Tempted By The Mafia Boss

Nick

I’ll be the first to admit that I can be a real son of a bitch.

Couldn’t deny it.

Not one bit.

I wasn’t looking to either. I saw the angel, decided I wanted her to be mine and sowed the seeds of distraction when I sensed her desperation.

Mia Chase came to The Dark Odyssey because she was desperate for something. Money. It’s always that. It could make you happy and the need for it could make you desperate.

I saw when the desperation took her as I asked her to take her clothes off. It was in those bright green eyes of hers. The emerald hue was filled with it.

What I was looking for though was whether she’d push through it. If she didn’t I would have stopped in my tracks. I got to see her naked gorgeousness and it satisfied my curiosity on that part.

Then I saw she wanted me just as much as I wanted her.

I saw it and knew, acted on it and fuck did I ever enjoy all that happened next.

I don’t care what normal dictates. I have the hot Italian Mafioso blood that flows through my veins. I take what I want and I always get what I want.

At least I could hold in my good graces that I loathe cheating.

That’s as far as my good graces go however and today I would love to have some motherfucker mess with me the wrong way.

I’ve been standing inside the furthest of the warehouses by the docks, waiting for Gabe for the last half hour.

It’s lunch time and while this place is usually busy on the regular, people know to stay the fuck away when we use it for business. It means bullets will likely fly. It’s near the shipping company.

I turn when I hear footsteps.

It’s Gabe and he’s with the company I’d hoped he would bring. He’s brought our two older brothers with him.

He comes in first, followed by Salvatore and Vincent. Between them is Billy Lopez, a fucktard we know to be a snitch.

A snitch, rat, mole, whatever you think of that’s dishonest, it’s him. More than that though, what makes me want to end him the minute I look at his weasel face is his crimes.

The ones no one can pin on him because either someone’s padded the cops’ pockets very well, or someone else has let his sins slide under the rug.

This guy here isn’t just dishonest as fuck, he has an unsavory taste for women that rubs me the wrong way. Rape, abuse, links to illegal sex trafficking, shit I don’t want to know any more about. He’s done all of it and he’s the type of person you kill on sight.

I want to breathe fire as he comes closer with my brothers. Breathing fire would be better than the nothing I’m told we can do because this piece of shit is so valuable in the underworld.

Vincent eyes me up as if to give the warning. I heed it. I have to, he’s next to Pa in the order of authority and practically boss. He’s the capo to the Giordano family. While I know he has my back, I know he can’t work miracles other than this little show right now with Billy.

I bet too that Billy even came willingly and practically shit himself when Vincent came for him.

Last night we got word that he might know a thing or two about who ordered the hit on Tommy. The lead came from our intel. Vincent’s presence in the matter is to make sure I don’t do something to piss on tradition. Although, granted Tommy is as much a friend to anyone of us here as he is to me.

Vincent deals with things like this.

“Over to you, brother,” Vincent says to me and moves over to my side.

Salvatore and Gabe stand next to each other but the way we’re all standing is like a semi-circle. The four remaining Giordano brothers – we look like avenging angels to me. What the fuck must we look like to Billy who I notice has a tremor in his hands?

“Billy Lopez, we have not crossed paths before,” I declare.

He eyes me with curiosity and caution. I can’t stand the presence of this guy. I give him credit though because he knows not to get comfortable even when he knows we could end him.

He doesn’t have that blasé ‘you can’t touch me’ attitude exhibited by a lot of these would-be types. He’s a sick fuck but he knows to watch himself around people like us.

“It is Nickoli Giordano.” He full-names me. Good. It’s a sign of respect. Only people I know call me Nick.

“Talk, you know what we want to hear. You know what I want to know.”

He looks down at the dusty ground, then back to me. “For free? I’m supposed to talk for free?” he challenges.

I look to Vincent who sighs and gives me a nod. The okay. That’s all I need and I glance at Salvatore and Gabe. That’s all we need.

We’re so close in mind that sometimes we don’t need to speak. It was worse when Frankie was alive. Probably a little creepy too, that we could all communicate with one look.

Gabe and Salvatore move almost as one, synced with each other.

Both rush to Billy before he can take his next breath. Salvatore swipes his legs from under him so fast it’s like it never happened and Billy’s on the ground before he can blink, with my brothers standing over him, guns ready to fire.

Billy screams and shields his face, looking from one to the other as panic takes him and it looks like this idiot’s just realized who he’s messing with.

I move forward and Salvatore and Gabe part to make room for me.

Billy backs away but I place my foot on him, right there in his fucking crutch to crush his dick with the sole of my boot if he doesn’t give the right answer.

I do that and I pull my twin Berettas on him, pointing them both at his eyes. One for each.

“Billy, let me tell you something you don’t realize,” I begin. “When you aren’t offered something, you don’t ask. Also, I didn’t think I’d have to tell you that if people like us come for you, the thing you get in return for info is your life. We will shit all over tradition if needs be to fuck you up. So talk right the fuck now.”

Yup… that was me. The real me and it scares the shit out of him because I’m supposed to be the trusty accountant with the sex club.

Me, Salvatore and Gabriel own the club with our cousins Christian and Georgiou. So people tend to make the mistake of underestimating us.

I really pity people in times like this, who think we’ll show some form of leniency.

Billy starts shaking more as I pull the triggers back.

He not sure if I’ll kill him. I can see him trying to figure me out. What’s throwing him is Vincent’s presence. A capo who’s supposed to make sure rules get followed. He’s scared of Vincent though. Everybody is.

“I don’t know much. I heard things … whispers and then there was a guy a three weeks ago,” Billy stutters.

“Keep talking.”

“He came into my bar and tried to pick up one of my waitresses. He got drunk and started boasting. I heard him mention Tommy, and Franco Perez. They were going to be meeting with one of the Fontaines.”

The blood in my body practically drains from me at the mention of those names. They aren’t names to be tossed around lightly.

Not at fucking all.

Franco Perez, is the Chicago’s link to the Cuban Cartel. Hearing that name is enough to put the fucking fear of God in me. The name that stands out the most though is Fontaine.

Fontaine as in enemy to the Giordanos and practically every crime family in this hemisphere.

Fuck… Tommy, what the fuck were you doing associating with those kinds of people.

I glance at Vincent as he swoops closer. The names are enough to involve him now, more than he’s previously been. It’s the effect of dropping a fucking bomb.

“Why?” Vincent demands. His tone is far worse than mine.

His question is not one to be side-stepped and Billy knows he shouldn’t try anything.

“It was a meeting about the new drugs. Chrysanthemum. They were talking about that.”

That’s a fucking new drug that’s all over the streets. Started in L. A and worked its way over and spread to everywhere. We aren’t into that shit. Don’t need to be.

Tommy though… Jesus Christ… he did drugs in school. Big time. He had a few stints in rehab and we got him off it. I thought he’d cleaned up.

Was that what this was?

He turned back to his addiction? I thought back to the last few weeks, the weeks prior to the shooting. He’d seemed fine. Back in school I knew when he was using. He was always erratic or very antsy about everything. He hadn’t been like that around me over the weeks prior to the shooting. He’d been talking about him and Sherine, his wife, having another child.

That was the kind of stuff Tommy was talking about. So what happened?

What the hell happened?

“What else is there?” I shout.

“The guy said Tommy could hook them up. That was all I heard. That was it.”

“Hook them up with what?” I ask straight out.

“I… don’t know.” His eyes… they dart from side to side.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

As I look at him, I can tell he knows more than he’s saying. His fucking eyes give him away.

Vincent can tell too and pulls his gun on the bastard. “Looks like you know heaps more than you’re telling us fucktard.”

There… Billy’s shaking so much now he can’t even open his mouth to deny the accusation. Because it’s true. Fear now fills his eyes because he knows that Vincent won’t hesitate to kill his ass.

“Come on now talk… this isn’t a tea party,” Vincent adds.

Billy’s shaking much more now and opens his mouth to talk, except the words don’t come.

I hear the bullet first… I always do. I hear it coming and see it when it’s too late.

This time the whizz of the speeding bullet comes from the roof and smacks right into the side of Billy’s head, making his blood splatter all over me.

We all raise our guns and start shooting at the direction the bullet came from, but whoever was there is long gone.

The four of us move at once, running outside to look around but see nothing. No car, no one around. Nothing, just shit.

Nothing.

I growl like a ferocious animal and kick out at the air.

Whirling around, I face Vincent and Gabe. “Something is fucking going on.” I bellow.

“Like fuck, of course it is,” Gabe agrees.

Salvatore keeps quiet. He’s the thinker among us.

I’m the one who flies off the handle because I have a temper on me that can’t be controlled.

Vincent pulls his phone and taps a button. “I need eyes in the sky. Look out for someone on foot heading away from warehouse fifteen,” that’s all he says.

That message would have gone to our cop associates. Vincent looks to me and I know even before he says it that he’s going to give me some kind of caution.

“Nick, calm yourself.” He warns. He looks so much like Pa when he takes that tone with me. We’re all between one and two years apart and he’s the oldest at thirty nine. I’m the youngest at thirty-four. We’re only five years apart but when he talks it’s like he’s the same age and stature in authority as Pa. Pa is nearly seventy and he’s the fucking godfather.

“Calm?” I ask. “Really Vincent? Really? Something’s fucking going on and I need to find out what.”

“We. We will find out what it is, as in me and the boys. You three stay out of it. Billy is dead because they wanted it so, only one group of people could have truly wanted that and it’s not Franco.”

“Fucking right. So it’s the Fontaines.” I jump in.

“Nick, you know what this means.” He gets up in my face, serious as fuck.

I growl at him.

I know what it means alright. I do.

The Fontaines are serious motherfuckers no one wants to mess with. There’s four brothers who are bosses and a large family who rub shoulders with the government. People high up that could fuck us up and screw everything we have.

They’re what we call neither here nor there in the underground and everyone knows to stay the fuck away from them or you and yours could end up dead. We’ve seen it happen. Our uncle and cousin were killed because they shit all over Fontaine plans.

We’re powerful as Giordano’s, but even I know when to admit we’re not as powerful as them.

So fuck yeah I know what this means.

Great. Just fucking great.

“So, I’m supposed to just sit down and watch while you do whatever you do and Tommy dies?” My voice comes out showing more emotion than I would like.

He rests his hand on my shoulder and sighs. “Nick, trust me. Calm yourself. This is above you and we don’t want to start a war. He said Fontaine, it could be any of them. We have to be careful. I will find out what I have to, and do what I must. I’ll work from the ground up.”

I bite down hard on my back teeth, seething. How the fuck am I really supposed to stay calm?

Who would?

The Fontaines have been sneaky as fuck since forever and there was something they didn’t want us to know, something that involved Tommy.

Vincent walks away without an answer from me and it pisses me off.

I’m left with my two brothers though who get me the most.

I look to them and find Gabe already watching me.

“Nick,” he begins. “Just let me know when you decide to do whatever it is you’re going to do and don’t fucking run off by yourself.”

“And let me know what I should say when you ask me to cover for you,” Salvatore smiles.

Yes… they were already there in thought with me.

Vincent could do what he wanted and do things kosher, all his way. Tommy is my best friend. I would be the same if it was any of my brothers. No way am I going to just cool off or cool down.

No, no, no…

“Thanks guys. I absolutely will.”

We walk off together but I’m still seething.

I’m seething and I seek distraction again. I think of my angel doll, with her perfect body and perfect everything. I can’t wait to touch her tonight.

She’s what I need right now to calm me. I do need to calm so I can plan and figure things out in my mind. I need her for the jolt of wildness she gave me yesterday.

When seven comes I’m still seething from the shit from today.

But I don’t know what enrages me more. The day, or the fact that she didn’t show up.