Screwing the Mob

by Kristen Luciani

  I lean against a wall and stab at the screen, my other arm still tight around Shaye. “Okay, all clear. They’re waiting for us at the car.”

  Max has his gun drawn, ready for any unsuspecting goon to leap out at us. But we only pass bloody, motionless bodies. Not only is Viktor’s crew stealthy and deadly, but they had a vendetta of their own to carry out. New Year’s Eve or not, they weren’t missing an opportunity to take out their biggest competition.

  Rocco lets out a wheeze and leans against the chain link fence outside of the warehouse. His face is pinched, teeth gritted.

  “You okay?” I shift Shaye in my arms and stop next to him. “Can you make it?”

  Rocco nods, his eyes squeezed shut. Jaw set, he opens his eyes and winks at me. “Fuck yeah. I’m no pussy. And I don’t plan on being wheeled out of here on a gurney. Let’s go.”

  I stay close to him just in case his body gives out before his mouth utters a warning. One of Viktor’s guys approaches and snakes an arm around Rocco to support him. A loud siren blares out into the otherwise still air. “Cops. We’ve gotta get out of here now.”

  A few steps later, we load Rocco and Shaye into Rocco’s car. “Viktor, thanks for tonight. You and your guys really saved our asses.”

  “It was worth it to see that motherfucker’s head blown off. You did good work.” Viktor opens the passenger door of the truck. “I’ll be around. But now, we leave because I can’t do your business any good if I’m rotting in some shithole prison waiting to be deported.”

  “Wait.” I toss him my car keys. A two-seater ain’t getting us to the doc. “Get it out of here. I’ll find you tomorrow.”

  He nods and opens the driver’s side door, sliding into the bucket seat. The truck’s engine roars to life next to my R8, and I watch the taillights from both vehicles shrink until blackness consumes my line of sight. I can see now that it’s impossible to be successful without trusting those around you. I’ve always felt like people have had my back because of who my father and grandfather are. But tonight, I was on my own against an enemy with a grudge and a shit-ton of firepower, and who I’m related to didn’t amount to crap. I came here to settle a score, to save face, and get my girl. I may not have whacked anyone before tonight, but I came in strong and left stronger with the unlikeliest of allies.

  “Nico, get the fuck into the car so Rocco doesn’t die on the way.”

  I slide into the backseat, resting Shaye’s head on my lap, while Rocco writhes around in the front with Max at the wheel.

  “You’re the fucking snitch,” he grumbles. “And I’m the one who gets shot. Where’s the justice?”

  “Stop your bullshit whining. Consider yourself lucky that nobody’s put a bullet in your brain yet.” Max zooms out of the parking lot and maneuvers the car down a service road with only seconds to spare before the sirens pierced the night air in our wake. He pulls over to the side of the road behind a group of trees and shuts off the engine and the lights. About half a dozen cop cars peel around a corner and tear down the street in the direction of the warehouse. Talk about a night of dodging bullets, literally and figuratively.

  When the lights dim to the point that we know we’re safe from the law, Max starts the car and pulls out into the road, heading in the opposite direction toward the turnpike. Doc has a place in Edgewater, and about twenty minutes later, we’re driving around the back of the building and heading down to the basement parking garage where the service elevators ensure the utmost discretion for shuttling bloody bodies.

  Max rolls to a stop right next to the elevator bank, gets out and presses the Up button. There’s no doorman down here, no security cameras to fear. Just a plain metal box that’ll transport us to the one place we can go for medical attention without getting hammered by the cops. He pulls open the back door and Shaye stirs, her eyes fluttering open.

  “Where are we?” she murmurs.

  I stroke her hair. “We’re getting help for you and Rocco.”

  Max leans in and wraps his arms around her waist. “Come on, sis. Let me get you out, okay?”

  “Max, hang on to her, okay?” I jump out of the back and yank open the passenger side door. “Come on, Rocco. You’re almost there.”

  He lets out a yelp, and I clap a hand over his mouth. “Not here, buddy. Zip it until we’re upstairs.”

  I snake an arm under his and hoist him up, guiding him to the elevator door, now open and waiting for us. Shaye leans against Max, her eyes drooping closed again. I still can’t believe what went down tonight and how we ever got out of it.

  But we fucking did.

  The elevator creeps up to the tenth floor and opens right into the doc’s makeshift waiting room.

  Tony jumps when the elevator dings and runs over to Shaye, but not before he silently wishes instant death upon me from across the room. Actually, it may not have been silent. I think my ears are still numb right now from the gunshots, along with every other extremity, that is. Yes, even that one, for the first time in my life.

  After getting Rocco into one of the exam rooms with Doc’s help, Max and I guide Shaye into the other room and gently lay her on the gurney. Her eyes are glassy and unfocused, and a sharp pang in my chest alerts me to the fact that nobody knows how far things have gotten with us. Well, except for Max, and I’m sure he’ll have quite a time wiping those images from his memory. I squeeze her hand, and her lips curl upward in response.

  “I love you,” I mouth, careful not to make any suspicious sounds.

  Max rolls his eyes and mouths a few choice words of his own at me.

  “How the fuck did this happen?” Tony barges into the room with my dad right behind him. He narrows his eyes at me, and I debate which lie to let roll off my tongue since the reality of me sleeping with his daughter not one hour before the kidnapping doesn’t seem to be my best shot at surviving this line of questioning.

  Fortunately, I don’t have to say a word because Max offers the explanation. And it’s a damn good one, if I say so myself. “Dad, Shaye’s tire caught a flat when she was coming home from the city. She pulled off the turnpike and got stuck in a pothole. She called me for help, and that’s when they grabbed her.” He shrugs. “They must have been looking to bait me, so when I found out Cap had her, I called Nico and Rocco for backup.”

  Nice. Leave the Russians out of this. There’s enough bad blood between them and Tony. And Max didn’t even know about Viktor before tonight anyway. We’ll just keep that part to ourselves for now. I’m sure it’ll come out later…everything does at some point or other.

  Tony’s gaze is still fixed on me, like he’s trying to sear a hole into my brain to see if I have a different take on the night’s events. I stare right back and nod. “That’s how it went down, Tony.”

  “Really,” he spats, moving closer to the bed.

  “That’s what happened, for Christ’s sake!” Rocco moans loudly from the neighboring room. “Fuck! Am I eligible for some medical attention, guys? Or are you all going to let me die while you argue about timelines? The bastard is dead, Shaye is safe, and I’m bleeding out like I’ve just given birth. Those are the most important things here, yeah? So can we get on with this? Please?”

  Doc comes out of the washing area, suited up and ready to put Rocco back together. “Okay, time to get out of here and let me work on these two. Argue in the waiting room.”

  Max leads the way out of Shaye’s room, and I’m on his heels, anxious to put as much distance between me and Tony as possible.

  Tony wants exactly the opposite. He grabs my wrist and pushes me into a corner. “Do you know how wrong things could have gone tonight? You had no idea who you were dealing with, and you went in there guns blazing. Tell me how the hell you managed to come out alive!”

  Dad muscles his way between us and places his hands on Tony’s chest to hold him back. “Stop browbeating him. Shaye is alive. Rocco is right. That’s the most important thing.”

  Tony glares at my dad. “You knew this was happenin
g, didn’t you? And you also know this won’t be the end of them.” He turns back to me. “But you didn’t consider that, did you, Nico? You and the other two clowns just figured you could take them all out in one shot, right? Always got something to prove. This time you messed up big. Because Cap ain’t going to lie still in his fucking grave. He’s too busy directing his fucking minions from the afterlife. He’ll be back, and when he shows up, trust me, you’ll be wishing for a replay of this night.”

  “What the hell were we supposed to do, let them kill her?” Max raises his voice and barrels into the conversation. “We did what we had to do, Dad. For fuck’s sake, how can you say we messed up?”

  Tony clenches his fists. “You didn’t call us, goddammit! This was a time when you needed us in your corner to handle things with Cappodamo the right way, but you didn’t abide by the rules. You made ’em up as you went, and now we’re all gonna pay. It didn’t have to come to this!”

  I rake a hand through my hair. Popping a cap between the boss’s eyes showed strength and resolve, and that was one of my goals. I needed to get my guys to trust me. Without trust, there’s no respect. Without respect, there’s no loyalty. But that’s not the only reason why I went in there, and I can’t hide the truth from him any longer.

  “He wanted me,” I say quietly, and Tony’s head snaps in my direction.

  “What do you mean, he wanted you?”

  I let out a deep sigh, avoiding my dad’s pleading eyes. Like I said, everything comes out sooner or later. “Cap knew I was with Shaye tonight. I was on the phone with her when they grabbed her. She was leaving my house.”

  Tony moves Max out of the way using only his shoulder and he closes the gap between us. “You’d better tell me everything, Nico,” he hisses. “Fucking everything, starting right now.”

  “Shaye and I—”

  “Daddy!” Shaye’s weak voice stops me mid-confession. “Please come in here.”

  Tony leaves me with another death glare and stomps into the exam room, slamming the door behind him.

  “Are you insane?” Max exclaims in a loud whisper. “You were gonna tell him about you and Shaye?”

  I nod. “Max, I know you’re angry about what you saw, but it’s not what you think. I’m in love with her. I have been for as long as I could remember. And I almost lost her. Three times now. I won’t risk losing her again. And I’ll blow away anyone who dares touch her again.”

  “Aren’t you a big man riding high on your first kill?” Max’s jaw twitches. “I can’t get that shit out of my head, Nico. Knowing the way you are with chicks, and now you’re with my baby sister…it had better be for real, bro. I’ll fuck you up if you hurt her.” He peeks his head around mine and points to my dad. “I’m serious. I’ll pop a cap in his ass if he missteps. And I think Grandpa Vito would be okay with that.”

  Dad cracks a smile. “I think so, too. And can we please not go into any more detail about this?”

  I snicker. “Yeah, I’m good with that.”

  Tony pushes open the exam room and walks back over to us. “She said she loves you.”

  “I love her, too.”

  “She said that also,” he grumbles. “But I’m glad to hear it from you.”

  “Look, I know there’s a lot between our families — a lot of bad blood, but a lot of history, too. I’m not saying we have to put it all behind us, but you’re all going to have to be okay with this thing between me and Shaye. I’d give my life for her without a thought. That’s why things happened the way they did tonight. She was in trouble, and I did what I had to do to protect her. To protect all of us.”

  “I get why you did it, Nico.” Tony leans back against the wall outside the exam room. “You just don’t know what you started. You think you ended things, but you couldn’t be more wrong. It’s nothing you could have anticipated.” He nods toward my dad. “Hell, you probably didn’t even know anything about it.”

  Dad shakes his head. “I told him to handle it his way. He needed to command the situation, and he did.”

  Tony pushes back his hair and grunts. “Yeah, but at what cost?”

  “Negotiating with him wouldn’t have gotten us anywhere. You know that. They got your daughter out of there and in one piece. We can deal with everything else.”

  “Even you don’t understand—"

  “Okay, Rocco is about ready to go in for repair. I just finished prepping him. He’s close to drifting off.” Doc appears from the other exam room. “Anyone want to leave him with a few final words while he’s still lucid enough to understand them?”

  “I’ll go.” I leave the conversation because I’m just too tired to follow the circle talk anymore. I walk into the room where Rocco is laid out on his gurney, an IV stuck into his hand. Fucking needles. I’ve always hated them. “How are you doing?”

  Rocco lets out a low moan. “I’m okay. As long as he keeps giving me morphine.”

  “Listen, Rocco. You really went above and beyond for the family tonight. You could have bailed when Max called. You could have dissented and gotten in with Cap’s team. You could have done a lot of things differently, things that would have gotten most of us, if not all of us, killed.”

  He didn’t. He stuck with the family and put his own life on the line. He just earned my eternal gratitude and respect, two things I don’t give easily.

  “So what does that mean for me?” he mumbles. “I still have to work for that asswad Max?”

  “For a while.” I chuckle. “But I’ll be there to referee, don’t worry.”

  “I’d better get some of the good jobs, Nico.”

  “You’re not really in a position to make demands.”

  “Eh.” He smirks. “I figured I’d give it a shot.”

  “I’d rather not see you take any more shots tonight, okay?”

  “Yeah…” His voice drifts off and his eyes float closed. The morphine has officially kicked in. I back out of the room and nod at the doc. “He’s out.”

  “He’ll be in surgery for a few hours, and then it’ll be awhile before he’s awake.” Doc heads back into the exam room.

  Dad claps me on the shoulder. “Want to head out? Or are you staying?”

  “I’m staying. He did a lot for me tonight. I’m not going to leave him now. Besides,” I wink at Tony and Max. “My girl’s still in there. You couldn’t chase me out of here with a machete.”

  Dad looks over at Tony. “Coffee?”

  Tony stares back at him. It looks like he’s debating his answer. He’s always been a stubborn bastard. Let it go, Tony. Let it fucking go already. “Yeah,” he grumbles. “We’ll be back soon.”

  Max collapses into a cushioned chair. “Yep, you’re stuck with me. Sorry. I owe that jackass, too. Wouldn’t feel right to leave.”

  Dad and Tony disappear into the elevator. Max swipes through screens on his phone without looking up at me. “Think they’re gonna finally put this shit to rest?”

  “I hope so. It’s been long enough.”

  “Cappodamo is bad news.” Max sticks his phone back into his pocket. “You know that, right? He’s like gonorrhea. He’ll always be around, waiting to flare up. And he’s invaded all of the families in some way or other.”

  “He never infiltrated ours.”

  “No…” Max looks up. “And that pisses him off.”

  “You mean pissed him off.”

  Max taps his fingers on the arms of the chair. “No, I meant pisses. The dude ain’t dead. He’s got claws into everything, and he has an army who will carry out his plans. Those plans include taking us down, more so now than ever. Kidnapping Shaye was only the beginning.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean he never intended for you to leave that place alive. Anyone else would have been a bonus, but you? You’re the top prize. Don’t think they’re gonna walk away from seeing his plan carried out just because he’s six feet under. And don’t think you can ‘business’ your way out of this.”

  I lean forward, my
head in my hands. “I did what I had to do.”

  “I know. Just don’t be stupid enough to think they won’t try to finish the job. Because they will. They always do.”

  Except this time, they won’t. But nobody needs to know why…yet.

  I stand up and stretch my arms overhead. “I’m going to check in on Shaye.”

  He nods at me without looking up from his phone. “Okay, I’ll be here.”

  “Do me a favor and call Duke for me. Let him know we’re all clear to vacate the club with heavy security at all exits, and I’ll touch base later.”

  “Will do, bro.”

  I knock lightly on the door in case she’s asleep, and I open it a crack to see her smiling face.

  “How was my dad with you?” Shaye lets out a deep sigh, lacing her fingers through mine once I settle onto the gurney next to her.

  I laugh. “Did you think he was going to beat me with a bat?”

  “A little part of me was afraid of that very thing.” She giggles, licking her dry lips. But they’re still so plump and kissable, enough that I can’t resist the urge to lean over her and brush my mouth against hers. “Mmm, that was nice,” she murmurs when I pull away. “I’m glad he didn’t beat you into the ground. I’d be really upset if I couldn’t have your kisses on demand.”

  “That good, huh?” I brush the hair away from her bruised face.

  “Better.” She smiles. “Hey, by the way, Happy New Year.”

  “I think we’re going to have to do a replay of the ball dropping when you’re feeling stronger. I have some ideas, but they require you to be in tip-top condition.”

  “Tell me more,” she whispers, her fingers dancing up and down my arm.

  “Let’s just say we’re going to make that last ten seconds last and last and last.”

  “I can’t wait.”

  “Me either.”

  “Nico…”