[DISCONTINUED] Don't Forget

Call

A/N: Short chapter this week. 

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Emiliano and Luca sat across the table from Marco Marino with their respective guards standing behind each of them. They knew it was a risk holding the meeting in Marino territory, but the benefit of doing so was to earn the Marino trust. Luca figured that if they tried to push them to meet in neutral or Rossi territory, it would signal that the meeting as over some larger conflict. So, instead they decided that meeting on Marino grounds with Marco would earn more trust from the Marino family head.

And that strategy had paid off.

The meeting was going surprisingly well considering all at occurred the night before. Emiliano and Luca had confronted Marco about the incident the night before, to which Marco explained that a group selling drugs in their territory — claiming to be associated with the Rossi family — had gotten into a fight with some Marino men that resulted in collateral damage.

Marco had shadowed his father and been involved in the Marino family business for long enough to know that the Rossi family wasn't the type to shake up other regions in such an indirect way. If the Rossi family wanted war, they would've declared it directly and taken what they wanted. The back-alley tactics that were being used were not like the Rossi family and Marcos knew that.

As a result, he was open to listening to Emiliano and Luca. While he could tell that they were hiding something — likely in an effort to seem like they had more control of their men than they actually did — Marco did not think that they sought to cause him or his family business harm.

"I will apologize for the behavior of my men last night," Marco said as they were finishing up their meeting. "They have been spoken to and disciplined accordingly."

Emiliano nodded his agreement, while Luca responded in Sicilian.

"We appreciate that you took action, Marco."

Marco gave Luca a muted smile. "And this means you be taking care of the men who are operating in this region as well, yes?"

Luca's jaw tensed — the still hadn't gotten to the bottom of exactly who it was that was operating in Sicily and claiming to be with the Rossi family. But, he couldn't admit that the Marco without looking weak.

"Of course," Luca replied curtly. There was a brief period of silence that was broken when his phone buzzed on the table in front of him where it was placed face down. Luca turned over and unlocked to see the message and immediately shot to his feet and started shouting in angry Sicilian, asking what happened.

Emiliano looked up at his brother urgently. "The fuck is going on?" Although he did not speak Sicilian, Emiliano could hear the urgency in Luca's voice and picked up the few words that sounded close enough to Italian and Simone's name.

"'What happened?' Is that what you said, Luca? What do you mean 'what happened?' What's going on? What happened to Simone?"

Luca turned his phone to Emiliano, showing a photo of Simone, Bianca, and Violetta sitting together in a cell and Emiliano also shot to his feet. The room grew tense as their respective guards stepped forward on the defensive.

"Did you have something to do with this?!" Emiliano snapped at Marco.

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

"This!" Luca finally showed Marco his phone screen and Marco's eyes went wide at the sight.

"I don't know anything about this, I promise."

"Then you need to—" Emiliano looked down at his phone to see he was receiving a video call from an unknown number. When he picked up, his face heated and his eyes narrowed at the person on the call.

"Was it you this whole time?"

"Yes," the familiar voice replied flatly. "Now, are you ready to hear my terms?"

"What the fuck do you want, Ricardo?"