Mafia By Blood (Soul of the Sinner)

by Rumer Raines

  “Tell me about the families, Ma.” She stands up to get another cup of coffee and brings the liquor back to the table with her. “You might need some of this in your cup, Frankie.”

  “Oh, shit,” I moan as I take my first cup of coffee and booze

  “Our family business name is Costa, Frankie. We practically invented money laundering. The only thing your great grandfather requested was that the business keeps his name. It was bad enough he didn’t have a son to hand the business over to, but it killed him to have to hand it over to a son-in-law with a different name. In the mob world, a family isn’t a single group. Its several different families that work together but agree to stay out of the others’ way. There were plenty of girls born into our family and there is one girl married into each of the families. The Costas work with the Russos, the Morettis, and the Gallo families. From what I know, the Russos make their money from gambling, the Morettis from money laundering, and the Gallos basically steal shit from dock workers. Alex buying the club was perfect because the families could use it to make the money look legit.”

  My cup is now filled with the vodka Ma had put on the table. She was right, I did need it.

  “What are we expected to do?” I take another big gulp of my vodka.

  “We make sure the money looks clean and keep them out of jail, Frankie. We have several police officers, judges, lawyers, and politicians in our pocket. Once you find out things about people, they will work with you and protect you.” I can’t help but laugh so hard that I practically spit my last drink out of my mouth.

  I can’t believe I am having his conversation with my mother. “Is there anything else I need to know, Ma?” She pulls the bottle of vodka closer and pours some into her coffee cup.

  “There is, Frankie. Apparently, there’s a family in New York that wants to take over Chicago.”

  “What do you mean; they want to take over Chicago?”

  “The New York mob wants to increase their territory and they want to do business in Chicago. They heard that there is a shakeup in the Chicago leadership, so they think now is the time to take over.”

  “I don’t understand Ma. They can’t just take over. That’s not how it works.”

  “You’re right, Frankie. The only way they can take over is by killing the people in charge.”

  “Who would they have to kill, Ma? “ I asked afraid of her answer.

  “They can take charge if they kill you, Alex, and me.”

  The next hours are full of information about what the don does and what the hell the consigliere, underboss, caporegimes, and soldiers do. My head is spinning and I can’t believe that Ma knows all this shit. She wasn’t running the business, but she had been taught the family business. If Alex and I are both killed because of the New York takeover, Ma will be in danger. Her blood ties our family to the mob. As long as she’s alive she can give the business to any potential husband of Alexis.

  “If I take over I can decide who I want as the underboss, correct?”

  “Yes, you can, Frankie.”

  I give Ma a kiss on the forehead and decide I have had enough for the day.

  “I’ll call you tomorrow, Ma.”

  “Goodnight, Frankie.”

  On the drive home, I think over everything I learned about my mother and decide that I can’t go home. I am going to Deluca’s for a drink or maybe several drinks. I pull into the alley and of course, Alex and Thomas’ cars are both parked in the back. I wonder what Thomas’ role is in the family business? I know that Paul and Peter must be the henchmen. Hell, I think they came to my place to beat some sense into me. I believe me shooting Paul ended that plan for them. When I take over, I’ll have to decide what role Thomas will have. Shit, did I just say when I take over? I have to decide if I take over. It’s if I take over, not when. Honestly, knowing lives are at stake if I don’t take over is a big deal for me. I owe it to Pop to protect Ma and Alexis. Alex can self-destruct if he chooses, but I must protect Ma and Alexis.

  As I walk into Deluca’s, I notice Alex is at the bar. He is talking to a few guys and you can tell whatever they are discussing is some deep shit. I slowly approach the group and one of the men look up at me and nudges one of the other guys. They soon are all looking at me wondering what I want.

  “Hey, Frankie,” Alex calls out and the other guys appear to relax. I nod my head as I take in the group. I have a feeling these aren’t regular customers. I think I may have just walked into my first mob meeting. I guess it does make more sense to do business out in the open. People are less likely to suspect shit when it’s out in the open. If this group would have gone upstairs to Alex’s office, the police probably would have been notified. I am not sure how they could be doing any business in the bar with the music blasting. You could probably shoot someone in here and no one would notice. The music is loud and most of the people in here are drunk or high.

  “Alex… How is everything going?” I am talking to Alex, but I am keeping an eye on the group.

  “Business is always booming, Frankie.” I see movement from the corner of my eye and notice one of the guys is approaching me. I hope I won’t have to beat this guy’s ass. I only wanted a drink, but if he starts shit I will gladly end it. “Hey, Frank. I’m Oliver. I’ve heard a lot about you. “He sticks out his hand, so I turn to shake it. I can tell he is sizing me up and he looks me directly in the eye. For some reason, I can tell that I will like this guy.

  “You have heard about me huh? I’d like to know what you’ve heard.”

  Oliver’s eyebrows rise. “I’ve heard that we may be working for you soon. I guess it’s a big decision, deciding what side of the law you’re going to work on. If it makes you feel any better, we have people that work both sides.”

  “I would prefer not to.”

  “I understand. I’ve had to make difficult choices too. I chose family. We hope you do the same.”

  Oliver turns back to the group and reminds that they need to get going. They have some business that needs to be taken care of. As they are leaving, Oliver turns back to me and Alex.

  “I’ll talk to you soon Alex. I hope the next time we have a meeting, you’ll be joining us, Frank.”

  As Oliver finally leaves, I look over to Alex. “Did you want a drink, Frankie?”

  I start to answer him and begin to ply him with questions when someone taps me on the shoulder and Alex starts to laugh. I turn around and Gina is standing behind me with a drink in her hand.

  “Hi, Frank. Isn’t this a pleasant surprise?” Gina leans in and plants a kiss on my lips. I grab her by the waist to push her off me. “Hey, Gina. How are you?”

  “I am so much better, now that you are here.”

  I can tell she’s been here for a while and is drunk. I look over at Alex and he still has that stupid grin on his face. Alex knows Gina and I have a history. I brought her to the club plenty of times and she practically told Alex that she would be the future Mrs. Deluca. I was never that serious about her. We had fun and I hate to admit it, but she was just someone I liked to fuck. She was never going to be the girl I would marry.

  “I think you have had too much to drink, Gina. Do you want me to call you a cab?” Gina pushes into my space again and is practically sitting on my lap.

  “How about you take me home?”

  “Gina, I can’t and it wouldn’t be a good idea.” I turn to see if Alex is still gawking at us from behind the bar. “Alex, can you call Gina a cab, please?” I emphasize the please so Alex knows I am not fucking around and that the cab needs to be called. I am in no mood for Gina. I have shit to talk to Alex about.

  “Oh. I can see why you can’t be bothered to take me home, Frank!”

  I grab my temples and turn back to Gina. “What the hell are you talking about?” Gina moves over pointing towards Lola.

  “Holy fucking shit. Who is that?” I hear Alex asking me. I turn towards him and remind him that he is supposed to be calling the fucking cab. I pull Gina over to a bar stool and s
it her on it. “Gina, sit your ass here and don’t move.” She crosses her arms like a pouting child. I have to find out what the hell Lola is doing at Deluca's.

  LOLA

  I can’t believe that Frank called in sick to work today. I know there isn’t a damn thing wrong with him. I will get my regular call and I won’t have the information he needs or wants. He is going to be pissed. He’ll want to send someone else to get the information. Since Frank is out ‘sick’ today it will give me time to regroup. Always right on schedule, I hear the Jaws theme playing in my purse. I take it out of my drawer and look at the screen to see Brandon’s face on display. I don’t even need to see the face, I know the ringtone. The worst part is he chose the ringtone himself. He wanted there to be no question as to who is calling.

  I want to ignore the call, but I know I can’t. If I don’t answer, he’ll come to Chicago and he probably won’t leave until we have taken over. Frank is out today, so there is no need for me to leave my desk to answer. “Yeah,” I answer knowing he’ll hear the snarkiness in my voice.

  “Yeah? Do you have any updates today, Lola?” I sigh knowing this won’t make him happy. “I have no new information, Brandon. Frank is out sick today so I am re-grouping.”

  “You’re regrouping, Lola? You’ve been in Chicago for over a month. You should have him eating out of your hands and spilling family secrets by now.” I know Brandon is right. I took the wrong the approach with Frank. I focused on the law-abiding cop side. I need to focus on the actual man side. I need to seduce the information out of Frank Deluca.

  “You're right, Brandon. Give me another month and I’ll have all the information we need. We will take over Chicago.” I hang up and start to plan.

  At the end of my shift, I head directly to Michigan Ave. I have nice clothes, but they are all business attire. I brought the wardrobe befitting a Chicago police detective. I need to switch my tactics a little with Frank, so I need sexier clothes. I am in full-on seduction mode now. I need Frank to stop looking at me as a cop and start looking at me as a woman. I can tell he finds me attractive, but I need his walls torn down. It won’t be a difficult task for me either. Frank Deluca is one hell of a sexy man. I am willing and able to do whatever it takes. I just need to remember that he is the enemy and an obstacle we face in taking over Chicago.

  After I have finished my shopping, I head back to the house. My people think of everything and they set up the house to be the perfect home. I almost expect to see a little poodle running out to greet me at the door. I am not used to this at all. In New York, tons of space is rare. I love my little apartment in downtown Manhattan. New York is all hustle and bustle. Chicago does have the hustle and bustle, but it is also more family friendly than New York. There is more space in Chicago. The house I’m staying in could hold two of my apartment. I am a little lonely in Chicago. I miss my family. However, I know I am here for the family, so I will do what I need to do.

  I drop my purse onto the sofa and pull out my laptop. We have a tracking device set up on Frank’s car. I haven’t had to use it since I have been spending my days with him. I need to find out where he is right now. I doubt he is sick, so I am sure he’s not home. I find out he’s at Deluca’s and I plan on putting on something sexy to meet him there.

  FRANK

  I can’t help but look at Lola as she’s standing across from me. She is in the sexist black slip dress. At least I think it’s called a slip dress, it looks like she forgot to put the dress on and is only wearing the damn slip. The dress hugs her in all the right places. The dress hits right above her knees and she is wearing at least 3-inch heels. Her hair is down with falls halfway down her back in bouncy curls. I feel my dick instantly stand to attention. I can feel Gina’s eyes burning a hole in the back of my head, but I couldn’t care less at the moment. I hear Alex in the background telling her something about a cab and I hear her get snippy with him. I really don’t care what’s going on with those two. My eyes are glued on Lola. She looks at me and I can’t help but walk over to her.

  “I take it you feel better?” she asks.

  I have no idea what she is talking about and she can tell I am confused by the question.

  “You called in sick today remember?” she reminds me.

  Oh, shit. I did call in sick today. “I do feel better. It must have been food poisoning.”

  Lola squints her eyes and I know I she isn’t buying this shit. I have never noticed how good Lola smells. She must not wear perfume to work.

  “Well, I am glad you’re feeling better. How about buying me a drink?”

  As she walks past, she brushes lightly against me. I walk back to the bar and stand between her and Gina. I wish the cab would hurry up and get here. This is downtown Chicago, so it shouldn’t take this long. I look up at Alex who is smirking and he nods towards the door. “The taxi is here, Gina. I’ll have someone walk you to the door.” Gina stands up and I can hear her mutter something about someone being a stupid bastard and I don’t know if she was referring to me or Alex, but at the moment I didn’t care.

  “What do you want to drink, Lola?”

  “I’ll take a beer,” she responds.

  I am shocked by her choice. Lola seems like the fruity mixed drink kind of girl. I chuckle and ask Alex for a beer.

  “What is so funny? Are you surprised that I want a beer and didn’t ask for Sex on the Beach?”

  “You seem to be more of the Sex on the Beach type, so I am a little surprised.”

  Lola moves closer to whisper in my ear. “I think I could use sex on the beach, but I am not talking about the drink.” I raise my eyebrows in surprise. I can’t believe that Lola is flirting with me. I wonder if this is the first bar she visited tonight or the last. I adjust myself and turn back the bar as Alex brings two beers. I didn’t request two, but I‘m glad he brought me one also.

  “Are you going to introduce me to your friend, Frankie?” Oh shit. I don’t want to introduce them at all. My brother, who is all-mob-all-the-time, should not meet my detective partner who wants to take down the mob, which technically includes me. I start to refuse, but if I don’t, Lola will start asking questions.

  I take a deep breath and look at Lola. “Alex this is my partner, Lola, and Lola, this is my brother, Alex.” They shake hands and I can see both of them have wheels turning as I closely watch the two.

  “Wow, Lola, you don’t look like any type of law enforcement I have encountered.”

  “I will take that as a compliment, Alex. Do you own this place?”

  “I do. I purchased it several years ago. Have you been here before? I don’t recall seeing you around and I would remember it if I had.” Alex says as he flirts with Lola.

  Lola smiles and looks at me. “This is my first time being here. I’m actually not from Chicago, but so far I like it.”

  Alex looks at me and then back to Lola. “Where are you from?”

  “I’m from New York. I really wanted a change and the detective position opened so I took the leap. I really lucked out getting Frank as a partner. I guess they decided that the two of us together can take down the Chicago mob.”

  I nearly choked on a swallow of my beer when she said that. He’s looking right at me and I can see he is pissed.

  “Lola, let’s not talk business now.” I look back over to Alex and he is still staring directly at me.

  “Hey boss, we need more bottles of vodka from the back.” A bartender comes over to inform Alex and he turns to him, saying he’ll go get it.

  “Priorities await, Lola, I have to run to the back. I hope you’re still here when I return so we can chat some more.” Lola lifts up her half-empty beer bottle and says she’ll be here.

  “Your brother is really nice, Frank. Do you come from money and are hiding it? How did he get the money to buy a place like this? It’s in downtown Chicago, so this can’t be the cheapest property to own,” Lola comments.

  “Lola, let’s not talk about Alex. Let’s talk about you.”

&
nbsp; Lola crosses a leg and turns towards me. “What do you want to know, Frank?”

  “I want to know what you were looking for when you came into Deluca’s.”

  Lola takes a sip of beer and looks back at me. “Why do you think I was looking for something?”

  I look over her and meet her eyes. “Let’s think about this. You are dressed like a woman on a mission, in the middle of the week and you just so happened to appear in a bar with my last name? Were you looking for me, Lola?”

  Lola leans over towards me. “You should be home sick in bed, Frank.”

  One of the bartenders, Jessica, comes over asking if we needed another beer and we both take one. I have a feeling this is going to be an interesting night.

  Lola and I spend the next couple of hours drinking, flirting, and dancing. The dancing was the worst, but she was insistent that she was going to dance. It was either dance with her or watch someone else dance with her and I was going to be the only one bumping and grinding with Lola. When this night is over, I am going to need to take care of myself and I can’t say I’ll be gentle about it either.

  Lola is getting a lot of attention tonight and I don’t like it. I know most of these guys and I don’t want any of them near Lola. I feel a little territorial about her and I don’t know why. It’s probably because we work together. I also notice Alex has spent most of the night at the bar watching me and Lola. I hate that she told him we are investigating the mob. He is going to have questions about that. Once I get Lola out of here, I’ll address it with him.

  Lola has finally finished dancing and throws her arms around my neck. “Let’s go back to the bar,” she suggests.

  There is only one seat, so I help her onto it and stand in front of her, blocking her from the guy sitting on the next stool. Lola grabs the front of my shirt pulling me closer to her. “How about you and I getting out of here, Frank?”

  “What did you have in mind, Lola?” She can’t be asking me to go back to her place. Please, don’t let her be asking me to go back to her place. I’d go, but I know I shouldn’t. How could I refuse her? Lola is hot and she is fun when she isn’t in cop mode.