Chapter 2

Cigar smoke hung thick in the council room, filling every corner.

Both sides of the long table were lined with the captains who ran the Vescari family's districts, and every one of them looked grim.

Salvatore sat at the head of the table, rolling two bullet casings between his fingers.

"Kneel."

The moment we walked in, Salvatore gave Antonio a cold, impatient look.

Antonio clenched his jaw and dragged Lillian down to kneel beside him on the carpet.

"Father, the garage incident was a setup. I've already got Cecilia cleaning it up..."

Bang!

A bullet casing struck Antonio in the temple.

Blood welled up instantly and ran down the side of his face into his collar.

Lillian screamed and pressed herself against Antonio, trembling.

"Useless."

Salvatore pointed at the projection screen at the far end of the long table.

New York's headlines were scrolling across it.

"New Don Spends the Night in a Garage; Wife Knocked Off Her Pedestal"

"Do you have any idea what you've done? Because of this, the Sabatino family in Brooklyn has already taken over three of our rackets in the south district!

"Everyone's laughing at the Vescari Don, calling him an idiot who can't keep it in his pants."

Salvatore slammed his hand on the table in fury.

Then he turned to me, his face cold.

"Cecilia, has the hush money been approved?"

I stepped forward, my voice perfectly even.

"No, Don."

The captains who handled the books started to stir.

"Cecilia, are you out of your mind? This is about the family's reputation!"

"If those negatives get out to the mainstream press, shares in every public company the family controls will crash tomorrow!" another captain added.

"Aren't you usually the one with good judgment?" a third demanded. "You pick now to get jealous? Do you want to destroy the Vescari family?"

I said nothing. Instead, I pulled a stack of photocopies from my bag and tossed them into the middle of the table.

The pages bore a Zurich bank's stamps and cross-border recovery notices.

Shock crossed Salvatore's face.

"Last week, Antonio split the payment for a shipment of rough stones that cleared the port into three transfers and wired the money to an offshore shell company.

"The company's registered director is Ms. Shaw's own brother, Danny Shaw.

"And all that money went to cover his gambling debts."

Furious, Salvatore hurled the papers at Antonio where he knelt.

"Antonio, you idiot! You used the stone payment to cover a gambling debt? That money was supposed to keep the Chicago branch running for the rest of the year!"

Lillian, still sobbing against Antonio, edged forward on her knees and spoke up.

"The Don only did it to save my brother. Don Vescari, this is all my fault. If you have to punish someone, punish me..."

Antonio looked at me, disappointed.

"Cecilia, do you really have to go this far in front of everyone?"

Hearing how cold he sounded, I couldn't help thinking of seven years ago, the day he first became Don.

The Vescari family's accounts were a mess. A few of the old-guard bosses had teamed up to cook the books and cut him out.

For three months straight, I barely slept. I stayed in an underground warehouse with my people, checking every transaction until I found seven rats for him.

One night, he opened the door and found me asleep over a calculator and a pile of ledgers. The sight brought him to tears.

He took off his coat and put it over me, then crouched in front of me and kissed my callused fingers.

"Cecilia, you're the only person who's ever truly been good to me. From now on, every cent the Vescari family has is yours to manage. You're my whole life."

Back then, his voice had been full of love. Now every one of those sweet words felt like a slap across my face, and my cheeks burned.

"Antonio, I'm the chief financial officer of the Vescari family. This is my job."

I said it coolly, my eyes on his darkening face.