Omerta (The DeLuca Family Series Book 1)

by K. A. Ware

  This woman is going to be the death of me.

  I let out a breath. Girl, this girl. I had to keep reminding myself that she was a teenager, not a woman, nope not at all. I cleared my throat, “You ladies look lovely, are you ready to go?” I asked as I helped them with their coats.

  “What about our bags?” Mia asked.

  “Sal already has them in the car. Let’s go, we don’t want to be late.”

  I opened a bottle of champagne once we were settled in the limo and poured each of us a glass.

  “What are we toasting to?” Mia asked.

  “To a wonderful night,” I said and we clinked glasses. I had the urge to drain my glass in one gulp but I resisted. It wouldn’t do any good anyways, I was going to need something much stronger to get through a night with her dressed like a fucking wet dream. It was starting to piss me off, my reaction to her, and what the hell did she think she was doing dressing like that?

  God, I was an asshole. I shouldn’t be mad at her, I should be mad at myself. Her dress wasn’t even all that revealing, it came down to her knees and it had sleeves for Christ sake. Not like Gina who looked like a trophy wife in training.

  “And your birthday, of course,” I said as soon as Mia took a sip of her champagne. Her eyes got wide, did she think I didn’t know when her birthday was? Or did she think I just didn’t care?

  “How?” she asked.

  “Doesn’t matter, it’s your eighteenth birthday, a day worth celebrating,” I said.

  “Thank you,” she said quietly with a smile and slight nod of her head. With that, the subject was closed. I knew enough about Mia by now to know she wasn’t flashy like her friend. She was understated in everything she did. She didn’t enjoy the spotlight, preferring to observe, unlike so many women. She was different, and that had me feeling something I hadn’t felt in a long time, fear.

  The ride into the city was uneventful. The girls played music and got tipsy on champagne. I had switched to scotch after that first glass and sat in the corner like a creep nursing my drink and not saying anything.

  When we got to the hotel we were led through the restaurant and into a private dining room. Once we were seated I ordered a bottle of wine for the table and tried to make polite conversation.

  No use in brooding the whole night.

  “So have either of you given any thought to which college you’re going to in the fall?” I asked thinking this was a safe subject to start off on.

  Good idea genius, remind yourself you’re a fucking pedophile.

  “I hear Oregon State is a kick ass party school, but my father wants me to go to an Ivy League and get my MRS degree.” Gina giggled.

  I raised my eyebrow, “Your, what degree?” I asked.

  “You know, MRS like Mrs.” Gina replied. When I didn’t respond she continued with less enthusiasm, “My father wants me to go to college and find a husband.”

  “Oh,” I said. What the fuck?

  “It’s no big deal, he’s just kind of old school like that. You know, be the good wife, stay at home, raise kids and listen to your husband. Yada, yada, yada.” Mia cringed at Gina’s words, I had heard her mother say something similar that first day I’d met Mia. Gina didn’t seem to notice her friends discomfort at her words so I turned the attention to Mia.

  “What about you Mia?”

  “Umm, well not really,” Mia said, keeping her head down.

  “What the fuck are you talking about Mia?” Gina questioned, “Dude, you got into every college you applied to and you’ve been talking about going to Northwestern since we were like twelve. What do you mean you haven’t thought about it?”

  Mia shot Gina a look, but her friend didn’t seem to get the hint and just kept staring at her like she just grew another head. Mia let out a sigh, “Well, that was before, things change.”

  I could see where she was going with this, and I’d be damned if I was going to let her. “Mia, you can go to any school you want, don’t worry about the money.”

  “But Carlo, I don’t—“

  “No, in fact, I insist you go to college. I don’t care how much it costs, I can afford it.”

  “But you shouldn’t have—“

  “I want to. End of discussion,” I stared her down until she looked down at her plate again and nodded.

  “Okay,” she said, “But I’m not sure I still want to go to law school.”

  “I don’t care what you study as long as you get a degree. You could be an art history or philosophy major for all I care, it’s not like you have to make money at it. Just do whatever is going to make you happy.”

  Mia scoffed, “Of course I have to make money at it. I need a career to support myself!”

  I looked at Mia confused, “Why?”

  Gina’s head was bouncing back and forth between Mia and myself during our exchange as if she would miss something if she wasn’t careful.

  I could see anger start to flicker in Mia’s eyes, “I will not be that woman. I will not run off and get married and live off of a man with no way to support myself.”

  “Okay,” I said slowly, “I didn’t say you had to.”

  “I won’t live off of any man without a way to support myself,” I didn’t miss the emphasis on the word any.

  “Are you kidding? Have I given you any indication whatsoever that I want to control you? Mia all I want is for you to be taken care of and happy, that’s it. Besides, you won’t be living off of me, you’ll have your own money.”

  “Carlo, it’s not you, it’s the principle of it. I am grateful for everything you have done for me. Wait, what? What do you mean I’ll have my own money? I don’t have any money.”

  “Not now, but you will. I set up a trust fund for you a few weeks ago that fully matures when you turn twenty-one. You’ll have plenty of money to live comfortably and do whatever you want,” I shrugged, it wasn’t a big deal. It didn’t even make a dent in my fortune. With my various businesses, even after pulling myself out of the financial ruin my father had caused before his death, I had more money than I could ever spend on my own.

  “You what?” Mia whispered, she was staring at me with her mouth hanging open.

  Gina let out a whistle, “Okay folks, that’s my queue.” She got up from the table and headed out to the main restaurant without another word, leaving Mia and I staring at each other.

  “Mia, we need to get something straight. I am not your father, I am nothing like him. I meant what I said that first day. You are my family and I will take care of you. You can try to fight it all you want but I will win, I always do. I don’t care if you want a career and you want to make your own money, but I’ll be damned if you toil away at a job you hate just for a paycheck. That is not a life Mia and I will not allow you to merely survive. You’ve done enough of that for a lifetime. I want you to live, to feel, to experience. Understood?”

  Mia took a deep breath, “Yes, I understand.”

  “Good, now let’s eat,” As soon as I said it the waiter came in with our food.

  Chapter 10

  Mia

  Gina came back shortly after our food was served and we all made polite conversation while we finished our dinner. I was still reeling from what Carlo had said to me about just surviving. He was right of course, the bastard. I had been treading water before, just trying to keep my head above the swell. How was it that we had only known each other for a short time but it felt like he knew me better than I knew myself?

  We are kindred spirits, bound not by the blood running through our veins but the by the blood staining our hands.

  That’s what he had said to me the day he brought me home with him, and as well as he knew me I still knew awfully little about him. I understood that he wanted to take care of me and probably felt an obligation to me despite his protests. I decided then that I would use the rest of the summer trying to get to know who he really was, not the Boss, but the real Carlo. The man behind the suit.

  After dessert Carlo excused himself, “
I have some business to attend to, Angelo will take you girls to the club attached to the hotel if you wish.”

  “Sweet! Angelo is the hot one right?” Gina asked.

  I rolled my eyes, “Carlo, we don’t have fake IDs and we’re way underage.”

  Carlo just chuckled, “I did tell you I own this hotel right? That gives me additional pull not allowed to others. You may go where you please and drink what you’d like, everything will go on my tab and Angelo will watch over you.” He walked around to where I was still seated at the table and laid a hand on my shoulder. His fingers brushed my exposed collar bone gently and my entire body erupted in goosebumps. “Just be careful, yes?”

  I nodded, “Of course.”

  Carlo straightened, “Good, have a good time ladies. I’ll see you in the morning.” With that, he strutted out of the dining room.

  Gina looked at me from her seat across the table, “This is going to be EPIC!” she squealed and did a little happy dance in her chair. Giving Gina an open tab and free reign of a high class hotel was most definitely a recipe for trouble, and I couldn’t wait.

  Dinner had only taken a couple of hours and it was still too early to head up to the club, so we opted to have a drink at the bar to kill some time. It didn’t take long before a couple of guys saddled up to us. They were cute, college-aged, my guy was tall and built like a linebacker with buzzed light brown hair and incredibly straight, and white teeth. Other than his kind of creepy teeth, his dad was an orthodontist apparently, he seemed nice enough. Gina’s guy was about the same height but not as broad. He had longer dark brown hair and piercing green eyes.

  Gina was instantly in lust. Both guys were dressed in slacks and button down shirts, no tie. We chatted with them for a while and mentioned that we were headed to the club. Surprise, surprise so were they. Normally I was more cautious and I wouldn’t go anywhere with someone I didn’t know, even if it was just to another part of the hotel, but Carlo had said that Angelo would be watching us. Even though I hadn’t seen him, I trusted that he was there somewhere keeping an eye out. With that knowledge I let some of my inhibitions go and decided to have some fun and not get lost too much in my own head.

  We got into the club without issue, the bouncer didn’t even card us. He just moved the rope aside and nodded. Someone must have tipped him off that we were coming. Inside the club was dark, warm, and packed with sweaty gyrating bodies. As soon as we got past the entry we were approached by a man in a suit that led us to a raised platform VIP area.

  “Whoa, are you guy’s royalty or something?” Gina’s guy, Derrick asked.

  “Or something,” I replied before Gina had time to come up with an answer. These guys seemed harmless enough but I didn’t want to divulge unnecessary information about ourselves and I certainly didn’t want to tell them anything about Carlo.

  Gina caught on to my apprehension, “Everything is taken care of for tonight, and you’re our guests,” she added with a sly smile. That got the point across, don’t ask and you get to party for free. Even though I didn’t think Carlo would like us extending his hospitality to men we didn’t know, the guys seemed to like that deal.

  “Sounds good to me,” Jackson, my guy, said with a blinding smile. Jesus, his teeth are really white. They were even brighter under the black lights in the club.

  A cocktail waitress came around and took our drink order, Gina decided to play up the spoiled princess card and ordered a bottle of Crystal. I was a little annoyed but I was grateful the attention was off of me. She was making it look like she was the privileged brat and I was the tag along friend. With anybody else that may have been off putting but I knew she was just doing it because she was picking up my fear of being made in public. After a glass of champagne, which was not as delicious as the price tag would lead you to believe, we decided to take a turn on the dance floor.

  House music was pouring from the speakers, lasers were slicing through clouds of fog and I was in my element. Gina and I were no strangers to the dance floor and soon found our groove with each other and the guys founds theirs at our backs. After a while Jackson’s arms snaked around my waist and he gently moved me away from Gina to dance with him, and I went willingly. The drinks I had earlier were starting to catch up with me and I was feeling relaxed. We danced for a while and Jackson’s hands got progressively friendlier with each song. I wasn’t complaining, this is exactly what I needed to get my mind off of Carlo and his sexy tattooed body. Whoops, there I go again. I did however guide his hands further north as they had started to drift down to my ass. I needed a distraction but I was certainly not going to sleep with this guy.

  “I need a water break,” I shouted, the music was so loud I wasn’t sure he heard me but he nodded and led me back to the VIP area. When we sat down to catch our breath I noticed I hadn’t seen Gina in a while, “Where are the others?” I asked.

  Jackson shrugged, “I haven’t been looking at anyone but you,” he said as he slung an arm behind me on the sofa. There was a glint in his eyes that made me think he might know more than he was letting on, but before I could question him further Gina’s voice rose above the music.

  “Shot time!” she screamed as she climbed the stairs to the dais. Her hair was mussed and Derrick was wearing a shit eating grin. You little slut, I mentally scolded her. She made eye contact with me and plastered the same shit eating grin on her own face, confirming my suspicions.

  The waitress appeared almost instantly with a bottle of Patron, and poured us each a shot. “Salute,” I said and downed my shot. This was not my first time on the party train that was Gina. Another round of shots and a few more songs I excused myself to go to the bathroom, I tried to get Gina to go with me but she was faded and there was no way she was making it across the dance floor in those heels. I briefly wondered how I was going to get her back up to our room but my bladder demanded my attention. Jackson offered to escort me but I brushed him off.

  One thing at a time.

  It took me longer to reach the bathrooms than I thought it would and I was about to pee myself when it was finally my turn. I washed my hands and touched up my lipstick. My hair had held up pretty well throughout the night and I made a mental note to buy some more of that hairspray Elena bought me. I made the mistake of zipping up my clutch and not paying attention to my surroundings when I left the bathroom and I ran right into a hard wall of muscle. I looked up and was about to apologize to whoever I just tried to bulldoze when hands roughly grabbed my shoulders and pushed me back into the single stall bathroom.

  I started to scream but a hand clamped over my mouth, and I saw through the space under his arm that the hallway that had been packed when I went into the bathroom was now completely deserted. My body was slammed against the wall opposite the door and my head smacked against the tile. I looked up to see Jackson’s face, but it was twisted with anger.

  “You little cocktease!” he growled at me, “You’ve been flaunting that ass all night long. It’s time to pay up.”

  I whimpered and slid to the floor trying to make myself as small as possible, I couldn’t reconcile the angry man in front of me with the nice guy I had spent the last few hours with. I had thought he was harmless and just out for a good time. Obviously I had made a massive error in judgment. When he started to unbuckle his belt I knew there was no way I was going to get out of this in one piece by cowering in a corner.

  I will never be a victim again.

  I had made a vow to myself and I was going to honor it. The smack to the back of the head coupled with the very real and extremely scary situation I was facing sobered me up quick. Think Mia, think! I tried to scream but Jackson backhanded me before my voice even left my mouth. “Don’t even think about screaming or I will fucking kill you, bitch,” Jackson said in an eerily calm voice.

  “O-okay, I’m sorry,” I whispered, tonguing my lip that had been busted open. I felt blood drip down my chin.

  “You aren’t yet but you will be, I’m going to teach you a lesso
n about being a fucking tease.” At that he unzipped his pants and started to pull them down along with his underwear.

  Fuck! Think, Mia! No, no, no this can’t happen.

  He grabbed a chunk of my hair and jerked my head back and I let out a yelp giving him the access he wanted to my mouth. He shoved his dick past my lips and I did the only think I could think to do, I bit down, hard. Jackson howled and punched me in the side of the head.

  The force of the impact his fist made when he hurled it at my head caused me to fall sideways to the floor. My ears were ringing, but by some act of God I kept consciousness.

  I have to get out of here.

  I started to scramble across the floor towards the door on my hands and knees. I didn’t look back to see what Jackson was doing. He was still screaming at the top of his lungs and shouting obscenities. I reached the door, still on my hands and knees, and fumbled for the handle.

  Just as I was pulling the handle down a hand clamped down on my ankle and pulled my leg from under me causing my chin to smack against the tile floor sending pain through my entire face. No, I am not a victim, I thought again. I kicked back with my other foot as hard as I could, and felt more than heard the sickening squish as my six inch heel sank into something soft. The hand that was holding my other foot slackened but I didn’t stop kicking. Over and over and over again I kicked with everything I had, making contact each time.

  Once I was completely out of breath I let myself look down at Jackson. It was a gruesome sight, his face was unrecognizable and he wasn’t moving. My shoes, legs, and the bottom of my dress were covered in his blood which was pooling beneath his head. My stomach rolled and the alcohol I had drank throughout the night made a reappearance on the bathroom floor.

  When my stomach was empty and the spasms had subsided, I heard pounding on the bathroom door. My body was spent and I used what little energy I had left to reach up and open the door. I was immediately pushed back into the room and, unfortunately, directly into the pool of Jackson’s blood.