Nathan smiled. “We aren’t here to eat, sweetheart.”
Arching an eyebrow she leaned forward and folded her arms under her breasts in an obvious attempt to give Nathan a clear view. “Then why would you come into a restaurant, gorgeous? If you don’t mind me asking …”
Nathan was annoyed by her blatant flirting, but he didn’t show it. A woman that was so obviously attracted to him was an asset; something for him to selfishly use in any way he needed. And lucky for her, Nathan needed her for something.
A sly smile spread across his face as he slowly walked closer to her. He spied a nametag on the woman’s cleavage-revealing shirt and he reached forward, lifting it to see her name. Judging by the blush that covered her, one would think that Nathan had done something far more than just touch her nametag. He wanted to roll his eyes. Jesus fucking Christ.
“Rebecca,” Nathan read her name out loud.
“Yes,” she sighed.
He heard Mickey chuckle behind him, then a smack that he was sure came from Lucca.
Nathan kept his attention on Rebecca. “I need you to do something for me, honey.”
Rebecca nodded as if she were trapped in a trance. “Anything …”
“I need to see your boss.”
She frowned. “Roni, the manager? But why?”
Nathan shook his head. “Not that one, honey. The one that you’re not supposed to let me see.”
Nathan watched as Rebecca thought for a moment, then her brows shot up and she shook her head firmly. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Nathan leaned forward, placing his palms on the counter. “Rebecca, I think you do know.”
“Look, I think you’re hot and all, and I wouldn’t stop you if snatched me up and took me to one of the back rooms to have your way with me, but I’m …” she looked around, then returned her eyes to Nathan’s, “ …I’m not trying to die.”
Nathan sighed. Only because they lacked time, Nathan pulled out the big guns. “Rebecca, look at me, please.”
She did.
The motherfuckers behind him better not tell his wife about he was about to do.
When Nathan took the woman’s hand she gasped. He led her around the counter until she stood in front of him with her back to him. “Now, Rebecca, dear,” he spoke softly as he gathered her long, brunette curls and pushed them over her shoulder, feeling her shiver when his thumb grazed her neck. He then placed both of his hands on her shoulders “I said that I needed you …”
Nathan smirked. It was close to the same massage he used to get Carter in the mood—one he planned to use today actually—and just like Carter this woman had some serious knots. She was stressed as hell, the poor girl. If Nathan cared he’d get those out for her, but sadly he didn’t give a fuck what she was stressed about. He needed to get to Bonaducci. His patience was wearing thin.
“Mmm,” Rebecca moaned again.
Nathan rolled his eyes. Carter would murder him if she knew he’d done this. “Rebecca. Can you hear me, sweetheart?” Nathan asked.
“Mmmhmm …”
“Give me what I need, love. I won’t let him hurt you.” He’d try his best, but he wouldn’t go out of his way to protect her.
“But h–how do I know I can trust you?” she asked breathlessly. When Nathan deepened the massage, she whispered, “Holy shit …”
“You can’t trust me,” Nathan said honestly. “But think of it this way, love. You scratch my back, and I’ll scratch whatever you want me to scratch …”
Rebecca glanced back at Nathan with a fearful look on her face. “It’s the last office down the hall. Should I like, wait for you downstairs or something …”
Nathan walked right past the young woman, but he believed he’d heard Dante tell her that it would be in her best interest to wait downstairs.
As he neared the office and he heard the familiar sound of currency counting machines going he smiled. Interesting.
“Remember what you said outside, Nathan,” Kyle reminded beside him.
Nathan nodded, and resigned to give Don Bonaducci exactly two minutes to give him an explanation for this disrespectful move of his.
When they made it to the door Nathan didn’t even knock, he just entered. There were about ten men in the room who all stopped and looked over to the door as Nathan entered with his men behind him.
“Good afternoon, gentlemen,” Nathan greeted.
Niko stood from his seat in front of a large desk in the middle of the room, in which Don Bonaducci sat comfortably behind.
“Shit,” Nathan heard him mutter.
Nathan took a step forward and clasped his hands in front of him, never taking his eyes off of Don Bonaducci. The two minute window started the second the man cleared his throat and straightened in his seat.
“To what do I owe the pleasure, Don Salerno?” Don Bonaducci asked.
Nathan arched a brow. Was the man serious? “You do not know, Bonaducci?”
He shrugged and shook his head. “I have no clue why you’ve come to my establishment unannounced, young man. If you wanted an appointment you probably should have called first. And it is polite for a man to knock before he enters an office. How disrespectful of you to just enter where you are not welcome.”
Nathan chuckled. “I am unwelcome?”
Don Bonaducci’s jaw clenched. “No, Salerno. You are not welcome here. Let’s not pretend like we are friends.”
“I had no intention of pretending, but it seems that you do.”
He frowned. “I don’t understand.”
“I understand that you need to make a living, Don Bonaducci. Cheap, poor quality drugs, weapon, and whores. That is what you have been selling, right? What I’m here to ask is why the fuck you’re selling it in my fucking city.”
“Your city?”
“My city …”
“I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware that you owned New York,” he said in a clipped tone. “You never really specified your territory after your father stepped down, Salerno. I assumed Angelo’s territory was up for grabs.”
Nathan laughed. “Did you now?”
He nodded. “Indeed I did.”
Nathan nodded as he observed the room. “Funny that you’re the only one that thought such a thing, Bonaducci.”
He smirked. “They all just aren’t as smart as I am, boy.”
“There are many words that I’d use to describe you, Bonaducci, but smart …” Nathan said, shaking his head in mock regret.
Don Bonaducci glared at Nathan. “Is there something I can do for you? If not, I’d appreciate it if you leave so I can continue my business in peace.”
“Absolutely,” he said, calmly walking to the don’s desk.
One of Bonaducci’s men moved to stop Nathan.
“One more step toward Don Salerno and you die.”
Mickey’s warning stopped the man mid-step. He glanced over at Mickey as if he were about to say something, but Mickey silenced him when he brought his index finger to his lips and shook his head no. It was a gesture that stopped the man immediately. Mickey was quickly gaining popularity as the “New Spook Steele” of the criminal underworld. Nobody fucked with him, and he had become the organization’s assassin. If men didn’t know who he was on sight, they figured it out once he did that gesture, bringing his index finger to his lips, warning them to be silent before he silenced them for good.
Once Nathan made it to Bonaducci’s desk, he placed his palms flat on the surface. With a sigh, he looked Bonaducci in the eyes.
“Eric, I understand that you have things to do and shit to sell, so I’ll make this quick. We have a system here, a balance, and it has worked for all of us for a very long time. The only way I can let you stay here is if you become a part of that system.”
“A system?”
Nathan nodded. “Yes, Eric, a system.”
“And how is it that I get into this system, Salerno?”
“You don’t,” he answered, straightening up. �
�You have to be invited. You were not invited into my little Manhattan world. So here’s the deal.” Nathan sat on the front edge of the desk. “I’ll offer you a week to close up shop, pay me your back tax for selling in my territory—plus an extra twenty percent just to stay on my good side—then get the fuck out of my city. Take the offer.”
Don Bonaducci leaned forward in his seat. “Fuck your offer—”
“The offer has been cut down to one day,” Nathan interjected, cutting him off.
Eric slammed his fist down on his desk in a fit of rage and shot up from his seat. “Get the fuck out of my building— Ahh!”
Yes. Nathan did it, and it felt damn good. He gripped a handful of Eric Bonaducci’s hair and slammed his face into some very hard items on his desk … repeatedly.
Completely tuning out everything around him, Nathan kicked Don Bonaducci’s pussy ass up and down that entire fucking office. He’d done all of the talking that he had patience for and Nathan was proud of himself for giving Don Bonaducci a chance. Sadly, the man hadn’t taken the chance to leave that he was given, and now he was being stomped on repeatedly by Nathan’s size sixteen Italian leather shoe.
It could be much worse, Nathan could have just killed him. Bonaducci should consider this beating a show of Nathan’s kindness to his fellow Italian mafia peers.
“Watch … your … fucking … mouth!” He punctuated each word with a swift kick to Eric’s body.
The idiot had most likely blacked out after the first few hits, but Nathan didn’t care. He wanted Don Bonaducci to feel his presence whenever he woke up at the hospital with his good for nothing men later.
Still lost in a fit of rage, even after severely injuring Eric Bonaducci, Nathan decided to tear some shit up just for kicks. He turned away from Eric, flipped that annoying ass fucking desk over, and then threw the chair that had been sitting behind it against the wall. The chair broke in two before it fell to the ground.
He stood in the now silent room with his head hung forward, trying to calm his angry breathing. After pulling himself together, he looked up to see what damage had been done.
Out of the ten Bonaducci men that had been in the office upon arrival, eight of them were still breathing, but only four of them were standing, Niko Bonaducci being one of the four. No one was being held at gun point, everyone just stood still. Nathan turned his gaze to the men that came with him, finding them unharmed and semi-amused by the turn of events. Nathan was a little amused by it himself. The news of what had happened here would spread like a wildfire and be the talk at many of the criminal’s dinner tables tonight.
With a light shrug, Nathan walked across the room to the stacks of money sitting next to the currency counters. He honestly didn’t give a fuck; he knew about the events that had taken place. He actually hoped him beating the Bonaducci family boss would start a war. It was time he wiped out the Bonaducci scum anyway.
Nathan picked up a stack of money and counted it. Very nice. Each stack was ten thousand dollars, and there looked to be about ten stacks. “This will do,” Nathan said, tossing the stack to one of his men. “Take it all …”
“That’s a hundred thousand dollars, Nathan!” Niko shouted. “Have you lost your fucking mind?”
“Not yet,” Nathan answered as he walked over a dead body and to the door, “but I just might if you continue to raise your voice.”
“I swear to God if you take that money—”
“Lucca …”
Lucca immediately grabbed Niko by his neck and jerked him forward. “Shut the fuck up you little bitch!”
Nathan chuckled. “You have an hour to get your father and your men out of my city. If you exceed an hour you will be hunted.”
“Fu–fuck you—”
“By your ex-wife, Niko …”
Niko didn’t say a word.
Nathan nodded. “Just one word to my wife, and she’ll set her loose on you.” Nathan chuckled when Niko continued to remain silent. “Isabella has become quite the exceptional threat, Niko. So sad that you had all of that potential right under your own roof, and you never capitalized on it.” Nathan shrugged. “I suppose your loss was my wife’s gain. I think we can both agree on that. Never underestimate the power of a scorned woman, Niko. There’s a target on your head that Isabella is longing to hit with one of her favorite blades.”
Once Nathan finished speaking, Lucca released him, sending him crashing to the floor. Nathan walked to the room’s exit.
“Someone call my wife. Tell her I want to meet for lunch.”
“I’ll do it,” Mickey said.
Nathan nodded, and motioned for the door. “Let’s walk back to S.O., shall we, gentleman? Today is a nice day.”
Nathan left the office without another word, and his men followed behind him.
~*~
“Everything about you confuses me. You’ve done things so selfless for the people you love. It contradicts the monster that I know you are …”
Silas smiled at her. It was a warm smile, one that admittedly made her a little nostalgic. She was positive that in her childhood he’d given her that exact same smile.
“You are right, daughter. I am a monster. I’m criminal, a murder, but I am not a contradiction. I am a lesson, Carterina. You are, too.”
“What does that mean?”
“One would look at you right now and just see a beautiful young mother. You look harmless, soft, warm, delicate, and you are those things, dear daughter, to your children, your husband, and your family. Your smile, your laugh, your personality, your heart, it all falls into their world. It is not expected of a person in the world you really fit in to. The sweetest man or woman in the room could possibly be the deadliest, just as the most frightening man or woman in the room could easily be the biggest coward.”
“But how are you the lesson?”
“We, are the lesson. The most common misconception about a criminal, a murder, et cetera, is the persona. The persona of ‘scary person’ was not based on an actual scary person, love. It was based on what psychology tells society a scary person acts like. This is the personality psychopath, they say. Science proves it right, as does some research. You are not the text book definition of a psychopath, Carterina. I have moments when I am not the text book definition of a psychopath, yet what are we?”
“We’re the lesson …” Carter answered, suddenly understanding.
“Exactly. Men and women alike think the five foot four sweetheart with the big, crying eyes is passive until they learn otherwise. When the crying eyes become eyes full of fire they become confused. Such brutal behavior contradicts only who they think you are, but no one will ever really know who you are unless they know every person that lives inside of your head.”
“Are you saying I have multiple personalities?”
“There’s a reason why you are one of the most feared women in the criminal underworld, child. You are a woman of many faces. Unpredictable, and dangerous. One doesn’t know whether you’ll respond to a situation with a smile and a kind hand, or the sharp end of a blade. It all depends on what face you are wearing on that particular day.”
Carter shook her head. “That’s ridiculous. While I agree that I have problems, I’m not a mental patient.”
“I’m not saying you have an illness, daughter. I’m saying you have a gift. Many men and woman in the criminal underworld don’t know how to function in this society, but you do. You have more than one persona, and they all work together to make up a dazzling young woman. The people who love you have become acquainted with all of you and that’s what you need in order to continue to function properly. Do you remember how you felt when you were alone?”
“Like I was losing my mind, losing myself. Sometimes it physically hurt.”
“You are like me, daughter. We are unable to be alone, this why abandonment hurts us so. Each part of who you are needs to be nurtured and fed. Company for the social butterfly, a friend or two for the popular American girl, a shoulder to cry on
and protection for the vulnerable heartbroken young woman, love for hopeless romantic with dreams of having a family, subjects and power for the fearless leader, and blood for the killer that can never be tamed. Out of all of those love is the most important, Carterina. It is the one that makes us strive to be better. It is for those whom we love that we will do the most impossible of things. The other elements of who we are can go unfed for long periods of time before we are affected, but losing love will push us over the edge …”
“Is that what happened to you?”
“I became my worst self when I first lost my brother after Dmitry died. Ever since then, it’s been hard to keep up a relationship with anyone. Once you’re gone you’re gone, and there’s no coming back. Robbie still has hope for me.”
“So do I, Silas,” Carter said softly. It was the truth. Carter hadn’t understood her father, but now she did. She saw it, and she loved her father even more for seeing it in someone like Silas, too. “I didn’t understand what it was my father saw in you, but now I do. You should listen to him. You’re wrong, Silas. One is never gone forever. You can always come back. Just be happy that after all you’ve done, you still have someone there that’s still waiting for you.”
Silas frowned and looked down at the table in front of him. “Wow …” When he lifted his eyes to hers they were glossy with tears. He cleared his throat. “You sound like Robbie’s daughter.”
“I am his daughter, Silas. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”
“I know,” he sighed. “I am your maker, but …” his features strained as if he were fighting with himself, “Robbie … is your father.”
That day, a year and a half ago, was first and only time Silas had ever said those words. Right after that he slipped right back into claiming her as his child alone. It was something that Carter and her father had now become accustomed to. Yes, Silas was trying to be better, and he was getting there, but he was also still Silas Steele. He was still a human trafficker, he was still a lunatic, and he and Carter still threatened to kill each other at least twice a week.
Dangerous Beauty: Part Three: This is War Page 65