Free Giovanni by Bethany-Kris Page B

for now.
    Cody shrugged. “Business, you know.”
    Realization dawned on Gio. Business . No wonder Kim was unhappy at Franco’s side. There wasn’t an ounce of love between the two, and there probably hadn’t ever been. The engagement was business. The marriage nothing more than an arrangement.
    Kim agreed to it.
    Why?
    Good God . Gio felt sick. He’d only been in Vegas for two weeks and already he wanted to get the hell out as fast as he could.
     
    • • •
     
    Cody wasn’t so bad. The kid was young, close to Gio’s own age, so he had a bit of growing room yet to get where he needed to be. Franco had introduced him earlier as a friend of his, which meant he was still an unmade man. Gio couldn’t understand why Nunz hadn’t given his son the button yet. Being the son of a Don, it was almost a given right. Gio had his button at seventeen—the youngest out of all his brothers to take the Omertà.
    It sucked Cody was Nunz’s son, as Gio thought the guy would be the kind of understudy one of his brothers would probably take under their wing to train for la famiglia . It was clear he wanted to be in with the family.
    Gio looked over the ten-by-eight color photographs one more time. Cars of the highest luxury that only the rich could afford stared back up at him. Each photo had a sticky note added to the bottom left corner. It listed all the details of the car and location.
    “How many are in secured garages?” Gio asked.
    “Of this batch?” Cody shrugged. “Ten … twelve if the owners are out of town. They won’t be for the next run, though.”
    Gio nodded. He was actually kind of impressed with the plan if he were honest. It was dangerous, to be sure. If done correctly and spread out over a period of time, Cody was looking at a fair flow of cash from stealing the high-end cars and chopping them down to ship out.
    Unfortunately, it wasn’t the kind of business Antony Marcello would want to get his hands dirtied up in. There was a hell of a lot of work involved with a great deal of men. Antony preferred to work with as little people as necessary when it came to mingling business with other families, and he liked shit simple.
    This was anything but simple. 
    Nonetheless, Gio was reminded of why he was in Vegas in the first damn place. Antony was sure something unpleasant was about to go down in the Sorrento family and he didn’t want it to send a backlash on their family in the future. Scouting out the exporting of the stolen luxury vehicles was just a front. He needed to keep that front up so no one wondered why he was still hanging around if the Marcellos weren’t interested in playing.
    “It’s very Gone in Sixty Seconds ,” Gio said, chuckling.
    Cody rolled his eyes. “Sure, sure. Ever steal a vehicle of this kind of caliber and get out clean? It’s not as easy as they made it look.”
    “I don’t doubt it … and yes, I have.”
    “Really?”
    “Sure. Whenever my father gets asked why he keeps his fleet of vehicles in storage now, all he does is point to me.” Gio smirked, adding, “It was like a game for me to get it done without a set of keys. Really pissed him off, though.”
    Gio flipped through the pictures again, stopping at a bright orange Lamborghini. It was a horrible fucking color for the car. Gio tapped a finger on the picture. “This one, I’ll do. Just to see if I still got the touch.”
    Cody laughed. “Take it.”
    “So, Franco’s running this show, right?”
    “Mostly. Maximo gets his dues, but he’s keeping out of it. Something about Franco needing to stand on his own legs and stop using Max’s for support. You didn’t hear that from me, though.”
    “Yeah, got it,” Gio muttered. “What about your father?”
    “He gets his from me,” Cody said, not going into any further detail.
    What Gio didn’t understand, was how Franco and Nunz Abella came together to put something like this into motion, or why Franco would want to at all. The Sorrentos had more than