I know I know, I'm surprised that I'm updating so fast so quick too lmao for those of you who don't follow me on Snapchat we officially got our own house again and have been living there for about almost three weeks now so I'm finally starting to feel like myself again and get back on track with my writing. I don't normally do this but I would like to dedicate this chapter to my baby Elsa, idk her username by heart but I'm sure you'll see her in the comments lol this is me proving that I don't just like to hurt you guys after the last two chapters lol enjoy babies I love you guys❤️

Isaac's POV

The alarm on my phone wakes me up at the crack of dawn ringing at 5:30 in the morning, an hour earlier than I normally wake up; lord knows I'll need the extra hour to drag myself out of bed today.

Reaching to the left of me I grab the phone and turn the alarm off, grateful to have Hailey still soundly asleep next to me. She's actually cuddled up to me, snoring softly, her arm draped over my stomach.

I smile for about a second and place a kiss on the top of her head and begin to scroll through my notifications and messages. There's over nearly eighty of them, most of them are from my men. A very unsettling feeling in my chest begins to form as I let that sink in, as I replay yesterday in my head for the 100th time.

My father is gone, these are now my men, they are no longer my dads, I'm in command, I'm in control and that scares me shitless.

Instant chills run up the back of my neck as I dim my brightness on my screen so it doesn't hit Hailey on the face and scroll through every single message, replying to ones that actually need a response; no more ignoring shit now.

I have messages from the tech team, sending me surveillance footage of men going in and out of the warehouse during lock down, along with a list of names of who they are and tracking locations, most of them just going out for a bite, to the store, or grabbing a breath of fresh air, smoking a cigarette.

I have multiple messages from Jer, my trainer, or my anger manager coach like Nate likes to call him sending me updates on Emilino's physical therapy log, along with who's in and out of the shooting range, updates on some new recruits.

There's messages from Leo giving me updates on a couple guys down in the infirmary. Messages from Beans from who's down in the cells, but most of all there's messages from fucking Dominic, a fuck load of them that it starts to overwhelmed since he is, or was I should say, my fathers right hand man and the night shift boss. He updated Pops on any and everything that happened after hours.

I grab Hailey's hand and slowly lift it off of me and lay it down gently and sit up at the edge of the bed rather than stay laying down. I'm starting to feel like I can't breathe due to the weight and sudden pressure that is on my chest.

Don's last few messages are actually from exactly over an hour ago, giving me a list and instructions on what to do when I wake up, telling me not to come into the warehouse yet because we of course need to have our morning meeting, just like Pops and he always did, which will of course be done here at the estate because he doesn't want me showing up to the warehouse unless I'm ready to take everything on because as The Boss now I need to go make an appearance and my opening 'speech' and hype my men up, get them ready for a war that I'm about to send them into.

He informs me that he's canceled all the routes and cleared everyone's morning schedule so that everyones is present by the time I show up to the warehouse, ending his long message thread with, "I'd advise you to get another phone, separate your work from your personal business, I'll see you at 8 on the dot."

I inhale a deep breath and reply to him, "take care of it then and have it here with you by the time you come to the house."

He replies almost instantly, "Good morning, how we feeling?" He asked in one message, a second one came in and it reads; "Soonest I can have it is late morning or early afternoon, the suns not up yet boss, nothings open."

I ignored the part of his message where he asked how I'm feeling and replied with, "send a truck back out to Saint Frances, I wanna know if Ang went into labor last night, Dion sent me multiple messages checking in but nothing about them. Dismiss him from this morning's rally."

"Yes sir."

I don't bother replying to his last message. I slowly get out of bed and turn back around to kiss my wife on the face, tucking her deeper into our blanket ensuring she stays warm and gets plenty of rest.

I make my way over to the bathroom, shutting the door behind me as quietly as I can and turn on the light when I know it won't hit Hailey in the face and nearly wanna rip my throat open at the reflection that's staring back at me in the mirror.

I don't recognize myself and it immediately makes me sick.

For the first time in my life I actually have bags under my eyes -most likely due to the lack of sleep, which usually never happens. I've ran off of two hours of sleep and have looked way more alive than I do now. We're running on about three hours of sleep this morning and I can promise you that I feel a lot worse than I look, mentally and physically.

It took me about almost an hour to fall asleep after Hailey and I came back upstairs and climbed back into bed, I couldn't stop my mind from racing, it still doesn't feel real, I still can't comprehend that he's really gone but the paperwork for his funeral arrangements on his desk, the death certificate says otherwise.

Turning on the faucet I lean down to splash my face with cold water and instantly hiss at the freezing temperature but continue to wash my face, waking me up completely.

I grab one of the hand towels that's hanging on the wall to the left and dry my face and bare chest from some runaway water.

I have every right mind to crawl back into bed with my wife when I step out of the bathroom and back into the bedroom and I do just that actually. I climb back into bed and set my alarm to go off in an hour and a half, 7am, this way I can shower and be ready by the time Dominic is here.

Wrapping my arm around Hailey I pull her closer to me and bury my face in the back of her hair and sleep immediately welcomes me.

I get startled awake the second time my alarm goes off and quickly reach for it before it can wake Hailey up and shut it off, wanting to snooze it. I throw the blanket off of me and sit back on the edge of the bed still feeling dead but it's not as bad as when I first woke up at five in the morning.

I grab my phone and head into the closet to grab a quick outfit to throw on after the shower and head towards the bathroom. It's a little before 8am when I step out of the shower and throw my clothes on. The forty minute shower definitely didn't feel like forty minutes, in fact it felt like twenty minutes if I'm being honest but I think that's just the sleep deprivation talking.

I grab a pair of socks and throw my shoes on before I'm walking over to the bed and kissing Hailey on the side of her face before leaving the bedroom.

It's exactly 8:08 am by the time I've managed to drag myself down stairs to find Dominic already sitting in one of the two chairs in front of my fathers desk, scrolling through his iPad.

"I didn't expect to find you here so soon already," I say as I walk into the room, the air immediately getting thinner; I can't fucking breathe in here, the room smells like his cologne, his cigars, him.

"Good morning," Dom looks up from his tablet, his lips tugging to the side. "Did I not say eight on the dot?"

I shrug as I walk deeper into the office, "punctual I see. What's first?" I take a seat in my fathers chair.

"Coffee," he hands me a plastic cup with a lid on it, there's another one near him. "You'll have to let me know how you like it so I don't bring you trashy coffee."

I shake my head and reach for the cup, "thank you, I'm fine with whatever as long as it's not sweet."

"Not sweet," Dom repeats out loud as he types away on his iPad.

He looks up at me as I uncup the white and brown cup, "what?" I frown after taking a sip of the coffee.

"How you holding up, kid? You wanna talk about anything?"

I shake my head and look down at the death certificate that's sticking out of the paper mess that's on top of the desk, "I don't think I can do it," I start to grab a bunch of papers in front of me and stack them on top of each other. "I c-can't plan a funeral without feeling like I'm suffocating."

"That's what I'm here for, Isaac," he sticks his hand out in front of him and I'm handing the pages over. "Let me have it," he inclines his head over the certificate. I grab it without looking down at it longer than I need to and hand it to him.

"Your father has everything picked out and arranged," he says and I'm quickly looking up at him confused. "The casket, the cemetery, burial spot, limos, you name it, he planned everything out already in case anything ever happened to him. He didn't wanna leave that burden behind."

The ache in my chest begins to increase as a nagging pain begins to form and I feel my eyes attempt to tear up and immediately begin to burn.

"He didn't leave you unprepared, kid, he thought of everything and anything. You just have to decide your guest list and decide whether you want the casket closed or opened."

"I want it closed," says a feminine voice and I'm quickly looking over at the doorway to find my mother walking into the office, hugging her robe tightly around her.

Don instantly gets up from his chair, "good morning, Mrs. Matteo."

"Good morning, Dominic, please don't get up on my count, sit."

He does.

"Ma you shouldn't be up right now, you should be sleeping. Let me handle this and go back to bed."

"I want it closed," she repeats herself as she makes her way over to me.

"Ma-"

"I said it's staying closed, Antonino."

I stare at her quietly taking my mother's appearance in. In all my years of living I've never once seen my mother not look like herself. Her eyes are red and swollen from all the crying she's been doing, from the lack of sleep that she's not getting. Her voice still has a light rasp to it from all the screaming she did at the hospital yesterday. Her hair is a tangled mess even in a ponytail, her pajamas don't match, everything about the woman that raised me is off and it infuriates me. I will not lose both of my parents in this war.

"My last memory of your father will not be of him laying cold in that casket, you understand me, it stays closed," she demands.

I nod, "yes ma'am.. You eat breakfast yet?"

She tears her gaze away from me, looking off into nothing, closing the black robe tighter around her, "I'll eat when you find my husband's killer," her voice is softer than before.

"Mom-"

"Make sure my baby's eating, she hasn't left the room yet and she's usually up and wondering by the time I'm awake. I- I don't have it in me to take care of me and her right now."

"You won't have to mom, I'll take care of everything, everyone. Please have something small and get some rest, some genuine rest, it's still early. I'll look after Hailey, she was up late with me last night."

My mother walks over to me and is placing a hand on my face, caressing it, "if you're taking care of everyone who's taking care of you?"

"I am," a deep voice says from behind and chills are instantly running up my spine when I hear who it is.

My mom takes a step back and is turning around to face Dion who's standing at the doorway, looking just as tired as everyone else, a forced smile on his face as he enters the room.

He walks over to my mom and is leaning down to place a kiss on her cheek, "a queen like yourself should be resting, Adriana. He would be fuming if he knew you're in here with the big boys and not getting your beauty rest."

Her eyes instantly begin to glister with tears as she forces a smile on her face, "you take care of my boy, Ricci, you hear me?" Her voice cracks as she places her hand on his cheek, lightly tapping it.

Dee places his hand on top of hers and nods, "yes ma'am, now off to bed you go. I'll have someone check up on you hourly to ensure you're actually resting, can't have the queen losing her mind."

Slow tears begin to stream down my mothers face as her lips tug to the side, "it suits you." Dion frowns. "Underboss.. Being his second in command, it suits you."

Dion smiles, "get some rest, Mrs. Matteo."

My mom nods her head and is walking back over to where I'm sitting and is leaning down to kiss me on the cheek but I beat her to the chase and end up kissing her on the face, "I'm a phone call away mom."

She nods and is then walking out of the office leaving Dion, Dominic, and I alone.

"The hell are you doing here?" I look in my best friend's direction. I turn to Don, "I thought I told you to dismiss him."

"I did-"

"He did."

Both Dion and Dominic answer at the same time.

Dion takes a step forward, "did you honestly think I would miss your coronation, KP?"

"Dee-"

"Shut the fuck and lemme just be here for you while I can, Isaac. You're my best friend, you just lost someone important to you and you can't even grieve properly because The Mafia doesn't stop for anyone, our lives don't get put on hold, the world keeps moving on, they keep planning, they keep attacking- so shut the fuck up and let me be your second in command while I can."

I inhale a deep breath and nod, the faster we can get this over with the faster he can get back to his family.

"She make an appearance yet?"

A huge grin begins to form on Dion's face and I get my answer before he can say anything.

"Yeah," he confirms and is digging his hand into his pants. He pulls his phone out and is handing it over.

I lean forward and take the phone in my hand, staring down at the screen. There's a picture of a newborn baby girl in a hospital baby blanket, swaddled in it, a pink beanie with a bow on her head. Iridiana Reina Ricci.

"She's beautiful, Dee, congrats man."

"There's more, scroll through the pictures."

I look up at him before I begin to go through the pictures and smile, "I'm not gonna see some shit I don't wanna see, am I?"

He chuckles softly, "you're an idiot, no. I have those hidden.."

"You're disgusting," I say as Don laughs softly to himself in the chair he's sitting in.

I scroll to the next couple pictures until I'm hitting one of Angela holding the baby, a huge smile on her face, her eyes filled with tears. The sudden heavy weight in my chest slowly begins to go away as a warm one replaces it the more and more I scroll through the pictures until I'm hitting the last one. It's a picture of Dion holding his daughter in his arms as he looks down at her, a wide grin on his face.

I hand the phone back and Dion instantly hands it to Dominic. "As happy as I am for you, Dee, you shouldn't be here, you should be with your family."

Dion takes a seat in the empty chair in front of the desk, where I normally would sit whenever I would come in to talk to pops.

"My family is in good hands. The mother to my child is resting, she's finally catching up some sleep. My daughter is with both of her grandmothers. Stop worrying about everyone else and focus on you and your family now. I was there for her birth so I'm in no hurry to get out of here. This family, you," he points in my direction, "are just as important as my own family. There was no way in hell that I was missing today, the hell kind of underdog would that make me?"

"I am not your priority, this family is not your priority, this family isn't your blood, you can walk away, Dion. I can make arrangements. Don was his second in command, who's to say he can't keep his role and become mine. I'm sure he wouldn't have a problem with that, would you, Don?" I wave to Dion's right where Dominic's sitting.

"Not at all. It would be an honor to work under yourself and father."

"I say he can't," Dion grits in between clenched teeth, losing all his patience, which is very rare. "Blood doesn't make you family. I promised him, your mom, your wife, he adds. "That I would take care of you when our time came and our time is here now. I'm only temporary until your son is born and becomes an adult just like Dominic was. That baby your wife is growing in her stomach, he is the rightful heir to this title, this empire. I'll be damned if we don't make changes and build a strong enough army to take care of them when they're our ages because my daughter will not know the meaning of grief unless her mother and I have died from old age. We're the new face to this family, this city, those mother fuckers don't know the meaning of fear yet."

"What do you think?" I shift my attention over to Dominic to find him sitting there with one of the biggest smirks on his face as I attempt to hide my own because goddamn was that a fucking pep talk right there.

Don sits forward in his chair and is looking back and forth from Dion and myself. "I think you've made a hell of a choice, he'd be proud."

***

Donny, Dion, and I, linger around in the office for about another hour or so, talking, organizing, planning shit out and decide that Dion will take a couple months away to be with his newborn and come back when he feels Ang can handle the baby on her own, when they get into the routine that they're parents now. Dominic will be taking his place as second in command until he returns from his 'daddy leave'.

Don and I are currently sitting in the back seats of an SUV heading towards the warehouse full of men who are waiting for their new boss to make an appearance. Dion is driving behind us in his truck because he's going straight back to the hospital after we're done.

There's about two more SUV's following behind him that are apparently a part of my security team because Pops likes to travel heavy, something I'm definitely gonna change, one truck is plenty of security, something Dominic and I don't agree on. He wants me to keep the security team the way it is, he's even offered to switch out the men allowing me to pick out who I want, suggesting that I bring Ric onto my team which I immediately shut down. Taking Ric on means pulling him away from Hailey and as hormonal as my wife is she loves Patrick and his moody self, she's never once changed around him.

I pull my phone out of my hoodie, another thing that Don and I don't agree on, my outfit.

He wanted me to go back upstairs and change out of the clothes I was already in and get into my boss attire but I honestly have no energy or motivation to dress up today so I will be showing up in my black nike sweatpants, black hoodie, and all white Air forces, rather than nice fancy shoes, slacks and a nice button up. We'll try again tomorrow when I'm feeling a little more myself, I'm allowed one free fucking day before everything starts crashing on top of me, I'm allowed to mourn my father's death one fucking day.

I open my 'notes' in my phone, ignoring the long chain of messages in my notifications already and type her name out, 'Rodriguez'.

Hailey and I haven't done much talking since everything's gone down so I make a mental note to remind myself to bring Carmen up the next time we're alone and ask her how she wants to treat her situation with her because I do have the power to bring her back now, should she want to.

I click out of my notes app and go back into my messages from the Tech team to find the thread I'm looking for and click on the link once I find what I'm looking for.

It's an E-folder on Patricio Alvaro Amatto, aka Ric. It honestly doesn't surprise me that my father created an entire file on Ric but it definitely knocks you out of your seat when it's in your hand and you can see anything and everything he's been up to. I have his current location, where it's in fact being tracked by his phone and he's right here at the where house, but that's not what I'm looking for. I wanna see how many times he contacted Carmen since they've been separated and notice that he just made a call to her about a week ago but it didn't last very long. The phone call is at least under ten minutes. I get out of that file, ready to close the entire link when a repeated number catches my attention and I click back into his contact list and put two and two together.

It's Madison's number, or as Pops has her label in the file, 'distraction number 2'. I snort at the nickname and Don is quickly glancing in my direction. Here this whole time Ric thought he was slick, that he was hiding her from Pops, being safe but perusal he was on top of everything, he was always one step ahead of everyone.

Why didn't he extract her as well? I click on her underline name taking me deeper into the file to see that Maddy has her own file under Ric's and chills instantly run up my neck when I realize how good my father actually was at his job.

"Jesus Christ," I mutter under my breath as I scroll through her file.

"What is it?" Dominic questions.

I shake my head and he's instantly reaching for my phone and yanking it out of my hands. He snorts loudly when he looks down at my screen and hands the phone back over a second later, "nothing got past him kid, he just gave you a lot more leverage than you thought. You always had a way of fixing things before your father intervened, which made you believe that you had control of situations."

"When I never did."

"No, you didn't.. but it made you grow into the man you are now. You fed into power moves yourself, you installed fear into people without your dads help and as smothering as your old man was, you grew up to be your own man, thanks to little Red of course, you were an asshole before she came alone, imagine that guy sitting there, right now."

I snort softly and begin to smile as I think of Hailey, "she definitely saved me from myself."

"She saved all of us from him," Dominic says, his lips tugging to the side

I roll my eyes as we pull into the parking lot and park into Pop's parking spot as Dion parks right beside us, to the right, where I would normally park as the other two SUV's park in free spots behind us.

Dominic immediately climbs out of the truck and demands that I wait to be let out by one of my two guys that we're riding in front of, Yonny and Luca.

I am always to be in the middle of my security team. I will always have two guys walking ahead of me in case of an ambush. This way they'll take most of the damage instead of myself, which is ironic considering what just happened yesterday. There will be another, two, if not, four guys behind me to insure that no one ever tries to attack me from behind.

Yonny and Luca slam the doors open to the warehouse and every single man that is in this building immediately comes to a stop and is looking in my direction as I walk through the doors with a trail of men behind me.

Instant chills begin to run up my arms and down my spine as every single man that I walk by gets down on one knee, nodding their head in respect and I feel my throat immediately threaten to close up as the overwhelming feeling begins to take over.

I feel a hand on my left shoulder and quickly look to the left of me to find Dee walking right beside me, "you got this," he murmurs. "Breathe, take your time, we go at your pace, KP."

I nod and continue to walk deeper into the building until we hit the small stage/platform and make my way up the small steps until I'm standing in front of the crowd that has huddled up in front of me.

Dion, Dominic, and Beenie are the only three that are standing on top of the stage with me. Dion is to the right of me as Don stands to my left and Beans to the back because for the first time in my life my father is not up here with us, he's not leading this crowd anymore, I am.

The loud music that was playing in the background that the men use to work out with immediately gets turned off and we're soon standing in silence as I take a step forward trying to find the right words these men need to hear without getting choked up as Don's pep talk in the truck begins to replay in my head.

"You let them see your pain, kid, let them see your anger. Let them see that you're just as human as they are, as your father was. You're more than just their leader, their boss. Let them feed off of your hurt and let it fuel their rage because when the time comes they will go to war for you and this family knowing that half of them probably won't make it back at the end of the day. If they stand behind you, you protect them, if they stand beside you, you respect them, because those men will sacrifice everything for you. Those men feared your father so they knew better than to stay in line, he showed no mercy to anyone who stood against them. You may be his son, his heir, but to them you're still just a kid, you have to gain their respect, their trust, you have to prove that you're worthy of taking on such a big empire. Emotions don't make you weak, they make you stronger, and it took your father years to figure that out, a king is nothing without his empire holding him up."

My voice immediately cracks as I try to speak, "w-words can't even begin to explain how I feel right now." More than half of the men in front of me softly nod their head. I look away from the sea of men, staring off to the floor, letting every emotion that I've been holding back hit me, two in particular, anguish and anger, my favorite duo.

A blurry hand waves in front of me pulling me out of my sorrows. I look up to find Ric standing in front of me, standing in front of the crowd, looking up at me, his lips moving as he says something but no sound is coming out.

At first I think I'm going crazy, that I'm going deaf, that I'm too in my head but that's not the case, someone, who I can only assume is Don, clears their throat behind me when I realize Ric isn't speaking out loud, he's mouthing something.

Looking back over at him I pay close attention to his lips, reading them. He inclines his head forward, mouthing the words, "you got this."

I nod mildly and inhale a deep breath gazing at the room, to find every single man looking in my direction, some of them with softer face features, some of them filled with pure rage and hater, waiting on a command.

I slide the hoodie off of my head and stand up straight, "my father's death is definitely catastrophic, but I'm not gonna stand up here and sugar coat shit. He knew it was coming, he even said he's cheated death plenty of times, it's why he always prepared for everything. We're all on borrowed time living in this lifestyle like he says, it's why we try and make the best of it everyday, coming home is never guaranteed. It's why he worked so hard to get this family where it is now. He didn't just leave one family behind, he left t-two," my voice cracks again.

A bunch of guys in the crowd begin to shuffle around while nodding their heads.

"His death, murder," the word leaves a nasty bitter foul taste on my tongue. "Will not go in vain. He was, and is still one of the strongest men I know and I will do everything in my power to honor him. I will honor his heritage, his legacy, his army, as my own because when one king falls another one rises."

I watch my crowd slowly start to get more and more riled up as I continue my 'opening speech'.

"You wanna know why this family, your family, my last name, is at the top of the food chain?" Silence. "I can assure it's not because of our wealth, the money my father has made throughout the years," I began to slowly pace the small platform. "It's because everytime they try to take us down we fight right back," I tap a hand against my chest. "Everytime we fall- we get right back up. We gained power, control, because we had the patience, we worked hard for it, we didn't steal it, we earned it. Nothing comes fast, things take time, Rome wasn't built in a day, this empire," I wave to the sea of men. "Was built throughout the years, we didn't happen overnight. They think they've won right now," I point a hand towards the double doors that lead outside. "But they got another thing coming their way. I am my father son and I will burn this goddamn city to the ground and any mother fucker that stands in my way! They may have took down a king but they didn't get no where near our fucking kingdom!"

The men instantly begin to go wild, hollering, whistling, clapping, making any type of noise they can and it begins to ignite my own fuel, my own rage. I give them a couple seconds to get their enthusiasm out and I'm picking a hand up about mid air, silencing the crowd a second later.

"They're expecting a reaction, they're expecting us to retaliate right away. They want me to act out of anger, out of hate, and the old me would've. I would've gladly sent this entire family in blindly, stupidly, into a war where we didn't stand a chance, where we didn't have structure, or a plan. I would've brought down this entire empire and ruined myself just to get my revenge, but it's just not about me anymore. I have a family to look after now, I have a son that will be looking up to me in a few years and I'll be damned if I ruin myself and his grandfather's legacy, his future. We retreat," I say and the men immediately look flabbergasted and begin to mutter among themselves.

"We retreat," I raise my voice, gaining control of the room again. "We retreat, we regroup, we strategize, and then we strike back when they least expect it. We let them think they've won, we'll let them think that we're in mourning- And then when they're least expecting it we slowly start taking this city back, we start taking them out one by one; this way they know what's coming.. I want them scared, I want them to fear our name again. Winning is no longer an option, I want pure revenge, no matter who stands in the way. I want them to feel the same fucking pain I felt hearing my mother scream, I wanna hear their families scream. I'm out for blood and we're not stopping until we've collected every ounce, starting with Cris Roxwell's."