Omerta (The DeLuca Family #1)

by K. A. Ware

  On the sixth or seventh pass over the notch just below the head, Carlo’s phone started buzzing. I paused my ministrations and snuck a peek up at him.

  “Don’t stop, whatever it is can wait.”

  I resumed my slow pace making sure to suck hard on the uptake, hollowing out my cheeks and causing Carlo to jerk forward again. His phone buzzed again, and again, and again. I pulled away with a loud popping noise as I released the suction on his dick.

  “Seriously, Carlo? Just answer it.”

  With a grunt Carlo fished his phone out of his pocket and answered without looking at the screen.

  “What?” he practically shouted into the phone in frustration. As soon as the person on the other end responded his face went slack followed immediately by a tightening around his eyes. “Who the fuck is this?” his voice was low and lethal.

  My heart started to pick up pace and I rose to my feet, concern starting to blanket me. This was bad if the silent rage coming off Carlo was any indication. Whoever was on the other line must have finished with whatever they had to say because Carlo quickly ended the call and made another.

  “Everyone out front, NOW!”

  Shoving his half hard cock back into his slacks he made his way over to my bedside table and grabbed the pistol he kept there. He released the clip checking to make sure the magazine was full before slamming it back into place and pulling the slide to chamber a round as he turned to leave the room. I followed behind him down the large staircase and into the foyer where some of the men looked like they were waiting on him. They all had their guns out and looked on high alert.

  What the fuck was that phone call about?

  “What’s going on Carlo? Who was that?” I demanded tugging on his arm to slow his fast clip.

  He didn’t answer my questions. Instead he shrugged off my hold as he came to the front door and turned to me. “Stay here Mia, I mean it. I don’t know what is out there but you need to stay here.” Then without a second look, he walked out the front door with Angelo and Enzo behind him.

  Fuck that.

  Like hell I was going to hide out in the house while Carlo and his men put themselves in danger. Running down the hall to my office I snatched my Glock-17 and headed back to the front door. I hadn’t been gone more than a minute, but I didn’t know what was waiting for me. The icy droplets of rain stung on my exposed skin as I slowly made my way down the stairs to the circular driveway where the men were gathered. Angelo was on the phone barking orders at someone, Enzo was crouching down over something on the ground that I couldn’t make out, and Carlo was pacing behind him with his hands in his hair. I lowered my gun when I got closer and noticed all the men had holstered their weapons.

  “Carlo? What is it?” I asked, my voice cautious. Whatever had him spooked like this could not be good, something was terribly wrong. At the sound of my voice several pairs of eyes snapped to me, and as if they had one brain the men gathered outside started to move towards me and in front of whatever was on the ground.

  “Mia, go back inside, I’ll be there in just a minute,” Carlo said, but something in the tone of his voice and set of his eyes sent alarm bells ringing in my head. It was fear mixed with pity.

  “What is going on?” I asked again, my voice harsher and more demanding now. The rain was pelting my body and my hair was now plastered to my face, I brushed it away with my free hand as I studied the men in front of me. I was starting to get pissed, someone had better tell me what the fuck was going on and soon otherwise I was liable to start shooting kneecaps for answers.

  “You don’t want to see this girl, go inside like the Boss said,” Al stated from just a few feet away from me, he was slowly creeping closer to me. I had had about enough of his shit, raising my weapon back up I aimed at his face.

  “Back the fuck off,” I said eyeing him as I headed towards whatever they were trying to hide from me.

  “Mia, stop,” Carlo said as he came towards me, but he wasn’t quick enough. I spun around him and stopped short as I caught a glimpse of brown hair. I pushed at the men that were blocking my way and was able to shove them away enough to get a better look at the heap on the driveway.

  The pale glow from the security lights cast an eerie halo around the form. Long brown hair was tangled and matted with blood and filth, her black dress was torn exposing far too much of her bruised and bloody body. The water pooled around her body from the rain was stained crimson.

  “GINA!” Her name tore through my throat as I fell to my knees letting my gun fall useless by my side. My hands hovered over her, not wanting to touch her and hurt her more. My heart was racing and my breaths were coming faster and faster, I couldn’t slow them down.

  Black started to surround my vision as Carlo’s voice spoke the words I dreaded most.

  “Shh baby, I’m sorry, she’s gone.”

  Gone.

  She was gone. The word echoed through my head as the black took over.

  …

  In the days since finding Gina’s body I had been nearly catatonic, completely in my own head and sorrow. I cried myself to sleep every night and every night I was plagued with nightmares. I tried to keep the visions of what she must have gone through out of my head but my thoughts were running wild without my permission. I debated asking if anyone knew what they had actually done to her but I was scared. I didn’t want my worst fears to be confirmed and I didn’t want to talk to anyone, even Carlo. In fact, I was teetering on the edge of hostility, mostly communicating in grunts and glares.

  Despite my attitude, Carlo would come to my room every night and rock me to sleep as I wept silently. Each of the hundred times I was jarred awake by a horrendous nightmare he was there, hugging me closer and whispering in my ear that it would be okay. But it wasn’t okay. Everything was wrong and I felt like I was going to die from this ache in my chest.

  As I sat in the front row at Gina’s funeral next to her mother, I started to recognize the world around me again, to see how selfish I had been the past week. I was not the only one who had lost Gina, but I was the reason. Gina was dead because of me. I couldn’t escape the guilt I felt. They had thought she was me, they thought she was important to Carlo and that they could use her to send a message to him. The longer I sat there holding Gina’s mother’s hand as she sobbed, the angrier I got.

  A fire started to spread through my chest. Overshadowing the hollow ache, my heart started beating faster. My arms and legs tingled with anticipation as I started to formulate a plan in my head. The message may have been addressed to Carlo, but I was the one to receive it loud and clear. What no one realized yet was that I had every intention of giving the Russians an even bloodier reply.

  Home from the wake, I went up to my room and showered. I needed some time before I started asking questions I didn’t want the answers to. I stood under the hot water letting it soothe my tense muscles as I tried to mentally prepare myself for the worst. I had to know, I had to know what they did to Gina and most importantly I needed to know who they were.

  I went through the list of information I had already. I knew the Russian crew from Portland was responsible but I didn’t know much about them. Carlo didn’t go out of his way to hide things from me, but I wasn’t involved in his illegitimate business dealings so there was no need for him to confide in me. I did know that the Russians were who my father had been snitching to. The same men Carlo had taken down three years ago when they attacked one of his warehouses. At least he thought he had taken them down. Three years is a long time to hold a grudge, a long time to plan their revenge. I wasn’t going to wait three years but I would bide my time. I would do this right. In the end, there wouldn’t be a single one of them left.

  After my shower I dressed in black ankle length cigarette pants, and a loose white chiffon blouse. I needed to feel put together and make sure I would be taken seriously when I asked my questions. If I looked like the slob I had been for the past week they wouldn’t tell me anything. I blow dried my hair, and p
ainted on black eyeliner and red lipstick. I donned a pair of diamond solitaire earrings and slipped on a pair of bright red heels to match my lips. I took in the completed look in the full length mirror in my closet; I already felt stronger.

  Throughout college I’d opted for jeans, t-shirts, and hoodies. Fashion had been the least of my worries because of the heavy schedule I had from trying to graduate early. Since coming home I mostly wore business attire, this was different though. I felt powerful.

  Nothing would be the same as before, I had changed. The woman that stood before me in the mirror was vicious and focused on revenge. Born from the despair and anger of Gina’s death.

  This was the new Mia.

  Chapter 27

  Carlo

  I was in my office drinking scotch and plotting my next move when Mia stormed in.

  “I need you to tell me what happened to Gina and why. I want everything you know. Do not lie to me Carlo. I deserve to know the truth. All of it,” she demanded as she strutted into the room and took a seat on the other side of my desk.

  I sighed, “Mia, you know what happened.”

  “Stop bullshitting me, Carlo. I need to know everything.”

  “This isn’t going to make you feel better,” I said climbing to my feet and wondering over to the window.

  “Nothing is going to make me feel better. My best friend was tortured and murdered because they thought she was me.”

  “You know what happened, I’ve told you already. They grabbed her outside of your house in Chicago, took her to an undisclosed location, killed her, and then brought her here.” My eyes stared blankly out the window as I recalled the same story I had told her before.

  “Did they rape her?” she asked, her voice low but full of fury.

  “Mia,” I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose.

  “The truth, Carlo.”

  “Yes,” I said as I turned around in time to see her face go from fierce anger to completely empty, as if all emotion had been sucked out of her to prevent further hurt. That was the same look she had on her face the first day I met her in that dingy basement.

  “Who?”

  “The Russian crew from Portland.”

  “I want names Carlo,” she hissed.

  “No, you already know too much, I will handle this. I don’t need you getting any more involved than you already are.”

  She stood up and made her way over to where I was standing by the window. She was gorgeous, as always, but there was a hardness about her eyes now. The smell of orange blossoms flooded the air around me as she came to stand at my right side. She took the glass of scotch from my hand and downed it in one swallow. Handing the glass back to me she turned to leave. Halfway to the door she turned back and locked eyes with me.

  “Make them pay, Carlo.”

  I gave her a sharp nod and she was gone. The realization that she would never be the same as she once was caused a sinking feeling in my gut. The emotions I felt when my mother died came rushing forward. I knew how Mia felt, I knew the internal battle she was going through. Revenge was a temptress, a siren calling out to the broken hearted. I just hoped I could save Mia from giving in and sacrificing a piece of her soul like I had so many years before.

  Chapter 28

  Mia

  As predicted, Carlo wouldn’t give me names but I still got the information I needed. I knew a little about the Russian crew he was referring to, over the years I had picked up on names of key players. Carlo didn’t think I was stupid but I doubt he realized how closely I paid attention when I was home.

  There were three men that ran the crew out of Portland; Vitaly Kashnikov headed up the crime cell in that area with his sons Ivan and Boris. From what I had heard over the years, Boris was an idiot; all muscle and no brain. Whereas his brother Ivan was smart, but arrogant and impulsive. I had heard talk about them the summer I came to live with Carlo. Ivan was eager to take control of the family, but his father didn’t think he was ready and that pissed him right the hell off. It was Ivan that had planned and executed the strike on Carlo’s warehouse a few years back, right under his father’s nose. His father had already flipped several of our men and was biding his time but Ivan ‘the impatient’ Kashnikov was trying to prove himself and in turn made a fucking mess of things for his father.

  Carlo was outraged that the Russians had gotten away with half a million worth of guns and he made them feel it. I wasn’t privy to what exactly Carlo did to crush their power in Portland but he did. He dried up all their resources and flipped their contacts, essentially crippling their ability to make money on the west coast beyond repair. Vitaly and his sons had taken off, back to Russia, or so we thought. No one knew that they had come back. They must have kept a pretty low profile for no one to come across the news and bring it to Carlo.

  The fact that none of Carlo’s contacts had discovered the Kashnikov’s were back in town meant that they were probably hiding in plain sight. My guess is that they were starting out with legitimate business dealings before moving on to more lucrative and less honorable ventures. The problem was, I didn’t know where they were set up stateside, and I had to find out before Carlo did.

  Chapter 29

  Carlo

  “Fuck!” I shouted, slumping into my chair.

  We had been at this for hours, and we were getting nowhere. Someone, probably the Russians, had managed to fuck our transport out of southern California. There was no way we could use the trucks we usually did, all the cops along the west coast had been tipped off to what we were moving and which trucks we used to move it. That meant I had more than my fair share of dirty pigs looking for an extra bonus for their cooperation. I needed to find another way to move my shipment without costing myself a small fortune in payoffs above what I had already expected.

  “Boss, we could always do smaller transports, in domestic vehicles,” Al suggested.

  “Too risky, too many variables. I can’t split a shipment this big like that, it would be too difficult to track. Not to mention manage that many drivers without one of them getting pinched by the cops,” I said, my head tilted toward the ceiling, eyes squeezed shut in exhaustion.

  “What about refrigerated transport?” Mia’s sweet voice floated above the grumblings of the men in the room.

  My head snapped up. I hadn’t heard her come into my office, and from the startled looks of my men, they hadn’t either.

  She sauntered into the room, well aware all eyes were on her, and took a seat on the edge of my desk. She crossed her legs and leaned back on her hands, causing her skirt to hike up a bit.

  Jesus, I thought. I missed those legs. I wanted to feel her, to be inside her again. I hadn’t been able to touch her the way I wanted in far too long. I sat back in my chair and studied her. I knew she was extremely intelligent but I never thought she would want to be involved in my illegitimate dealings. Certainly not sitting around trying to come up with a way to move over 5 million worth of cocaine up the western seaboard. A glance around the room confirmed my men were confused about her involvement in the conversation but were just as curious as to find out what she had to say.

  “Explain.”

  A glint of fire lit in her eyes at my words and a sly smile stretched across her red coated lips before she spoke, “Refrigerated transport, the big tankers that transport liquid gas?”

  “Like gasoline?” Sal asked.

  “No,” She responded sharply, taking even me by surprise. She was taking charge. I had seen this side of her a few times before, it was sexy as hell.

  Hopping off my desk she stalked across the room before turning to address the group again. “Like liquid nitrogen. It’s transported in large refrigerated tankers and not checked the same way a normal tanker would be because you can’t just open the top and peek inside. You have to have special equipment to handle liquid gas, special equipment the state does not supply to weigh stations. Therefore, the tanks are weighed and rolled. No surprise inspections.”

  “Ye
ah okay, but how are we going to get our hands on a refrigerated tanker?” Al snorted, obviously thinking he had just outsmarted her.

  Mia just smiled sweetly and turned to me, “I happen to know of a privately owned refrigerated transport company based out of Eugene that is known to travel all the way up and down the I-5 corridor.”

  “Yeah well, sweetie, it’s a lot more complicated than just finding a company on the google,” Al snorted again.

  I was getting irritated at his blatant disrespect of Mia, but I wanted to see how she would handle the situation so I let it play out.

  She calmly walked over to where Al was sitting, hiked one leg on the table in front of him keeping her right foot on the ground and leaned down into his personal space. “If you interrupt me one more time, I WILL CUT YOUR FUCKING TONGUE OUT OF YOUR FAT FUCKING FACE!” she screamed the last part with her nose an inch from his.

  In a split second she pulled a triangular push dagger from her thigh holster, leaning back out of his face so she could swing her arm and drill his hand to the table with her knife. Her outburst caused all the men in the room to jump in surprise. No one had seen Mia like this. Ruthless, cold, calculating, exactly like she had been the first day we met, the same look on her face now that she had when she took the gun from my hand and killed her father.

  A grin spread across my face and my dick twitched. I know it’s fucked up, but watching her stab a man that had disrespected her was the sexiest fucking thing I had ever seen. Al was groaning and swearing while trying to free his bloody mess of a hand. Mia simply popped up off the table and smoothed out her skirt as she turned to address the men again.

  “As I was saying,” she cast a disapproving glance at Al and his blubbering before continuing. “I happen to know that the owners of this small transport company, a husband and wife, are currently struggling financially to keep their business a float while paying for their son to finish school at Northwestern.” She said the last part with a smirk in my direction. BINGO she had an in, and it was perfect.