Nero (The Family Book 3)

by Angelique Jones

  “Sir, please. We didn’t know what Matteo was doing!” the man begged.

  Juliet almost laughed when the gun went off and the body hit the floor. Several of the others in the room began to sweat visibly as they stared down at body of their fellow soldier. Moving into the office, Juliet went to an overstuffed chair. Taking a seat, she made herself comfortable and waited for the show to begin. These fools had wanted to work for the winning team. Now they would see how Enzo dealt with failure.

  Chapter 8

  Rose’s house had turned into a fortress. No one was to be trusted.

  That fucker Enzo was all smiles while we were escorted out with the few bags we had been allowed to take. Yeah—bet his smiles ended when he got into Chris’s office. The fucker couldn’t do anything about any of that. None of the cash, jewelry, or documents would have been listed anywhere in the wills. Especially not the papers and flash drives. He didn’t get shit.

  The inner workings of the family and its businesses had been hidden in Chris’s office. Nero knew that that was what Enzo had really been after by getting them evicted so quickly. It should have been satisfying to know he had denied Enzo what he wanted most, but instead Nero felt a slow simmer in his blood. Over half of his men had stayed with Enzo. There was no way to know how long they had been betraying Chris.

  That blow had put Nero over the edge. Losing himself in whores and booze, Nero had been wallowing in his own failure. A failure compounded by Tori telling him and Rose that she really had killed their parents and Thomas.

  Like a fuckin’ robot, she sat there and said the words.

  He had walked away from her without so much as a backward look. Rose had tried to tell him that she was lying and that there had to be more to the story, but he didn’t want to hear it.

  Why the fuck can’t Rose just accept that they’re all like my father? His insanity runs in their blood.

  He was sitting up and leaning against the headboard of the bed in the loft apartment that he kept downtown, for business. Except the only business he had been doing lately was getting drunk and fucking whatever came through the door. Taking another swig from the bottle next to his bed, Nero closed his eyes when he heard the door open, figuring it was probably Matteo.

  Why the fuck can’t he leave me alone? Why can’t he accept that it’s all over?

  Opening his eyes, Nero was ready to tell him to fuck off, but the words stopped at his lips. Instead of Matteo standing there, he saw a group of cold-eyed men. They pointed guns at the bed—at him. He recognized them. They had once been his, but were now clearly Enzo’s.

  “So, how are we going to do this?” Nero grimly asked.

  No way am I going to beg these traitorous fucks for anything.

  Carmon, the piece of shit that they had been looking for, was the first one to speak.

  “How the mighty have fallen. The boss is going to love this.” He raised his hand, and Nero saw that it held a camera. Smiling, he motioned to the others. “Make it good.”

  Holstering their guns, they came forward en masse and pulled him from the bed. Fists and feet pounded into him. Fighting back would have been a joke. For every one he would take down, Nero knew two more would take their places.

  Head spinning, Nero knew that unconsciousness was coming. Laughing harshly, the last thought that he had before oblivion took him was that his father had finally won.

  …

  Groaning at the pain that filled his body, Nero struggled to open his eyes. There was not a single part of his body that didn’t hurt.

  Why the fuck am I still alive?

  Forcing the eye that wasn’t swollen shut to open, it took his brain long moments to comprehend what he was seeing. A beautiful girl crouched next to him. Her long, red hair fell around her while her emerald eyes bored sharply into his. She looked like an angel.

  “Am I dead?” Nero asked through his bloody lips.

  “Not yet,” she said in a bemused tone. Her voice was as beautiful as her face.

  “Who are you?” he asked.

  Death played in her eyes, as if she herself was the reaper of souls. “Does it matter?”

  “I suppose not.”

  Pushing himself up to sitting, Nero slumped against the wall. He took his first real look at the room. Tensing at the bloodbath and hanging bodies he saw, he looked more sharply at the girl. “Did you do this?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why”

  “To irk your brother,” she replied in a casual tone.

  She acted as if the carnage she wrought was nothing.

  “Why do you care?” Nero asked, wondering how many hits to the head he had taken.

  “Your brother did me a great wrong, and I plan to see him dead for it. Nowhere in this life do I plan for Enzo to know pleasure if I can prevent it. Tell me, Nero, why are you so quick to want to die?” she asked curiously.

  Staring at her, he laughed harshly. He couldn’t help it.

  What new hell am I in? Is this God’s idea of a joke?

  Seeing that the girl was not amused, he spat. “What the hell do I have to live for? Everything that I have ever loved is gone. So tell me, girl, what do I have to live for?”

  A fanatical gleam entered her eyes. “Revenge, Nero. You live for revenge—and to protect what family you have left. Your sister Victoria is innocent. Enzo and Caterina were the ones who killed your parents. Your grandmother Rose is strong, but aging. She will need your help to protect Victoria and her empire. If you allow Enzo to kill you, they will die and Enzo will get everything that he desires.”

  “How do you know that?” he demanded, wanting desperately to believe her—to believe that at least some of his family was not cursed.

  “I make it my business to know everything about your family, Nero. You live today because I won’t let Enzo win. You live tomorrow because you won’t let Enzo win.” Reaching forward, she placed her fingers under his chin and gripped it firmly before continuing. “Look at me, Nero, and listen well to what I am about to say. I do not exist. You never saw me. You did this. Ruthlessness, in our world, will bring you the allies you need to stand against Enzo and reclaim your family. I will not always be here to protect you, so you must protect yourselves. Enzo is after your grandmother’s fortune and businesses—if he gets them, he will be unstoppable. You have to protect and take control of her empire if you want to have any chance of defeating Enzo. Your grandmother must be ruthless. Have her place contracts on the lives of anyone who tries to kill her, Victoria, or you. Be certain to offer double if there is any connection to Caterina or Enzo. They will be unable to touch you—they value their lives too much. Enrage them. Have Rose split her fortune between you and Victoria now. Love for one’s family is a weakness to be used against you. Do not fall into that trap,” she finished, then released him so he could stand.

  “Who are you? What is your name?”

  “I don’t have a name, Nero. It was taken from me long ago. Now clean yourself up and then call your men to clean up this mess. Let them see what you are capable of. Let them see what will happen if they betray you,” she told him before walking away.

  For a long moment, he stared at the last place she had stood. The sound of a door closing told him when she actually left. Pain filled him, but he ignored it as he pushed himself up the wall. Once he was sure that he could stand on his own, Nero stepped forward by focusing on placing one foot in front of the other. With each step, he discarded a piece of the boy that he once was and took in the man that he had to become. There was no room left in his life for indecision or pity. Stepping over the bodies of his would-be abductors, he grabbed his phone and texted Matteo. Then he went to the bathroom and straight into the shower. As the water cascaded over him, he thought ahead to what had to be done. By the time he left the water behind, he was ready. After dressing, Nero went downstairs to the couch and waited.

  He could hear his named being called as men rushed into the apartment. They stopped short when they saw the carnage that litt
ered the floor. Smiling grimly, he thought about what more they would find upstairs. Matteo was the first to notice him. Stepping forward, he looked him up and down.

  Yeah, I know my face looks like shit, but I’m still upright and breathing. Yeah, some of the guys are quiet—surprised to see me alive, though they’re trying to mask it. Guess I still have a few traitors to take care of—later. After they’ve reported what they’ve seen to Enzo.

  “I had a little visit from some of Enzo’s guys. As you can see, our talk didn’t go well. Cesar, you and the guys get these bodies dumped and call in the cleaners. Matteo, you’re with me. We have work to do,” Nero said, walking purposefully out the door.

  Fear and respect filled the faces of those he passed. The mystery woman had been right—this world was not for the meek or the caring. The reason Enzo and Julius had done so well was because you never knew on any given day whether they would kill you. This was not a world run by love, but by fear.

  Climbing into the car, Nero waited for Matteo to get in. As soon as the door closed, they were off. He didn’t have long to wait before Matteo started asking questions.

  “So do you want to tell me what really happened in there, Nero? Not that I don’t believe that you could have done that, but I know how pissant drunk you’ve been.”

  “We’ll talk as soon as we get back to the house. Rose needs to hear this too.”

  Matteo let the matter drop, and the rest of the ride passed in silence. Walking into Rose’s house, a new sense of purpose filled Nero. He went straight to the office and took the seat behind the desk, then waited for Matteo and Rose to join him. As soon as they were seated, Nero told them exactly what happened, without sugar-coating anything.

  I fucked up, and I’m not going to try and hide it.

  “You have no idea who the girl was?” Matteo asked, clearly in disbelief that a girl could have done what he had seen.

  “None. She wasn’t much older than Tori,” Nero replied, causing a fresh look of skepticism to fill Matteo’s eyes. “Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. Especially since I’m the one who saw the girl.”

  “Do you want me to make inquires? Find out who she is?”

  “No. I don’t want her turning her anger on us. The girl is a killer. Right now we need all the allies we can get, and you know how the saying goes,” Nero told Matteo. “Rose, what do you think about the contracts?”

  She looked troubled by everything being said, but pushed her own doubts aside at his question. “I agree. Enzo and Caterina are just like your father—they won’t do anything to risk their own lives. As for my fortune and businesses, I always planned to leave them to you and your sister anyway. Maybe this girl is right—it will help the family for you to take over now. So be it. I’ll have my lawyers start tomorrow on getting everything transferred.”

  With all that agreed upon, just one thing remained to be discussed—the one thing Nero wasn’t sure he would ever forgive himself for having believed in the first place.

  “How the hell are we going to get Tori out of this mess?”

  Fire filled Rose’s eyes at the mention of her name. “Leave that to me, Nero. There is no way I’ll let my granddaughter rot in prison for the rest of her life,” Rose said in a voice so hard that it would have broken anyone who dared to try and stand before her.

  Chapter 9

  These last few years had been filled with revelations. Each new thing that Nero discovered just made him more determined to see everyone who had wronged him in their graves. Tori was the worst situation of all. The kid had been destroyed. There was no way to get her out of the charges. The only thing that could be done was to get her tried as a minor and declared temporarily insane. It had cost Rose millions in bribes and favors, but she had done it. Tori had been committed to a mental institution until her eighteenth birthday—at least Rose had taken control of it by positioning her own people on the inside to protect her granddaughter. The attempts on their lives had also stopped with the redistribution of Rose’s assets. It would seem that the mysterious girl had been right. Rose had personally gone to inform Enzo and Caterina about the contracts, and about giving Tori and Nero the business. Rose gleefully recounted the rage that the two of them had been unable to hide at her announcement.

  Everything was starting to move in the right direction—slowly. The news of the brutality that had happened that day in the loft had spread through the underworld, giving Nero a weight that he hadn’t had before. Allies who had fled to side with Enzo were now back and courting his favor after seeing that Enzo only ever kept his word when it suited him. Nero was becoming a shark in the business world—he had a natural flare for the ruthlessness it took to succeed. While Enzo had gotten most of the Genovese family businesses, he hadn’t gotten them all. Chris had been smarter than any of them realized. The information on those flash drives had given Nero “access” to politicians, cops, and so much more. He even had direct access into some very powerful families now. In addition, he learned that they were silent partners in some restaurants, night clubs, and strip clubs. Strip clubs that, if Anthony—his inside man—was right, Enzo’s whore and partner Juliet Franzese desperately wanted to add to her depraved empire.

  Enzo and their father’s ex whore needed those clubs to expand their very lucrative business of sex and torture. Anthony had been a well of information; by working his way up in Enzo’s family, he had eventually become a member of the trusted inner circle. The information that he sent back about what really went on in those clubs and inside Enzo’s family turned Nero’s stomach. It would seem Enzo had taken after their father in every way, and had surrounded himself with men just like him.

  The information that Anthony had given him had allowed him to take small bites out of Enzo, but he was planning to pull off a major blow. Caterina was guzzling the money that she had gotten from their parents’ death like it was water, and Enzo wasn’t doing much better. Those clubs were Enzo’s top earners, though he had been picking up other businesses across the country. Through the years, a steady rash of murders within other families had benefitted Enzo. No one knew who was doing the killings, or why only specific members of families were being targeted. But the brutality of each murder told a story—they were personal, not business. The only thing the victims had in common was that they were all men who were widely considered to be pieces of shit. Most of the families were happy to be rid of them.

  …

  “Nero?” a hesitant voice whispered from the open doorway, interrupting his thoughts. Looking up, he smiled and waved his fairy in.

  “What do you need, baby?” he asked softly.

  Jenny had been one of the biggest positive changes of late. Tori’s conviction had seemed to wake her up. Her detox had been brutal, but the girl that he had once known had made her way back to him. Their marriage was now going in the direction that he had always hoped it would.

  Coming into the room, she hurried over to him and climbed into his lap. “I was wondering if it would be OK if I went and visited with my cousin Marcie for a week?” she asked meekly while playing with his tie. Peeking up and seeing his frown, she hurried to add, “She just had a baby, so she could use some help.”

  Seeing the pleading look in her eyes, he couldn’t help but give in. “All right,” he whispered.

  Jenny wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his face between uttering a dozen thank-yous. He would do anything to make her happy. Maybe spending time with her cousin’s baby would be a good thing. He had been trying to convince her for the last year to have a baby, but she had been resistant and unwilling to talk about why. Pulling back, he brushed a strand of hair that had fallen from her bun off her cheek.

  “When do you want to leave?”

  “Tomorrow, if it’s OK,” she said, practically jumping up and down.

  Seeing her excitement, he said indulgently, “Yeah, it will be fine. I’ll let your security guys know.”

  Unfortunately, his words dimmed her excitement. “Nero, Marcie
’s house isn’t that big. Can’t they just drop me off?” she asked hesitantly.

  Is she fucking kidding?

  “No…”

  “But—”

  “I said no!” Nero barked, pissed that she would make him say it twice.

  Tears filled her eyes and she tried to get off of his off his lap. “Never mind. I don’t want to go,” she choked out.

  Jesus Christ. I hate it when she cries.

  Pulling her struggling body into his, he tucked her head under his chin. “Jenny, the guys are there to keep you safe.”

  “Safe from what, Nero? Nothing has happened in years. I’ve done everything that you’ve ever asked of me. For once, just once, I want to be normal,” Jenny sobbed, burying her face into his neck.

  Fuck.

  He knew that he was a prick when it came to her safety, but he’d never realized that she felt suffocated by it. He could have the guys watch from a distance, he supposed. Squeezing her tight, he whispered what she wanted to hear and hoped that he didn’t regret it.

  “All right, baby.”

  Raising her head at his words, she looked in his eyes before leaning forward to kiss his lips. The salty taste of her tears filled their kiss. Wanting to wash away the taste so it wouldn’t be the memory that she carried with her during their time apart, Nero gathered her into his arms and carried her to the couch. Slowly, he worshipped his little fairy with the gentlest strokes and caresses. He never allowed the darkness that filled him at times to touch his Jenny. To him, she was to be worshiped and cared for—his base instincts to dominate had no place in their bed.

  …

  “It’s all set,” the voice said before hanging up.

  Juliet placed the phone down and smiled. Everything was going according to her plan. This week Enzo would have a new toy—and she would have a video that was going to send Nero over the edge. Very soon, Nero would take care of her problem for her and she would be another step closer to what should always have been hers.