by Eden Rose
There are so many statistics that I remember from college that claim a woman could be drugged instantly and they are picked at random. So, really, I'm just at the wrong place at the wrong time. I remember some of the voices in that room were angry that I'm with Vincent, so its a possibility that because of that connection, I'm alive.
Holy shit balls. My head is swirling with possibilities. Maybe I'm just a random chick at the bar who ended up being connected to someone important.
Coulda, woulda, shouldas.
*Chapter 25*
Who knows how long I'm asleep for, but someone is knocking on my door. "Come in!" I yell and sit up in the middle of the bed and turn on the lamp. Who turned off the television? I don't remember turning it off.
In comes Anne and Ronnie. Mother fucker. Really? I ask them a question with my dry tone of voice. "What can I do for you two?"
They look at me and then at each other. Who will talk? Who knows! Oh, well looks like Ronnie broke the silence! "You know, I understand why you left."
"Okay... Cool. You wake me up in the middle of the night to tell me this?" I look at them with angry eyes and tried to suppress my need to start cursing at both of them.
They look at each other and laugh. "Vans, you are so funny! Its four in the afternoon!"
"All right, well I assuming you guys didn't come to my room to tell me what time it is. So why are you here?" I love Anne, but this is not the time for this. My eyes feel as if I have sandpaper for eyelids.
"Vincent has scheduled a hit for Millstone and Joel. He doesn't want them to get away with what they did to you. Also, he had a big sit down with the capo. He is dumb to let you walk out of the house. Maybe, he should not have let you walk out the door but he is dumb to not tell you how he felt from the beginning." Ronnie's easygoing nature has completely left and now he is very serious.
Mmm, riddles.
Damn. Ronnie. Why do you do this to me? "So what do you want me to do?"
"You need to go to his house. He will ruin a truce and its not a good idea to do that! We both got shot during the last sit down."
The thought of something happening to him... scares me. "Get out of my room! I need to change. Ronnie, I'm stealing your car." I throw the blankets off and throw on some workout shorts and slipped into a strapless bra. I ran out of my room and grabbed Ronnie's keys before he could say anything to me.
Normally, I would have taken my own car, but it is being detailed. I should have got it back yesterday, but it isn't delivered to me.
I ran down the stairs not even wanting to ride the elevator. Once I found his car, I'm off. This thing is fast. Made me miss my Lincoln. I sped over the bridge and flew in his house. I didn't bother taking the keys out of the ignition when I got there and let myself into the house.
A few people were standing in front of me blocking my way. "Let me through! Move!" I ordered and pushed through them. Vincent is on his chair in the great room looking through a book of notes. "Vincent!" I yell as I ran to him through everyone blocking his chair. "Please don't do this! I'm fine! Nothing happened to me! Please lets talk about this!" I say as I jump into his lap and push the book out of the way. I nuzzled my face on his and then turn my body so I'm straddling him.
To my horror, he didn't respond to my touch. I'm beginning to think that this day has been created to shatter my heart. I feel abandoned and neglected which is something I never wanted to feel again.
A man in a suit grabbed my arm and pulled me off of Vincent. "This is not a good time, Savannah. We are doing business." Frustration cursed through my veins and this man has really pissed me off.
Ronnie came running into the house as I'm thinking of some choice words to scream at this man. With my arm still in his hold, Ronnie comes to my side and forces his hand off of me. Vincent didn't do anything. What happened? "Moretti, come talk to me! Don't put a contract up on their heads. We don't need to be flagged and clocked ourselves!"
"Rossi, its done. There is no going back. We have a sit down scheduled for tonight with the Dices. You won't be there because you were broken down," Vincent looked so calm as he is talking. "Savannah, there is nothing you can do. They owe us money and we owe them a sit down."
The same man in the suit started to push me out of the great room. "Little girl, this is not your scene. Go home."
Ronnie came up to him and grabbed his arm and shed him into the wall. "You don't talk to her like that! She is Vincent's fiance. Savannah, go upstairs." He grabbed onto my shoulders and I didn't realize that my body is shaking until now. "You shouldn't be down here and hearing all of this."
"No, I want to speak to Vincent. Let me through!" I scream and try to get through Ronnie and the man in the suite. "Vincent! Please talk to me!"
Vincent ignored me and Ronnie picked me up and threw me over his shoulder. "This is not a good time. You can't be hearing this," he says as I got carried up the stairs. When we got to the top of the stairs, I'm kicking him in his stomach. "Would you quit! I'm trying to protect you!"
*Chapter 26*
As soon as we got to Vincent's room, I'm dropped on his bed and I heard shuffling down stairs. "What is going to happen? Are you going too?"
"No, I have to stay here." Ronnie grabbed the remote to the TV and came and sat next to me. "They will have a discussion and if everything works out, they will be back in a couple of hours. Don't worry about it," he says as I heard more movement at the bottom and the door slammed.
"Why am I here then? He has my ring and bracelet. I don't owe him anything and he doesn't owe me anything anymore. He completely ignored me! His friend practically man handled me!"
"You don't want to be around Vincent when he is angry. He will be back soon. What do you want to do?" Ronnie shrugged and then his cheeky smile is back. Now, that's a relief.
"I want to go swimming and drink wine," I reply as I jump off the bed and go to the door.
"Wait, let me make sure they are all gone," he looked out the window and walked towards me. "I need to be with you until they come back. Moretti will kill me if anything happened to you." We walked down the hall towards the stairs.
We walked past the great room and it reeked of cigars and cologne. Once we reached the kitchen, I went to the wine cellar and grabbed a bottle. Ronnie grabbed the opener and followed me out of the house.
I slipped my shoes off and then sat by the edge of the pool. "Are people really that afraid of him? I heard the people in the room that I was in say that he will kill them since I was there."
Ronnie sat down and we passed the wine bottle back and forth. I looked at the stair case of the pool and blushed. How different things would have been if I just stayed here.
"Moretti is the enforcer. If you see him out of the blue then you have problems. He will be the first one to pull out the gun and pop a person. However, he is also the person that makes sure that money exchanges to the right hands. Millstone had to pay him to get you to go to dinner. That's how it works. You are part of him which makes you a wanted one as well. Since you two have gone public, people in the underworld will attack you to piss him off. That is why he is acting this way."
I turn my head away from him while grabbing the bottle and take a big drink. "This is crazy. I seduced the only other man I have slept with besides my husband, and now he wants to hurt my ex husband. What am I supposed to do? Just sit here and wait?"
Through this whole exchange, we didn't look at each other.
There is a screeching of the tires and a woman yelling through the house as I debated about diving into the pool. This female ran through the house and yanked open the slider to where we were sitting. It is Anne.
"Ronnie! Thank goodness that you are all right!" She came running up to Ronnie and fell to her knees in front of him. "Somebody tried to break into my place and I'm so confused because I thought you were hurt!"
Both Ronnie and I opened our mouths at the same time. "What?"
"Someone broke into our place and you drove over to here?" I ask as my
words started to slur from the wine. "How did you get out?"
"Vans," she said as she sat down next to me on the pool porch, "I think they were wanting you and not me. When they found out that it is just me there as I'm shuffling to the fire escape, they left. Ronnie?"
"I don't know who it is or who could it have been. The good thing is that you are here now."
*Vincent*
I couldn't look at Savannah while she came running through my house. She will just distract me from what needed to be done.
These dumb asses are getting on my nerves. They keep targeting her and this is getting out of hand. First her car and now she is being drugged. I'm done playing nice.
A car is one thing. Now, they have drugged my woman and I'm pissed.
We piled into Johnny's SUV and I loaded my guns. "They better not be late. I'm in no mood to wait!" I hollered as I loaded my favorite gun and began on the other one.
"Moretti, you have to keep your head on straight. I know your piece of ass has you all riled up... but this is business and it is serious," Sammy claims as he loads his own gun and then Johnny's.
Piece of ass? They consider her to be a piece of ass. This is ridiculous.
"Sammy, do you think that right now is the the time to piss me off? For fucks sake!" I handed over the bracelet that I gave to Savannah to Sammy. "Please give this to her if something happens."
Johnny looked in the rear view mirror and winked at me. He must be on my side which is better than Sammy being on my side. Johnny pulled into the warehouse and we climbed out of the truck to walk in.
We all slipped our guns into their places and locked the truck. I turned my cell phones off so I wouldn't be distracted, the smallest noise can cause a person to fire a gun.
Johnny grabbed my arm and stopped me from walking in. Sammy walked ahead of us and into the warehouse.
"I know you are pissed, Pop. I get it. I would be pissed if this would have been Bethany. However, Sammy is not going to understand what you are feeling because he doesn't recognize your relationship. My suggestion to you is to make your relationship with the girl more official."
Red. I see red. What the fuck? I proposed to her and that is not official enough for these fucks? "Okay, man. I'm ready to go in." I walked past him and seen the boss and under boss of the Dice and to the right is one of their gophers. "Gentlemen."
The table is set up with whiskey and their tumblers along with cigars. It seems that they consider this meeting to be a long one.
My guns weighed a ton and were so tempting to pull out. Just a few shots in the head. Okay, maybe two or three each. Tops.
Stilarno and Millstone sat on the other side of the table and were eyeing me up to see if they could get a crack at me. Not going to happen.
"So, I assume we can skip formalities and go straight to business, correct?" Sammy stated as he lit his own cigar that he keeps in his pocket at all times.
I'm not feeling very chummy so the cigar thing isn't for me. Most of the time when a person lights a cigar, they expect to be at a place long enough to smoke a majority of it, not happening. I had only a few things that I wanted to discuss and I knew that Sammy and Johnny were wanting to leave as fast as possible.
"So, did I hear that Sleeping Beauty woke up? I'm sure you are happy about that. Aren't you, Moretti?" Stilarno is trying to piss me off.
"Of course I am . What the hell is your problem with her? She is engaged and I'm a made man. Its time to back the fuck off." I believe I actually growled my response.
Fuck the two or three shots to the head. I can get it done with one.
Millstone took a drink and offered all of us one as well. Naturally, I'm not in the mood for drinking so I declined. Whiskey would tint my judgment.
All though, I'm already ready to start pumping bullets in this cafone's head...
"What did you want to discuss? Were you wanting to make a deal?" Millstone asked us but I know he is talking directly to me.
"What deal?" Sammy spat out and looked at the guys across the table.
"We discussed you fucks staying out of our rackets. Maybe now you will realize that we weren't playing around," Stilarno stated.
The gopher took his gun out and directed it at me. With in a matter of milliseconds I shoved Sammy out of his chair and he knew that it is time for him to leave.
"Get out, Sammy! This isn't your business! Gopher, you too!"
Johnny yanked his gun out a few seconds after I pulled mine out.
Sammy ran out the door and to the car. When he got to the door, Millstone fired his gun at him and missed him.
All of the chairs were kicked back and guns were in everyone's faces.
"I have told you before that I'm not backing out! Now, are you going to keep targeting my woman?" I screamed and cocked my gun at Stilarno. I wanted to shoot him and I'm going to but that wouldn't solve anything and they would go after Savannah.
Fuck. There is no way that we can keep our kick ups going if we shut down the rackets. That brought us a ton of money.
Johnny nudged me and twitched his head. That twitch proved everything. He didn't think we should drop those rackets and neither did I.
Millstone walked over in front of my face and smiled while holding the gun in my face. "Fine, if that is the way you want to play we will play that game. I will drop the hit but if you step on my money again, I will take what you love."
"Asshole. Get out of here before I pop all of you!" Johnny stated while pointing his gun out to Millstone.
*Chapter 27*
We weren't able to finish our conversation because a group of men appeared outside to find Ronnie, at least that is my assumption. "Rossi, why weren't you there?" A man in a suit yells as he comes across the deck holding a gun.
"Hey, whoa! I had to stay and watch the chick. What happened? Why are you still holding your gun?"
The man in the suit looked from all three of our faces and turned to look at the guy behind him who had the stance of a body guard. "Are you sure you want to discuss business in front of mixed company?"
"This is my wife, and that is Pop's fiance. Whatever you need to say, go ahead." Pop? Who is Pop?
"There's a shooting at the sit down. Millstone knew it is a set up. Castile didn't come, I think he is in the back of the warehouse. When we came in, Millstone stood up and pointed the gun at Pop. Pop then pulled his gun out and ordered everyone to go outside because it isn't our business."
My mouth dropped open as I heard the statement. Trying to catch myself from asking too many questions, I stood up in front of them. "Then?" I ask while my hands shook.
"Are you sure you want to hear this?" The man in the suit asks me and opens his hand. My bracelet is in his hand. He handed it out for me to grab which I greedily did. "Shots were fired. We ran from the warehouse. I'm sorry, Savannah, but it doesn't look good."
"What are you saying?" I ask and try not to cry. In that moment, I felt my heart beat so fast in my chest and I honestly believed it is going to jump out.
"He may not be coming back. Before we went to the meeting, he gave me the bracelet to give to you. Vincent had it engraved for you." I turn the bracelet over and read what it says and look back up. "'Till the casket drops' it means he loves you. Its a saying we say to people in the family."
He came up to me to hug me and I punch him on his stomach. "What the hell are you saying? That he is dead? After this month and a half he is dead?" I scream as I run into the house and go up the stairs to Vincent's room. I did make sure to slam the door shut before I collapsed on the bed.
With my head burrows into his side of the bed, I start to cry. I felt as if I were by myself and no one is there for me. After this month, he is killed? My sobs got worse and Adamo guarded the door to let me by myself.
I love him and this can't be happening. Until right now, I had no idea how much he meant to me and now I feel as if i am dying inside. Yes, it is dramatic, but nothing has been so real. A weight has dropped on my chest and is now suffocati
ng me.
We haven't been together for too long and I know it is fast, so very fast, but Vincent is a part of me and I can't be without him. That doesn't work for me. I love him. Way too much, I love him.
What felt like days and hours went by, I finally heard a group of cars pull into the driveway with a screech. Men were hollering in the house and sounded very excited about something. I crept to the door to see if I could make out what any of them were saying. Someone started yelling my name.
Adamo opened the door for me to run out the door and down the stairs. I heard all of these men talking, but not the thick accented voice that I'm wanting to hear. The guys that were in the foyer moved to the side so I didn't have to push them aside. Finally, there he is. In his chair talking business. The people that surrounded him moved to the side to let me through. With a running start, I pushed everything off of his lap and jumped onto him so I were straddling him.
