The Mafia's Heir

Chapter 43

Only three days ago Ren seemed to hate me with a passion, but now she was more interested to hear what was coming from my mouth right now. The smile she greeted me with at the party was gone and replaced by a frown. Her brother graced us with his presence and his knowledge of the mafia. Not gonna lie, but he scared me when he told me something I didn't know.

The two hours we spent in the conference room seemed like eternity. I couldn't help but question how they knew more about the mafia than I thought I did. I'm glad nonno hadn't shown up to the meeting. It would have been very embarrassing to give him a reason to not want me to be the queen anymore.

"Ian Salvatore. Went missing in the year 2015 during the raid on Tyler Hilton's warehouse in Las Vegas, Nevada. There was a memorial service held in his honor due to the absence of a body."

I flipped through the packet and sighed. Sucks to know someone had gone missing because of a failure. This Ian looks very familiar. Like I've seen him somewhere. But where?

"Jae Santana. She also went missing at the same time and place Ian Salvatore was reported dead. Fortunately for us, she was spotted recently in Milan. She was unhurt and appeared to be leading a normal life."

"Why did no one bring her in?" I asked while looking at her photos. "She could tell us where this Ian guy is."

"It's not that easy, Signora. There are many women who pose as those who are missing. It could have been a mistaken arrest."

"...A mistake that could have easily been fixed."

I caught Ren looking at me like I was stupid. I know what I'm doing. No need to make me feel like I'm not ready to lead an entire generation.

"Many others have gone missing since then due to failed operations like the Hilton raid. We lost many of our capos and our last underboss. Since the power is going to be passed down to someone else soon, we're looking for an underboss to suit this person well."

Ren raised her hand. It's not primary school, weirdo. If you want to speak then speak. It's not like anyone is going to shame you for it.

"...How come Tyler hasn't been caught by the mafia?" she asked. "I get that he's been hiding away, but there's no way any part of the mafia hasn't kept tabs on him."

"That's the problem, Signora. If it were up to me, I would have taken him in and had him killed, but he doesn't trust people too easily. He's killed off many of us before we even figured out he was the one doing the killing."

"So...that means no weaknesses? Everyone has a weakness."

"We can never figure it out."

Never figure it out. That's some BS. Everyone does have a weakness. Even people who have been declared psychopaths. There's no way someone can be so--I'm not trying to say perfect. I know Tyler's weakness, but who was I to let everyone else know?

"I know his weakness," Ren said. I happened to glance at Ryder as he leaned forward, his eyes widened in panic? Why is he scared? "Power. His weakness is power. Whoever he's working under to be kept hidden from the mafia has to have some sort of power in the ranks. That means they are working with you and could be in this room at this very moment.

We have representatives from all over the world. Some allies and others not. Even as we sit here, one of us is plotting to go and tell Tyler everything we've been saying. If we are to find that person, or people, Tyler won't be able to be the guy who's not afraid of anything anymore. He's going to get scared and he'll mess up."

Everyone sat in silence as Ren said this. Heads began turning to stare at each other. I had nothing to worry about. Who would think I had something to do with it? Plus, we needn't worry about Tyler right now. He wasn't here to ruin anything. I thought we were worried about finding this Ian guy. He seemed more important to Ren than finding out where Tyler is.