Double Blind (Vittorio Crime Family #2)

by Vanessa Waltz

  I don’t like where this is going.

  “I’ll pay whatever debts she owes.”

  That can’t be all.

  His eyes roll towards me. “No.”

  The breath catches in my throat and my heart plummets. “No? What do you mean, no?”

  “She’s going to earn it herself, by working in one of my casinos. I hear that she’s a good dealer, and I want her.”

  “NO!”

  Jack stands up, his face furious as he grabs my arms and yanks me down into a chair. “Sit the fuck down,” he growls in my ear.

  “She has nothing to do with this!”

  The boss is unaffected by my rage. He calmly grabs a cigar from inside his jacket and lights it laboriously. Sparks fly and smoke surrounds him, making him look like a cartoon villain. He waves the cloud of smoke away.

  “I don’t give a fuck. This is payback for your fuckin’ attitude. In addition, you’re going to give me twenty percent of your action.”

  Desperation crushes my lungs and I lean over the table, staring at him. “Tony, since when do we bring women in this?”

  Ignoring me, he turns to Jack. “She’ll be working closely with one of my captains.”

  “Who?”

  He gestures towards the man in the back, who told me off for yelling at his boss. He steps forward, wearing a fitted suit. Dark blue. Light brown hair and deep blue eyes. He looks a few years older than me. I haven’t really heard anything about him.

  “Carmine Lucchesi.”

  The look he gives me is one I recognize. That dead-eyed, vacant look I see in so many of my soldiers. He hides his brutality well under his charming smile, which he gives to Jack.

  With the faintest note of a sneer, he talks to me, “Your girl is quite popular. Stories about her reached all the way to Jersey. I’m excited to meet her.”

  Something snaps. I lunge across the table, intent on punching every part of his body. The chair knocks to the floor and Carmine laughs as I grab his jacket. Someone slams me in the solar plexus and all the air is knocked out of my lungs. They wrap an arm around my throat and yank me back. Stars burst in my vision as my air is cut off. The arm disappears and I gulp down air.

  “Go fuck yourself!”

  Carmine sneers at my rage, adjusting his suit as his soldiers pull my arms back so far that I feel like they’re going to pop out of my sockets.

  “Get him the fuck out of here!”

  Tony looks bored as he waves off the men. “Leave him be. Carmine, don’t provoke him.”

  They let me go and I’m overcome with an urge to reach into my jacket and blow that piece of shit to pieces, but they already frisked me. What the fuck is his problem?

  Jack tries to cover for me, apologizing for me as if I’m a fucking five year old.

  “I’m sorry, Tony. He’s a bit of a hothead.”

  “Yeah. Aren’t we all?”

  “I think that’s it then.”

  They shake hands and I swallow my disgust. I stalk towards the exit, my shoulders shaking as I take the weapons back from the guard. I’m hoping that the asshole will follow me outside, but he doesn’t. Instead, Jack joins me, gripping my arm painfully.

  “What the fuck happened to keeping a cool head, eh?”

  I rip my arm out of his grasp impatiently, keeping my voice low because we’re still in earshot of the restaurant. “In case you didn’t fucking notice, that asshole talked about making a pass to my fiancée.”

  “I don’t give a fuck what he said. Tony has a hard on for you, why are you making it so easy for him?”

  The pressure builds up in my chest until I can’t take it anymore. “We look like a bunch of fucking assholes! What the fuck is this deal? Bringing my fiancée into this?”

  Jack takes my arm again, forcing me to stop. I look around into his eyes, which look glazed over with pain. I remind myself that he just got discharged and that he’s probably still in a lot of pain. It took a lot out of him to meet the Rizzos, but it needed to be done. He couldn’t look weak.

  “I realized something when I got shot in that restaurant. I don’t give a fuck about pride or ego—I just want to live. You want her to live, don’t you?”

  The brief image of her lifeless body is enough to build pressure behind my eyes. “Of course, I do.”

  When I look in Jack’s haunted eyes, I know that I’ll do whatever it takes to keep her safe, even if she hates me for it.

  “We came very, very close to dying, Vinny. All of us—the whole family could be wiped out if we go to war with Tony. We need to make sacrifices to survive, or we’ll all die.”

  I love her too much to take risks. It doesn’t matter how many times she goes to work for Carmine, as long as she comes home to me.

  I’m still not okay with it.

  Finally, I nod at him. “All right. I’ll tell her.”

  But she’ll never forgive me.

  ADRIANA

  Maria grips my wrist in a vice-like hold as she steers me through the wedding cake store. Our appointment is in ten minutes, and Vince still hasn’t showed up. Her face glows with excitement as she walks through the store, clutching a clipboard of wedding material to her chest. I didn’t expect Maria to take her job as maid of honor so seriously, but she cut out and clipped hundreds of pictures from magazines and we analyzed hundreds of patterns and color themes that I like for over two hours. And this is just for the freaking cake. As far as cakes go—if I can eat it, I’ll like it.

  But nothing is ever that simple.

  “Did you ever decide if you wanted a traditional fondant or marshmallow fondant?”

  I give Maria a blank look. I have no idea what the fuck that is.

  She jumps suddenly. “Oh, and there’s also marzipan fondant. I personally prefer the taste of almonds to corn syrup, but that’s just me.”

  Where the hell is he?

  The glass door suddenly opens and I whirl around to see Vince, looking fresh in his black suit. A dark look weighing on his face brightens slightly when he sees me. He walks inside and gives me a strained smile.

  “Hey.” He wraps an arm around my waist and gives me a quick peck on my cheek.

  “There’s our angry young man!” Maria gives him a half amused, half exasperated look.

  He does look angry. Last night, he came home and didn’t speak a word to me. I know better than to ask questions, but still. I can’t help but wonder if I did something wrong. Then he notices me watching him and his eyebrows lift slightly.

  “I’m not angry, just busy.” He straightens his suit. “Where is this broad?”

  I elbow Vince’s ribs, but it’s too late.

  “I’m right here!” A cheerful voice with a heavy, Jersey accent emerges from behind the counter. The woman belonging to the voice is dressed in a leopard print, skintight one-suit. She wears large, golden hoops for earrings and her face looks like she dived headfirst into a makeup bag.

  “Holy shit,” Vince mutters under his breath.

  She extends a claw-like hand to Maria, who takes it immediately. “We’re so happy you could fit us in for today. I’ve heard so much about the bakery.”

  “Of course! Are you the lucky bride?”

  “No, I’m the maid of honor,” Maria blushes slightly as she looks at me.

  She gestures to me with very long, fake fingernails. “Hello, how are you? I’m Danielle.”

  “Adriana,” I say quickly, taking her hand lightly.

  Vince extends his hand. “Vincent. Nice to meet you.”

  Danielle clasps her hands together. “Oh, you two are so cute. You must be so excited!”

  We’re slightly at a loss for words.

  “Yeah—uh, we are.”

  Maria’s eyes bulge at me and her fingers whiten on the clipboard.

  “—and I’m really grateful that you fitted us in last minute.”

  “No problem, no problem. Well, come in. We have a lot of different flavors for you to try. This is so exciting!”

  She seems more exc
ited by this than I am. Honestly, this is probably the part of wedding preparations that I looked forward to the most. Who doesn’t like eating a bunch of free cake? The only one who doesn’t look happy to be here is Vince, who sits down around the table with a long sigh, like it’s a waste of his time.

  Geez. What’s wrong with him?

  The table is already set up with at least two dozen small slices of cake. Some of the cake slices are red, some look like chocolate, others are white. I salivate as Danielle places glasses of water and a fork in front of us. I grab mine eagerly.

  “All right, so we have a lot of flavors here and I really want you to try everything. The white cakes will have different flavors than the chocolate, and the same goes for the red-velvet. We have a chocolate salted caramel, chocolate strawberry, champagne strawberry, lemon flavored cake with a lemon buttercream, lavender…”

  And she goes on and on until I feel like my brain might combust. She points at each slice as she names the flavor, and I have to inwardly applaud her for her amazing memorization skills.

  I stab my fork into a random chocolate one and taste it. An explosion of rich chocolate and slightly salted caramel melts over my tongue. It’s delicious.

  “Vince, you gotta try this one.”

  I take it with my fingers and bring it to his mouth. Vince looks forbidding, but I press the cake against his lips and he takes a bite. He chews and swallows, his shoulders lifting up slightly in a shrug.

  “Yeah, it’s good.”

  Disappointed, I turn back towards the cakes. Maria shoves three of them towards me. “Try them, Ade. I’m thinking since you want lavender bridesmaid dresses, it’ll look fabulous in your wedding photos. It’ll complete your theme.” She gestures towards the white cake with the light purple filling.

  “Maddon, it doesn’t all need to match for Christ’s sake.”

  Maria shoots Vince a glare as I try the cakes. They’re much lighter than the chocolate ones, and also very delicious. I can’t decide. There are too many choices, and I’m starting to get full.

  “I like that one,” Vince says with a mouthful of cake, pointing towards a white one with bits of strawberry.

  “Ah, the champagne and strawberry cake.” Danielle sweeps over to his side. “You’ve got to try more, though.”

  “I don’t need to try any more. I want this one.” He sets down his fork and shoves the piece towards me.

  I pop it in my mouth and immediately taste the champagne soaking the cake. The strawberries add a wonderful light taste to the richness of the alcohol. “I like it, too. We’ll do this one.”

  Danielle looks flustered. “But honey, you haven’t tried all of them yet. You should really—”

  Vince’s face darkens and I know he’s a few seconds from yelling at her, so I cut him off.

  “Danielle, thank you so much for all the choices, but we’ll take this one.”

  Looking slightly appalled, she shrugs and gives a small sigh. “Well, okay. If you’re sure.” She then reaches towards the counter to take a sheet of paper. “Now, we’ll have to talk about the design of the cake.”

  Maria leans forward, “Adriana hasn’t decided what kind of fondant she would like.”

  “Oh, would you like to try some samples?”

  “Sure.”

  Danielle whisks away to the back to get samples and I take the opportunity to lean closer to Vince, who looks vaguely annoyed.

  “Hey, what’s wrong with you?”

  “Nothing, I just have a lot on my mind.” He forces a smile and rubs my back, but as soon as he thinks I’m looking away, his face falls with discontent.

  “Vince, you only get married once. If you didn’t want to come here, you could have just said so.”

  He looks at me sharply. “I do want to be here.”

  Then what’s the problem?

  His face strains as he fights to keep whatever it is inside him.

  “Well, here we are!”

  Danielle returns with a plate of pieces of white and cream colored frosting. I hold one in my hand. It shines under the light.

  “That one is regular fondant.”

  My first thought is that it’s very gummy and sugary. Vince makes a face and I grab for the less shiny, but sticky fondant.

  “That one’s marzipan.”

  The sweet, nutty flavor of almonds explodes over my mouth. It reminds me of those Almond Joy chocolate bars.

  “I like that one.”

  * * *

  The door swings open and slams shut so hard that I can feel the vibrations through my feet. We’re finally back from the cake tasting, and Vince seems to be in a shitty mood. I wait for him to walk closer, to give me a beaming smile as his arm wraps around my waist. My skin tingles in anticipation, and then I get a closer look at him. The look on his face makes the blood drain from my limbs.

  Vince walks past me without a smile or a hint of happiness in his eyes.

  He gets like this sometimes, but I never know why. Since everything that happened, we agreed that the less I know, the better. I don’t particularly want to know everything that he does, anyway.

  It still doesn’t stop me from wondering.

  Vince takes off his leather shoes and hurls them down the hallway. Then he rips off his jacket and throws it on the floor as if it did him personal harm.

  “Fuck.” His lips mouth the word several more times as he paces back and forth, his dark eyes flashing.

  Okay. That’s a bit more dramatic than usual.

  Then he walks to the freezer, pulls out the bottle of vodka he thinks I don’t know about, and two glasses from the cupboard. He pours two glasses.

  His face steams with rage. The olive-skinned face that I know so well is clenched together. I can see him barely holding it in, probably for my sake. His black, fiery gaze meets mine for a moment and I look away, heart beating fast. He grabs both glasses, pounds one after the other, and then he sinks his face into his hands.

  Jesus.

  Nerves flutter in my stomach as I stand up and walk towards the completely still Vince. I’m almost afraid to touch him, as though he’ll jump violently or snap at me. My hand lifts to his dark hair and I tremulously lower it until the fine strands tickle my palm.

  He doesn’t move.

  I let it fall down his trim neck, to the slightly wavy bristles, and across his shoulder. I seize his shoulder muscle and I dig in hard with my thumb, trying to loosen him up. He finally responds, letting his hands drop and turning into my body. Still seated, he wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me closer, and his head rests on my chest. My skin tingles when I feel his fingers lightly stroking the exposed skin on my lower back, but it’s not sexual.

  For once, Vince seems vulnerable. Scared.

  Holy shit.

  “What’s wrong?” I ask, hating how reedy my voice sounds.

  “I haven’t been telling you the truth.”

  I pull myself away from him, starting to feel a sharp, prickling sensation over my skin. He can’t even look at me.

  “I need to ask you to do something,” he says finally. “Something that I promised I would never ask you to do again.”

  My mind runs, heart beating frantically. I think of gunfire smashing through the thick panes of glass at the restaurant, the loud cracks shattering the air, and blood. Thick pools of dark red.

  “What?”

  “They want you to work for them. As a dealer in a casino.”

  Is that all? My heart still thuds like I’m running a marathon. “Who?”

  Vince lifts his head and begs me with his eyes. “The Rizzo family.”

  The Rizzo family. The thugs who murdered my father and made my life hell. Heat flushes my face and I step away from Vince.

  “How could you ask me that?”

  He looks miserable. “Believe me, if I had a choice, you would never see them again.”

  “What kind of trouble are you in?” My voice rises sharply, bouncing off the ceilings. “I thought you said that everythin
g was fine!”

  He lied.

  Vince’s mouth presses into a firm line. “It’s not. It was never fine. We almost all fucking died weeks ago, remember? That’s not going to go away because you or I want it to.”

  “So you decided to lie to me?” I rip my hand out of his grasp as hot anger bubbles in my chest.

  He stands from the stool. “I wanted to keep you the fuck out of it. That’s why I lied. I did everything I could so that I could protect you and I tried fighting against it, but I have no control over Tony. He’s determined to punish me, and this is how he’s doing it. You’re a small piece in this whole thing, but you’re the piece they want. They want you to work until you pay off your father’s debts. They won’t take my money.”

  “I can’t fucking believe this!” I return the angry look on his face. “Why should I be responsible for my dad’s debts? I haven’t done enough supporting my mother half my life? Why do we have to do this?”

  “Because if we don’t, they will kill us all.”

  I stumble back from the gravity of his words. I’m overwhelmed, I’m angry—

  “Jack is desperate for a truce,” he sighs. “Tony came up with these terms and wouldn’t compromise. I don’t really have a choice. They still don’t know about those two guys who showed up at your mother’s house.”

  Only Vincent’s hands running up my arms make me feel like my body is still capable of warmth. His fingers run over my arms lightly before they curl around my biceps. I can already feel my anger with him melting away.

  He’s right.

  “I don’t know—”

  “It won’t be that bad.”

  He leans in slightly and kisses my forehead. The heat of his lips makes my breath quicken, and then he does it again and I shudder.

  “It’s in a casino. It’ll be completely safe, unlike the bullshit we had at my card games.”

  Like anywhere is safe. “A mob-owned casino,” I remind him. “Might as well hold a billboard to the FBI.”

  “It’s not owned by—oh, fuck.” His eyes widen suddenly and his hands tighten on my arms. I feel fear transferring from the bruising grip of his fingers to my heart like an electrical impulse.

  “No one knows that the FBI is tailing you. Not Jack or anyone else. If they knew—if they found out—fuck.”