by Ali Parker
"Everything alright, baby?" My father glanced up as I took my seat between Marco and D.
"Absolutely. Are we ready to order? I'm starving." I reached for another piece of bread.
"We already did." D glanced over at me, his expression filled with concern and question.
"Great, now... tell me more about this woman. What does she look like? Is she someone that we consider putting through this undercover work and then perhaps moving up to another position in the syndicate?" I needed help, and the boys held their own, but there were a few places and certain jobs that required a female touch. If this girl was capable of growing up into the organization, I was willing to lay down my jealousy over having another woman take the attention of my family.
"You're not worried about the competition?" My brother teased me.
"Nope. I need help. Every time something comes up that requires tits and a pretty smile, you guys call me." I glanced around the table. "It would have been really nice to have someone else drag the handsome cop into the mix. He's like Eddy. He wants snuggles and soft kisses." I groaned as they laughed, Edward included.
"I think you'll like her, Izzy, but maybe not." Edward picked up his beer. "She seems tough and she's definitely confident by the way she carries herself and stares you in the face when she talks. I think maybe you could offer her up to the cop in exchange for your services."
"Her services?" D's voice grew dark.
"You know what I mean." Eddy glanced over toward D. "She's playing his girlfriend. Come on, man. What are you expecting to happen over time?"
"And moving on to another topic." I turned to check on my father, but found him staring into space, his eyes glossy and lips turned down in a frown. "What's her name?"
"Audrey. She's blond with big blue eyes. I think she'll do okay with this first assignment, and if she does... and we need help, let's think about bringing her in. What do you think D?" Eddy was working to get me help, which was good and bad. Was he interested in the woman? Did I care if he was?
Not really.
"I like the idea, but I want to tread lightly. We're getting spread pretty thin right now. Bringing in this new narcotics Capo is about all I can focus on while keeping everything else running smoothly. Let's see what happens here, and remember... if anything happens to her, it's on you, Edward." D's glare was less than friendly.
"Understood. It's a little overwhelming to think of having so much riding on my judgment. Guess I know how you feel now." Edward smirked, goading D a little more than was healthy.
"Enough," I barked. "No more business talk. Momma wouldn't have allowed it."
"She's right." My father glanced up and gave me a sad smile. "You look so much like her, baby."
"I'll take that as a compliment." I nodded toward my father. Dinner needed to get started so that it could be over. I needed time to myself to figure things out... alone.
Chapter 9
Demetri
I had to meet Catherine in thirty minutes for breakfast, and where I usually looked forward to seeing my older sister, for some reason that morning I was dreading it. She was going to dig into everything and force me to spill myself. I loved her for it because it kept me from having a fucking heart attack, but I hated the thought of revealing where my pain was coming from.
Bringing Marcus into the narcotics ring was going to be good for all of us, but I didn't know the guy. He wouldn't have my back for a long time, or at least I wouldn't trust him to have it. I wanted Drake beside me. The selfish quest to stop pacing the floor at night and start trusting the Castaletta family again was driving me to the edge of insanity.
Joe treated me like a son, and I'd have done anything for him, but the bastard had so many secrets. Too many. Why hadn't he told me that Freddy wasn't his kid? No wonder he treated the guy like shit all these years. He was nothing more than a symbol of Vivian's unfaithfulness.
Was the Don involved in Vivian's death? Was the old man leading us all on a wild goose chase in search of a hit-man that didn't exist? Would we finally pull back the curtain and figure out that it was Joe that orchestrated all of it?
I wouldn't put it past him. I needed my brother in place beside me if I expected to survive.
"You trust Izzy. You know you do." I grabbed the keys off the ring near the door and decided to take my bike out to the docks. I needed to breathe fresh air as I forced my worries, my fears behind the brick wall inside of me. Maybe Marcus Blaine would turn out to be a good friend, and a great protector for me when I wasn't able to see three-hundred and sixty degrees around me.
"That's supposed to be Izabella. Don't shut her out." I parked the bike and pulled off my helmet, but didn't get off just yet. Closing my eyes, I let out a soft sigh. Something happened to her during dinner the night before. I could've won a million dollar if I'd bet that Freddy was the one that called her. I knew it. Fuck... we all did.
Did she think she was safe in the syndicate just because she wore the last name like a badge of honor? She didn't know her father like I did. She wouldn't have wanted to.
"You gonna sit there doing Yoga all day or come in?" My sister's voice brought a sense of peace to me.
"This look like yoga?" I smirked and nodded toward the back of the bike. "Come on. You need some excitement in your life. Get on and I'll take us to your favorite place."
She glanced down at her long blue skirt. She was proper if anything.
"I can't ride in this."
"Sure you can. Come on. Live a little." I tossed her the helmet as she glanced up.
"Fine, but if we get pulled over by the cops for indecent exposure..."
"It'll give you something to write in that journal of yours." I offered her my hand and helped her climb on behind me.
"Go slow. You know I'm scared of these things."
I smiled and glanced over my shoulder. "Hold on tight. This thing doesn't know what slow means."
The sound of her muffled scream as I took off down the dock was enough to loosen the tension building inside of me. I didn't just have Drake. I had Cat too. I needed to remember that shit more often.
*
"So you're bringing him on? That's it?" Cat's eyes widened as she lifted her coffee mug toward her mouth.
"Yeah. We checked him out. Izzy and I had dinner with him, and then yesterday morning he and Joe met. He's going to be good for us. He's no nonsense." I picked up my fork and cut my eggs up. "He's been working for various drug dealers for the last few years, some of them work for us scary enough, and he's ready to move up. He's bringing an associate with him. A Russian guy by the name of Zak. He seemed like the type of guy that would support Marcus and help us clean up this shit storm Freddy's started."
"Good." She took a sip of her coffee. "Any word from Freddy?"
"No, why? You worried?"
"Yeah, I am. He's an idiot and deserves to have his butt kicked all over someone's front yard, but he's just a kid, D."
I snorted. "He's twenty-five. That's not a kid, Cat."
"You're still a kid." She set her coffee down and leaned back in her chair. "Does he have a woman?"
"Who? Freddy?"
"No, Marcus." She picked up her spoon and stirred her oatmeal slowly, watching me intently.
"I don't think so. I think he had a girl, but she's not coming with him. I keep trying to figure out why she sounds so damn familiar." I reached for my phone and texted Daniel to see if he knew the name Kate Jarrett and if so... where from?
"Why would he not bring his woman with him?"
"Because this life is hard and dangerous, Cat. I really wish you would stick to the shipping aspect of the business and not continue to get involved in the other parts. You're putting yourself in danger, and I can't protect everyone all the time."
"I'm not asking you to protect me." She reached across the table and stole a piece of pineapple off my plate.
"It's my job as your brother."
"Not true. The rule actually states that the older sibling is the protector o
f the others. So with you being thirty and me forty... I win." She smiled and popped the pineapple in her mouth.
"Try again." I rolled my eyes at her and decided to change the subject while we were getting alone. "Tell me what's going on with you and Marco."
"Nothing." She didn't flinch or shift in her seat. Fuck. Maybe there was nothing going on.
"You're not sleeping together?" I knew it wasn't my place to ask, but with momma and daddy gone, someone had to protect Catherine from herself. She fell in love too fast and loved too deeply. I'd kill a mother fucker for breaking her heart. I was working hard to make sure it wasn't going to be Joe's oldest son at the end of my gun. That wouldn't be pretty.
"Nope. He's hot as sin, and I've thought about it multiple times, but no." She took a bite of her oatmeal as I shivered in disgust.
"Alright. Keep your dirty thoughts to yourself. You're still my sister."
She snorted. "You asked, butthole."
"True." I checked my watch. "I need to come into the office with you for a little while. I want to get you to pull the shipment paperwork for anything that wasn't verified as reaching our clients. I need to figure out where the fuck the drugs are, and get them back."
"D, you know where they are. The Kallups have those drugs."
"Good. Even better." I smiled and picked up my fork. "Eat up. You're getting too thin. Italian men like women with meat on their bones. I gotta marry you off sometime in the next century. Get to it."
She threw her napkin at me, called me an ass and kicked me under the table. It was done in love... it always was with her.
*
"How can you tell who the fuck signed this?" I lifted the shipping document to my face.
"That's Freddy's signature right there, D." She pointed at the paper. "It's pretty messy, even more than usual, but that's his."
"Call on these three. Follow them through the movement process and see where they are. Give me the final address and I'll go over there to see where our shit is." I handed her the papers and walked toward Freddy's office. "And find me a number for Thomas Kallup. I don't care if it's his grandmother's phone number. I want a way to reach him."
"Will do."
I pushed open the door and glanced around the room. The smell of piss and vomit was gone, which was a slight relief. I had my sister or Selma to thank for that no doubt.
My phone buzzed and I pulled it out to see an unknown number.
"Demetri DeMarco."
"It's Marcus. We're looking at tomorrow night at the Masquerade Ball they throw down here at the Marriott. That too soon to get help with Billy?"
I rubbed my forehead and tried to think through who the hell had the time to head to New Orleans to deal with a mass murderer. It would have to be me. I knew Billy Turner when he was just getting started. Izzy could take his ass out, and I would be down there to make sure nothing happened to her while she did it. One day.
"That's perfect. I'll have Izzy on a flight. Look for a text from me tomorrow with details. I need you to have Billy at a certain location at a very specific time, but we'll work that out. Izabella will have to get there and scope out the best location from across the street. We'll talk tomorrow."
"Great. I appreciate it." Marcus paused. "And I'm taking you up on the offer. Give me the week to close everything down, and then I'll be in Chicago by next week."
"Good. Best decision you'll ever make. I promise."
"I'll hold you to that." The thug on the other end of the phone caused me to chuckle as the line went dead. We didn't have time to help, but it was a good way to show him what he was entering into. Though we were dysfunctional as hell, we were still family.
I leaned down and pulled at the drawers on Freddy's desk, going through the few that opened and standing to look for a key for the ones that didn't.
The key ring by his door had large keys with numbers on them that went to various shipping crate locks, but nothing small. I turned back to the desk and paused as my mind registered the imprint of a small key on the dusty board where they all sat.
Turning back, I reached up and ran my finger along the place where a small key had to have laid. "Where are you? Who took you?"
I pulled out the keys to my bike and walked back through the warehouse until I found my sister.
"I gotta run. Something has come up."
She lifted her eyebrow. "Something always comes up."
"Did you, by chance, take the key to Freddy's desk? The one that unlocks his drawers."
"Nope. It's hanging on the keyring by the door. I kept telling him that he needed to put it somewhere else, but he felt like having it out in the open and obvious would keep anyone from thinking too much of it." She shrugged. "Just grab it and check the drawers on your way out."
"Right, I can't. The key is missing."
She huffed and walked back toward the office as I moved toward the exit.
"It's right here, D. I swear if it was a snake it would have-" She paused as she ducked into his office. "Well, it was here."
"When is the last time you saw it?" I knew where it was. Either Thomas Kallup had in in his pocket, or my woman did. Something told me it was the latter of the two options.
"Friday morning, I believe."
"See you later." I pushed the door open and swallowed the sinking sensation that Izabella knew more about Freddy's situation than she was letting on. She loved her mother, but Vivian was dead. There was no protecting the dead, but the living?
She was hiding Freddy. I was almost sure of it.
Chapter 10
Izabella
"This isn't personal, is it?" I glanced over toward D as our plane landed in New Orleans early the next morning.
"What? Us taking Billy Turner out?" His voice was gruff and sexy as fuck.
"Yes." I sat up and pulled at the window shade.
"Not really. Marcus is about to become part of the family. He needs us as much as we need him." He reached up and brushed his fingers down my exposed shoulder and arm. "Are you sure you're comfortable doing this?"
"I love killing." I glanced over my shoulder and smirked at him. "You can stay in the hotel room while I take the bastard out, or you can come with me. Either way, just make sure that you don't interrupt me."
"Never." He licked at his lips and turned his attention away from me. "There's a bag in the lockers near the baggage claim here, or there should be."
"Good." I got up as the door opened to the plane. "I assume you're feeling better about bringing Marcus into the family?"
"Was I ever feeling badly about it?" He followed me down the short flight of stairs and moved up beside me as the wind picked up and blew my hair around wildly.
"It's me, D. I know more about you than you know about yourself." I got into the back of the black Cadillac that waited for us. The man who got in and moved to sit beside me looked like sex incarnate. So strong and full of dangerous power. He would be the next Don in my family regardless of the blood that flowed through his veins. That thought alone turned my insides into liquid heat.
"Tell me what's going on with Freddy." He reached over and gripped my hand tightly. A warning and a show of affection.
I pulled his fingers toward my mouth and kissed each knuckle slowly as I closed my eyes and breathed in his scent. The sound of his breathing getting off kilter was beautiful. Seductive.
"I don't trust you." I licked his index finger and pulled it deep into my mouth as he growled and moved over to press me against the seat, his thick body holding mine in place. Air escaped me, leaving my heart racing, my chest rising and falling rapidly.
He brushed his nose by mine and pressed his forehead against mine. "If we don't have each other... what the fuck do we have, Izzy?"
I reached up and ran my fingers down the sides of his face as I fought back the incredibly heavy emotions that bubbled up inside my stomach.
"Nothing," I whispered and turned my head just enough to force him to kiss me.
The kiss was hot and hungry,
so deep and demanding. I cupped his neck and gave myself over to him, hating him for making me more than willing to become anything for him.
His tongue rolled past mine, leaving the sweet taste of cinnamon and liquor in it's wake. I sucked on it softly and moaned deep in my chest as he shifted his hips forward and pressed this thickness of his erection against my center.
"Fuck me tonight," I whispered against his lips, wishing I were anywhere but there. I couldn't hold myself in check with him so close. I needed him too fucking badly. He was the only one that could burn away the pain. The fear. The loss.
He kissed me again roughly, tugging at my bottom lip with his teeth as he ground against me some more. He might have everyone else think he was a monster, a violent heartless bastard that would reign hell over everything, but I knew the real him.
The boy that brought me flowers and pushed me on the swing in my father's backyard. The guy that taught me how to swim above water and make me feel things that scared the shit out of me. He was ballsy and brave. He was fearless and passionate.
He moved a little and pressed his lips to the side of my neck and I wrapped my arms tightly around him. I couldn't let him go just yet. Not yet.
"Am I seriously dry humping you like I used to when we were fifteen?"
I smiled and fought back tears as I kissed the side of his neck and ran my hands down his strong back. "You were fifteen. I was thirteen, you dirty old man."
He breathed in deeply and pushed up, shifting and dropping back down in his seat. The outline of his erection had me wanted to reach for him, to stroke him and purr in his ear. He was only man capable of tearing down my facade. And he was damn good at it.
"I'll go up to the roof with you if that's what you want. I don't want anyone interrupting you." He licked his lips and closed his eyes. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that. I had a dream last night that we were married. It's fucking with me."
"Ahhh... interesting." I pulled out my phone and swallowed the hot ball of devastation in my throat. I was his whore, and a pathetic one at that. He would come calling soon and I would bend over backwards to please him. It was sick. I was sick.
