Reckless: A Bad Boyz Anthology

by Anthology

  “Now, that isn’t true, is it,” I ground out, putrid anger seeping from me. “I gained some valuable life lessons while I was here. Like how sick and twisted the old mafia generation are in comparison to the new. You think I’ll destroy the family, but you seem to have forgotten that I’m not the only loose cannon in this family.”

  “You’re the only one I see,” he declares venomously. “Do you think you can go back to Manhattan and lose the heartbroken look you carry around? It’s seriously pissing me off, Amelia. We all know you can kill people and we all know you can do as you’re told, so I expect you to go home with the same manner of living.”

  “Whatever,” I say and feel his gaze intensify upon me. He closes in, ready to use more threatening behavior to make me crack, but I dig my heels in. "We've been over this time and time again, you pompous, nit witted imbecile! Fat chance!" I say, launching a hand up to strike him away. "Now, do me the favor of getting out of my face. You've seen what I'm capable of here, and like you, I don't mind showing you how little you mean to me."

  "No wonder your father had enough of you in the end. You drawing that gun on him was the finale he never expected. You were spiraling before. Now, you know never to go against family, Amelia." Alberto watches me for a second, scrutinizing me while he awaits my response. "Whatever awaits you back home, you had coming a long time before you shot that gun."

  "Ah, but here's the difference," I begin to say, stepping forward to push him backwards so I'm no longer pinned against a wall. "I'm not the same Amelia they're all expecting back. I'm the new and improved Abbiati version you wanted me to be and I don't give a fuck if they curse me out of that damn house. I've become what was expected of me – a cold, heartless bitch who will do just about anything for her cut of the inheritance. Family’s a business, after all. Isn’t that your teaching, Uncle Al? I need my paycheck for all this bullshit."

  I know it's not all entirely true. I don't care about inheritances, but I also don't care for others as much. At first, I thought my brothers’ separation was to give me a cooling off period, but after a while, I realized that they weren't even trying. I'm at the Abbiati mansion – the headquarters, if you will – they're welcome any day, any time. They could have busted the doors down and rescued me, but there wasn't even news that they were trying.

  “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have better things to do than deal with the likes of you,” I hiss, really testing my uncle.

  “You’re a defiant brat, Amelia!” Alberto bellows at me, and I can see that I have him right where I need him.

  For all this time, I have done his bidding, but now I’m rebelling. My freedom from his life is my ultimate undoing. If I’m leaving the Amalfi Coast, I’m giving him everything I have to rile him up. Consequences be damned. Doing the right thing never worked for me, so why would doing the wrong thing grant me some more sanctum?

  He shakes his head in dismay at me. “There is no salvation for a girl like you. The sooner you’re out of this family, the better.”

  “But I make one hell of a hot killer, Alberto!” I tell him, continuing to tease him. “Or did the body count I left behind not tell you that already? Are you sure you want me against you?”

  He chortles at my threat, holding his barrel stomach at my apparent hilarity. “You and what army, Amelia? You are nothing outside of the doors of an Abbiati home. You have no one.”

  “Bruno,” I state, and I see Alberto’s eyes widen. Bruno’s departure from the family always scares them most because of what he knows. It’s another reason he doesn’t get trouble for his betrayal – he knows too much. “And I’m sure my knowledge of you and the rest of this family could very well be exchanged for immunity if I were to choose to sing like a canary.”

  That rattles him some more. My blatant disrespect of keeping my already threatened place in the family.

  “I should send you back in fucking pieces,” Alberto snarls, really unleashing the frenzy I’ve worked him up to. “I should take you downstairs and make you pay for the amount of stress you have caused this family. Girls like you don’t deserve sheltering from a life we have, they deserve to feel the entire pain it brings on them.”

  “And that’s where you fail,” I say, applying a sweet, sarcastic tone. “You hurt me and there will be people willing to hurt you. I’m too damn valuable to this family to be hurt or disowned. Even my father saw that, but you are one kind of devil hell never made!” I then feel myself darken, my anger heating up more. “At least my father had some redeeming features. Hell, even Giovanni did, but you,” I pause to laugh mirthlessly at him, “You, Alberto, are going straight to somewhere far worse than hell!”

  As I walk away, I hear him growl, “Your flight leaves in four hours, Amelia. You have to fucking pack."

  "I've got my own business to attend to," I say, throwing the offhand comment over my shoulder. "Then I'll pack."

  If only Alberto could see my face as I walk away. I am, by no means, as strong as I portray. I rock the boat but only because it makes me feel like I have some power in this family. Without that ability, I fear I’ll fade away. I make sure people know how defiant and heartless I am so I’m remembered. Because Alberto is right – without this family, I am nothing. I have nothing left to do but to cling on by my fingertips.

  I shake away the feelings in me and replace my fear with the same stoic look I’ve worn for months. Lorenzo more than likely heard my altercation with my uncle, but he doesn’t need to see how heavily I wear the aftermath. That’s something I need to cope with alone.

  “Bella! You really need to cool your anger,” Lorenzo says standing up to greet me. “It gets you nowhere.”

  “I know,” I admit, meekly.

  “Come here,” he urges and reaches for me.

  I fall into his arms with ease, wanting nothing more than to forget everything and anything. However, Alberto bringing up Zane has me fighting such an inner battle that I’m scared will implode. As Lorenzo kisses me, tantalizing every piece of me with his hands and lips alone, I push away, refusing to fall into any sort of blissful state. It’s not lovemaking; it’s just sex to me. I love that rush of endorphins, but besides that, Lorenzo is not the man I want to settle with. I don’t want him to kiss away memories of Zane anymore, not like I have allowed him to do up to this point.

  “Stop,” I whisper, my hand pushing flat against his chest. He gives me a small, doleful look. “Lorenzo, I’m going home today. We have to stop this now. We have no future. When I leave here, we’re over.”

  “Then I follow,” he responds, his broken English sounding desperate for all the wrong reasons. “You leave, I follow.”

  “No,” I tell him, shaking my head. “What we had was fun, but it ends here. We were nothing more than a fling. I can’t love you.”

  “Well, I try to make you love me,” he says, not quite nailing the right translation again, but his sincerity overshadows that imperfection. “I can’t lose you now.”

  I’ve done a lot of things in my time, but what the fuck have I done this time?

  It’s like a dog with a bone; one I’m not going to get rid of soon and all because I couldn’t keep my panties on.

  Fuck my life.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  ZANE

  She’s Coming Home.

  “Did you hear me?” a sharp taut voice pierces through to my reverie. “She’s coming home and it’s your doing.”

  I look up, to find Sal sat against his desk, watching me carefully. His lips are drawn in a straight line and his tired eyes tell me he’s not even attempted to get back to sleep since I left earlier. To me, it seems they’ve all be up deliberating over the matter at hand – Amelia.

  “In actual fact, she should be in the car coming from the airport as we speak if there were no delays,” he speaks again, this time looking at his watch. “You have no idea what this homecoming is going to do to this family, Maverick.”

  “I can only assume,” I say, sitting to attempt to fix my crumpled suit.r />
  My arrival back at the mansion was quick and yet extremely fucking rough. I had my meeting with Sal which went a lot like it did before, but this time I walked myself out after having the final say. I’ll remember the look in Salvatore’s eyes until the day I die after I said one key important thing – you’ll need me long before I need you in order to win Amelia around. I’m your way to your own daughter now.

  I had no idea how long I slept before the door to my motel room blew open and I was pulled from my bed, still fully clothed in the suit I had killed a man in and dragged to an awaiting car. By the time I made it back to the house I was looking worse for wear, but more prepared for what awaited me than ever.

  Now, I was getting my every wish.

  “You do know that the only reason I’m allowing you to be part of my family is to give me the opportunity to my daughter to see me as a friend, not a fiend again. I know after her learning of all my deceit she’ll take a lot longer to see me as a father, but there are ways to get the ball rolling.”

  He pushes himself from the desk and begins to pace, heading over to tall chest of drawers in his office to grab a family photo. He puts it back down, leaning his head forward I hear him begin to chuckle lowly to himself.

  “Watching you fight your pathetic heart when she’s around will be added entertainment for me.” He turns back to me now, watching me even more intensely than ever. “You’ll have to look, but you can’t touch.”

  “Whatever happens between Amelia and I will be her doing,” I state clearly. I won’t be pushing her back into a corner with this, I’ll allow her to come to me. “I’m here for you and what you have to offer me.”

  “Better to play with the devil than him,” Sal muses distantly, smirking. “Do you really think she’ll give you a third look?” Sal asks, antagonizing me. “Maverick, you’re worth very little in life and all of her happier memories with you are sure to be eclipsed by the sound of you breaking her heart not once, but twice in one lifetime.”

  “I’m well aware,” I tell him, not offering much on the situation.

  “I want you here purely because I feel like you own me a great debt,” Sal announces, taking up a clean pace behind me. “You also have very little left to live for and a man like that becomes greedy and willing to do all manner of things. You’re perfect for the Dio Lavoro. My greatest of men have risen from the ashes of their dismal lives and become some of the most fearsome men in my pack. Soon, loving my daughter will be in the back of your mind very soon.”

  “I’m sure it will,” I say, giving him a curt smile. “She’ll be coming home to a different Zane anyway. The one who loved her and broke her doesn’t exist anymore.”

  “Killing a man like you did will do that to you,” Sal notes, nodding his head. “If you had done that in the first instance, I wouldn’t have thrown you out after publicly embarrassing you. I’d have seen the seriousness of your nature.” He comes to stand beside me, his face set with seriousness. “Mark my words; I know what you’re up to, Maverick. I know coming here isn’t about being a part of the Dio Lavoro, but more about being close to Amelia. You’re on borrowed time. I see you make an advance for her and I’ll have your head on a spike in my office. You win me over before you even attempt to win her, do I make myself clear?”

  “Crystal,” I agree, gravely.

  He’s making this too easy, I know he is, but I’ll take whatever I can get. Most men don’t get a second chance, I’m lucky I’m still even here. As voices sound in the hall, I realize the moment we’ve all been waiting for is upon us.

  “Seems the fun and games are about to get started.” Sal rubs his hands together, looking all the more gleeful to have his daughter back in his home. “Better look sharp, Maverick, because I know what my daughter’s been like while away,” he says. “I’m going to go and greet her. Don’t even think about moving.”

  Sal stands ready before his desk, beside me, buttoning up his jacket to look sophisticated and ready. I, however, remain slumped in my chair, feeling the enormity of my actions finally weigh on me as if gravity just gained a few thousand ton.

  He disappears from my side and I hear the door open, every other sound around me disappears for a moment until I hear Sal’s voice cut through the distance followed by Amelia’s. She’s sound angry and unforgiving, but Sal doesn’t change his demeanor in the slightest. Suddenly, the voices start to move closer, inching towards me and I can hear how Amelia isn’t the same girl I loved before.

  As I hear them in the hallway leading into Sal’s office, my breath becomes staccato bursts and I feel like my heart is about to explode.

  This is it, I think as I slump further into my chair.

  “Zane?”

  Her voice softens for a moment as confusion clouds her darkened nature at the sight of me, I’m sure.

  She’s back and I can’t even bring myself to look at her.

  So much has happened since that night four months ago and now, now there are so many lies, moments of guilt, deathly midnight hours that I don’t know how I’ll be able to look her in the eyes ever again.

  No one said the third time was meant to be easy. I just never expected it to be this difficult.

  Now the real fight begins – the one to win Amelia back.

  Wish me luck.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  AMELIA

  I’VE SPENT ALMOST fourteen hours cooped up on a plane with an excitable twenty-seven-year-old tourist. That’s all I can call him right now. Lorenzo has bounded through the airport, excitedly jumped onto our jet, and hasn’t shut up about how amazing America will be. He seems to think this is a holiday for him.

  He’s got another thing coming.

  As the Bentley brakes, I look out of my blackened window and see the large, black iron cast gates begin to wobble as they open. Our driver puts his foot on the accelerator and when there’s enough room, he storms up the gravel drive, drawing us closer to my home. With every mile covered since we left the airport, my nerves have manifested into tiny demons, all clawing away within me. I’m haunted by them, and if anything, I think I might start to fucking throw up.

  “Bella, calm,” Lorenzo says as he reaches to take my hand.

  I panic as I realize how clammy it feels within his and I pull my hand from his grasp. I run both my palms down my fuchsia skirt, smile, and look at Lorenzo. He’s so sweet and oblivious, and I wonder how my uncle has been able to shield him from all dangers.

  Having no surviving children of his own, Alberto took Lorenzo in as his own after finding him lost on the streets of the Amalfi Coast. He grew up in our family fold, but due to being miles apart, I went from seeing Lorenzo when he was a small child to now being a six-foot-two, tanned god. I knew a lot could change in just over a decade, but I never expected him to steal my breath away. Maybe it was the drop-dead likeness to Zane that did it, but Lorenzo is actually perfectly beautiful in his own right.

  “It’s been so long,” I counter, shaking my head with some wild hope that I’ll calm. “What if I’ve left it too long?”

  “If they love you like you do them, don’t worry,” he replies sweetly and gives me a small smile.

  I have no time to reply as the car slows to a halt. I wait on the door to open before I clamber out as ladylike as possible, dragging my huge brown Prada bag from the car with me. I thank Matty, our driver, and look up at my house. It hasn’t changed, but I’d be a fool to suspect anything inside has remained the same. The thought, in itself, propels me to the door, and I don’t hesitate to push my way into the large foyer. The front doors are unlocked but on constant watch. My father didn’t want his guests to feel like they were imprisoned. Once inside the highly guarded walls of the Abbiati palace, you were free to go where you liked.

  I can feel Lorenzo right behind me, but it doesn’t deter me because I know he’ll follow like my lapdog. I rush around the house, and I only seem to come across empty, spotless rooms. I hear laughter suddenly cut the clean air and I clearly depict each of my b
rothers’ tones in it. The sound has me gravitating toward them, and I feel myself become brazen. After all the hopes and wishes for a hug, it’s finally here and I want to run toward it.

  However, all of my confidence disperses from me as I see them all. My brothers sit around on the back porch of the house all laughing, each with a beer in their hands. They look the epitome of happy while I’m the one cast into a dark cloud. I haven’t been happy since the last time Zane made love to me. That is the last time I can pinpoint when I thought everything would truly be okay. And while I douse myself with more and more pessimism, they’re having a jolly good fucking kickback time.

  I guess life had to go on without me.

  “Are you not going to go in?” Lorenzo asks, prompting me with a whisper.

  I want to, but a part of me falters as I wonder how they will be react to me suddenly being back. Will they know I was on my way back? I never asked my uncle whom the orders came from. Having been out of the loop for so long, I don’t even know who’s dealing with what anymore. I can feel the shift in everything around me. This isn’t the same place I left, but at the same time, this is my home and this is where I belong.