign the contract?”

My smile widens. “I have no doubt.”

“Corrado’s a bastard. You really think she’s worried for her father’s life?”

“Not her father’s life. Her mother’s.”

Aleksandr smiles back.

I glance at the door and think of the little princess upstairs asleep.

The poor little mouse doesn’t know it yet, but she’s in for one hell of a ride with me.

My wife.

I chuckle to myself.