Code of Silence: Cosa Nostra #2 by Jasmine Denton, Genna Denton Page B

turned to explain. “You deserve to know the truth,” he began. “And the truth is Sal DeLuca wasn’t the man we thought he was.”
    A crowd of confused faces looked back at him.
    “Not only did he murder my mother—igniting the feud between us and the Marcanos intentionally, but he was never sincere with his plans to enter the truce,” he said. “It was all just a ploy to get closer to them so he could kill Dante, just like he killed my mom. And he would’ve let any one of us die if we’d gotten in his way.”
    “Trey, what happened here?” Nik repeated, his voice louder this time.
    “He killed my mom, so I retaliated.” He shot Nik a threatening gaze. “I’m his son, it was within my rights to challenge him and I won. Now my question to all of you is this.” Turning back to the crowd, he continued his speech, “Will you fall in line and follow me to a peaceful future, one without the weight of past grudges and without the threat of war? Or will you fall with your boss?”
    The crowd went utterly silent, everyone looking to the other for guidance. He saw fear in the eyes of most of the men. Then, one by one, they began to kneel. Bowing down before him, announcing him as their new leader.
    Nik was the only one still standing. He looked at Trey with a look of disbelief. “You’re voting yourself in as boss?”
    “Do you want to challenge me for it?” he offered.
    Nik thought about this a moment. Looking to the sea of kneeling men, to the bloody body of his boss on the ground. Then he bowed with the rest of them.
    After he dismissed the men, he took care of his father’s body himself. He dug the hole beside his mother’s grave in the furthest corner of the grounds. He carried the body out there himself and then dropped it in. As he shoveled dirt back into the hole, his heart pounded harder and harder. Only after his father’s body was covered did the reality of what had just happened sink in. He fell back against the ground, sweating, hyperventilating.
    An hour later, he walked into his bedroom. Mandi was propped up in bed, reading a book. She looked up from the page when she saw him.
    She took one look at him—covered in blood and dirt, and she knew. He could see the horror in her eyes. Without a word, he stumbled through the room to the bathroom and closed himself inside.

16
    Deal with the Devil
     
     
    The next day, Trey knocked on Bela’s door. He wasn’t even sure she was in there, but according to the security footage he’d viewed, she hadn’t come out all day. Finally, he went inside and found the room dark.
    The drapes were drawn shut, blocking out all of the sunlight. The dim glow from a lamp in the corner lit the room enough for him to see Bela sitting on the bed. With her back against the headboard and her knees drawn in to her chest, she looked so small and fragile. Her head was lowered to her knees, with the cascade of her long dark hair blocking any view of her face.
    “What do you want?” she asked without looking up.
    He sat down on the edge of the bed, studying her. Shocked by this expression of grief, he wasn’t sure how to begin. “Bela,” he managed to whisper. “I’m so sorry.”
    She made a sound—something like a sniffle or a small sob.
    “I never meant for you to see that,” he said.
    “But you did mean to kill him?” Finally, she lifted her head to look at him. Her hazelnut colored eyes filled with tears and anger. “Just admit it. You let Vincent and me go, intending to come back here and kill dad. Didn’t you?”
    “I don’t know,” he said. “But he’s a bad guy and he’s gone. Isn’t that what matters?”
    She shook her head in disbelief. “This isn’t the way he was supposed to go down,” she whispered. “This isn’t how it was supposed to happen.”
    He wondered what she meant by that, but a more pressing question came first. “What are you even doing back here? You’re supposed to be on a bus by now.”
    She laughed bitterly and shook her