by Celia Ryan
“None of what? You abandoned her! Why have you never told me this before?” Roberto and the Agnelli family had always made themselves out to be saints to me. They had taken me in in my time of need. They blamed the Giotis for the death of my mother when really, they had taken her in when her own family abandoned her. The Giotis weren’t as bad as the Agnellis had made them out to be. In some ways they were the same.
“Why did the Giotis give my mother a job? Did they know about her affiliation?”
“Yes. We were at odds back then. Mr. Gioti knew that your mother had done the books for me for years. She had grown up in the lifestyle, and she understood our ways. So they took advantage of that, and when she needed out of whatever stupid situation she had gotten herself stuck in, they gave her an opportunity.”
“She worked for them for years. Had they known someone wanted to hurt us, they would've protected her! She was important to them.”
“I can't even begin to imagine what they would have done. They're not our family. But you are. You’re our blood. And this whole nonsense with your mother started because of her poor choices and the Giotis putting a hit out on your dad. Your blood.”
I sat down on the edge of the bed and put my head in my hands. “I have to go,” I said between labored breaths as the tears started to roll down my cheeks. Here I was trying to implicate Luka as a murderer and he might have had nothing to do with it. The Giotis would've protected my mother. They would've saved her if they had been given the opportunity. Just because my uncle and his family had avenged her death by putting her murderer away, it didn't mean that this twisted relationship was better than the Giotis relationship with my mother.
It was in that moment that I realized I was in the middle of a blood feud, and I was just another pawn in their giant chessboard. And I was the only one who had the ability to stop it. I had to, for me, for my child.
I was going to own up to Luka about why I had been so easy to claim. About my mother. About the job Roberto was forcing me to do. I would save him from the Agnellis if I could.
What I felt for Luka could not be stopped. He was like a drug that I always needed to get my fix of. We would not be ripped apart again like we were when we were kids. Luka and I would be together. We would be our own little family. No matter the outcome.
Chapter 17
Luka
I stood under a streetlamp next to the warehouse that we had set up the meet at. It was just me and my car and Marco in the pool of light. Everything else around us was pitch black. I could see a red exit light glowing from the warehouse next to us, but I didn't even see them approach. I only heard their car. I checked that my knife was latched securely at my hip, hidden by my dress shirt, and got out of the car. As soon as the mark shut his door, I put my arms at my sides. They needed to be ready. Marco was going to make quick work of the other guy. A shot to the head. It would be quick, painless. There wouldn't even be blood on his hands. But not me. I needed information. I needed to know which of Armani’s buyers had been working with him. Because they would all need reminders of who was the real boss. They needed to stay with the right side of the business. I still couldn't believe my father had gotten into some work with arms dealers. It was always such a messy business. Money-laundering was simple, and there was hardly anybody working on it. Just a lot of money. And that's how I liked to live my life: simply. But I understood that occasionally you had to get a little dirty for work.
A man walked into the light with the security guy standing to the left of him. Marco had his hands behind his back. I stood in front.
“I hear you are interested in some of my business. Shall we go inside the warehouse?”
I nodded. “I'd like to see the merchandise before I make any guarantees.”
He was in a dark suit. Green bowtie. What the hell was with the bowtie? He wasn’t a man, he was just a kid. He was at least five years younger than me. I doubted if he could even legally drink yet. Jesus, this was going to be a mess.
I followed him into the warehouse. There were crates on either side of us. A steel table sat in the middle of an open space. Another thug stood by it. Anger raced under my skin. “I thought we made it clear, this is only a two-man deal.”
“Oh, him? He’s nobody. The security around the clock. I have to protect my investments.” He waved the guy off. I watched as he stood by the door, just out of reach. That was going to make this more difficult.
Marco walked across the warehouse and looked for other guards. We were already outnumbered, anymore and we’d be outgunned too.
“Let's see this. I don't have all night.”
The kid smiled devilishly. “Something hot waiting for you at home?”
I flinched at the comment. “It's none of your damn business. Now let's get this done.”
“Got AK-47s and a few grenades here. That's mostly what I sell. Not sure what the Mexicans told you, but some of the bigger artillery didn't come for me. It’s too difficult to get over the border.”
“Fine, fine. Got any other references? I like to know what other people thought. Make sure they had a good experience.”
“You know I can’t tell you that. The seller never gives away his vendors and buyers. Makes him seem like he's easily turned.”
I nodded. I knew getting his list of buyers wouldn’t be that simple.
“I can have more buyers by the end of this week. So I need to know how much you are interested in.”
I pulled out my wallet and dropped a couple grand in hundreds on the table. “I'm interested. There's a lot more where that came from.”
The money didn't make his eyes go big, so he was obviously selling to some big fish. That, or he had one hell of a poker face. That made me nervous. That meant that Armani wasn't selling his guns cheap enough for his buyers to stay with him. So even when I ended this little punk, the buyers would go look for someone else. And that wasn't good for my father's business, because then he couldn't keep his word to his friends. I also wasn't in the mood to be killing some little shits every day the week. That would be an easy way to land myself back in prison.
“So what do you know about Armani and his people? I heard they’re in the same business.”
“I've heard of him. We’re not on the same level. He sells handguns, nothing like what I have. We are hardly in the same business.”
“Really? That's not what I heard.”
“Listen man, I don't have all night. Are you buying or not?”
“I'm buying all right.” I watched out of the corner of my eye as the guy next to the door crumpled and fell to the ground. Marco must've brought a silencer with him. The seller looked over his shoulder and noticed immediately what was up. He pulled his own weapon and so did the muscle he had with him. But I didn’t even move a muscle. I didn’t need to. Marco was too quick for them. He shot the security guy and I watched as the huge man fell to the ground. He wasn't dead. He was bleeding from the shoulder and grabbing it with his other hand. There was blood spray on the floor; the bullet had gone straight through. Marco walked up behind the seller with his gun outstretched. “Drop it.”
The seller rolled his eyes but he did as he was told. He put the gun on the table and put his hands up. I grabbed a chair from the other side of the warehouse and sat him down in it.
“Now that it’s finally just us, tell me about how much of our business you stole.”
He made a face of disgust. “I'm not a thief! If they came to me, it was because my product and prices were better.”
“That's not what matters to us.”
“Us? And who the hell is us?”
I didn't like the way he was speaking to me. I balled up my fist and pulled it back. “Us is the Gioti family.” I landed my right hook across the left side of his face. When my fist connected, there was an audible crack, and his head snapped to the right. He let out a groan and turned back to face me as he spat blood out on the floor.
“And I'm going to make sure you don't fucking forget it.”
<
br /> I landed another right hook to his face, and this time, he spat out a couple teeth. I pulled the knife out and I dragged it across his left arm, leaving a nice slash with blood trickling down onto the cement floor. There would be more there shortly.
“Now you tell me who your buyers are, or I'm going to kill you.”
“You're going to kill me anyway. I'm not stupid.”
“No, I don't think you are. So tell me what you know. Our sellers got a little black book, where's yours?”
He shook his head. “You really think I'm the head of this operation? You're wrong. I'm just a distributor. You want to know who's really going up against Armani? Ask Armani himself.”
I gave him a sucker punch to the stomach. It felt good to get my hands on somebody again. To make them bleed.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“He's playing you,” he said through labored breaths.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“When the son’s away, the old man will play. Your old man needs to watch out. There's a new family in town. And they're coming for him.”
I looked over my shoulder at Marco. He was still standing over the man who he had shot. The guy was still yelling about his shoulder. It was starting to piss me off.
“Marco, get over here.”
He obliged and walked over quickly. “What's up?”
“This asshole said that somebody is coming after my family. You know anything about that?”
Marco shrugged. “No. Everybody knows that the Giotis are the most powerful family in town. No one would even try to take down your Pops.”
I looked back at the little shit who had his head hanging down, trying to catch his breath. “Hear that?” He didn't look up at me. I grabbed a fistful of his hair and pulled his head up to my face. “I said, did you hear that? Nobody is messing with my family. So you better talk, before I switch to your other arm and make you bleed out here.”
“The Agnelli’s,” he spat. “They say that your family has taken something that belongs to them and they have had enough. They're the ones running the guns. I work for them.”
Fuck. Vienna.
It seemed since I went away for prison, shit had started to hit the fan. Maybe prison had been easier after all.
I shook my head as I walked away from him.
“What do you want to do with him?” Marco asked me. Anger boiled beneath me skin.
I didn’t speak, I just turned around and grabbed the hand gun off the table. He didn’t even look at me when I shot him. The sound of the gunshot echoed through the warehouse.
“Dump him in the water. All of them. Let’s go home.”
Marco nodded and removed him.
I went to the table and took the guns and my money. I left the grenades; I never had a use for that much destruction. It wasn't calculated enough for my taste.
I walked out into the crisp air of the night and Marco looked afraid.
“What?” I asked him, angry with his fear.
“You looked different in there. Something he said?”
I looked at him sternly. “I was following orders. It’s that simple. Now get rid of them.” I shoved the gun at his chest and walked over to my car. “I want to go home.”
My knuckles turned white as I gripped the steering wheel. It felt good to beat the shit out of that kid. But it only lead to more questions and more problems. That was not the way I liked to do business. I wanted this all to be over. I wanted to go home and screw Vienna’s brains out. Now there was even more work to do.
Chapter 18
Luka
I dropped Marco off at the office.
“You coming in?”
He nodded and walked into the building.
I waited until Marco was out of sight and I dialed Vienna's number and waited for her answer. I just needed to hear her voice. Tomorrow, all that I wanted to do was lay in bed with her. I wanted to have a lot to repent for at Sunday's mass.
“Hello?” she asked groggily.
“It's me. How are you doing?”
“I was sleeping. What are you doing? I thought you had work tonight.”
“I did. Things didn't really go as planned.”
“Are you okay? Are you hurt?” I could hear the fear in her voice. How could she be snitching on me when she sounded like that? She couldn’t be that good of an actress, could she?
“No, I'm fine, baby. It's just business. Business that I didn't want to have to deal with yet. I'd rather be at home with you. What are you wearing?”
She sighed. “Just a little something silky against my skin.”
“Describe it to me.”
I loved that she didn't even give it a second thought. “It's a light pink silk tank top with white lace accents. There's a white lace thong to match.”
“I'd like to see that.”
“You will. Whenever you drag your ass home. I'll be waiting.”
“Send me a picture. Something to tease me a bit.”
“Fine. I'll see you soon?”
“In the morning. I'll be there when you wake up, I promise.”
I ended the call and I waited for the picture. Just a few seconds later, an image of herself and her voluptuous breasts in the light pink tank arrived. The lace practically blended in with her porcelain skin. She was perfect. My cock grew hard underneath my pants. I quickly exited out of the message. Now wasn't the time. I had other shit to deal with.
I walked into the office and waved off some of the thugs that were standing near the door. “We need a minute in private.”
Marco hadn't even entered the office yet, the pussy. I brushed past him and grabbed one of the guns. “Merry Christmas!” I said as I walked in.
A crease formed between my father's eyebrows. “What the hell are you doing back so soon?”
I set the gun down on his desk. “We have a problem.”
He stood up and laid his fingers down as he leaned down on the desk. I knew that stance well. This was going to go about as well as I expected.
“What the hell is that?”
“You were right about the Agnelli’s.” I was going to have to lie to my father. I wasn’t ready to tell him about Vienna. But I needed him to know the truth about Armani. He was playing him. And I wanted to personally handle that motherfucker.
“Right? How?”
“They’re on the move, they’re already here making deals right under our noses. We have to watch our backs. Are you sure this Armani guy is as clean as he says? The kid claimed that he only sold handguns and that he had totally different buyers.”
He shook his head. “That doesn't matter now.”
“Yes it does. It establishes if the kid was telling the truth. We need to know if Armani is a problem. Trying to start a blood war between us and the Agnellis, or worse he’s working for them. He had to have known that they were already after us. He should have told you.”
“Fine, I'll speak to him. I'll handle it. Like I always do.”
That pissed me off. I just had ended some kid because of Armani's business. I wanted to finish the job. “No, Pops, I got this one. I want to meet with him. I want this to end. I need to know if the Agnellis are here.”
“So you know if they’re coming for you? Fine.”
“Fine.”
My father shook his head. He looked older than I remembered. Wrinkled lines creased around his dark blue eyes. He was aging, fast. Maybe that was why he had put so much trust in Marco while I was away: he needed a second. Someone to help him run things. I hadn't been there for him. I felt like a failure.
He sighed heavily. “Fine, fine. Marco, what did you do during this little conversation?”
Marco moved out from behind me. “I shot two guys. One is dead, the other’s injured. I threw them in the water with their leader. If the one guy can swim, good for him. But I doubt it.”
“They Italian?”
We shook our heads. “Don't know. Neither of them spoke.”
“This kid, he look like an Agnelli? No accent then?”
“No, definitely not Agnelli. He was too dark.”
“So no firm connection, you’re sure it really ties back to Armani?”
He didn’t want to believe his friend was a liar. But he was. “Yes Pops, it does.”
By the next morning, we hadn't heard anything. Pops set a time to meet with Armani and go over what happened. I was just hoping we would be able to sniff out the rat if there was one.
I drove home exhausted; sleeping on the couch at the club didn't really give me the best night’s sleep. After dealing with the family drama last night, I now needed to deal with my own shit. I needed to know what was going on with Vienna. With the whole Agnelli clan. Was she setting me up?
I looked at my phone, at her last message. The lingerie was still fresh in my mind and I realized there was nothing I wanted to do more than to put my face between her legs. Listening to her moan and scream out my name. I fucking loved the way she screamed my name. It just made it so I never wanted to stop.
I needed answers, but they’d have to wait. Until after I fucked her brains out.
I took the stairs two at a time. As soon as I was in the apartment, I tossed off my jacket and removed my tie. I walked into the bedroom to find her still sleeping. Her round ass was just peeking out from beneath the covers, and she was still in the sexy number that she had sent me some pictures of the night before. Her dark hair fell onto the white sheets. As I took off my shoes, she stirred.
Chapter 19
Vienna
“You’re home,” I said, barely awake. I needed to pull myself together. I had to tell him the truth about why I was back, about the baby.
He crossed the room in only three strides. He sat down on the edge of the bed and started rubbing my feet. Slowly, he moved his hands up the back of my legs and reached my ass. His broad hands continued to massage my skin. He pulled the sheets to the right to expose more of my thin white thong. He smacked my ass playfully and I knew what was coming.