Sold To the Grizzly Don (Alcee and Bruno) novel Chapter 77

Chapter 77

Slipping back into the bed she’d left not long ago; she found herself being pulled backwards into strong arms and smiled as she realized Torq hadn’t wasted any time getting in on his own side.

“Fuck, I’m exhausted. The bed feels good. You feel better,” he whispered against her ear as he snuggled her big spoon style.

“I definitely feel better now.” She felt the heat of him against her backside and sighed. “I know there is more you want to tell me so let’s get it out of the way.”

“I have a confession.”

“Is this a confession which will make me want to punch you in the balls again!”

“Possibly but I hope not.” He sighed, “it’s more information which I could have shared, potentially should have shared, ahead of meeting with your father and when we talked yesterday about Mercurio going missing.”

“It involves my family?”

She turned slowly in his arms already missing the heat of him against her back but feeling strongly this was going to be a conversation she wanted to see his face and read his expressions. She wiggled her fingers in his face. “lay it on me.”

He gave a laugh, “before I do, can I say how much I appreciate the woman you are? Your ability to simply tackle a situation headfirst and look at things from a rational perspective amazes me. In fact, if you weren’t such a logical person, we likely wouldn’t have met.”

“Okay, Torq, you’re stalling and while I appreciate the flattery and it might get you had blown later, his laugh made her smile, “you need to fess up. What is it?”

“I mentioned how my father is trying to take over the stronghold Lozano has here in New York.”

“Yes.”

“By merging with several small families.”

“My dad’s too?”

He made a face, “not really well, not until this week.” Here’s the thing. Your father is fucked financially. He made some bad decisions, got caught up with the DEA and lost a huge shipment a couple of times and he’s hurting financially. He’s a sinking ship and even rats aren’t going to climb

aboard.”

“I did a deep d

“What? Why?”

dive into your father’s accounts about eight months ago.”

“I knew he was sniffing around Corrado. He got wind Corrado was looking again to undermine me and wanted to join forces. I admit, I didn’t even look into the family itself, only his finances to see what it would take to break him completely and whether or not Corrado would bite.”

“And did he bite?”

“No. H

He was one of the rats who didn’t want to board the ship. Your father still has a few solid connections back in Italy and because of this, he has stayed with his head above water but,” he held his hand under his nose, “he’s about here.”

“Mercurio isn’t going to have a family to inherit, is he?”

“No. He’s not. It’s gone. He has no luxury cars left. The house he once owned outright in his heyday is now heavily mortgaged. He keeps telling himself he needs one more good deal and he’ll be back on top.”

“He’s a horrible businessman,” she whispered softly. “I remember when Nonno was alive, they would fight a lot. Nonno would tell him understood the brutal way of the life, but he didn’t get the business way of the life. He would kill the wrong people at the wrong time and being a

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Chapter 77

diplomat is not his strong suit. His brother Panfilo was slicker, but the fucker couldn’t add small numbers together without a calculator. It’s part of why Mercurio has always been so involved. His smart, really smart. In fact, all of us were smart. My mother’s father used to say all the time she was a brilliant woman who married below her station. Dad swept her off her feet and nobody could convince me he doesn’t love her but he’s not good enough for her. He promised to give her a life of luxury and instead he’s lost it all, she whispered feeling sad for her mother.

“Roughly six months ago, your father tried again to get Corrado to talk and tried to see him at a dinner he was attending here in New York.”

“Corrado was here?”

“He was, Seven months ago, I made an educated decision to simplify. It’s far riskier to own three office buildings in New York city, dividing my security team and my resources than it would be to have one. We initiated the plan to begin moving everything here. It’s part of why you’ve pulled a lot of overtime lately as we move offices, update equipment and reallocate resources.”

“Right.”

“Six months ago, my father, Molinaro and his son Andreas decided they wanted to see what the fuck I was up to and decided to stake out the building. During their stakeout, my father noted the Bianchi twins meeting you and they brought Antero with them. Andreas made the comment to him that Antero was your bastard child from a fuck up you made years ago.”

No

“Yes. My father took one look at Ant and knew,”

“Why didn’t be say anything?”

“What I got out of Andreas tonight was Corrado is under the impression,” he licked his teeth as he dreaded to say the words, “I knew of Antero long ago and I put you to work in my company so I could keep an eye on you and my son. When your father approached him again during the same visit, Corrado was of the belief that Edgardo knew I was the one who got you pregnant and he was going to use it to extort him. Corrado. washed his hands and backed away even faster and further than he already did. He thought he was going to use Corrado as a way to get money”

“You’re saying Corrado has known for six months of Antero’s existence, put the two and two together and somehow thought my father knew and was approaching him to blackmail him with the information.”

Yes!

“Fuck.”

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