Chapter 2

Before I could turn back to my room, the pounding started again. It was Bianca.

"What the hell's your problem? You're refusing to make me food now? You know my boyfriend's downstairs right now, right?"

I leaned against the doorframe. "So? What's that got to do with me?"

Bianca let out a derisive laugh. "You really don't get it, do you? No wonder you're just some single loser working at a pizza shop.

”My boyfriend's guys are coming over tonight. If you've got half a brain, you'll get the food ready, bring it downstairs, and pour drinks for everyone while they eat.

"If they have a good time, I might talk my boyfriend into doing you a favor. One word from him and he could set you up with a way better job."

What a generous offer.

It was not just about cooking for her anymore. She wanted me to wait on an entire room of people.

I nearly laughed. "You sure your boyfriend's really that well-connected?"

Bianca's boyfriend might have been a Capo, but the real authority over family resources, territory, and business belonged to someone else entirely.

On top of that, family rules would never allow him to throw his weight around just because his girlfriend told him to.

She did not hesitate for a second. "Obviously. A while back, there was a bar on this street. The drinks didn't suit my boyfriend's taste, and the next day, it was forced to shut down.

"Then there was this gym owner who wouldn't give my boyfriend a discount. A few days later, the guy ended up in the hospital."

She stepped closer, her voice dripping with contempt.

"So, don't bite the hand that feeds you. My boyfriend's reach around here is way beyond anything a low-level worker like you could ever imagine."

I remembered that incident.

The bar had been doing great business, and then overnight, the owner walked away from everything.

My people told me the owner had crossed someone and pulled out of the neighborhood on his own.

I had assumed he had gotten on the wrong side of another family and left it at that.

I never would have guessed that Bianca's boyfriend was the one behind it.

I raised an eyebrow. "Sounds like your boyfriend's got a lot of power."

Bianca missed the undertone completely and puffed up even more. "You bet he does!

“He told me he's going to move all our friends and relatives into this neighborhood. The bars, the casinos, the clubs, the warehouses… Every last one of them will be staffed with our people.

"Give it some time, and this whole neighborhood's gonna answer to us."

For a Capo, her boyfriend had quite the ambition.

I asked in no particular hurry, "Your boyfriend does all this out in the open, and he's not worried about the people above him coming down on it?"

Bianca scoffed. "The Don's way too busy to care about some little neighborhood like this. My boyfriend said it himself. As long as nobody at the top steps in, he's the king around here."

I smiled.

She had gotten one thing wrong.

Over the past few years, every family operation had been running smoothly.

Unless core interests were at stake, my brother rarely bothered with matters this small. That much was true.

This neighborhood, however, caught my attention months ago.

A bar had shut down overnight, store managers were being replaced one after another, and several previously stable family businesses had quietly fallen into outside hands.

Over the past few weeks, I had been walking the streets myself, quietly following the trail, trying to track down whoever was behind it all.

Now, I knew.

Someone had been treating my territory like their own personal playground.