Arranged love

ROSSI

Sixteen years ago

“WHAT HAPPENED?” I ask, entering the house.

I find Ava sitting at the kitchen table in her underwear. She holds her face in her hands. “Ava! What in the fuck happened?” I demand, yanking her hands away.

Her brown eyes look up at me with tears running down her face. Makeup smeared all over.

“I didn’t know … what to do …” She sobs. “Who to call …”

“I’m here. You did the right thing. What is it?” I ask, pushing her hair back off her face and behind her ear.

“He’s in the living room.” She bows her head.

I stand and walk into the living room. I see her husband and my best friend, Marco Bianchi, lying in a pool of his own blood. He was shot between his eyes. One bullet. Instant death.

Placing my hand over my mouth, I suck in a deep breath. What in the fuck? Did she kill him? Is she wanting me to get rid of him? Turning around and rushing back to the kitchen, I find her in the same position I left her.

I grip her hair and yank her head back. “Who the fuck did this?” I demand. She wouldn’t have the balls. She also doesn’t know much about guns. There’s no way she’d be that good of a shot, even if she was standing right in front of him.

She’s sobbing uncontrollably. Her bottom lip quivering and body shaking. I don’t have time for it. “Who?” I shout, making her flinch.

“John Bianchi. He and Luca showed up …”

I let go of her and run a hand through my hair. “What did you say?” I growl.

“Nothing.”

“Bullshit!” I snap. “You ran your mouth. You had to have. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have shot his brother.”

Italians are big on family and loyalty. But if they fear someone has stepped out on them, then they put a bullet in your head. They take their code of silence very seriously.

Case in point.

Something more happened tonight that she hasn’t told me.

“Tell me,” I order.

She looks up at me. Dark eyes wide and red from crying. “I told you I would leave him …”

“I told you that wasn’t an option,” I bark out. We’ve been fucking for over a year now, and she’s wanted to leave him for most of that time. But the mafioso doesn’t allow divorce. The only way out is death.

She wipes her tear-streaked face, and whispers, “I went to the cops …”

“Motherfucker!” I hiss.

She jumps to her feet. “I did it for us. I thought if they could convict him, then I’d be free of him. Of this lie.”

I reach back and slap her across the face, knocking her back into her seat. She cups her cheek, crying out. I grip her hair and yank her head back. Getting in her face, I growl. “You were just a fuck to me,” I lie. “Do you understand that?” I shake her.

“I … love you,” she chokes out.

I can’t afford to love her. Not anymore. I understand this life very well. And she just fucked herself. “You are one very stupid woman.” She shakes. “You are also a very dead woman.” Letting her go, I take a step back.

“Wait,” she cries. “Please don’t go. I didn’t know that John would do this. He wasn’t supposed to find out …”

“You’ve done this to yourself,” I tell her, knowing there is nothing I can do for her. John Bianchi will have her taken out next. He won’t do it himself. If so, she’d be dead right now. No, he’ll pay someone to do it. And I hate him for it. I hate her for being so fucking stupid. This will ruin more than just her life. My ties to the Bianchi family will be severed. John won’t take the chance of getting caught now that she’s broken her silence. No wonder the feds are digging around. John will have to pay off the cops. It’ll cost him. It’ll cost all of us.

“Rossi, please …”

“They’ll come for you,” I tell her. “The best thing you can do is run.” Then I turn and leave her.

I walk down the steps to her house and get into my car. Pulling out my cell, I call up John.

“Hello?”

“You killed your brother?” I growl.

“Yes. I saved both of our asses,” he answers. “Whatever they have on me, they have on you as well.”Còntens bel0ngs to Nô(v)elDr/a/ma.Org

“And Ava?” I question, needing to hear him say it.

“It must be done,” he says.

“Bianchi …”

“You are the one who fell in love with a snitch, Rossi. Let Marco’s body be a warning of what happens to those who forget their place in this world.” Click.

LUCA

I WATCH ROSSI stir on the dirt. He lets out a moan and tries to move. “What …?” he questions, opening his eyes.

“What was your favorite game to play in school?” I ask the Kings.

“Tug of war,” Titan answers. “I always loved when a kid challenged me to rip his arms off. Literally.”

“What the fuck, Luca?” Rossi demands, now coherent. He fights the restraints around his arms and ankles.

I kneel beside him. “Thank you for digging that grave. It’s going to save me a lot of time.”

“Luca …”

I stand and place my fingers in my mouth, letting out a whistle, signaling Grave and Cross we’re ready to go.

The engine to the limo and Bones’s car come to life, and they place them both in drive. The chains wrapped around Rossi’s bound wrists and ankles pull tight.

He throws his head back, grinding his teeth as the Kings slowly begin to drive away from one another.

While he was passed out, we secured the chains around him and connected them to the bumpers of the cars. We are going to rip him in half.

“LUCA!” he screams as the seams of his shirt rip under his arms. His body pulled so taut it lifts it inches off the desert ground. “Argh,” he grounds out. His face turns red, and his shirt rides up, showing off his stomach. You can see the skin pulled so tight it’s white as a ghost. Ready to split.

He tries to take a deep breath, but he can’t. The cars hold him at a standstill. Neither one moving any farther. I give a nod, and they hit the gas. It rips his body in half. Blood squirts everywhere, and his insides fall out. Both parts of his body being dragged away by the cars.

Titan hits me on the back, and I smile. One sorry bastard down. I don’t care who he was. He can’t hurt my wife anymore.

The cars come to a stop, and I walk over to his torso and head. I unhook the chain from the bumper and drag his ass over to the grave and kick it in. Bones repeats the process with his lower half. Grave, Cross, and I grab the extra shovels we brought and start throwing the dirt over his body parts, knowing he’ll never be found out here.

There has always been a misconception about the Nevada desert. Some say that it’s too hard to bury bodies out here. Those would be the people too lazy to dig. It’s doable. I’ve done it plenty of times. And I know this isn’t the Dark Kings’ first body they’ve thrown dirt on. Just depends on how hard you’re willing to work to hide your evidence.