But he was my second-in-command, so he was my attack dog. He was going to play that role in this negotiation. I just hoped that he wouldn’t overplay his role. That was always the danger in situations like this.
“Now you listen to me you cock-sucking mother fucker,” Gino said, pointing his finger in Benito’s face. I glanced over at Bianca, who was turning white, her brown eyes getting huge. She started to rapidly shake her head. I took a breath, not knowing whether to motion to Gino to back off or to let him go.
My instinct said to let him go, so I did nothing to stop him.
“You’ve killed the head of the Azzarra organization, you’ve tried to blackmail and bribe our men to jump ship, you’ve attempted to poach half of our clients, and you’ve even tried to blackmail and bribe our judges and police force to turn on the people in our organization. You’ve declared war, and we’re fighting back. That’s all we’re doing. Next time you do something to fuck with us, Bianca will be coming home in a body bag.”
The two men were standing, eyeball to eyeball, toe to toe. Neither man flinched.
Finally, Benito sat down. I nodded my head. This was a good sign. Benito, by sitting down first, showed that he was backing down first too. I caught my breath, knowing that I had a better bargaining position than I had originally thought.
“Very well,” Benito said, not looking at Gino, who was still standing, his arms crossed in front of him. “Mr. Rossi, I would invite you to sit down.”
Gino still stood for several more minutes. His arms were still crossed in front of him, and he continued to glare at Benito. Benito, however, refused to look at him. I was astounded at how submissive Benito suddenly seemed.
Finally, Gino sat down. His arms were still crossed, and he continued to glare at Benito.
“Mr. Azzarra,” Benito began, looking me right in the eye. He refused to look at either Gino or his daughter. “I brought you here to lay out terms for a possible merger. I also understand that you are willing to marry my daughter Isabella.”
I opened my mouth, and Gino popped in. He put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed it hard. That was his signal for I got this.
“There ain’t going to be no merger. You can’t be rewarded for just taking what you want and making moves which are acts of war. What’s going to happen is this. You’re going to back the fuck off in exchange for Lucca here marrying your precious Isabella. You know and I know that that’s what’s most important to you anyhow. You want a grandkid, and you certainly aren’t going to allow Isabella to bring a bastard child into the house. Neither of your sons are going to give you any grandkids either. Isabella might be your only chance to have an heir, so you better tread lightly on this. If you make Isabella put that kid up for adoption, she might never have any kids just to spite you. I wouldn’t blame her there, either. Now, you have two choices here – either Lucca marries your daughter and legitimizes your heir, or your daughter gives that kid up for adoption and you’re not ever going to have a grandkid to carry on your name.”
I glanced over at Bianca, who wasn’t looking at me. I wondered what Gino was spouting off about. What about Bianca? Wasn’t she able to give Benito a grandchild? What’s with all this talk about Isabella being Benito’s last hope for a kid?
Gino shook Benito, though. I could tell just by looking at him. He still wasn’t looking at Gino, but trained his eyes only on me. “Mr. Azzarra, we need to have our talks about merging our interests. And-“
I decided that Gino was onto something, so I was going to make my stand. “Mr. Rossi is correct. You cannot make these acts of war and be rewarded for them. I need for you to back off, and…” I looked over at Bianca. I could continue to threaten Bianca’s life, but I didn’t want to do that anymore. “I will marry Isabella on one condition. You back the hell off. I do not want anymore threats. There will be no more hits. No more trying to poach clients. No more interfering with our judges and cops. You will cease and desist trying to take territory, cease and desist from threatening to overtake our organization.” I took a deep breath, grateful to Gino for bringing Benito’s weak hand to light. “If you break our agreement at any time, then I will not only divorce Isabella but I will present a DNA test that will prove that I am not the father of her child. You will be humiliated and Isabella’s child will be delegitimized. That will be a black mark on your goal to have an heir.”
Benito just stared at me, his nostrils flaring. I wondered if he was about to have a stroke. He looked that angry.
He stood up again, but, this time, Gino and I both simply sat and stared at him. “That is not what I understood was going to happen in this meeting,” he said to me. “Mr. Azzarra, you broke your promise to negotiate with me in good faith.”
I shook my head. “You are a fine one to lecture me about good faith, Mr. Fattore. You were behind the murder of my father. From that moment on, you lost your ability to lecture about good faith.”
At that, he pressed a button on his desk. Two hulking men immediately came into the room. He motioned to one of them, who came up to me with his gun drawn. “Mr. Azzarra,” the man said. “You have two choices. Either you negotiate in good faith, or your brains will be all over this table.”
I looked over at Benito and then looked back at the goon. I then stood up. I wasn’t going to let this goon intimidate me. I didn’t play that shit. “Mr. Fattore, this meeting is over. I’m very sorry, but it looks like your young daughter is going to have to find another mark to make her child legitimate. That mark won’t be me.”
Benito just stared at me, trying to find my game. Find my weak spot. See if I was going to flinch in the face of a goon pointing a gun at me.
He finally waved at the goon. “Carlo, that will be all. But please wait out in the hallway in case I need you again.”
Hmmmm…..he must be desperate for me to marry his daughter. I wondered exactly what his game was. Why was he so anxious for me to marry Isabella? I knew that Isabella needed somebody to marry her, but wouldn’t any Italian do? Surely he could bribe or blackmail somebody to take her on, even on a moment’s notice. So why was he so desperate for me to be in that role?
I soon found out.
“Mr. Azzarra,” Benito said, looking at his daughter and Gino. “I would like to speak with you alone.”
I stared at Benito, trying to figure out why he wanted this. No matter, if it was going to get us closer to an agreement, I would do what he said. It really was a small thing to ask, and I wondered if he was going to acquiesce to what I was asking for.
I nodded at Gino and looked over at Bianca. I nodded at her as well. After all, I was the one who insisted that she be present, so I would be the one who would dismiss her.
The two left, and it was only Benito and me. Face to face. Mano a Mano. “Okay, Mr. Fattore, what would you like to say to me?”
He cleared his throat. “This union between you and Isabella must happen. You are the head of the most powerful family on the Eastern Seaboard. You know as well as I do that your organization is vulnerable. I showed it when I got to your father. I’ve been able to make many inroads to weaken your family. You need for me to back off, but I must warn you – assuming that I do back off, there are other families who have been observing how successful I’ve been in weakening the Azzarra network. You’ll never be safe.”
I leaned back in my chair, rethinking my position about not wanting to merge my organization with Benito’s. He was right – the De Luca family was coming on strong, and, down the further down the line, the Romanos and the Mancinis were gaining strength by the day. I knew that the shaky nature of our leadership contributed to the Azzarra networking weakening – I was the third capofamiglia at the head of this family in less than two years. My father died, my brother stepped down, now here was me.
“Go on, Mr. Fattore,” I said.
He leaned in closer, putting his elbows on the table. “Marry Isabella and it will make both of us safer. If that happens, then nobody will try to get to you, because they k
now that if they do, they will have to deal with me. And nobody will try to get to me because they know that if they do, they will have to deal with you. This union will effectively consolidate power in our two networks, even if our networks do not legally merge.”
I wasn’t quite sure what he was getting at, but I got the general gist. Especially since there was going to be a child involved – the child that was allegedly going to be mine. “I see. Since the baby is going to be my heir, and yours, it will be an effective merger. Brilliant.” I could suddenly see the logic in all of this. My marrying Isabella would bring a merger that would intimidate other families from trying to hit either one of us. Somebody hits me, and they would be hitting the father of Benito Fattore’s grandchild, which would mean that the Fattores would be after that person as well as the Azzarras. Somebody hits Benito, and they would be hitting the my father-in-law and the grandfather of my child. Same thing.
“You make an excellent point, Mr. Fattore,” I said. “But why is it important that I marry Isabella. Why not Santino DeLuca or Marco Romano?” Santino and Marco were the under bosses for their respective families, and were the sons of the bosses of those organizations. They were the right age for Isabella, so either of them might be right for what Benito needed.
“Neither of them are the bosses, and both of them are members of families which are less powerful than the Azzarras.”
It was then that I realized what was behind Benito’s moves. He was afraid for his own organization. He took the risks that he did in undermining me and my business because he wanted to become stronger to stave off a possible coup from one of the other families. He saw me and my willingness to marry his daughter as the best way for his own organization to become sound.
I took a deep breath. I had to forget about Bianca. I had to marry Isabella and just forget that I had feelings for Bianca. Forget about how just looking at Bianca made me hard. Forget about how badly I wanted to fuck Bianca until she screamed, and then keep on fucking her until she screamed some more.
I had to avoid the feeling that I got the first time I saw her, which went beyond lust, and into fascination and infatuation. Possibly even love, as crazy as that seemed. I hardly knew her, yet, at the same time, I felt that I had known her my entire life.
I had to forget all of this for the good of the organization. Marrying Isabella would ensure the protection of the Azzarras, and that was what mattered right at this moment. I had to do what was best for the business. It would clearly be in my interest, and in the interest of the Fattore family, for me to do this.
With a heavy heart, and I extended my hand. Benito shook it and nodded.
The deal was set.
I was going to marry Bianca’s sister, whether any of us liked it or not.
Nine
Bianca
Oh, crap. I saw the look on the face of my father and Lucca when they came out, and I knew. I knew that Isabella was going to end up marrying Lucca.
Well, okay then. I didn’t want that to happen, but apparently it was. It was, and there wasn’t a damned thing that I could do to stop it.
Why did I care? Well, because Isabella shouldn’t be forced into a marriage of convenience. She should be able to choose who she wanted to be with for the rest of her life, and she wasn’t going get that chance. It was bad enough that she was going to be stuck with a baby at the age of 21. That’s the time in her life when she should be having fun. Hanging out with friends, going to bars and restaurants, and going to parties. She was never going to have that chance because she was going to be caring for a baby. And, while she was caring for the baby, she was going to have to deal with being married to a man that she didn’t know from Adam. A man who had her sister kidnapped.
I swallowed hard and acknowledged the truth. I didn’t want Isabella married to Lucca because I wanted him for myself. I knew that he had me kidnapped, but there was something about our encounters that drove me wild. It wasn’t just his beautiful body and face, and his voice, so rich like decadent chocolate, but it was something more. It was the way that he made me feel. When I looked into his eyes, it was as if I was looking at somebody that I had known forever. I felt completely comfortable with him, and, yet, I wanted nothing more than the strip those clothes off of him and have him fuck me until he couldn’t fuck me anymore.
I wanted him to come out of that meeting and announce to me that he wasn’t going to marry Isabella. I needed for that to happen.
Yet, when I saw his face, I knew that it didn’t happen. I knew that he was going to go ahead with it, and that knowledge made me want to throw up.
Lucca approached me and cleared his throat. He tried to smile. “I know that you don’t want to hear this, but you are looking at your future brother-in-law.”
I raised an eyebrow, determined that he wasn’t going to see my true feelings about this. “Woopdie-do, let’s have a parade, shall we? When is the happy event going to take place?”
“This weekend. Somehow your father has managed to line up the church, the country club, the caterers, the photographers, the DJ and everything else in record time. Or maybe he just had all these things in place and the only thing that he didn’t have was the groom. I’m not really sure.”
“Oh? And what about the guest list?”
“I would imagine he has a ready-made guest list. His men will have to be there. And his family. Of course, it’s short notice, to say the very least, but that won’t be a deal-breaker.”
Of course not. It wouldn’t be a deal-breaker. My father could just snap his fingers and get over 100 people to show up at the Country Club for this unholy union. Everyone was going to be talking, of course, about why the marriage was so sudden. So be it. My father was going to know that everyone was going to assume that this was going to be just another shot-gun wedding. Too bad everyone wasn’t going to realize that the shotgun was trained on the wrong man.
Damn that Robert Simpson. The man was a worm. My father never even knew that Izzy was dating the guy. If he did, he would have broken Robert’s kneecaps. He’s not Italian, and that was an unforgivable sin with my father. Robert bailed on Izzy because he got scared. He knew that my father would have had it in for him once my father found out about him and Izzy, and that freaked him out. Izzy tried to explain that, since he got her pregnant, our father would have grudgingly accepted him into the family, as he was desperate for Izzy’s child to be legitimate, but Robert wouldn’t listen to reason. So, he took off.
Lucca stood in front of me, his hands dug into his pockets. I told him not to dig his hands in his pockets before, because I knew that my father saw that as a sign of disrespect. Then again, once I saw the way that Gino spoke with my father, I realized that disrespect went a long way with my father. Who knew?
Lucca was rocking back and forth on his heels, a sure sign that he was nervous. I smiled as I realized that I was already picking up on Lucca’s “tells.” I could see the mannerisms that showed that he was feeling uncomfortable. I could almost read his mind. It was obvious to me that Lucca wasn’t happy about my father forcing him to marry Izzy. I wondered if he was as upset as I was, and for the same reasons that I was against this entire thing.
“Well, okay then. Good luck.” I smiled. “I don’t think that I’m going to be at this wedding. I don’t want to give my blessing to any of this. Izzy deserves so much better than you and this whole situation.”
At that, I walked away, leaving Lucca standing there, his hands dug into his pockets, his heels rocking back and forth.
Fuck him.
Ten
I got home and immediately saw my dog, Daisy, come and greet me. She was a mutt that I got from a shelter. She appeared to be a pit bull mix – perhaps pit bull and lab or something like that. At any rate, she was my beautiful little girl and she always made me happy. And God knew, after what I went through for the past few days, I needed a dose of happy.
I took her out for a walk, came back in and lay on the couch. Daisy got on the couch with me, and
lay on my chest. Within a few minutes, both of us were asleep.
I woke up and saw Adelaide sitting in the chair across from me. “Bianca,” she said. “Where were you these past few days?”
I sat up and rubbed my eyes. God, I was tired. Bone tired. I had no idea how fatigued I was until I laid down on that couch and shut my eyes. “I met a guy,” I said, preferring not to elaborate on just how I met this guy. “What’s up?”
She looked down at the floor. “I guess you haven’t heard.”
I crinkled my brows. “Heard what?”
“You haven’t been on the schedule for a few days, I guess, huh?”
True enough. Lucca abducted me when I had a few days off from my job. I had no idea if Lucca planned it that way, or if he just got lucky. What I did know was that Lucca had some good timing. You should always kidnap a woman when she’s had a few days off from work – that way there will be less people questioning about where the hell she is. Clever.
She sighed. “Well, I guess now is as good of a time to tell you what’s going on as any. I have to move out. I’m so sorry, but I got a phone call from my dad, and my mother is very sick.” She hung her head. “She’s very sick, and my father needs help. I have to get back to Duluth as soon as possible.”
I grimaced. I didn’t want to lose her. She was my best friend. We’d been through so much together. Yet, I knew that, if her mother is sick, she had to be there to help out. Her father had nobody else – Adelaide was an only child. “I understand,” I said. “I’m very sorry to hear that.”
She sighed. “I know you’re sorry to hear that. Believe me, I’m sorry too. I love my parents, and I’m very afraid of losing my mother. I wish that my father could afford a nurse for her or to put her in a care facility, but, of course, he doesn’t have the money for that.” She took a deep breath. “It’s going to be an adjustment for me. That much is for sure.”
Lucca: Azzarra Crime Family Book Two Page 7
