by Jax Hart
Me: Zio ordered me to find a party tonight.
Tati: Seriously? Your uncle is cool AF.
Me:?? Party?
Tati: I’ll text Seb.
Me: Seb?
Tati: Yeah. I think we’re kind of a thing…
The smells of Zio’s homemade sauce wafted up the stairs. I grabbed my laptop and followed my nose finding a heaping plate of homemade cavatelli with sauce waiting. Zio took a seat opposite me and bowed his head. Together we prayed in Italian then spread our napkins.
We chewed in silence for a few minutes and then he lifted his head. “We need to prepare.”
“For what?”
“For when this thing between you and Roque falls apart.”
My fork paused halfway to my mouth, “Why are you so sure it will.”
“Because I’m an old man with plenty of bad romances in my past. You’re too young and he’s too hot headed. He’s already making moves in Italy. Even if he wasn’t a Salvatore, I wouldn’t want you near him.”
“That’s ironic since I’m the head of the Palermo’s now.”
Zio scoffed, “You? You are the head of nothing. Where’s your army?”
I folded my napkin. “I’ll make one.”
“When? How?” He gestured.
“In the next chapter of my life. The one after high school. The one if I lose him.”
“God help him.”
“He’ll need more than God’s help if he plays me.”
“I take it you’ve forgiven him for what he’s done.”
I paused with my fork mid-air. “I’ve thought about that quite a lot. He was born into a dark world like I was. But he was the heir. He did what was expected. But disobeyed his sovrano. He didn’t kill me Zio. He showed me mercy. How can I not do the same?”
Zio took a deep breath. “I’ll never forgive him for slaughtering our family… for almost taking you. It kills me that you feel this love for him.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. At least you’ve been well trained to take him down if he dares hurt you again.”
“Should I tell him… who we are? Who I am?”
“No. Why? The hit on you still lives.”
“What?” I croaked, trying not to choke on my pasta.
“The Castellione’s know. Since he’s come so close to us. I made a few calls to old friends. Roque trained and lived under Constantine Castellione for a year. Everyone in the old world believes Roque and his cousins were killed with Constantine in a hit. The families blamed each other. To this day they still bicker about who did it.
I gasped. “He did. He killed and faked his death…”
Zio nodded. “He’s free. Free to become anyone he wants and that is the only reason I didn’t kill him just for looking at you the way I do. Like you’re his whole world.”
My heart filled with hope. Maybe we can be normal after “all and break free from the past. If Roque gives up the mob life… he’s free to be with me. We could have a normal life somewhere and leave our inherited lives behind.
“What about Chicago? I heard he was making a play there?”
“He is. But he hasn’t publicly claimed his name yet. He’s running under the name the three kings. No one knows the Salvatore heir lives, but us.”
“We can leverage that if it comes to it. But I hope it won’t. I just want to be a normal girl for once on the cusp of her first romance.”
And hopefully my last.
“Eat. Go out. Date. Promise me you won’t limit yourself to one man at seventeen.”
“I won’t.”
Liar.
“Don’t tell him your birthday is next month either. I sipped my water, breaking eye contact. I already felt himself at war with his need to be a better man. But I’d barely given sex a thought until that night in the closet and now, I’ll admit I think about having it with him a lot. And that makes me totally screwed in more ways than just one.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“THEY’RE DEAD. THE whole family,” I snarled, curling the tips of my fingers into the glossy black and white photos of me and Blue. I had her pressed up against Johnny’s SUV the night I slummed a high school party knowing she’d be there. The night she tried in vain to fool me. But I tasted the sugar in her kiss. Knew the powder was fake. I understood why she did it. My fierce girl on the verge of being all woman was scared of me. Of us. Of how we combust every time we touch. She’s seen the darkness in me and isn’t afraid of it. I see it in her too. But the two of us together is a force neither understands.
I don’t care to analyze it. Twist it around and around in my head or overthink it. All I know is Blue is in me. Digging in deep and burrowing somewhere I thought couldn’t exist: a heart. Fucking flowers and all that shit. Poetry. The words that weave around my head when I think of her and how she makes me feel is sheer poetry. Dark as much as light.
“You wanna handle this personally?” My cousin, Vito’s eyes were cold as death as he looked down into the club below.
Johnny set us up in a soundproof room with a floor made of glass. From our vantage point we could peruse the scene below all the while sitting on black velvet couches with cognac and cigars. To anyone looking up, we were just five guys enjoying a Saturday night.
I nodded to Vito then scooped up the pictures, dumping them on the middle of the table I poured my liquor and flicked my lighter.
Blue and I went up in flames.
I smirked as Johnny freaks out. “You cocksucker! The damn alarms are gonna go off and what I don’t need is my club crawling with fire and police!”
“You mean your Daddy’s club?” Rafe mocked.
Johnny jumped on the table. His heavy black shoes tried to stomp the flames, but her and I…we burn. It’s what we did.
“You knew better.” Geno’s eyes were accusatory.
I shrugged. “I did. But I won’t give her up.”
Vito scowled then starts cursing at me in Italian. “We’ve worked so hard building the foundation to our dynasty and you want to go to war over a high school girl? Geno and I… we did the dirty work. And you take all the credit.”
“Are you challenging me?” My chest puffed out. My eyes glittered like hot coals. My cousins better back the fuck up. I made them. Cared for their families. Made sure everyone they left behind were clothed and fed. Some of their sisters are even doctors today because my blood money paid their way.
“The Castellione’s are a problem. They know you live. Know the Salvatore king has a throne in America.”
“So? Let them come.”
“They already did.”
“The pictures?”
“No, Roque. We had a visitor… a messenger…Vince Castellione.”
“That puppet shit? The one with the big ears and buck teeth?” I remembered Vince from the time I lived with Constantine. Vince was such a fucking lapdog. I remembered thinking he’d never make a good Don. The kid was dumb as a box of rocks.
“He wants a meeting. He handed me the pictures…Roque…they know we did the hit on Constantine.”
“Of course, they do,” I smirked, “we lived. Ran off with his estate’s money and have a foothold in Chicago. But the Castellione’s are still over there. They can’t touch us here.”
“It’s not just them. All the old families are pissed. We broke the rules.”
“Fuck the rules. I make them now.”
“With what army? You still have two more years at Princeton. The Castellione’s want to broker a deal. You need to meet with Vince…”
“Don’t lecture me on what I need to do Vito,” I sneered, feeling the walls closing in. I wasn’t ready for this. For my old life to fuck up and invade my new one. Not yet anyway. Especially now when things with Blue…ah fuck… that girl we have places we need to go together, and this shit is complicating things.
“I don’t see a point.”
“There’s a hit out on you and the girl.”
“Pussies,” I muttered, downing my drink and slam
ming the empty lowball glass down on the charred photos still smoking.
“Don’t take it lightly. I can spare a few men from here but the five families from Italy? If I fuck with them for you… the wrath of the families here will be on my head. Use your head, Roque. The big one. If the old school mob starts a beef here in the states everyone will want a say. Even the Lamatti’s.”
“You’re supposed to be on my side, you fuck.”
“I am.”
Pacing to the corner, I looked down at the Club. The girls. The boys. All the people having a regular Saturday night with no idea of the wars that really go on. Never reported. Never known about. Bodies disappear in our wars. It never touched the real world.
“Fine. Set the meet with the Castellione bitch. Here in New York. Johnny can give us more cover. I don’t want any of them breathing in one lungful of air in Chicago. That air belongs to us and I’m not sharing. If they want a piece… they need to build their own turf. The Chinese have LA locked down. The Irish have Boston. Johnny’s crew, New York. Where the fuck are they going to go?”
“Detroit. I heard Detroit.” Vito lit his cigar.
“Good luck with that. Local gangs got that shit locked up.”
Geno nodded and fired off a text using one of his burner cells. It beeped with a reply two minutes later.
“They’re coming tomorrow night.”
My brows lifted. “Something must be urgent.” Johnny started barking out orders into his phone, setting up a secure place to meet where our backs will be covered.
“Do you want me there?”
“No, Rafe. I don’t need you. Stay clean like you always do.” He nodded and called it at night. I knew if I asked, he’d do it. Take a Glock and have my back. But having a friend on the outside is sometimes more valuable than a loyal thug on the inside.
***
“No.”
The word dropped like a bomb from my lips.
Vince Castellione is a short, fat, pug. I can’t even imagine what his sister must look like. And he wants me to marry her?
“You refusing this alliance is an insult. Refusing my sister is a personal insult.”
“I could give two fucks.”
“You will, when we finally finish what should have ended in Palermo.”
“What in the fuck are you talking about?”
“The girl… the Fiorelli girl… she still lives. Ending her and you…will be my greatest pleasure.”
He fingered the gun tucked under his belt. Stupid fuck. It might be a while since the pit, but the cold darkness still clings to me. Only Blue chases it away for a while. Something tightened in my gut. Both are mine. Blue and the Fiorelli girl. I don’t question the fierceness of it. Both belong to me. Pieces of them pierced me and stayed.
With my hands fisted deep in the pockets of my impeccable navy suit, I strolled toward him, stopping inches from the fat fuck. His men stiffened. Guns were drawn. I leaned into his face so close; my eyes took in the hundreds of blackheads dotting his nose. “You’re such an ugly little fuck, eh? You couldn’t torture me into fucking your sister. She’s probably just as hideous as you.”
“Maybe,” he drawled trying to be all cocky as fuck. “But she saw the pictures. She wants you to be her prized Italian Stallion.”
I rolled my eyes. The corners of my mouth lifted as I pictured Blue in my mind. I’ve never rolled my eyes before at anyone. I wonder what she’d think?
“I said no.”
“You’ll reconsider.”
“Not likely.”
“The five families have already decided. Take my sister as your wife…bring us into Chicago or we’ll end the last of the families from the Old World. We won’t hesitate. We won’t fail.”
“Like your father’s did? The original circle of five couldn’t stop me. What makes you think you can?”
“They still live. Still remember…my father… he stands by the word he gave yours. But I’m adding a condition. His word isn’t mine to keep. Marry my sister. Unite with us and we can break them all.”
I stepped away. Eagerness filled his beady, greedy eyes. He needed me. He has the numbers, but I have the brains and capability to make this operation. Maybe I’ll do it. Marry the bitch then ditch her. Out her in a pit with her brother….
“If you hurt my sister…”
“You’ll what? Kill me?” I almost rolled my eyes but catch myself.
“No. I’ll kill the girl. Your girl.”
“She’s nothing to me. A quick fuck. That’s all?”
“No… don’t think it’s just that. I saw the pictures. You broke the cardinal rule, Salvatore. Or maybe Constantine didn’t teach you well enough. I bet she’s tight as fuck with that little, bitty body of hers… I have her and the Fiorelli girl. The two girls who are both your weaknesses.”
I spun on my heels. My fist connected with his pug nose. Bones crunched Blood splattered then gushed from his nose. His men went berserk. But Johnny had my back.
“Stand down,” he ordered. “You’re in New York. None of you will leave my jurisdiction alive.”
Vince held a bloody rag to his nose. “Twenty-four hours Salvatore. Then the deals off and the hit on you and her is on. My family won’t intervene. My father meant to keep his word to yours, but it will be out of his hands. Marriage to Julietta is the only way out.”
I said nothing, as I walked out with Johnny guarding my back. In the back of the armed SUV we sat in heavy silence. Through the window, the city streets blur as fast as my thoughts.
“What are you going to do?”
My cell cuts the answer forming in my mind. “Geno?”
“They’re here. Trying to infiltrate Chicago. Trying to get people to snitch.”
“Cut anyone’s tongue out who does.”
“They took my sister Carmela. Grabbed her straight from her dorm room in Boston.”
It’s war.
I’ve been a fool for thinking I could pretend to be someone else. A normal college guy having a romance. Going to keggers and playing foolish teenage games.
I forgot who I was for a minute.
“We’ll get her back.”
“Unharmed? If those fucks touch her…”
“I know. We are blood, cousin. We haven’t survived. Killed. Planned to lose.”
I end the call and turn to Johnny. “I need your Boston connections.”
He whistled low. “The favors you owe me are stacking up and your crew is still too light to offer me anything in return.”
“Someday I’ll be the fucking king and you know it. I’ll probably save your ass a thousand times over. You can thank me now.”
He shook his head but made the call. The Castellione’s are fucked. They just didn’t know it yet.
My cell pinged with a text. It was a picture of Carmela. Bound. Gagged, with wide eyes pleading for help. Her bra was soaked with sweat and her hair was wild.
My sister wants an answer.
I typed back… Vegas. Two weeks. Send me a picture of my bride.
He sent a picture of a pig. Covered in mud.
“Maybe he’s serious? He’ll put a veil on one and walk it down on a leash just to humiliate you?”
“No. I met her once. She was fat. Had a pock-marked face and wore her hair in two fat braids. She smelled of gelato all the time.”
“Maybe she’ll taste sweet then?”
“The only thing sweet will be her spilled blood.”
“On your wedding night?”
I nodded. “I’m taking all of them out. Then I’ll confront the remaining four families when I’m done. Who does that fuck think he is coming after me? Taking my family?”
“You killed Constantine. That man is a mafia legend. He was the best at what he did. Stories of his kills are notorious even in my circles.”
“When I’m done. Everyone will forget him and only speak about me.”
“Damn. I bet they will.”
We continued the drive back to Jersey in silence for a bit. “How di
d they know? Why did they only find me just now?”
“Modern times, my friend. It’s nearly impossible for anyone to hide. They probably always knew. Hell, you took all the money. Didn’t you put the charity in your name?
“No. I didn’t.”
“Someone slipped. Maybe bragged?”
My eyes cut through the changing scenery. We’ve left concrete behind and the bare trees of almost winter roll by. “Perhaps.”
“What are you going to do about Blue?”
“Keep her.”
“And your bride?”
I shrugged. “It’ll be a farce.”
“That’s a dangerous play. They’ll kill her if they find out.”
“They try either way.”
“Dump her. End it.”
“I can’t.”
“You’re a fool. He sees it. I saw it weeks ago. You can’t be who you need to be and feel love, brother.”
He’s right. But that wouldn’t stop me from trying.
Johnny’s burner lit up with a text. “Fuck. Now I owe Sean Flannery a favor. He’s closing in on Carmela’s location.”
“Favors rule our world.”
“And lies.”
Drop me at her house.
“You’re so fucked?”
I shook my head, “I don’t plan to lose anything especially the girl.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
WHISPERS FOLLOWED ME WHEREVER I went. I was a persona non grata before. The freak with the blue hair and tit-less body. Ever since the Prince of Princeton has been showing up after school practically every day to escort me home, I’m high school royalty. The freak turned princess.
But little did they know I was born to be a queen. My heart did flip-flops in my chest. He’s here again. Waiting for me.
“Hi,” I smiled, hesitantly. Part of me was still afraid of the intensity between us. So many times, it had been on the tip of my tongue to tell him who I was: The girl from Palermo. The girl who teased him to become a man. Well, he’s all man now. His arms came around me as he scanned the area for threats.
His warm lips brushed the top of my head as he opened the passenger door of his SUV and ushered me in.