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me. Worrying constantly. I don’t want to worry about you, son. I want to trust you’re capable of being an adult all of the time, not only part of it.”
    That pissed Gio off like nothing else. He didn’t want to hear a repeat lecture. “Fuck off. I’m done talking.”
    Antony’s hands slammed into the steering wheel so hard something snapped. Whether that was the car or a bone, Gio wasn’t sure. His father didn’t even flinch. “How long are you going to do this? Walking around in a haze all the fucking time. Living off your attitude and cocky bullshit keeping you going on the streets. I get you want to do things your own way. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to be like Dante or Lucian. Damn it, Gio, I’ve realized that for years .”
    Antony sucked in a harsh breath. “Maybe if I didn’t have to worry about the way you do your own thing, I could be okay with believing you when you say you’re fine and I would leave you alone. I keep asking you what you need to get you to a better place, but you never seem to have an answer for me. What do you need, Gio?”
    Biting back his anger, Gio said, “You talk like I’m crawling around on rock bottom here.”
    “Are you?” Antony asked quietly.
    “No!”
    “Then why do I feel like calling that rehab facility in Mexico on a daily basis, Gio? Why does your mother keep demanding I force your hand?”
    Gio’s brow furrowed. “Mexico?”
    “There’s a facility down there. Their methods are … not acceptable in the States. Which is why they’re located in Mexico where the laws are less stringent.”
    “ Cristo !”
    “Not like that,” Antony muttered under his breath. “I wouldn’t put you in a place where your safety was in jeopardy.”
    “You won’t fucking put me anywhere at all!” Gio barked back.
    Antony cleared his throat, shrugging. “That’s the method I mentioned. You don’t get a choice. You wouldn’t have any warning. I wouldn’t need to worry about the politics of laws regarding having you admitted into a program. You go in fighting or calm, but one way or another, you go and you will stay. You get clean and healthy whether it takes you six months or two years. And they send you back home. Simple.”
    Why did that feel like a threat?
    The rage and disbelief simmering through Gio made his hands shake. “I’m not some out of control addict because I like to party and have a good time. I handle myself just fine.”
    “So you function . Congratulations, Gio. Many do.”
    “This is fucking ridiculous.”
    “I didn’t say I had made a call about it, yet.”
    Again with the veiled threats.
    “Don’t play these word games with me, Dad. Say what you need to say and be done with it.”
    “Give me an honest discussion for once, Gio. Something I can maybe work with. If it starts affecting the business—”
    “I’m fine . Just because you feel like you fucked up somewhere along the lines, don’t toss that to me. What do you want to be, my father or my Don? I’m over the whiplash, Antony.”
    Antony’s fingers gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles turned stark white. “You’re a damn good capo, Gio.”
    “Thanks for the memo I didn’t need.”
    “But you haven’t been a good son in a long time.”
    Ouch.
    “The meeting with the Commission is next week. I need you to make it through that without problems, Gio. I can’t have people seeing cracks in my family’s foundation. I’m done playing games. You want me to make a choice, then I will. You want me to treat you like I do everyone else, then I'll do that. Be there with your brother and be sober.
    “And do not fuck it up or Mexico will be the last thing you’ll be worrying about,” Antony finished before starting the car. “Is that clear enough, Giovanni?”
    Gio thought so.
    “Like crystal.” 

Chapter Four
     
     
    “And this,” Dante stood, his red pointer circling the entire shipping district of New York, “… will, of course, remain