by SE Chardou
Mags swallowed half her beer in several swallows before she placed the mug on the table. “I’m not sure I follow.”
“But of course you do.” He paused to allow his words to sink in past the soft, boozy haze she probably felt at that moment. “Your father never left the White Knights. As a matter of fact, he was a member all the way up until the night he died.”
Max watched as her stormy green eyes shifted and her mouth fell open in sheer horror but it took everything in him from smiling.
If they were playing Chess, she’d done a beautiful job. She’d captured several of his pawns, bishops, knights and rooks but it was he who had captured her queen and was only one step from taking her king.
The ball was now in her court before she’d lost the game entirely.
Checkmate.
Chapter Three
Magnolia
If God was an absentee slumlord who allowed his kingdom to fall to ruin long before I’d graced my sorry ass on his decrepit earth, I found myself on the worst drug infested block in the whole universe.
Max had played me this whole time and not only did I willingly flirt back with him, I’d allowed him to trump me in every way. To say I was not a happy camper was a gross understatement. I felt like a fool for thinking this man with the most gorgeous blue-green eyes and the face of Adonis come to life had a bone in his body that wasn’t steeped in downright duplicity and evil.
He might not have been the devil but he certainly was capable of being one of the dark prince’s most loyal servants.
What a fool I’d been.
“I’m confused,” I began slowly, enunciating my words only to buy time to think. “How was it my father was still a member of the White Knights MC? They executed him and my mother for Christ’s sake!”
Max breathed deeply and shrugged his shoulders apathetically. “That they did but the two million dollars worth of missing money had nothing to do with your father. He was flush from his pawnshop and the reality show on cable television. The Knights stole from the Abandonatos and the price of payment is blood.”
I shook my head as I spread my fingers along the cheap Formica tabletop. “Angelo would have never gone along with my mother being raped and murdered—”
“It had to be someone high in the organization. Riggs was Treasurer of the WK Vegas chapter. They thought it was adequate enough payment. Your mother was collateral damage but by that time, Angelo figured she dug her own grave. She knew she was marrying trash and did it anyway. No one holds a grudge like the Italians . . . although maybe I should take that back. Perhaps the Russians and the Irish do too. He was pissed at his cousin, and believe me, at her hour of death, she finally understood the consequences of her decision to marry your father.”
“Okay,” I muttered more to myself than anyone else. “If what you’re telling me is true, why weren’t any provisions made for me?”
Max stared me at me directly. “The Knights lied—said you fought and they had to kill you too but it happened away from the crime scene. Angelo was upset of course and doubled the amount of money they owed him for their negligence. However, he accepted you were dead and moved on with his life.”
“Was the debt paid back?”
“Yes, with drugs. It was settled within a month of your parents’ untimely death. What Brad and Nel did to you was just for kicks.”
My head began a slow spin but I wasn’t nearly drunk enough and my appetite was gone. Our waitress walked over with our food and I ordered two more straight whiskeys and another beer chaser.
All this time, I truly thought I had a Plan B if everything went to shit. Angelo would take me in and perhaps I could fake it enough to pretend to be normal. My mother’s family would accept me and perhaps I would have that simple kind of life I’d once dreamed would be so perfect at the age of thirteen.
The situation was beyond complicated and yet, I knew Max wasn’t lying to me. This had nothing to do with my growing attraction towards him or being blinded by uncontrollable hormones. This was all fact.
I knew every telltale tactic in the book human beings used to be untruthful. Looking away, clenched jaws, white-knuckled grips, blustering—if the trick could be used, I’d witnessed it in my line of work. Not only had Max managed to look me in the eyes the whole time he spoke but his words were methodical and cold, as if he were telling me about the weather.
“Why my father? What did Brad and Nel have against him? They murdered both my parents like they were dogs,” I said in a hushed tone as the waitress approached us.
Max swigged from his beer as she set my drinks down and walked off again. I pushed my plate of food aside after munching on a crisp French fry.
“They were upset with him because he married your mother. Yes, the race thing played a small part. After all, she was Italian with a mother who was Creole? Not exactly desirable ethnicities for a club that worships the Nazis and hates anyone who isn’t Northern European.”
“Yes, it’s true—my grandmother was Creole. She came from a well to do family and acted for a while but decided it wasn’t for her. She died giving birth to my mother so I never knew her . . . ” I trailed off before I downed a shot of whiskey.
“But my grandfather is from northern part of Italy. As a matter of fact, most of his family was of Austrian descent and from the area annexed by Mussolini during World War II. It’s no secret the Abandonatos aren’t exactly buddy-buddy with some of the Mafia families whose lineage comes from Sicily or anywhere south of Rome to be honest. Italy is an extremely regionalist country and people identify with the place they were born before they identify with being Italian per se.”
“Semantics aside, Brad and Nel were a bit upset about that situation but that wasn’t why they eliminated your father. He was getting to be too high profile and they were afraid the media would get a hold of who he really was and what he did. The Knights like to stay off the grid. They hated when he signed that deal for the cable network show. In fact, they told him to turn it down,” Max explained after swallowing the rest of his beer.
I downed my second shot of whiskey, the burn consuming my throat until the fire reached my belly and instantly wrapped me in its warm embrace. “So, basically you’re telling me it wasn’t exactly personal and all of this shit that has happened in my life was because of chance? Random crap that cost me my family, changed the course of my life forever, and yet . . . it wasn’t the least bit personal for Brad or Nel? I don’t buy that.”
“Why not?” Max questioned though his voice lacked any real emotion. “Does everything have to happen for a reason? Life dealt you a shitty hand—move on and accept it. You’ve been doing pretty good until now so why the change of heart and what’s up with the act of indignation?”
He was right, and that peeved the fuck out of me. As the booze began to do its work, I realized no matter what he told me would reverse the course of my history or make everything better. There was only one-way to move on with my life: forward, not looking back and not trying to change the past. The what ifs would kill me alone.
“True.” I swigged from my beer again. “I don’t know . . . I just thought—fuck, I don’t know what the hell I thought.”
“I can see that quite clearly.” He whistled for the waitress and ordered another beer for himself before turning those lethal aquamarine eyes in my direction. “Your problem is despite all the crap you’ve been through, you truly want to believe in fairy tales and happily ever after. That’s not reality by a long shot. What you need to do is get your head outta your ass and reel that temper of yours in before it gets you in trouble or worse.”
“What could possibly be worse?” I muttered under my breath as I rolled my eyes petulantly.
“How about getting shot? Or maybe some maniac kidnaps you and tortures you to death. There are a lot of sick people out there. I admit—what you went through with Brad and Nel was no walk in the park but their depravity was basic, primal. You could have been dealt a more horrific fate than being the sexual
plaything of two pedophile bikers.” Max grabbed his beer as soon as the waitress set the mug down and shooed her away.
“I suppose you’re right.”
The silence between us was thick but not uncomfortable. Not when we had the pop-twang of a Taylor Swift song and lots of activity in the diner among the patrons taking place all around us.
I had to think because the alcohol worked a bit too well and as it killed off my ability to care, it also robbed me of my sharp skills. I still paid attention to all the people around me but at the same time, if I intended to play this new game with Max, I would have to be better than him. Hell, he was head and shoulders above me in every way there was to think of but that didn’t mean I couldn’t adapt and become better.
Men had been trying to best me my whole life but when it came down to it, I’d inherited both my mother and father’s charm along with their master of manipulation tactics. By the time I’d left the Knights compound, Brad and Nel were both eating out of the palms of my hands, more or less. Yes, they’d abused me in more ways than I could count but even in the end, I was able to make sex work to my benefit. It hadn’t always been painful or invasive. By the second month into my “sexual education,” I enjoyed our acts of depravity just as much—if not more—than they did.
Max looked at me and saw a young woman he could easily manipulate. I looked back at him and saw a man who thought he was the best of the best. His arrogance, not his lack of skill, would ultimately be his downfall. Of course, that didn’t mean I wouldn’t use what I knew about him to my advantage. I certainly wouldn’t be able to call myself a woman if I didn’t.
He’d told me some very shocking secrets over the course of the night and he had his purpose for doing it. He needed to break me down and soften me up, so to speak. Bring me down to size and make me understand I didn’t know much of anything about the reasons I was orphaned in the first place, let alone a damn thing about life. I could respect what he was trying to do but I also had a role to play and damn it to hell, I would fulfill it.
I took several swigs from my beer for courage, no where near feeling too intoxicated to know what I was saying or what I was doing. No matter what happened, I was in control.
“So . . . you have this wish to bring down Angelo Abandonato. I’m assuming you’re working for men just as savage as he is—if not worse. What makes him so awful he needs to be wiped out of the picture?” I wondered in a nonchalant manner, never bothering to meet Max’s cold aquamarine eyes.
“It’s not personal. To me, it’s just a contract and I want to fulfill it because I can do what I really want to do with my life afterward. I will be free and I can pursue a goal I’ve been meticulously and carefully planning for a very long time,” he responded in a deep, honey-tinged voice.
There was absolutely no malice in his words. He didn’t give a damn about his employers or the Abandonato Mafia in particular. Hell, he wasn’t even some bleeding heart do-gooder. It all came down to the money and how much he would be paid. I could respect a man like that who could separate the value of human life from the intangibility of it all and use a price tag to decide how much a certain person was worth.
“What if Angelo tries to bargain with you?” My eyes met his, slowly, drawing out the feeling of our somewhat brief connection. “After all, he is a businessman and if his assassination isn’t personal to you then he will try to negotiate.”
Max shrugged, the spark of lust in his eyes for me disappearing within the blink of those mesmerizing ocean-blue eyes. “I thought about that but at the end of the day, I might be a contract killer but I am a man of honor. I keep my word. There’s not enough money in the world for Abandonato to buy me off. I plan to take him out and I will do just that.”
“Ah . . . and here I was thinking there was no such thing as honor among thieves,” I teased before I finished my beer. “What’s the role I’m supposed to play in this sick charade you have planned? You say you’re one of the best at your job so why do you need me at all?”
He chuckled out loud. “Simple, you’re my way in. We act like we’re engaged to one another and you would like to get to know your family. We’ll make up a suitable abduction story but we must keep the Knights out of it. Angelo will be delighted with your return into his life and welcome you into the family with open arms if we play our cards right.”
“And you’re foolish enough to believe he won’t question my motivations at all?”
“Of course he will. However, I am sure you are a consummate enough actress to convince him otherwise. Or am I wrong about the skills you’ve honed over the years?”
I shook my head. “Not at all. However . . . I won’t give you the answer you want right now. I’d like to think on it to be honest. I’m not exactly sure what’s in store for the rest of my life but I don’t want this to be it. Brad might have granted me freedom but I will not live the rest of my life on the run.”
“Fair enough,” Max replied before he lifted his fork and knife. “I suggest you eat some of your food to soak up that alcohol. I didn’t plan to stop again except for gas and bathroom breaks until we reach Reno.”
“Oh? Is that where we’re making a pit stop?”
“I have some business to take of there. I’ll be in the Tri-Cities area for a while so you have plenty of time to think about my proposition and what you want to do with the rest of your life. Please inform me as soon as possible whether you intend on us being partners or if I have to revise my strategy and assassinate Angelo Abandonato alone.”
I ate part of my burger and half of the French fries before I set my food aside. No matter what I decided to do, I knew it would be a very hard decision to make.
We arrived in the city of Reno in the early morning hours the following day. The sun had just barely risen in the east and the city looked like a well-used and seasoned call girl—although still somewhat attractive, the thrill and sparkle was gone. Reno had always been the redheaded stepchild to Vegas and upon entering the city, any person with a reasonable IQ could understand why.
The hotels were tall and grand but nothing like it’s sister-city in the southern part of the state. The only part of the Tri-Cities area that could even begin to compare to Las Vegas was Lake Tahoe and the gorgeous hotels, resorts and casinos that existed there. If it weren’t for that swanky part of the area, I would have found it hard to believe the city would be able to stay in business at all.
During the drive up north, I’d done more than my fair share of thinking. There was a certain sense of injustice I couldn’t separate from my present situation. Hadn’t my family suffered enough? It was true, as far as I knew, Angelo had made a half-ditch effort—at best—to find me but the initial problem lay in the fact that I couldn’t trust Max.
It wouldn’t behoove him to give me the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. That wouldn’t feed my fragile ego and make me want to exact revenge against a man who was of blood relation to my mother . . . and to me. We were second cousins after all. However, whether I intended to go through what seemed to be a hackneyed plan Max had put together, I couldn’t turn my back and simply walk away. Living my life as if this sexy yet downright infuriating man hadn’t entered it wasn’t a possibility at all. This wasn’t my hormones talking, just good old fashioned common sense.
If I was at least involved with the actual conspiracy to make my uncle “sleep with the fishes,” I could at least warn him about the potential plot on his life. Although my betrayal might look downright dire, and could in fact cost me my life—if not at the hands of Angelo then all but guaranteed by a bullet to the brain administered by Max—I decided it was worth it.
The risks were high but in the end, I knew they would be worth it.
Most of my adult life had been lived on the wrong side of the law, answering to men who were more or less dishonorable. I’d murdered people considered the “scum of the earth,” and a “stain on society,” but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t hold on to the belief that I could be redeem
ed.
I knew I shared a burden of the blame. My life had become a clusterfuck because of my own choices. True, the lifestyle had been sold to me in a very attractive and attention grabbing way—the money, clothes, sex and not mention granting unimaginable power to someone like me, who before the age of eighteen had little to none. I’d fallen for it all—hook, line and sinker.
Many people, those like Max, pretended they didn’t have a conscience or they were so depraved and tainted by their actions, they were beyond redemption. I had no quarrel with my own conscience and acknowledged I had one. I hadn’t lost all my humanity and there was a part of me that sought to do something that would save life as opposed to continuing in the aid of its destruction.
It was a long night, stuck in that SUV with Max, but not long after we left the diner and continued on our way, I knew what my answer would be. I’d help him, not because I wanted to murder Angelo but because if there was the slimmest chance of a possibility that he could be saved, I would do so. The game I’d decided to play could cost me everything but even with the dangerous odds, I decided it was better than doing nothing at all.
Max drove in a quiet silence to The Heritage Hotel & Casino. It wasn’t an Abandonato property and less than a year old. The backers of the twenty-floor, sleek building covered in gold-plated steel and glass were Russians. Everyone in the underworld knew the hotel belonged to not only a Russian corporation in general but specifically to Dimitri Koslakov. Head of not only a powerful Mafia family but also one of the original members of the Russian oligarchy who controlled the “New” Russia with an iron fist. The man—and the notorious army of soldiers he controlled—was known to have his hands and fingers in many pies including drugs and the distribution of illegal weapons. He also had a sizeable reputation in human trafficking, owned various strip clubs and companies in the adult film industry, which catered to both online and offline sales.