Devil’s Thirst: A Mafia Stalker Romance (The Moretti Men Book 1)
Devil’s Thirst: Chapter 27

“I think it would be smart to bring Oran into this, but you’re the Don. My loyalty is to you and this family. If you want us to handle it internally, I’ll honor your decision.” The Byrne and Moretti organizations are still separate entities despite the marital ties of recent years. I don’t want to make any assumptions about working with the Byrnes, whether the matter is business or personal. There’s only one person who can make that decision on our end.

Renzo listened intently as I explained the situation with Amelie and the AG. Even after I’ve finished, his calculating stare continues to analyze and assess. When he finally responds, his observation surprises me.

“I knew they were strict over there, but Sicily changed you even more than I expected,” he says in a contemplative tone.

“It’s called the old country for a reason. Traditions hold value.”

“True, but times evolve.”

“People don’t. Survival of the fittest still governs our motives and decisions. We can pretend to be civilized, but the primal instincts are still alive underneath it all. Anyone who thinks differently is simply lower on the food chain. They’re prey, whether they know it or not.”

Something shifts in his eyes—a flash of intrigue. “You ever gone camping?”

My brows draw together as I try to figure out where he’s going with this line of questioning. “Not traditional camping with tents and s’mores. I’ve slept under the night sky and depended on a garden for food.”

He nods. “We go camping in the summers. You ought to come with us this year. I think you’d enjoy it. And before you question my ability to pay attention, this is all related. I agree with your assessment of the world more than most probably would. The three weeks I spent with Shae in the Canadian wilderness showed me a whole new side of myself that I had never known existed. When we came back, I saw the world differently. I saw life in terms of survival rather than a business—what I can live with and what I can’t live without.”

This man and I were at each other’s throats from the minute he became my guardian until the day I left for Italy. And now, I hear him voicing my own beliefs as though he has a front-row seat in my head. It’s unnerving.

I have to clear my throat before I can respond. “Amelie is my future. I refuse to live without her or let her be hurt in any way if I can prevent it.”

It’s his turn to nod. “If that means working with the Byrnes, I can live with that.”

“I’d like to think so since you literally live with a Byrne.” I lighten the jab with a subtle smirk.

Renzo huffs out a laugh. “Careful, you end up with Lina’s sister, and you might as well be part of the Byrne family, too. It’s getting hard to tell where their family ends and ours begins.”

He’s not wrong. Between Noemi’s marriage to Conner, Renzo’s marriage to Shae, and Amelie’s sister being married to Oran, the Irish are everywhere I turn.

Lazaro would have a coronary.

That’s the only thing about honoring the old ways—sometimes it’s important to incorporate the new. You have to figure out what’s worth keeping and what’s best left in the past.

“If it means having Amelie, I’ll drink Guiness and eat potatoes until I die.”

A smile creeps wide on Renzo’s face. “I appreciate a man who knows his priorities.” He’s teasing me, but at the same time, the compliment is genuine. I’m surprised at how it affects me. I feel confident enough that I didn’t think I needed or wanted his approval, but hell if I don’t like having it all the same.

Now that I’m feeling better about where I stand with my cousin, I decide to take an undesirable yet necessary step back onto shaky ground. It’s not my place to insert myself into Renzo’s relationship with his brother, but I need to know Tommy has been received back into the family with the same goodwill as I have. The two talked after we did on Mother’s Day. I asked Tommy how it went, and he didn’t bring up any issues, but he’s not exactly the sharing type.

“Tommy didn’t say much about his visit with you.” I infuse as much respect and deference into my voice as possible to hopefully avoid inciting his anger. “I’d like to think you’d be as receptive to his return as you have been for me.”

Hell, that sounded like a threat.

I can’t help it. I’m protective where Tommy’s concerned, though it’s not entirely necessary. The man is probably more deadly than I am, especially when weapons are involved. Of course, that’s not the sort of protection I’m worried about. Tom’s dealt with enough criticism and rejection to last a lifetime. He doesn’t need to feel that shit from his family, too.

Renzo doesn’t even blink as he spears me through with his stare. “Maybe he didn’t say much because it’s none of your business.”

“If it were anyone else, I’d agree. At this point, Tommy’s business will probably always be my business.”

His inscrutable stare holds steady. “You’re lucky I want that for him, or I’d be handing you your balls in a ziplock baggie right now.”

I give a single nod, acknowledging his right to do so and in appreciation for refraining.

“Tom’s my brother. I’d never alienate him from the family. I don’t understand him sometimes, but we’re still blood. That enough reassurance for you?”

He’s not that hard to understand if you’d make the effort.

I keep my desired response to myself, knowing I’ve already pushed my luck. “Yeah, that works. I’ve already looped him into the situation with Talbot, and he’s doing a deep dive into the guy’s digital footprint. I figure it’s best to know that there’s no grudges between us if we’re all going to be working together.”

“He always was good with computers,” Renzo says, amusement and a touch of pride teasing a tiny smirk from him.

“He’s moved way past good these days. Guy’s a fucking genius.”

That earns me a sliver of a smile. “Let’s set up a meet with Oran. He needs to know what’s going on before something bad happens. With the four of us working together, Talbot doesn’t have a chance.”

“The fucking thing didn’t just swerve—it sped up. I knew that car was trying to hit her. Thing didn’t even have plates.” To say Oran is livid would be an understatement. He’s so pissed he can’t stop pacing. “I’ve been trying to think of who could have come after us ever since and come up empty. Sure, we have our enemies, but nothing out of the ordinary. Certainly nothing major going on right now.”

“I can’t guarantee he’s responsible, but Amelie seemed pretty convinced,” I tell him. “That bastard has kept her terrified for the past four fucking years.”

“I can’t believe she didn’t say anything. She should know we’d help her, especially when Lina’s involved.”

“That’s the tricky part. There’s a catch.” My eyes cut to Renzo in anticipation of the bomb I’m about to drop. “Amelie made me promise not to take action against him because he claims he has a video of Lina. Back from when she … when The Society …”

Shit. I knew this would be hard, but I can’t even say the words. How do I bring up the time a man’s wife was raped as a teenager? I feel like punching myself for him, but it has to be said. He needs to know what we’re up against.

I’m about to force myself to continue when I hear the familiar click of a gun clip releasing. Oran checks that his clip is fully loaded before holstering his gun and grabbing his keys.

“I’ll cut him into so many pieces the fish won’t even want the scraps.”

Renzo and I both lurch to our feet and block his path.

“You can’t do that,” Renzo says in a firm tone.

“The fuck I can’t,” Oran roars. “That’s my wife he’s threatening.”

“I get it, man. And we’ll take care of him, but we have to do it carefully, so she’s not hurt all over again.”

Oran stills, his eyes narrowing to furious blue daggers. “What are you saying?”

Renzo nods in my direction. Both men turn their attention to me.

“Talbot told Amelie that if anything happens to him, he’s arranged for the video to be released on the internet.” I pause to let the implications sink in. “I swear to you, we will make this guy beg for death, but we can’t go in with guns blazing without having assessed the situation first.” I promised Amelie I wouldn’t touch the guy, and I won’t. Not until we’re ready. At that point, nothing will stop me. My responsibility to protect her trumps any promise I might make about gaining her approval.

Oran’s nostrils flare with each strained inhale as he struggles to control himself. Jaw clenched tight, he finally nods and backs away. “You have a plan?”

I take a relieved breath now that the hard part is over. “First, we need to know whatever there is to know about The Society and where this guy fits in.”

“He doesn’t,” Oran snaps. “Never heard or saw his name during the entire takedown of their operation. This is all coming out of fucking left field.”

Renzo crosses his arms over his chest, his head angling pensively to the side. “He never came up at all?”

“Not once, and believe me, I made sure every one of those bastards squealed like pigs before they took their last breaths.”

“Maybe he was the friend of a member?” I ask, thinking out loud.

“Or,” Renzo says in an eerily calm voice, “he’s the AG, and The Society offered Amelie up as a bribe. Maybe for them, it was a business transaction.”

“It would explain why he might demand leverage over her as part of the exchange—a fail-safe to ensure the arrangement didn’t come back to haunt him.” It makes sense when I look at it in that light.

Renzo nods. “He had to be shitting bricks when The Society was getting picked off one by one.”

“And I can only imagine the tactics he used to instill fear in Amelie to keep her quiet.” Now I’m the one itching to kill the guy.

Oran cracks his knuckles and returns to his desk chair. “Gentlemen, have a seat. We have planning to do.”

I shouldn’t be here. We made Oran swear he wouldn’t go anywhere near Talbot until we’re fully prepared. The same should apply to me, but I have to see him—not some video clip from a press conference. I want to see him in his natural surroundings to get a true sense of the man. Any halfway decent hunter has to know his prey. How it thinks. Where it likes to hide. What it does when it thinks no one’s watching.

I plan to learn everything I can about the piece of shit.

After our meeting, I wait outside the AG’s Manhattan office until he leaves work, then follow him home. While state government offices are technically headquartered in Albany, most departments have branches here in the city. Learning Talbot works almost exclusively at the Manhattan office was easy enough.

I could have waited for him outside his apartment building, but I wanted to see him going about his daily life. I had no guarantee he was there today or that I’d manage to spot him, but luck was on my side. It helps that I can be very persistent when I need to be. Persistent enough that I’m still outside his building an hour later when Talbot takes his wife to dinner.

That’s right. His wife.

The fucker is married. Poor woman probably has no clue her husband is a rapist piece of shit. I reconsider my assumption after watching the pair through the restaurant window. She might turn a blind eye, but she knows on some level. The asshole has been so patronizing to their server that his wife’s embarrassment had her staring at her hands in her lap. I have no clue what he said, but the young server looked ready to burst into tears.

I get in a good hour of reconnaissance before they pay the check and stand to leave. Meanwhile, I’ve paid the valet enough money to convince him to take a ten-minute break while I fill in for him. When Talbot sees a man covered in tattoos standing at the valet station, he doesn’t stop to question the fact that I’m not even wearing a uniform.

I grab his car keys and head for the lot around the corner. Douche drives a Porsche. So fucking cliché. I bring the car around, making sure to wear gloves, and before I get out, I drop a single bullet in the cup holder with his initials carved into it.

He won’t know who it’s from or what it’s about—he certainly won’t have any reason to tie the threat to Amelie—but he’ll know someone’s coming for him.

Talbot’s going to know what it’s like to live in fear for a change. A little karmic retribution 101.

Let the lessons begin.