Code of Silence: Cosa Nostra #2 Read Online Free

hovered in the doorway of the holding cell. It was about the size of a utility closet, with no windows. As expected, he’d been seized the second he stepped onto his father’s property. Captured and tossed into the cell without a second’s thought. There were bloodstains on the cement floor. Vincent wondered how many people lost their lives in this room…and if he was going to be one of them.
    “As if it didn’t break my heart enough to watch you walk away, you have to go and join my sworn enemy?”
    With his hands cuffed behind his back, he struggled to push himself to his feet. “If you’re gonna kill me, then do it. Save me the speeches about my betrayal and just get on with it.”
    “You think I’d kill you?” he asked. “My own flesh and blood?”
    “You put a bounty on my head,” he said.
    “With orders to bring you in alive.” Shaking his head, Dante entered the room. “You’ve been spending too much time with DeLuca if you think I’d kill you. As it turns out, your betrayal could benefit me.”
    “Benefit you?” Vincent repeated, confused. “How?”
    “I want you to give DeLuca a message for me,” he said. “Agree to do that, and I’ll let you walk out of here today a free man. No one will ever hunt you down again.”
    There had to be more to it. Vincent knew his father well enough to know he never let anybody go. Still, if it got him out of this room—if it meant no longer needing to hide, it was worth a shot. “What’s the message?”
    “I want to meet with him,” he said. “I want a truce.”
    He stared at his father with skepticism. “A truce.”
    “This rivalry has gone on far too long, don’t you think?”
    “Yeah, but—”
    Dante took a set of keys out of his pocket and then walked behind Vincent. The hairs on his arm rose as his father reached behind him and unlocked the cuffs.
    “Tell him for this one time only I’m extending a dinner invitation. We’ll meet some place nice and public and discuss the terms of a peace treaty.”
    With his hands freed, Vincent stood. He studied his father a moment. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
    “Absolutely.”
    “If this is some kind of trick…he’ll kill me,” he said. “You know that.”
    “It’s not a trick,” he said. “This is exactly what it appears to be.”
    Vincent knew his father well enough to know when he wasn’t showing all of his cards, and suspected he was playing a much bigger game. He also knew no amount of questioning would make his father reveal his true motives, so he could do nothing about his suspicions right now. The tension in the room was thick as he walked away, slow and braced and ready for the mood to shift at a moment’s notice.
    Knowing he was likely followed, he went straight to the DeLuca mansion. He didn’t have the clearance to go straight to Sal, so he had to report the message to Trey and wait in the hallway for his Capo to return.
    Down the hall, the doors opened and Bela entered, carrying a couple of bags from Macy’s and Bloomingdales. Gio followed behind her, always on vigilant duty.
    At the sight of his blood-stained clothes and disheveled appearance, Bela gave him a questioning look. Catching her gaze, he gave her a small, reassuring smile to let her know he was all right.
    Just then, the door to Sal’s office opened and Trey motioned him inside. To his surprise, Sal wanted him to set up the meeting. As he made the phone call to arrange the time and place, he couldn’t help but feel like he was straddling a fence with razor-wire on each side. One wrong slip and it was slice and dice time.
    ~~~
    Sitting at the patio table, Bela was buried in a mountain of homework for her psychology thesis. Though she was trying to focus, she couldn’t keep her mind from wandering back to Vincent. Why was he beaten up? Had the Marcanos caught him, or was this a run-of-the-mill beating all mobsters endured from time to time? She hated not knowing.
    Trey walked out into the garden from the