“Hi, Mr. Morientz,” I said to him and pressed my lips together. He gave me a little smile and a curt nod. The smile triggered a memory. It was a distant memory with a fuzzy image of him. I must have been four, maybe five. I remembered the smile.
“You remember me?” he asked.
Dad shuffled in his chair.
“You gave me a lollypop.” That was the memory.
He laughed. “I don’t know how you remember that. You were five years old.”
“Hey, you gave my kid sweets?” Dad balked.
My parents only gave me sweets at Easter time. They had a thing about sugar and tried to observe all these healthy rules for optimum health.
“Jesus Christ, Raphe, what is wrong with you?”
Dad huffed and straightened.
“It’s good to see you, pet.” Marcus smiled at me.
Claudius rolled his eyes, and Luc grinned.
“Well, now that we’re all finally here, we can talk about what we’re doing next,” Dad announced. “Amelia, take charge.”
He motioned open-palmed, giving me the go-ahead.
I had to admit that I was slightly thrown and unprepared. I didn’t expect it to happen quite like this or to be in the company of what I guessed were the most badass mobsters you could get. There were my father and Marcus, who looked like they’d just stepped off the set of The Godfather, Claudius, who looked like he could kill with one look, and scary in all that leather and his long hair, and Luc.
Luc was sexy as hell, and if I didn’t know him, what I’d take note of most were the smoldering gaze and his attitude.
I straightened and sighed.
“Has the CCTV been cut?” I asked Dad.
“We’re flying blinder than a bird’s ass,” Dad replied. I didn’t get the analogy, but it seemed to work for him.
“Good. So, whoever’s here is counted as the most trustworthy amongst us.”
They all nodded, agreeing.
“I’d like to take a small team to Rockford. I think Luc, myself, and Claudius should go. We can leave tomorrow, grab the diamonds, and come back here.”
“Tomorrow? Is that going to be enough time?” Marcus asked.
“Yes, we need to plan out what we’re doing properly.” If there was one thing I knew from being a cop, it was that you had to have a plan. Always a plan. It was how I kept myself alive.
“I’d like to come,” he offered.
“If it’s okay, I think I’d prefer if you stayed and took care of my father. If anything happens here, you’ll know what to do.”
Marcus considered this and nodded. “Okay, I’ll stay.”
“We can’t travel light,” Claudius stated. “We have to prepare for all eventualities.”
“I agree. That’s why I think we should have a reinforcement team just in case we need backup. But we go into the facility to get the diamonds.”
“We need to do this unseen. I’m sure the house is being watched,” Dad said.
“We leave at night, under the cover of nightfall.” I checked it out and made note of the opening and closing times at the facility. The last access time was eleven P.M. If we left here at nine we’d have plenty of time to get there and get the diamonds. “Luc can pick me up, and we’ll just go. We act normal and don’t draw attention to ourselves.”
“I think you should turn the diamonds in when you get it. Just give it straight to the Smithsonian Society. Don’t bring them back here.”
I turned to focus on him.
“Are you sure that’s wise?” Luc challenged, concern filling his features.
“Yes,” Dad answered. “Hand them in, and we deal with them trying to get Amelia the way we always do when we need to protect one of our own.”
Luc smiled. “We hunt them down.”
“We hunt them down,” Claudius agreed with a wicked grin.
I couldn’t protest because that was my thoughts exactly. “We find them and put a stop to all of this.”
I spoke, but the words sounded far away from me.
Like they weren’t coming from me. This couldn’t be me talking about hunting people, but it was.
I was sitting next to my father, the mafia king, and I’d become the accidental mafia queen.
Chapter 20
Amelia
“Okay, scram, I need to speak to my daughter in private,” Dad stated.
I didn’t remember him being this bossy, but then I suppose I never saw him like this or knew what he could be like when he was talking business.
It was interesting to see how these men simply followed orders and listened to him, no matter how he spoke to them.
Luc looked at me as he got up. He opened his mouth to speak, but Dad stopped him.
“She stays here tonight.” Dad leaned forward and stared Luc down.
I couldn’t believe this. He was acting like I was sixteen.
“Dad, for God’s sake.”
He looked at me with raised brows.
“No, and next time you pull a stunt like that by having her out without so much as a phone call, don’t come back here.” Dad was being serious.
I stared at him open mouthed, stunned by his behavior, but he wasn’t looking at me. His focus was all on Luc, who simply gave him that wicked grin.
“Okay… boss, I’ll communicate with you on the hour the next time I take your daughter away. Should I take pictures too and send them to you?”
“Luc,” I hissed at him.
His response to me was a look so scandalous that I couldn’t stop myself from blushing.
To my horror, Dad pulled out his gun and waved it at Luc.
Then Marcus stepped between them.
“Raphael, lose the gun now,” he barked, staring at Dad point blank. Dad put the gun back in his pocket. “You point a gun at my kid again, you’re dead. Given the nature of this mess, I’m going to give you some advice and tell you now. Do not piss us off. Now, look, my son’s with your daughter. Fucking deal with it. You put them together, after all.”
Claudius laughed and walked away. Marcus backed away and joined him, leaving Luc.
I wasn’t going to let him leave without a hug at the very least.
I stood and hugged him.
“I’ll come back later,” he whispered into my ear. His breath tickled my skin, and I smiled at the prospect of seeing him later.
“You better,” I replied and reached up to cup his jaw, guiding his mouth down to mine for a quick kiss.
When he moved away from me, something felt out of place. Like I should have been going with him. He looked at me as such but with a promise in his eyes too.
I watched him back away and join his father and brother.
They left together, and I turned back to Dad with a frown.
“Why are you acting like I’m eighteen or something?”
“I never got to see you when you were eighteen,” he shot back.
“Whose fault is that?” I folded my arms under my breasts and shook my head.
“Mine. I don’t need the reminder.”
“Dad, do you know how weird you’re acting? You sent Luc to find me in LA. You told him he had to marry me to take over the business.” I couldn’t get over how incredulous that was. Like I was some sort of object you could bargain with. “Then you act like some crazy person, pulling a gun on him when I actually fall for him.”
I didn’t realize what I’d said until the words left my mouth and took note of the stunned expression on Dad’s face.
Stunned, but then at ease.
“You fell for him? So, my plan worked?”
I rolled my eyes at him.
“You didn’t plan for me to do that. The only part of your plan that was a plan was for him to protect me, and you got the bonus of him getting me to come back home, which I would have done anyway if I’d known you were sick.”
I sat back down next to him.
“Fine.”
“Why were you like that just now?” I didn’t get it.
He
sighed, looking frustrated. “I still see you as my little girl. In my head you’re still seventeen and all these years haven’t gone by without us speaking or seeing each other. I know that’s my fault. My brain’s just slow to catch on.”
“Dad, I never gave you any guy trouble when I was home before.” I was too busy dancing to worry about guys and dates. And I was quite content to dance my life away. Which meant he got off easy in that respect. “You had it good. I’m a grown woman now. I’m twenty-eight. Please, do not wave a gun at my boyfriend the next time you see him.”
“Fine. So… it’s serious then? Between you and Luc?”
“Yes.”
“Good. He’s alright.”
I started to laugh as I remembered how Millicent told me that he’d been happy about Luc and me actually getting together. Now supposedly, Luc was just alright.
“Okay, I’ll remember that.”
“I’m stalling, Amelia.” He regarded me with a stare filled with worry.
“Why?”
“Because I know the minute I give you the password, that’s it. Plan’s in motion. A plan I’m not part of. I feel useless. If this were years ago, I would have just found Tag and killed him for daring to put a mark on you. My fault. I sort it out. But I can’t even walk a few meters without feeling like I’m going to drop dead.”
“Please don’t say that.” I didn’t want to hear talk of him and death.
“It’s true, amore mio. My plan in sending Luc to you was indeed to make sure he protected you, and I guess I hoped you would like him. I sent him because I couldn’t protect you myself. He’s the best I have. My last weapon. The ace up my sleeve. I guess now that you really are together, he’ll do more for you than I’d hoped.”
“Things will work out.” I didn’t know where the positivity came from, but there it was. Me thinking I could actually do this.
“I hope so.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a golden key. I took it when he handed it to me.
“Thank you.”
“This opens the box the diamonds are in. Password is the date I took you to your first dance class.”
I smiled at him, thinking back to the day.
God, I remembered that day so well, and I’d been so young. Five years old.
“That’s the password?”
“Yes, my girl. Only you and I know that date.”
True.
“Thank you for that memory.”
“It was a good day. The best, and one of my most cherished memories of you.”
I threw my arms around him, holding him and closing my eyes to recall the memory of that day in full.
June 19, 1995…
That was the password.
“Me too, Dad.” I pulled away and held up the key. “This goes in the safe in the library until we leave.” I thought he would like to hear that since he was so antsy. Keeping it in the safe and not on me was probably best, just in case I got attacked or something before we left.
“Good idea. I’d like that.”
“I thought so. Now, how about we do something fun today.” I thought we could step out of the real world for a while and continue our catch up session.
Dad smiled. “What did you have in mind?”
“I thought maybe we could do something you want.” I nodded.
“I—” He looked over my shoulder and smiled. “Millicent. Didn’t hear you.”
I turned to see Millicent holding a tray with iced tea and cookies.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to ruin the moment. I saw the guys leave and thought you two may want a snack.”
“You were right. We do. Please join us.” Dad beamed.
“Happily.” Millicent returned the smile.
Tension may be rising, and all manner of things might have been in the works, but this was nice. Taking a break in good company.
It was rejuvenating. I had the feeling that I needed to relish the moment. Once again, things had become too quiet.
We’d been in Chicago for two days now. The battlefield.
The battlefield was never quiet.
Luc
“Luc, I don’t know how you do it.” Claudius chuckled as he walked into the sitting room.
We’d just gotten back home. Dad had diverted and went to check something out. Business related.
“Do what?” I threw myself down onto the sofa and rested my head back.
“Stay calm in front of Raphe. I would have at least drawn my gun too.”
“Can’t draw a gun on Amelia’s dad right in front of her. Even though I really wanted to.”
“Senile fool.”
“Exactly.” Although I kind of understood the guy. Didn’t matter that he’d sent me to LA to win her over. A father was a father, and she was his daughter. He was being protective. Crazily overprotective, but yeah.
It was fine. I knew how to rattle him and piss him off.
That part was funny as shit. Guy pulled a gun on me.
I loved how my father had defended me though. I didn’t need him to, but it meant a lot that he stood up to Raphael for me.
“What are you going to do, man?” Claudius pulled up one of the little desk chairs, twirled it around so it was backwards, and sat down.
“Be specific, bro. There’s so much going on that I have to have a plan for everything.” I chuckled.
“What are you going to do about Amelia?”
“Protect her as best as I can.”
“After, after all this. You two really going to be together? She’s a cop.”
“She doesn’t want to be a cop anymore.” I didn’t know if it was okay to share that with him, but this was my brother. I trusted him.
“So, she wants to be a mobster?” He narrowed his eyes.
“No. I don’t want to… I want to clean up, and she doesn’t want to be a cop.”
He looked apprehensive. “I get that she doesn’t want to be a cop, but the you part I don’t get.”
“Claudius, I don’t want to live the way we have for the last ten years.”
“So, you want to be the way we were prior to that? Clean and normal. Poor?”
“Normal doesn’t mean poor.”
“It doesn’t mean filthy rich either. If feds come here investigating and whatever shit, I’ll kill every last one of them. I’m not giving this place up, and I’m not giving up my cushy way of living just because you want to be clean.”
“That’s not going to happen. I wouldn’t do it that way.”
“What way would you do it, then?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t thought that far ahead. Plus, when I say clean, I don’t mean to become some shmuck with a pea brain.”
“Luc, I get that you love this woman. But we live the way we do for a reason. We’re not cut out for a normal life. We take things into our hands. You do. You definitely do it when it comes down to it. And you’re worse than me.”
“I’m not worse than you.” I wasn’t. Claudius enjoyed power and didn’t care about killing. “I’ve made my money. I don’t need to run rackets or do the books. I don’t need to hurt people anymore.”
“So, the business, who’s gonna have it?”
I smiled at him. “Well, when Raphael goes, Amelia takes control. She doesn’t want any part of it, and neither do I, so there’s only one person I can think of who can do the job.”
Him.
“Me?” He pointed to himself as I gave him a pensive stare.
“Yes.”
“You’re serious about not wanting to run things. We both worked hard to get the damn thing.”
“Things change,” I pointed out.
I valued what Amelia had said this morning. That she trusted that I would always do what I thought was right. It seemed to be a moment of understanding. Understanding of me and that I couldn’t simply sit back and let life take whatever course it took, especially in circumstances like the one we were in.
Claudius made a good point, but as long as I had that to hold on to, I knew that
she would understand my choices and actions.
That was all that mattered, right now.
The kinks we could work out later. If I got the chance.
Time to get serious.
I sat up straighter and gave my brother a good long look. I’d always thought we didn’t get on a lot of the times because sometimes he could be a prick. Truth was, we got on more often than not. We probably just acted the way most brothers behaved with our disagreements.
When it came down to needing each other, though, we were there in a heartbeat.
Always.
“Claudius.”
“No.” He shook his head.
“You don’t know what I’m going to say.” I held my hands open and shrugged.
“Face looks serious. You’re going to tell me some shit about death. Like you might not make it. I’m not gonna accept that.” He grinned.
It was like we shared the same mind. Some things didn’t need to be said. This was something I needed to talk about though.
“Claudius, if I don’t make it, I need you to take care of Amelia. Don’t let Victor get her, and don’t allow her to lose her dreams.”
“You heard me. I’m not gonna accept you not making it. Out of the question. I will, however, protect her because she’s important to you.” He nodded.
“Claudius, we have to prepare for the fact that I may not make it. I have to kill Victor. I have to. I know he’ll be fixated on Amelia. If I don’t make it out of this, I need to know that someone will stop him.” I couldn’t have a repeat of what happened to Henry and his family. It couldn’t happen.
“I will stop him. Look, we have to keep positive and get things done the way we always do. Can’t run away like pussies. But I hear you, and I promise you I’ll take care of your woman. You promise me this though?”
“What?”
“Be true to yourself. Don’t allow what happened with Dad to happen to you. Make sure you know what you’re doing and assess how you feel. We have it good right now. We run things here in Chicago. As long as we keep the cops’ pockets padded and our trusted feds’, we’re good. Make sure cleaning up is something you really want. You’re giving up a billion-dollar fortune to be with this woman.”
Mafia Scars (The Accidental Mafia Queen Book 2) Page 18