My Don Chose My Best Friend-So I Took His Empire novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: The Warehouse

Gemma's POV

Nino came back to me in the bed of a dock truck, with his left leg bent the wrong way.

The guard who drove him cried while he lifted him down.

"He says Warehouse Nine," the guard said. "He says they have Santino."

"I know where they have him."

Nino caught my sleeve with a swollen hand.

"Don't go in there with guns," he said, through broken teeth. "Dario wants guns. A gun gives him a reason."

"I'm not taking any."

"Take the table."

I stared at him.

"Alberto used to say it," Nino whispered. "A Don can do what he wants in the dark. In front of the table he's just a man."

I kissed his bloody forehead and sent him to a hospital with two dock men and a promise.

Then I made the calls.

I called the seven, and they came without asking why.

I called the old Balestra captain whose mother was on the widows' list, and I called the younger one who had raised his hand with him.

"There's a made man tied to a chair in Warehouse Nine," I told them. "Nobody voted on it. Nobody gave him a word at the table. Come and see what your Don does when he thinks you're asleep."

Neither of them asked me anything.

Both said, "Five o'clock."

We drove in without a single weapon between us.

Nine men in their good coats and one woman, through the yard gate at the first gray light, past the fence Santino had built.

Ten soldiers waited at the warehouse door, with rifles.

"Stop," one of them said.

"I'm Alberto Sartori's daughter," I said. "And these are the captains of this family. Which of you wants to explain to them why you're pointing a rifle at them?"

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