Accardi (Genevieve and Matteo) by Allison Franklin novel Chapter 140

Chapter One Hundred and Forty

Leo procured a folder from his jacket and slid it over to Gen. She flipped it open and pretended to be reading it for the first time while those around the table exchanged cards with the dealer and put their chips forward. On the other side of the table, Dina tapped her long red nails against the table.

“Well?” Dina asked, her thread-bare patience waning.

“Hm?” Gen looked up. “Oh, yes, I have a report here collected by my men on your operation. Pretty skimpy,” Gen said, holding the folder up and wobbling it

back and forth.

“You should have seen our operation two years ago,” Dina growled.

Jada made that same unladylike noise and Gen sent her a look of warning.

“I can assure you we did our due diligence. We factored in your businesses from two years ago. These are our projections if Dane were to have survived.”

Gen flung the folder over to Dina who immediately passed it to the attorney.

The attorney scoffed and Gen knew why. She slid some poker chips to the center of the table and sent Dina a little wink.

“These numbers are ludicrous. There’s no way they’re right,” the Russos’ attorney, Jeff, said in certainty with an edge of nerves.

“Is that so?” Gen asked, looking appalled.

Dina ripped the papers away from Jeff and started reading them herself. “This is not accurate.”

“I’m afraid it is,” Gen said with a sigh. “I’m pretty good with numbers.”

“This says we were in the red.”

*Dane was draining your accounts,” Gen informed her.

“For what?” Dina asked, dubious.

“Women,” Jada answered for her. “Girls at your own clubs, drugs, betting on horses, fights. He gave money to whoever would take it.”

*I’m guessing he had your attorney here in his pocket, ensuring you never noticed,” Gen said, regarding the paleness of the lawyer’s face and the sweat

beading on his forehead.

Dina’s eyes slowly tracked to Jeff who squirmed under her inspection. “Leave.”

“Miss Russo, look…”

“I said leave. Get the fuck out of my family. You have two days before I track you down.”

Jeff stared at Dina for two heartbeats before he shot up from his chair and made for the door. The men and women in the room chuckled and whispered to themselves while their eyes followed the man’s departure. They all knew how lucky he was.

Dina threw the folder down and crossed her arms. Her regard found Gen again and she shook her head. “You have my attention.”

“Glad to hear it,” Gen said, pushing a few more chips forward after receiving another addition to her flush. “As you saw from my report, if it weren’t for us

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Chapter One Hundred and Forty

stepping in, your son would have driven your family to bankruptcy within a matter of years.”

“You have no way of knowing that, if Jada had married him, as was promised, her father would have financed us and…”

“My father?!” Jada guffawed. She started to laugh. “My father doesn’t give a rat’s ass what…”

“Jada.” Gen’s command was sharp and immediate. “We factored that in. Mr. Castellanos would have probably supported your family for a time but, woman to woman, have you ever known a man to change the way he’s wired? Dane was an addict, Miss Russo. An addict who didn’t want help. Plain and simple. The only thing that would have stopped him from draining your coffers is a bullet.”

“A bullet is what he got anyway,” Dina told her.

“True, but you got to keep your money,” Gen reasoned.

“Money for a son? You think I care so little for my own blood that I’d care more about the money than his life?”

“Certainly not, but funny enough that’s all you’ve talked about since we arrived. The fact that Jada here messed up your plans for retirement, the financial

and territorial losses… Yet not a single word of remorse for the life that was taken, the man.”

Dina visibly bristled. “I loved my son.”

“I’m sure you love your son,” Gen said, bringing the love she should feel to the present tense. “But what about power? What emotion does that stir?”

Dina tapped her nails and lifted her hidden cards. She arched one brow but Gen couldn’t tell if that meant her hand was good or if she was bluffing.

“I lost my son,” Dina began. “Now I must play the cards I am dealt.”

Gen looked to the two remaining Russo brothers. She felt a sliver of pity for them.

“Let me help you get some more then,” Gen said. Leo nudged her arm. When she glanced his way he gestured with his head to the door. She turned in her chair and smiled when she saw Conor coming toward them. “I have a proposition for you that I think would be advantageous to both parties.”

“Sorry I’m late,” Conor apologized, nudging Jada to move so he could take the seat beside Gen.

“Who is this?”

“Name’s Conor,” Conor said, extending his hand. “Conor Galante.”

Dina’s eyebrows rose to her hairline, all pretense of keeping a mask on gone.

“Galante as in…”

“The man trying to take over Accardi’s operation is my father.”

“Ah,” Dina said, her attitude changing. She resituated herself in her seat and laced her hands up under her chin. “Quite an empire you’re set to inherit. You’re cute too. And single, yes?”

“No,” Conor answered bluntly, with no hint of deception in his tone or eyes. Gen could see the certainty of it, he truly felt what he said.

“Hm, pity,” Dina said, brushing off the rejection with grace. “If it’s not a proposal that you’re looking for, what did you have in mind?*

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Chapter One Hundred and Forty

“Teaseter of power through the peacefat signing of papers,” Conor told her.

Dons looked between Geve and Comer with interest.

“What exactly does that mean, Mr. Galante? Dine asked, a smile of doubt lacing her tone. “Be explicit.”

Conor smirked and leaned over the table on his elbows, getting in Dina’s space and making her blush. Conor looked down at the table and bit his lip. When he looked up, Dina’s pupils exploded and Cen was astonished at the transformation to what Conor must have been pre-heartbreak,

“You get the men of mine who wish to follow you. You get the clients, the supply, the storage facilities, the suppliers.”

“All of it? You can’t possibly be serious.”

“Not all of it,” Conor said with a shake of his head as if she had said something naughty. “I get the business offshoots: the security company, the restaurants

and I want to keep two clubs, etcetera: the real estate.”

Dina broke Conor’s trance over her and met Gen’s curious gaze. Dina raised a brow. “And what do you possibly get out of it?”

“Evidence. Hard evidence, Dina.” Gen pushed Conor back and leaned over the table herself, her posture much more stern. “I want Noah Bennett buried in a

grave close enough that I can spit on it every day.” Gen shrugged. “First though, I want him buried in a more public manner. I want him taken down to the lowest level of bacteria and then, then, I want to rid the world of him. And I want you to help me get there, then stay the fuck out of my way.”

“Feisty,” one of the Russo brothers said with a smirk.

Gen’s eye flicked to the man. He was big with a pronounced forehead and larger nose that ate up his entire face. She’d noticed his eyes the moment she’d

stepped up to the table. Since then he’d been working hard to do the math on Matteo’s possible prison sentences and how long a girl like her would wait around before jumping into another man’s bed. Even if she was a cheater, this man would have to fight hard to get someone like her into his bed.

“Feisty?” Gen repeated. She looked to Dina who was staring up at the ceiling as if one more word from her son would make her commit filicide. Gen looked back at the Russo brother and stood, keeping her palms on the table. “I am a Donna. I’m married to one of the highest ranking bosses in this city. I wasn’t given that title, I earned it. I turned your family’s finances on its head in a matter of minutes. Minutes! I survived kidnappings, guns to my head and love a

man who will literally disembowel you if you continue to look at me like that.”

Gen turned her attention back to Dina. “You want your future back?* Gen asked, gesturing to the two boys. “This is what you have as candidates… Or you can sign some papers and put your trust into something a bit more certain.”

“How could I possibly know you’ll keep your word?”

“It’ll be in my contract,” Conor said. “I won’t come back for what’s mine.”

“I need something more certain than that. Something that loops the Accardis in,” Dina said, tapping her nails.

“What do you suzzest?” Gen asked, happy to be in the negotiation phase.

Dina bobbed her chin toward Jada. “Her.”

“Her?” Jada repeated, glancing around the table.

*If Conor comes back, if he tries to get back into the business, I get to kill Jada and you stay out of my way,” Dina proposed.

Gen scoffed. “There’s no way in hell, I’lI…”

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