“What?” I bark. Kissing my daughter’s temple, I pass her to him, trusting him for reasons I don’t understand. Brooklyn clamps her small arm around his neck like she did me.
“When the bell rings, you knock his ass out in the first ten seconds of round one.”
“I’ll make it three,” I vow. “Find her, Tony, and bring her back to me alive and in one piece.”
The door to my dressing room slams, the metal clanking sending a shiver down my spine as all of them exit. I don’t know if I can do this. Gamble with my Sienna’s life? I don’t doubt that Antonio Caputo will find her and go through anyone to bring her back, but the question is, will he find her in time?
Tony may look at it as being a pussy, as being less of a man for throwing a fight because someone kidnapped my woman, but that means nothing to me. I don’t care what anyone thinks of me. If it saves Sienna and meant she wasn’t harmed, I’d get on my knees in front of the Devil himself and beg. I’d crawl on my hands and knees in front of the whole world if that’s what it takes.
But what if Sienna’s father is right? What if I take a fall in the fifth round, lose my fight, my belt, my dignity, and someone slices her throat anyway?
Chapter 45
SIENNA
Throw the fight in the fifth round, De Salvo, or Si will choke to death on her own blood before you step foot out of the ring tonight. Vin’s words ring in my ears. He smacked a strip of duct tape over my lips before he pulled my half-conscious body from the car, so I couldn’t tell him to eat shit, and that Matteo would not go out like that.
The fact is, Vin is a dead man whether I make it out of this dead or alive. He can’t leave me as a loose end after tonight is over no matter which choice Matteo makes, and I pray to God he doesn’t make the wrong one. He’s 9-0 on every title match he’s been in. He’s still young in his career. He has a long way to go to beat the reigning king of the most wins with no loses to date.
Vin tied my wrists with rope, securing them behind my back. Dumb move considering the jacket I’m wearing. Good thing I never shared that tidbit with him. The only reason I haven’t let the knife slide down is because I’m still trying to regain my wits before I make a move. Doing so too soon could get me killed before I’m able to get away, or before my brothers show up.
Even if Brooklyn wasn’t able to call, Dom keeps enough of a tab on me that he would have figured out something was wrong. He’s the one person I can count on for ensuring my safety, my perpetual knight in dark armor. I hope he found Brooklyn and that she is safe. I don’t have a plan yet, but if I do get unbound, I’m going to slice Vin from limb to limb. He’ll wish he’d never heard my name, never met me to begin with.
“Where’s my daughter?” My lashes lift, Kennedy standing behind Vin, streaks of mascara mixed with tears dried on her face. “You promised she’d be fine.”
“Go do some blow or . . . no, it’s H I hear you’re into.” Vin rips the tape from my lips. It’s a good thing I applied a coat of lipstick or a thin layer of skin would have ripped away when he pulled the sticky adhesive from my flesh.
“I am not. That wasn’t me. Someone did that to me. It was her fault.” She points to me. “If her family had stayed out of my business, that would never have happened. Matteo wouldn’t have dropped me like I didn’t matter to him anymore.”
“Hey, bitch,” I call to her. “He wasn’t yours even when I wasn’t in the picture. You’re delusional if you think otherwise.”
I know what Dom did—he told me—though I haven’t said anything to Matteo. I should have, but how exactly does one go about telling the guy she loves that her brother made his ex overdose on heroin? Never seemed like an appropriate time to bring that up.
“He was! You made him take our daughter away from me. But that changed today. He brought her to me. He asked me to watch her. He knows we’re supposed to be a family. You were just a fun romp in the sheets. He’s mine; he’s always been mine.”
A growl claws its way out of my throat.
If Matteo did allow Brooklyn to see her mom, to spend time with her, I’m going to knee him between the legs. I don’t mouth that thought. No sense in giving her false hope that we aren’t in sync—which apparently, we are not, since he failed to inform me of that development. It’s not that he had to; Brooklyn isn’t my child. I don’t get a say when it comes to her in that way, but a heads-up isn’t too much to ask either.
Of course, he had a title match; the second one this year to prepare for. When Matteo brought up the subject two days ago, he said Brooklyn was going to stay with his mom and that he and his dad would attend my fight before going into the city for his.
Maybe he forgot to mention it.
Maybe he didn’t think it was a big deal.
Maybe I should cut him some slack.
Nah, my knee rammed up so hard he feels the pain coming out of his ears is what he deserves if he made that stupid decision.
“Where is she?” Kennedy demands, pools of tears threatening to spill over her lids.
“Don’t know,” Vin tells her, nodding in my direction. “That one let her escape.”
“Are you crazy?” She turns her heated stare on me, her hands going to her hips, her brows pinched between her forehead. “She’s five. You just . . . you . . . she . . .”
“Shut the fuck up, you stupid cunt.” Vin turns to face her.
“I second that,” I chime in.
“My daughter is missing. Don’t tell me to shut up. You have to go find her before Matteo finds—” Vin’s fist flies out, nailing her in the face, and her body drops in an unconscious state. Dumb bitch. Even I saw that coming the first time she opened her mouth, her annoying voice hurting my ear drums.
Vin shakes his hand in rapid succession, then squeezes and lets go of his fist a couple of times. “That shut her up.”
“So, is this a thing with you that I never knew about?” I quiz him. “You like to kidnap and beat up on women?”
“If a bitch gets out of line . . .” Lifting an eyebrow, he leaves the statement open for interpretation. It only makes me roll my eyes. I’ve battled bigger, stronger men than him. If he thinks that’s going to scare me into submission, he doesn’t know me in the slightest.
He’s also shit at securing a rope around his intended victims. I’m slowly loosening the cotton braid. It’s too thick for what he used it for. Dumbass should have been smarter. I doubt I’ll even need to use the knife up my sleeve to cut through the material.
“You know you’re not leaving here, right?” he says, as if the thought of killing me disappoints him. “It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. He promised you to me. He promised me an in.”
“Yeah, and who exactly is he? It sounds like you’ve been talking to someone that doesn’t have a say. Let me make something clear.” I lift both brows high on my head. “Not even my father has the power to control who I’m promised to, you dumb fuck.”
“Which is why he isn’t an actual Boss. No man, head of a family, would allow a woman into the ranks of men. He wouldn’t stop profitable businesses either. If he thinks his capos are satisfied with the scraps he tosses them, allows them to do to provide for their own families, he is sadly mistaken.”
“Awww,” I say in a condescending tone. “Are Daddy’s pit bulls upset?”
I’m not surprised by this, though I don’t know why Vin’s involved, and for that reason alone, I’ll keep playing this longer to get more information. At this point, my wrists will slip from the binding easily, and as long as he doesn’t walk behind me again, I doubt he’ll realize I’ve been inching them apart.
My father made a comment once that the capos who report to him could eventually start to revolt against him the farther away from criminal activity he took us, them included. He did what law enforcement couldn’t or wouldn’t do; he took out other bosses, and either you submitted to Antonio Caputo or fled for your life. Every captain that I know chose him as their leader, fearing not only for their life but for the li
ves of their families too.
“Immensely so,” he replies.
“And what business of it is yours? You aren’t a made man. You aren’t a member of any family that I’ve been made aware of, so again, why are you sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong?”
He has a reason, or at least someone does. Vin is likely just the fall guy if this goes horribly wrong. The question is, who is really running this shit show?
“I have to kill you no matter if De Salvo throws his match or not—the old man ordered it—so I might as well tell you.”
“It’s the least you could do.” I nod my head. “Why don’t you start with who this old man is? Is it one of Dad’s dogs?” Dumb move if I’ve hit the nail on the head. Apparently, people didn’t learn what happens when my father loses someone he loves. He’s a good man in most aspects of life, but you harm one of his own and he’ll become the devil himself, unleashing everything dark and deadly that lives in the fiery pits of Hell.
The last boss he took out suffered a long, drawn out, painful death.
“I met him my junior year of high school. I tried to pickpocket his wallet. I mean, he was old as fuck, so it should have been easy. I didn’t recognize him, though I should have. He shoved my scrawny ass down an alley, forced me to my knees, and was going to put a bullet in my head. I spit on his Italian leather shoes. I wasn’t going to beg him for my life. I guess he liked something about me; offered me a way to pay off my debt he said I now owed him even though I never got a dime.”
“Sounds real poetic,” I say in a bored tone, not wanting him to think I’m clinging to every word. “And so, 1930s gangster New York.”
“You have no idea.”
“Enlighten me then. Go on, Vin. Like you said, I’m not going to be breathing for much longer.”
“He said I would work for him until I stopped being useful. At first it was nothing big. I pickpocketed strangers, giving all the cash and credit cards to his point man or soldier or whatever the fuck you call them.”
“Jesus, you don’t even know.” I laugh. The Capos run a crew of made men. Made men order the little soldiers around. I don’t tell him any of this; it’s not for me to run my mouth about.
“Shut the fuck up before I decide to let that pretty little mouth of yours blow my Glock instead of my dick. I’m not done with you yet, Sienna. I still plan on getting what is owed to me.”
“Right, because someone promised little ole me all to your big ole self.”
Barf.
“I can continue with your ass bent over that table”—he cocks his head in the direction where Kennedy’s body landed in a heap of blonde mess—“if it’ll shut your mouth up.”
“I’m good where I am. Thanks.”
“So, anyway, the old man started me in dealing H at nightclubs once I turned twenty-one. By then I was in college, and well, low and behold, we were at the same one together. Funny now that I think about it. He’s the one that pushed me to get a degree. Maybe he thought I’d make a better son than the one he’s saddled with.”
“Nah, that sounds more like he was using you to be on campus. Let me guess, you sold drugs to college kids too.”
“Made a lot of cash doing it too. Pulled in more on campus than I ever did at the clubs and bars.” He sighs. “About six months into my first semester, he ordered me to get to know this hot little raven-haired beauty with a smart mouth.”
“Complimenting a soon to be dead girl, is that even necessary?”
“The moment I saw you I knew I wanted you on my cock, but the old man said I had to wait. Said you might act tough, but that was all on account of who your father is. Said I couldn’t tap it unless I married it; something about dumbass Italian traditions or some shit. I’m part Italian; don’t go to church or anything, but come on, it’s the twenty-first century. Who the hell waits until the wedding night?”
“Probably people who want to, I’m guessing.” I hate when stupid SOB’s lump everyone in the same bag. If someone wants to fuck, okay, whatever, who cares? If they don’t want to then what is the big deal? People today—more so my generation and younger—think that if you still cherish your virtue after graduating high school, then you’re some warped freak.
“No man wants a self-righteous bitch in his bed.” He pauses, eyeing me hard. “But the more I thought about it, the more I started liking the idea of an untouched piece of ass. Besides, he said I could bang as many whores as I wanted, before and even after being married—that it’s expected from men like us.”
“You guys sound like real prizes.” I was raised by a man that respects his woman, sees her as an equal. Dad never strayed from my mother. Even long after her death, he’s never been seen with a woman on his arm. He’s never been out on a date with one or brought any home either.
I even told him once that it was okay to have fun, to want a companion. He promptly told me to mind my own fucking business and to never bring the subject up again—so I didn’t.
However, what Vin is saying is one of the things television shows got right about men connected to organized crime, at least in the American-Italian communities. Men like to stick their dicks into as many holes as possible, married or not. It’s disgusting. Something I’d never put up with either. What Vin fails to realize is that I would not have been marriage material for him or anyone that holds his same logic.
Besides, it’s obvious he’s nothing more than a follower, a lackey that does another man’s bidding. In other words, someone I’d never be attracted to or want to share my life with.
A man steps out on me, he doesn’t have to worry about my brothers or even my father getting to him. I’ll gut him like a fish and dump his organs and body parts in the ocean.
“It’s the way it is, and that isn’t something that’s going to change, Si.”
“Please refrain from calling me that, would ya? Only my friends call me Si, and it’s clear we are not friends, nor were we ever friends, seeing as you’re telling me you had an agenda and was ordered to get to know me. Question, what exactly does my virginity and me have to do with you? I mean, what was this un-named man’s goal exactly? What was this “in” he promised you?”
“He is going to make me a made man. I am going to sail through the ranks and eventually take my rightful place directly under him as the Underboss.” After a heartbeat of silence, a laugh so hard it literally shakes my limbs bursts past my lips. “Keep laughing, sweetheart. It won’t change anything.”
“Oh, God.” I chuckle some more, before finally gaining control of my throat again. “You do realize that position is already filled and that this old man you speak of isn’t the Boss. He can’t make that happen. Besides, your last name isn’t even Caputo, so I fail to see how you’re going to achieve that.”
“I was going to marry you,” he deadpans, evoking another chuckle. “But Rafe said you’re already too involved in things you had no business handling in the first place and that you had to go; that it was the only way to knock your father off his high horse.”
“My grandfather is going to take me out?” My humor sobers up at his admission. Why am I even surprised? The man personally saw to it that my mother’s heart stopped beating. It’s clear he only likes to handle strong women in one fashion; he kills them.
Could he know about my conversation with Dad, about the realization that he was the man that murdered my mother?
Fuck, that could mean Dad’s office is bugged, but even thinking that I know it’s impossible. Dad had sound interference installed throughout every room of the house. He wanted it to be the one place he could freely talk. It’s why certain aspects of his business only take place within the confines of his home office instead of anywhere else.
It could be a coincidence, I reckon. Either way, the house needs to be swept to make sure it’s still our safe haven.
“It’s time to get this show on the road.” His hands go for the belt buckled around his dark pants.
“In your dreams . . .” I say, the warning
loud and clear in my tone.
“Whether you’re a willing participant, unconscious, or stone-cold dead, I’m getting what’s due. I’m fucking you tonight, Sienna. Now, the question is, do you really want to die? You could still get out of this.”
“Yeah, and how do I do that?” He’s the one that’s going to need to figure a way out of the mess he’s brought on himself. It’s not me that’s going to die tonight.
“Run away with me. We could ditch this place and never look back. Get as far away from New York as possible. You just have to agree to be mine.”
He really should have tied my ankles to the chair. With the loosened rope in one hand and the hilt of my blade in the other, this is going to be so easy, I don’t even see the fun in it.
“That’s going to be a hard pass.”
“Guess you’re choosing the hard way then. I’m going to have that cunt of yours no mat—” I leap out of the chair, my arm swinging around, and I come down hard, stabbing through his jacket, between the meat where his arm connects to his torso. Throwing all my strength into it, I shove the blade as far as it’ll go, and then using the handle, I grip his shoulder on the opposite side and ram my knee into his gut.
There is background noise like a metal door being kicked in, but I don’t dare look in that direction. I can’t allow myself to be distracted now that I’m so close to taking this motherfucker to the ground.
Vin staggers backward, and I try to pull the knife, but it won’t come willingly and I have no choice but to release my hold on the handle. Lifting my leg again, I stomp the bottom of my boot into his knee, making him drop to the ground, and cocking my arm back, I send it sailing into his cheek.
“Grab that bitch from the floor and put her in the car.” Dom’s voice rings through my ears as Vin’s gun drops from wherever he had it stored on his person. Before Vin can shake my assault off, I snatch the weapon from the concrete floor and aim it at him as I right myself.
Bad Princess: A Mafia Romance Page 31