I shook my head, perhaps being naive. I didn’t care. “He wasn’t like his father.”

“I’m like him,” Dominic said. “Ruthless. Cold. Merciless.”

I held his gaze, knowing he used his words as a warning. Knowing I would be smart to heed him.

“Not to me,” I said instead. “Not anymore.”

Dominic’s surprise at my words showed up on his face. It was the slightest change, but I didn’t miss it.

“Are you ready, brother? Roman is not going to be pleased,” Salvatore said.

“He knows how to behave. I think he’s very good at it in fact.” With that, Dominic turned the SUV around and drove out of the cemetery and back to the house. We sat silent. Except for Lucia, who spoke with her sister on the phone, asking about the kids. When we arrived back at the house, I was surprised to see so many vehicles there. Had so many family members been requested to attend the reading of the will? It seemed strange to me. But then again, I’d never been to something like this. Funerals, yes. There was no getting around that in the line of work my father had chosen. But those who died around us didn’t have the money to require a will.

Dominic parked the SUV and drew in a long breath, steeling himself, then nodded to Salvatore.

“Let’s go.”

“What’s going to happen?” I asked, clutching his arm. “You know something.”

“I’m going to be named head of the family,” he said flatly.

My hand slid off his arm, and he and Salvatore walked away from Lucia and I and into the library, where about a dozen men had gathered. Two men stood outside. One of them reached to close the door, his jacket falling open, light bouncing off the pistol hidden in its holster.

21

Dominic

The attorney executing the will, Mr. Abraham Marino, a man who had worked for the Benedetti family for more than two decades, stood behind the desk. He addressed the collected family members requested to be in attendance, going over preliminaries. Roman stood beside him as if he owned the fucking place. Salvatore sat to my right. Two guards stood just outside the doors and two more at the back of the room. I wondered how they would all react once the will had been read, and I was named as head of the family.

I recognized all the people in the room. They ruled their own smaller families within the larger Benedetti umbrella. Some I hadn’t seen since my youth, and some attended every event.