by Morgan Black
I walked away from him. No one would be able to see the emotion on my face in the dark light of the club. She lied to me. The woman that I built my entire world around had known this whole time what a monster I was. And now she chose to run away? Why?
But I knew the answer.
She had finally seen the truth.
I couldn't blame her for not being able to handle it. I thought if anybody could, she was strong enough to. She should've understood that I did what I did just to help her. To keep her safe. But all the time together? Maybe she had gotten more than she bargained for.
Maybe she had wanted to stay after all.
My father emerged from downstairs. He didn't look happy.
“Xavier, we need to talk.”
I pushed all of my emotions about Farrah away and I followed him outside. He left the security at the door.
“Pops, what's going on?”
“You tell me. I just received a call that Farrah was seen with the Irish. You know about that?”
The Irish? What the hell would she be doing with the Irish? Was two-timing me not enough? Anger started to bubble up in my stomach.
Suddenly, it hit me, and my heart fell into the pit of my stomach. She wasn't answering her phone. She hadn’t come home. It wasn't that she was done with me, it was that she couldn't come back.
The Irish had her.
Oh my God. After everything I had done to get her back, to make her mine, they had fucking taken her? Like she was theirs. Hell no.
“What do you know?” I yelled at him, enraged.
Pops squinted at me. “Tell me first. How long has she been in Chicago?”
“A few months, maybe, I’m not even sure.” I didn’t know enough of the truth to answer honestly, and it made me crazy. “The Salvatores sent her to set me up. To find out the truth about her father. She knows all of that now. And she still chose not to kill me.”
“Why the hell would she kill you? Has she even seen you?”
I saw the realization dawn on his face. It might've taken the old man a minute, but he knew what was going on.
“You're sleeping with her, aren’t you? God, Xavier! We don't have any kind of time for this shit. Armani is playing both sides, we've got the Salvatores on the move, and now we have this crap with the Irish! And you want to get into bed with an old flame?”
“The Salvatores were only on the move because of her. They've been dealt with.”
“How?”
I shrugged. “Ask Dante for particulars. Ramsey was going off the deep end. They were only mobilizing because they thought they needed to come out here and get him. He's gone crazy, Pops. As for the Armani problem, we’re solving that issue tonight. I think that the Irish have Farrah. As much as she might hate me right now, she wouldn’t go and help the Irish. They're out for more than just our properties. They want blood.”
My father pulled a 9mm out of the back of his pants and cocked it. The loud click of the gun filled the silence between us. “You love this girl?”
I nodded. “I have since the moment I laid eyes on her.”
“You are a rebellious little son of a bitch, do you know that? I specifically remember telling you to leave that girl alone.”
“I know. But I couldn't.”
“Fine. If she means that much to you, then she is part of the family now. Let's go blow up some of the Irish. It's been a while since I've gotten blood on my hands, and I don't like to get boring in my old age.”
He signaled to the security, and they came out of the building. The town car pulled up, and the driver got out to open the door for both of us. My father got in first, and I slid in after him.
“It's just us?”
“There’s security in the SUV behind us. Dante will follow that unmarked car. As far as the rest of the family goes? Yes. It's just us. For now. If things go south, the family will respond. You know they will.”
“I do. But Pops, I don’t want you to get hurt over this. That's not how this has to go down. It’s my fight with them. Let me deal with that little Irish shit. I can handle him on my own.”
“No. This is family. No one is allowed to touch our family. You understand?”
No one could command a response like my father could. I didn't respect anyone more than him. “Yeah Pops, I understand.”
He put his gun in his lap and he looked out the window. I knew we would ride in silence the rest of the way there. Both contemplating what we could gain, and what we could lose from this fight.
I could lose Farrah.
But I couldn’t lose my father either.
I knew I was going to have to kill a lot of men. And that was fine with me.
Blood on my hands wasn't new.
Twenty-Five
Farrah
I sat in the dark with my knees hugged against my chest. I had been there almost the entire day. I had never left the pub. I was such an idiot for walking in there. I should have just stayed with Xavier.
Ian had taken me upstairs and put me in a private apartment. If you could even call it that. The place was the size of Xavier’s bedroom. It was a small studio with a bed, kitchenette, and attached bathroom. He had some thug watching over me the entire time. When I had asked to go to the bathroom earlier, I checked to see if there was a window I could escape out of. Unfortunately, there wasn’t. I was trapped, with no way to warn Xavier about what was about to happen.
Ian offered me food, but I barely ate anything. My stomach was tied up in knots, and there was no way I would have been able to keep anything down. All that I wanted to do was go home. I wanted to hear Xavier's voice telling me that he would take care of everything again.
For the second time in my life, he was going to have to kill for me, and I hated that. It wasn't fair to ask him to do that, to break little pieces of his soul by killing people to free me. But I knew he would have to. Ian wasn't letting me go that easy. Especially since there was money involved. He seemed like a greedy asshole.
I couldn’t believe Ramsey had put out a hit on me. Somebody to kidnap me, and finish the job if I couldn’t. It was like he knew the whole time I wouldn’t go through with it. And he was that desperate to end Xavier? How had he lost his way so much?
The door to the apartment swung open, and the thug moved to the side, allowing Ian and two other cronies to enter. Ian was dressed in a dark green suit with a silver tie, and there was something charming about him even though I knew I wanted to hit him. I shot him a nasty glare.
“It's time to go, Farrah. We have a meeting with your boyfriend.”
“And what are you going to do with me there?”
“Use you as a bargaining chip, of course. The Irish need to have more control of the land. I am sick and tired of the Santini family owning everything. I want complete control of Third, Fourth, and Fifth Street. The little restaurant that we’re meeting in tonight? I want it closed down. I don't want his people on my streets. And if he doesn't go for it, I'll throw you into the mix.”
“You’re going to go through all this even though you have me?”
He shrugged. “I don't really care how I get what I want. I just need to get it. Oh, by the way, someone is here to see you.”
“Who?”
“Farrah,” Ramsey said as he walked into the room. He had a limp, obviously from the altercation with Xavier.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I said with venom dripping from my voice. I thought Xavier had disposed of him. But it was my call to make sure he lived. I was so stupid! If I had let him kill Ramsey, then I wouldn’t be here.
“Making a claim. You belong with us, Farrah. And this gentleman says he’ll take care of our problem for us.”
“Our problem? You are the problem! Xavier was trying to protect us. He didn’t go after my father for any other reason than to keep us safe!” As soon as I said it, I knew I believed it. He just wanted to protect me, always looking out for me.
Xavier loved me.
Large knots formed in my stomach.
Ian never planned on having to use me for leverage. I was bait. I was the reason Xavier would come to the meet.
Ian didn't know Xavier like I did. What he would do to get me back. I was sure that by now, Xavier had to have figured out what happened to me. The Santinis had eyes all over the city. Someone had to have seen me wander into Irish territory.
I pushed myself up off the carpet and walked across the room. I forced my hands out in front of me like I was being handcuffed. “I assume you want to restrain me?”
Ian raised an eyebrow, while my uncle just ignored me. “Doubt it. You won't try anything. Not unless you want Xavier to get shot in the head.”
“Isn’t that the plan?” I said to Ramsey.
“It’s for your own good, you know. It’ll give you the closure you need.”
“No, and it won’t give you the semblance of closure that you’re desperately clinging to. I know it won’t. Xavier is a good man. But in the end, you’ll never see that side of him. Because you choose not to.”
I thought to myself that when Xavier killed both of these men, they would still think he was evil. He would just prove it to them. That was on them. Not me.
This was their fault.
“Why do you want him dead?” I said, turning to Ian.
He smiled and it made my skin crawl. “Because I want blood and money. My needs are very simple.”
A surge of panic coursed through my body. Ian never wanted Xavier to give the Irish more control. He wanted an excuse to kill him, and that would start a full on war with the Santini family. It was all just a set up to get Xavier somewhere alone where they could take care of him. After they did that, I wouldn’t matter to them anymore, and I’d probably end up dead too. I took in a shaky breath and followed him out of the room.
Twenty-Six
Xavier
Adrenaline coursed through my body. My legs were bouncing by the time we arrived at the restaurant. My father put his hand on my knee. “Xavier, be patient. We have to let him show his hand and be sure she's okay before we make any moves.”
I nodded, but my knee continued to bounce. The driver came around and opened the door for me and I slid off of the leather seat. My trusty knife was strapped to my leg as usual, but I also hid a 9mm in my pants. While I hated to actually use a gun, I would use it if I needed to. It wasn’t as personal as I liked, not close enough to the kill. If I was going to end a person’s life, I needed to be intimately involved.
We arrived at the restaurant first, which didn't surprise me. They closed down especially for meeting. We sat at a long table in the middle of the dimly lit room, waiting for the Irish to arrive. Dante was in the unmarked car parked across the street. It was just my father and I and two men of our security team inside. They stood behind each of us, protecting our backs. We waited anxiously for at most fifteen minutes before Ian walked in, alone.
“Xavier, good to see you again.” He extended a hand to me and I shook it. Clearly we were going to pretend that he didn't have Farrah. Pops and I decided to just play along.
“This must be your father?”
“Yes. The head of the Santini mob family.”
Ian reached out and shook my father's hand. Pops did not get up out of his seat like I had. His body language made it very clear that he was in charge of this meeting, no matter what Ian had to offer.
“Sit.” My father extended a hand to the seat next to his. Ian sat down looking smug. I just wanted to pummel him. Wipe that fake fucking smile off of his face.
“As I'm sure Xavier's already told you, I have come here with a business proposition. My family wants some of your properties. And some of your sales. We’ve already started the process of purchasing some of Third Street. But I want more than that.”
He paused, letting my father digest that. I had been so removed from the business that I didn’t know we had lost some land. Once this was all over, I needed to pay closer attention to the family. I needed to protect everyone better.
Ian continued. “I do appreciate that you have taken care of that situation with Armani. While I am not pleased that our dealer was hurt in the process, I do want you to understand that we were never selling anything like Armani was. We had totally different buyers in the market, and I apologize if our business came off the wrong way. Tonight, I would like to make a simple exchange.”
I watched my father closely out of the corner of my eye. “A simple exchange? What will you give me for our properties? Because at this point, I don't see that you have anything to offer.”
“Simple. You officially let go of the properties and we won't start a war.”
I took a deep breath. “A war? Why have we jumped there? We have never had any problems with the Irish.”
But we were about to, once I killed this little punk for taking my girl.
My father spoke next. “We rightfully own those properties and you tried to take them over with gunrunning. That is a dirty fucking business that we wanted nothing do with. Is that why you want the properties?”
He sat back in his chair, looking casual. “Honestly? I want to get out of guns. Construction is what I'm most interested in.”
Money-laundering. This fucking bastard was trying to take our main line of business.
“It's so much less complicated. When you run guns, someone is always after you. It’s either the feds or other families, and we all make sacrifices. I want to clean my hands of it.”
“Sacrifices? What have you sacrificed?”
“You have no idea what I've given up for my family. But if you don't take this deal, there will be consequences.”
My body tensed. I could easily fly over this table and have my hands on his throat in a second. It would only take a few seconds for me to crush his windpipe. But even though he was putting on this facade of being alone during this meeting, I knew it wasn't true. He had to have more men on us, or worse, he would kill Farrah. I wasn’t willing to take that risk.
“What kind of consequences?”
Movement near the door caught my eye. I turned to see a man in a suit walk in. He looked different—cleaned up, but broken. I had broken him. I had made him that way.
Because he deserved it. He tried to hurt her.
“We have her, Xavier, you know we do. But I'm not an idiot. I know you already knew that. Gossip in this town runs pretty quickly.”
Fucking Ramsey.
“I thought I sent you back to where you came from.”
“My family does, too. But I had to finish what I started. I had to end this once and for all.”
“I will fucking kill you,” I said, pulling the gun from my pants. The chair dropped to the floor and I stood, releasing the safety. “Give her back to me.”
Ian stood from the table, looking afraid. Somehow, he hadn’t planned for this. My father just sat at the head, looking calm.
Pops spoke up. “Ramsey, stop all of this. My son did what I asked of him, and you have no issue with him. Your pain is from my choice, from me allowing him to kill Maria’s husband. And you,” he said, turning toward Ian. “You’ve gotten yourself into more than you can handle. I see the fear in your eyes. You should leave.”
“I won’t stop. Not until you’re all dead. You took her from me. She turned her back on us because of you!” Ramsey looked insane. He pulled his own gun and another man came up behind him, protecting his six. We were outnumbered.
Fuck.
Ian spoke. “Ramsey, what the hell are you doing? We had a deal. I keep Farrah for you and bring them here, you pay me and I leave. Then you deal with this. I told you, no guns until I was gone!”
He shook his head, running his fingers through his hair. “My father isn’t going to like this. He just wants the properties, and if I’m here when you kill them, the Santinis will come for my family and they’ll blame me.”
“And you’ll lose,” I seethed. Now this all made sense. Ian would get the money from Ramsey and split. Then Ramsey would kill us, but the McLarens wouldn’t be involved. He co
uld get away cleanly with a little extra money in his pocket. And if we took revenge on him, his family wouldn’t know why. He would lie like the little snake that he was and claim he wasn’t involved.
His eyes grew wide. He knew I was right. We would take out his whole fucking family for this.
He put his hands up. “I’m out. I don’t want to go down for this.”
Ramsey fired a shot in his direction, narrowly missing him on purpose. “You can’t get out of this. You caused it. Now sit the fuck down and watch.”
Ian shook his head. “I’ll die for this.”
“It’s your own damn fault,” I said to him. “Money hungry piece of shit.” I still had my gun on Ramsey. If he fired another round, I would put one between his eyes.
“Now go get the girl.”
Ian looked to Ramsey and he nodded. “They need to see she’s safe. Otherwise this will have all been for nothing. Besides, I want her to watch when I kill them.”
Ian stood and walked out the front door, avoiding Ramsey’s eyes the best he could. He came back only a minute later with her.
She looked terrified, and confused once she saw her uncle again. They had gagged her, a piece of white fabric wrapped around her head and mouth. She spotted me and her eyes grew wide. She didn’t want me to get hurt. But she didn’t need to worry. The thug pushed her in front of him and Ramsey grabbed her, pushing his gun to her temple. “No one moves. Ian, get the hell out of here.”
That stupid ass Irishman listened. He and the thug exited the restaurant like a dog with a tail between his legs. I would have to deal with him another time. Right now, I had to get Farrah away from Ramsey. I had to save her first, and then deal with the Irish for their play at deception.
Pops stood from the table. “Ramsey, this is a fool’s mistake. What do you think you’re doing? Killing my son? The girl? None of that makes sense. You’re here for revenge, but against the wrong man. Go after her father’s friend, the real murderer. We’ve already looked in it, and we can get someone on the inside if you need. We can take care of him.”