Love and War

by Jackie Chanel

  “From prison?” Caprice asked snidely.

  “From prison,” Domani confirmed. “And Fausto says Paolo is to take over in my absence therefore, you will allow it to happen. You and Nico worry about Atlantic City. Capiche?”

  Caprice huffed but eventually she agreed. Her father’s plan wasn’t anything like the one she had been formulating in her mind while recovering from her injuries. Her plan was better. All she needed to do was to convince her brother to hop on board. She would take care of that once Domani was safely tucked away on some Greek Island.

  Before she tucked her tail and hid out in Atlantic City, the Bonatelli Family was going to handle Aries and the Black Diamond Mafia. Queen’s largest street gang had no idea what the real Mafia was. But they’d learn.

  No one was going to stop her from moving forward with her plan.

  Chapter Thirteen

  After saying goodbye to her father, Caprice drove back to the city and checked into her suite at the W. She was exhausted, but with her father now on a plane crossing over the Atlantic, her day was just beginning.

  It was after midnight when she pulled her father’s car along the curb of Nico’s house in Staten Island. He already knew that she was on the way, so she stayed in the car and waited for her brother. There was no point of both of them waking up Maria. Caprice commented on a few Facebook posts until the garage door opened and Nico backed Maria’s Chrysler convertible onto the street. Caprice started her car and pulled off with Nico following her until they reached the boxing gym. They both parked around back and got out their cars.

  Nico pulled his little sister into a big hug. She squealed and wiggled out of his arms.

  “You’re looking good and healthy.”

  “And you’ve been hitting the gym,” she replied. “Are you bench pressing now?”

  They started walking towards the front of the building. Angelo’s tiny gym and training facility was highly protected by Nico. Nico had been training with Angelo since he was eight years old. Caprice wasn’t surprised when Nico suggested meeting at the boxing gym after she left Domani.

  “How’d it go with Dad?” Nico asked. “He get off safely?”

  “Of course. Did you know Georgie is short for Georgia? She’s this super hot blond hired to make sure he’s taken care of in every way during his long flight to Athens.”

  Nico used his key to open the door and flicked on the lights. Caprice looked around at the framed photographs of famous and not so famous boxers that Angelo had trained, the old boxing gloves hanging from the wall. The gym wasn’t modern or even that clean. Even with the lights on, it looked too dark. But it worked for Angelo.

  “Man, I missed this dingy old shithole,” Caprice laughed out loud. “I’m a little off my game, but I bet I could go a few rounds in the ring with you, dear brother.”

  “Wanna bet?” Nico laughed. “I’ve been workin’ out. You’ve been sittin’ on your fat ass for three months.”

  “Please!” Caprice yelped. “Physical therapy is the hardest workout I’ve ever done. You stop exercising when that shit starts to hurt. I have to exercise my arms and legs through the pain. Come on.”

  Caprice climbed into the ring and egged her brother on. “Let me see what you got, big brother.”

  “Get outta there,” Nico said. “Look at that skirt you’re wearing. You can’t move in that thing. When I fight you, it’s going to be fair just so you won’t have anything to blame when I kick your ass.”

  “Whatever.” Caprice sat on the edge of the ring and pouted at her big brother.

  “What did you want to talk about that couldn’t be said at the house?”

  “We should wait until Rocco gets here.”

  “I’m here,” Rocco said from inside the doorway. “What’s up?”

  “When did you get here?” Caprice asked sharply. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

  “I just walked through the door, babe. “What’s up?”

  Caprice crossed her ankles and slipped her arms through the boxing ring’s red and blue ropes. She eyed her brother and his best friend…her partner in crime. A few seconds ago she had been joking around with her brother. Now everything about her read all business.

  Damn, Nico thought. She looks just like Dad.

  “We all know what Domani’s instructions to us were before he left,” Caprice stated. “I’m a hundred percent sure that he gave both of you the same speech he gave me tonight. I mean no disrespect, but our father is wrong. We can’t stand down on this BDM issue. You two can’t afford to have tarnished reputations. The Bonatelli family can’t afford for anyone to think we can be fucked with without retaliation.”

  Nico was nodding, but Rocco stood perfectly still. His face was tight, but he wasn’t giving any indication that he comprehended or was on the same page as Caprice. He worried her a bit.

  “If,” Caprice continued, “we don’t do anything to the BDM, what makes you think that the Fantones and the Capellas won’t try us too? The Lucchettis are dangerous and you know it. Luca Lucchetti would gladly try to take over everything that Domani ever touched. You know I’m right about this.”

  “Yeah, but Boss’s orders are Boss’s orders, Caprice,” Nico replied.

  “Hmmph,” Caprice sucked her teeth. “I don’t know about you two, but I’m not going to be anyone’s sitting duck. They came after me once. I will not allow them to catch me again.”

  Rocco cleared his throat. “You need to listen to your father for once,” he said.

  “No,” Caprice shouted, getting angry at Rocco and her brother. “You need to listen to me for once! Fuck the gangs! When the Italians come after what is ours, what are we going to do? Sit there and let them take what my father…what our family worked so hard for? Paolo can’t handle that, no matter how good his guys are.”

  “So what are you getting’ at, sis?”

  Caprice took a deep breath then exhaled loudly. “We show the other gangs and the other families that we’re strong, despite anything that they’ve heard. We show them what happens when you cross us. We forget about what Dad said and continue with our plan to get rid of Aries,” she paused and stared right at her brother with mischief and excitement in her eyes. What she had to say next wasn’t going to sit well with him.

  “Then we get Paolo to step down,” she finished.

  A sneaky grin spread across Nico’s face, but Rocco wasn’t feeling it. He crossed his huge arms across his broad chest and glared at Caprice like she had lost her mind. What she had just suggested was disloyal, not to mention dangerous and suicidal. Paolo would her head in a vice if he ever got wind of this conversation.

  “You need to stop,” Rocco warned. “You’re walking a thin line here, babe. You’re talking about disobeying the Boss and taking out the consigliere. You can be killed for talking about something like that.”

  Caprice rolled her eyes at Rocco and focused her attention on her brother.

  “Nico, what do you think?”

  “He shouldn’t think anything about that!” Rocco shouted. “Boss’s orders were to stand down. We know that Aries’ supply is about to run dry since Cesar cut him off. Uncle Paolo says we make a lot of money from BDM and he wants them back in the fold. Nico and I will do what we were told and bring Aries back in. You will go to Atlantic City like you were told. End of story. Keep talking like this and I’m going to find your body in the Hudson.”

  Caprice shook her head. “Do I look like I care what Paolo wants? Don’t you realize that the hierarchy goes Fausto, Gianni, Domani, Nico, and then me? Paolo shouldn’t be in charge. He isn’t a Bonatelli. He just works for us. Am I right, Nico?”

  Nico shifted his feet and nodded. Caprice was completely right, but the only thing that mattered, the one thing that she was failing to understand, Fausto Bonatelli was the one true Boss of the family, locked up or not. There was no way Domani would have given those orders without consulting with his grandfather.

  “That is the way it’s supposed to go,” he admitted to
Caprice.

  “Then you agree with me?”

  “Look sis,” Nico hesitated. “I want Aries dead just as bad as you-”

  “Good,” Caprice didn’t allow him to finish his sentence. “We’re on the same page. Here’s my plan.”

  Caprice, Rocco, and Nico spent the next three hours fine tuning the plan that she had been thinking about since Domani told them he was leaving. When she was laying on her apartment floor, praying that Rocco would hurry up and get there, with her blood seeped out of her body and staining the carpet, Caprice knew that one day, she would get to see Aries in a casket.

  When it was all said and done, she had a damn good plan.

  Too bad they only had three days before Pamela informed Domani that Nico and Caprice had not shown up in Atlantic City. Three days to carry out the perfect hit and send the perfect message.

  Caprice was confident that they could do it.

  Chapter Fourteen

  I’m at the W, room 1016. Be here in an hour. Come alone.

  Caprice stared at the hotel room door, tapping her foot incessantly against the floor. She was on the edge, waiting impatiently for a knock. An hour and fifteen minutes had passed since she sent the text message. He hadn’t replied, but she knew he’d show up. If he valued his life, he had no other choice.

  When her phone vibrated on the table, she practically jumped out of her skin. Her anxiety level was on ten. She didn’t appreciate the disturbance.

  “What?” she barked into the phone. “You’re not supposed to be bothering me unless something went wrong. What happened?”

  “Nothing happened,” Rocco replied. “We got them. I just wanted to check in. Everything going smoothly on your end, Boss?”

  Caprice rolled her eyes at his sarcastic tone. “It will be if you quit calling me every five seconds. You don’t need to check in with me. Just do your part, Nico will do his, and I’ll do mine. Shit, Rocco, it’s not brain surgery.”

  “No,” he laughed. “Just kidnap and murder. Nothing to worry about right?”

  “I thought you were a professional,” Caprice snapped. “You should be used to this kind of thing.”

  “It’s not something you get used to, Caprice. You just do what you need to do.”

  “Well, I need you to get off the phone. I’ll call you back, okay.”

  “Are you alright?” Rocco asked sounding concerned.

  “I’m fine. I said I’ll call you back.”

  The soft tap on the door made Caprice’s heart skip a beat as she tossed the cell phone onto the sofa. She cocked her .22 and walked to the door. This meeting wasn’t part of the plan at all. It was foolish and dangerous, but she had to do it. She cracked open the door.

  “You better be alone,” she said.

  “I am.”

  “Did you tell them that you were coming here? Don’t lie to me.”

  “I’m not the liar here, Caprice,” Diesel replied angrily. “No one knows I’m here so open the damn door.”

  Caprice opened the door wide enough so that Diesel could see the gun in her hand.

  “I said I was alone.” He pushed the door open wider. Caprice glanced up and down the empty hallway before stepping aside and allowing the man to walk into her suite.

  “Wow,” Diesel whistled as he took in the sleek and modern hotel suite. “This sure ain’t your shitty ass apartment in my neck of the woods. Must be nice to spend your daddy’s money on frivolous shit like this.”

  “Very funny,” Caprice frowned. “I have my own money, thank you very much. Put your piece on the table.”

  She couldn’t see a weapon, but Caprice knew enough about Diesel, Aries, and the Black Diamond Mafia to know that Diesel would never have come up to her suite without packing at least one gun. He wasn’t a fool.

  “You first,” Diesel insisted.

  “You and your homeboys want me dead,” she replied sharply. “This isn’t a negotiation. Put it on the table, take a shot, or leave. Your choice.”

  Diesel took a second to acknowledge the hard look in Caprice’s eyes. This wasn’t the same girl who he spent watching Think Like a Man and eating white chocolate popcorn with the last time he saw her. Her entire demeanor had changed.

  “You’re different,” he stated.

  “Blame your friend,” Caprice snapped. “Almost dying has a way of changing a girl. Gun. Table. Now.”

  It saddened Diesel to hear the hardness in her voice, to see the bleakness in her eyes. He may have had a smirk on his face as he laid his chrome .9mm on the coffee table, but he wasn’t happy. As angry as he was at Caprice, he didn’t want to see her like this, broken and mean.

  At least she still looked breathtaking. Her long black dress zipped in the front and clung to every curve she had. Her wavy black hair framed her face as every light in the room bounced off the diamonds around her neck. Diesel couldn’t stop staring at her ass as she picked up his gun and walked over to the safe in the wall. Diesel had never been inside a hotel room that had a safe in the room. He was impressed as Caprice put both of their guns in the safe and locked it.

  “Now,” she smirked. “I feel better. Want a drink?”

  “Patron,” Diesel answered. “You know that.”

  “Coming right up.” Caprice poured two drinks and walked around the bar.

  “Let’s go in my room and chat,” she said as she handed Diesel his drink. “The view is better in there.”

  When they reached the suite’s stunning bedroom, Caprice opened the balcony doors and stared outside of the spectacular view of the New York City skyline. Soundlessly, Diesel stood behind her, close enough for Caprice to feel his presence, but not touching her. Caprice shivered at the closeness she had missed while she was in Miami.

  “Are you going to tell me why I’m here or are we just gazing at the stars?” Diesel asked softly.

  Caprice turned around. Diesel was towering over her, so close that she could feel his breath on her hair every time he exhaled.

  “We don’t have to talk,” she purred. “I’m sure you can think of something else you’d rather be doing with me.”

  “What are you up to, Caprice?”

  “Changing your life.”

  Diesel burst out laughing. “Oh yeah?”

  Caprice slid her hand along the chiseled curve of Diesel’s cheek. “Yup.”

  She started to walk away, but Diesel pulled her into his arms. She sank against his chest and nestled her head on his shoulder.

  “I’ve missed you,” he whispered. “But you are not supposed to be in New York. You said you were going out west.”

  “I know, but things have changed. I’m leaving New York though…soon. But not before you and I talk. I really need you to listen to me.”

  “What do we need to talk about?”

  Caprice looked up at Diesel. Everything about him was exactly the same as the last time she’d seen him. He always kept a fresh haircut and tonight was no exception. He was dressed in his signature black jeans and black wife beater. He even smelled the same. She remembered the last time she really had a good look at him, but this time when his eyes met hers, the dreamy doe-eyed expression was gone; replaced by a seriousness he had never seen before.

  “Aries.”

  Diesel exhaled and let Caprice go. He took a few steps back, sat down on the bed, and took a swig of his drink.

  “You just aren’t going to let that go, are you?”

  “No,” Caprice said firmly. “I can’t just let it go. You know that. But I could use your help.”

  Diesel shook his head slowly. “No.”

  “You say that as if you really have a choice.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Caprice sat next to him on the bed and crossed her legs. She took a sip of her drink before answering.

  “It’s simple,” Caprice stated. “And I’m going to be completely straight with you. Aries is already a non-motherfuckin’ factor. This time tomorrow, he’ll be dead. It’s up to you if this goes smoothl
y or if a lot of people are going to end up hurt.”

  “What’s going to happen tomorrow?” Diesel asked.

  Caprice laughed softly. “I’m not telling you that. I have a proposition for you though.”

  Diesel ran his hands over his waves. Caprice had vengeance in her eyes and a score to settle. She was serious, really serious. Whatever she had planned for the next day was going to be bloody.

  “Talk. I’m listening,” he replied.

  “We know Cesar has ended your arrangement. At the rate you’re selling, you’ll be bone dry by the end of the week. And without a leader,” Caprice added. So like I said, I’m here to change your life.”

  “How do you expect do that? And ain’t nothin’ wrong with my life for you to be tryin’ to change.”

  “You really think you have a good life?” She laughed but it was cynical…downright evil. “Please. I have a good life. You know nothing about living good.”

  Diesel pushed her away from him and stood up. “I’m out of here. Ain’t nobody got time for your shit. Open your safe and give me my piece.”

  “Sit back down,” Caprice ordered. “We’re not done.”

  “I’m done.”

  “Are you?” Caprice raised her eyebrows and stared at him. “You haven’t even heard my proposition. Besides, I know you’re not pissed because I said your life was shit. Sit down.”

  “Say what you have to say, Caprice.”

  “Fine,” she sighed when it became clear that Diesel was not going to sit down. “After tomorrow, I’m assuming you’ll be the number one man in BDM. So you have two options. One, BDM falls back in line with us. You re-up with us and after the shit that Aries pulled, our cut is now thirty percent. Do that and we’ll leave you alone to run your business as you see fit. As long as there is never any type of retaliation against us…ever.”

  “Say I don’t want to re-up with you,”

  “Ahhh,” Caprice sneered. “Let’s just say my brother is on the warpath and leave it at that. I’m sure you know what that means.”

  “So what’s behind door number two?”