“Ma, no,” I said firmly, hoping she would let it go, but I wasn’t so lucky.
“Anthony,” my mother snapped, yet again. “I have been cooking all morning, making you cannolis that you also love. Regina has been looking forward to this, she told her mother about it last night, her mother called me, and I had to listen to how excited she is. Now you want me to call Regina and disappoint her, who will then call her mother and tell her mother I disappointed her. Now, her mother is hosting the bridge game this month, and she holds a mean grudge, which means that when I go to the game, I will be placed at the table with Frances Miachi, you know I can’t stand that woman. Do you see what canceling is going to do? You can’t, you are not allowed.”
I ran my hand down my face again, seriously hoping I could actually transport myself out of my office and into the pub down the street with Fin and his brothers. They were already there, probably drinking and most certainly having more fun than I am.
I looked at the screens again, they were all hooked up to cameras that we placed at the largest facility we were providing security for, The Southside Haven. It was a nonprofit organization that dealt with helping underprivileged families and children. They do good work, and had been an obvious target for the gangs and other nasty assholes who prey on the underprivileged. It’s sad, but pimps recruited the young girls, telling them they would have a better life if they’d come and work for them. The gangs got their members by showing the young boys nice watches, cars, and money they made selling drugs and stealing.
The woman who runs the place was amazing, she and her board of directors have done a lot of good. Madeline, or Ms. Maddie as everyone refers to her, was my mother’s age, but acted like she was a teenager. She liked to ‘mix it up’ with the younger kids and, just last week, Fin and I had sat and watched as Ms. Maddie had gotten on one of the boys’ skateboards and gone down the new ramp they had installed. She’s hilarious, and had been around forever. I remembered when I met her, she had brought her kids into register them when they moved into the area, it was my and Fin’s seventh grade year. Ms. Maddie had lost her husband in an accident the previous year, everyone had talked about it when they found out, because her husband had been some bigwig in the stock market. But the woman had moved to the Bronx instead of Manhattan like someone with money would have. Ms. Maddie was never about the money. The woman had a heart of gold and had only ever wanted to help the community.
New kids were always like a shiny new toy to kids, and her son, Reese, had been a year behind, in Mike’s grade, the two had become fast friends and of course all of our parents had gotten along. Her daughter, Brooklyn, was in Mia’s grade, and she had been a shy little girl who we easily forgot was around since she was so quiet. Mia and her were tight, I frowned trying to remember something Mia had just said last week, something about Brooklyn coming into town soon. I smiled thinking about all the loud, boisterous dinners we’ve had together. Even now, we still made it a point to attend a Sunday dinner once a month at least.
Two years ago Ms. Maddie had shown up in the gym demanding to speak to me. She’d been upset because one of her boys had been arrested dealing, so she asked for my help. I had been unable to turn her down, hell, even the Pope wouldn’t have the ability to turn the woman down, she’s like a rabid little poodle. And that day was no different for me, no way would I have been able to say no.
Focusing on the screens, while half-listening to my mother rant, I noticed it was about time for the change of shift. At night, Southside Haven was still manned to run the homeless shelter that’s on the premises. The place was huge, it had four major buildings, and then three smaller ones. One’s a school, a daycare, and then a kitchen. The place was run smoothly by Ms. Maddie, and right now the older woman was walking to her car speaking to one of the guys I recognized as one of the Social Workers on staff. We installed the cameras because of the size of the place, and also because I had men who watched while others patrol, it’s too big for one person to secure. I had a team assigned, and they were due in any time to take over.
“Anthony, are you even listening to a word I’m saying,” my mother said with an exasperated tone, causing me to roll my eyes and grin while I still watched the screen. Then I froze just as quickly.
The breath literally left my body as I watched a low rider cutlass that looked to be on its last leg swing into the parking lot at a high rate of speed and turn horizontally quickly. Standing, I hung up the phone, already knowing what was going to happen even though I didn’t want to believe it. This could not be happening as an arm came out the passenger side window with a gun clasped in the hand. Then I watched the woman, the one who I’ve been thinking would probably never retire, along with the young man, who for the life of me I couldn’t even remember his name though I’d been introduced to him a million times, fall into a heap in the middle of the parking lot.
I hit the button, which calls the police and also, hit the controls that remotely locked down the facility so anyone inside wouldn’t be able to leave and become a target, then I grabbed my cell phone and keys and ran out the door. Holding the phone to my ear, I hit Fin’s number. As I reached the ground level where the gym was, Fin answered his phone.
“Hey,” Fin said loudly.
“Shots fired at the Haven, Ms. Maddie is down,” I said so quietly that I wasn’t sure he could have heard it.
“On our way,” Fin snapped in response as I ran for my car.
Fin
I laughed at my brothers as they began to argue about the football game they’d watched the day before. Anything and everything to argue about they did. Especially when all six of us were together at one time. Even though we lived in the same town, and worked together in the same building, we didn’t see each other every day. Our schedules weren’t always conducive to hanging out.
I run the gym, Mike runs Slinging Ink, and the rest of the brothers—Sean, Cal, Bry, and Falon—all worked as tattoo artists, and also filled in with Tony’s security firm when needed, and the gym as well.
Much to our parents’ initial surprise, all of the O’Malley children had gone to college, graduated, and promptly did whatever the fuck we wanted. We did what our parents wanted and went to college. However, then we followed our hearts. I went into boxing, which led to the MMA. Made my way up, and retired while on the top.
“That was such a fucked up call, man. Your boy has some big ass feet, stepped right over the fucking line,” Falon said to Cal who sat there shaking his head. I wanted to roll my eyes, because Falon always did this shit, he liked to stir up trouble and then sit back and watch the others fight it out.
“No fuckin’ way. His foot was fucking in,” Cal said and I couldn’t help but grin.
The last three years had been good. So good in fact that we were able to purchase our own homes, even help our parents out, well that was after our father argued with us. Mia, our little sister, was doing good as well, but she wasn’t nearly as happy about us being home as our parents were.
Apparently having six large, and incredibly protective older brothers was a pain in the ass according to Mia. I didn’t see her point, but then of course, the man who asked my sister out and then proceeded to attempt to feel her up in front of the family may disagree as well, but my point got made when one of his fingers were broken by accident.
“Alright, alright,” Mike said and looked to us. “Let’s get down to it.”
I couldn’t help but laugh, Mike was the geek of the family although you really wouldn’t know it if you looked at him, but he was. I was proud of him, so was the rest of the family. Mike graduated top of his class in Chemistry, then became a tattoo artist. Most people would ask what the fuck? We didn’t. You have to know Mike. He was all about doing what made him happy, and he liked ink, he also liked chemistry, put that all together, and you got someone who could do something fucking amazing.
When we had taken over the building where Mic’s gym was, we had all talked, especially when Tony had joined us. His
security company, the ink shop, and my gym, all in one building, all working together to make our hometown safe again. Because when we’d left to pursue our own lives and dreams, we’d lost touch with people. When we came back, finding out the state of affairs in our hometown pissed us the fuck off. My parents shouldn’t have to worry about walking to the corner store to get milk at five in the evening because the leeches had crawled out of the woodwork. Not in this lifetime.
Mike’s been working on a special ink on the side. We had teased him of course, it was mostly because he did this shit for fun, but this ink had a good use. After working for a few years to make sure it was safe to be used on people, Mike had finally been able to explain to us how it worked and how he envisioned it to be used.
The ink, which we call Bronx Silver and had patented, could be used in a tat gun and my brothers could use this special ink with any other color imaginable and the special ink would remain undetectable to the human eye. No one would know they had it, and no one could tell it was there. The only one who would see it was us, and we needed the special wand Cal created to detect the material in the ink. But the best part was the wand, which attaches to a computer program Falon had written. It made the tat trackable within a certain area, and if a crime got committed, well, we find out who was in the area, then just make an anonymous call to the police and give them a small push in the right direction. After initiating the use of the ink, suddenly the streets began to clean up a little. It had been a slow process, but one we were committed to.
Here’s how it worked. Everyone in the Bronx knows the O’Malley brothers, and Tony Roark, we were and are the pride and joy of the area, why? Because we worked hard to make a better life for ourselves, and we succeeded. When I returned to live here, the very first night a shootout took place on my parents’ street. The people of the community actually looked to me to do something about it, and I did.
I’d quietly looked into the situation and discovered there was a lot of shit going on in my hometown I didn’t like. One was the gangs, and the other was that, apparently, underground fighting had become popular. Being in the MMA I knew this happened a lot, I also knew you could make some fast money doing it, and a lot of kids were lured into a fight with the promise of a big payoff. Living in the Bronx, yeah, there was a fucking line to sign up for that shit. We hadn’t been able to break into that crowd yet, because whoever was running it, was making sure we never caught up to them.
Right then and there I called Tony, and we’d come up with a plan, when my brothers arrived we told them and V was born. V was what we called our little undercover program. Mike had already been working on the special ink then so together we had put it to good use.
Tony and his men have done a lot of the groundwork to find the major players in the neighborhood. The gangs all have their own little tat to identify who they belonged to. Since Slinging Ink was famous, thanks to Kink, when Mike opened the doors, people flocked in. Hell, even now, there’s a waiting list to get into a chair. That played to our advantage, because when people made an appointment, we do a little research. If they belong to a gang, then Mike makes sure Bronx Silver gets mixed with the customer’s chosen ink.
The community sometimes let us know if there’s a new player in town, and then we make sure we add them to the list. Right now, there’s twelve gangs we track, and every time we take one off the street, three more show up. It’s whacked but it is also part of living in the Bronx, and if we could make the law-abiding people feel a little bit safe, we’re going to do it.
We also use the ink to help with our security workers, it comes in handy on a large assignment since Tony’s able to track his people and know exactly where they are. The ink has made him successful as well, so all in all, in the last three years we have boomed. The meeting tonight was called because of that boom, we needed help. After three years, and with so much going on, it’s hard to handle everything. We’d have to ask Kink if he knew of anyone who would like to join us. Guess we could have other worries instead of too much business, right?
My phone rang and I looked down to see Tony up on the screen, I frowned ‘cause he should have been here by now.
“Hey,” I said, ready to tease him about being late. I figured his mother had called him, because mine had called me already. She had told me that Regina was supposedly going over to dinner tonight at Tony’s parents’ house. Then she tried to get me to run over to her neighbor’s house and get something out of the attic for the older woman. Something about her granddaughter being in town and she was helping her go through the woman’s things since she was going to be moving into a nursing home soon. Apparently the girl was very nice and pretty. I heard all about her and thankfully was able to tell my mother I was busy, but then I promptly sent Bry over to help. Could be why my brother was currently glaring at me and had been since he arrived.
“Shots fired at the Haven. Ms. Maddie is down.” Tony voice barely came through the phone. But I made out the words and froze in my tracks because the words would never have been on a list for things I would expect to come out of my best friend’s mouth. Ms. Maddie was an icon, hell, she’s as close to a Saint in the Bronx as anyone could get.
There’s nothing anyone in the community wouldn’t do for the woman and I know this would be no different.
“On our way,” I snapped back into the phone and reached for my keys at the same time as I stood. I repeated what Tony said to me while the rest moved in to back me up. I was through the door before I finished relaying the conversation. We all felt the same way about Ms. Maddie; someone would pay for this.
Chapter Two
Brooklyn
Ugh, I hate freakin’ traffic. The only good thing about it is…well nothing. But coming from the city into the Bronx on a Friday, traffic was a part of life. Could be why I didn’t come here except on Saturday or Sunday, traffic was a little less hectic then.
The office was to blame for me not getting out on time. I had been ready for the last hour, on the way out the door, and then it happened, one of my clients called wanting to talk about his books because he swore there was an error. Being an accountant was not glamourous, but then of course, I wasn’t either, it suited me.
Monday, I kept telling him, come in Monday, and we would go over them, then I told him not to worry that I might be young but I knew accounting. Always loved numbers growing up, they made sense to me. Numbers don’t lie, no matter how you try to manipulate them. I have a great job, an awesome job, at one of the most prestigious accounting firms in the city. Hard to believe it’s been three years since I moved out of my mother’s home.
Looking around at all the cars made me wonder how many of these people made this trip daily. Evidently tons by the idling cars that waited for God knows what happened ahead to bring this mess to a standstill. And what the hell was the man in the car beside me smiling at and, did he just wink? Seriously, hmm, I looked next to me out the passenger side window ‘cause he had to be looking at the blonde sitting next to me in her sports car. Okay maybe not, considering she was plucking her eyebrows in the rearview mirror and snapping her gum. Girl must have a date, it was Friday, the standard date night. Well, for most people anyway, not like I would know. I haven’t been on a date for…crap when was the last time?
Oh yeah, two months ago when Franklin asked me out. One date was all it took. I didn’t know why he asked me in the first place, not like I got asked out a lot as it was. But we went to the movies and didn’t even stay for the whole thing. I noticed he kept fidgeting in his seat like he had to go to the bathroom. Then halfway through the movie, he reached his arm around my shoulders just as I brought my drink up for a sip and when I had the cup at chest level, his hand grabbed for it, hitting the cup, which spilled the drink down the front of my sweater. What a klutz, all he had to do was ask for a drink if his was empty, but no, he had to try to be covert about it and all he ended up doing was smacking me in my breast. Wow, he was good looking and everything too. Maybe he would grow out
of his awkwardness, then again, I haven’t grown out of mine. Oh well.
Looking back over to my left, mister hot stuff was now waving as though he wanted me to roll my window down. Freak. Single woman in a car, alone. Stranger danger, dumbass. Or it could be he had never seen anyone dancing in their car to the radio. Got to have something to pass the time away in the car. Besides, I would be an epic car dancer, I mean if you put me on an actual floor I would look like a spaz, but behind the wheel, oh yeah, I was the bomb.
Woot, woot, the cars started moving. And as I looked at the clock in my Prius, I realized I was now ten minutes late. Awesome. My mother was going to lecture me again, I hated being late about as much as she hated being kept waiting.
Moving now, and almost there, I turned on my blinker getting ready to make the turn on the street I needed and a cop car swung around me with the sirens blaring. What the hell was going on around here?
Finally, I made the turn onto the street and realized where the police car was headed. The same place as me. Out in front of where my mother work’s was the fire department, two ambulances, and the police car that blew by just a second ago.
Geez, I hoped my mom was still inside since I was running late. As I slowed and moved past the emergency vehicles I saw a crowd of men standing around looking down to the sidewalk, that’s when I noticed her.
Oh my God, my mother was laying on the sidewalk and she wasn’t moving, men were working on her but all I saw was the blood, so much of it. I slammed the car to a stop and threw the door open at the same time as I screamed “NO!” At least I think I was the one to scream.
Fin
“What the hell happened, Tony,” I asked while running up to him on the sidewalk in front of Southside Haven.
Vengeance: MMA/Ink Romance (KO Ink Book 1) Page 2
