Twisted Love: A Bad Boy Romance

by Lily Knight

  It was so crazy, so evil and so selfish, that I was still having trouble coming to terms with it. A knock on the door brought me out of this trance of contemplation though. A quick glance at the clock on the wall showed that it was five past eight; I should have opened the doors five minutes ago!

  Oh no. There were customers outside, and my cook Manny wasn't here, and nobody had brewed the coffee yet! This day was just disaster after disaster. Well, all I could do was open the door and try do everything myself. I ran over to the door and unlocked it, putting on the biggest and most apologetic smile I could to the handful of people who were waiting outside.

  “Hi everyone, and welcome to Canfield Grille. I'm so sorry that we're opening a few minutes late today. There was an, uh, electrical fault in the kitchen and we're working on fixing it,” I lied, “but you can come in and have a seat if you'd like. We'll be up and running shortly.”

  As I opened the door for them, I noticed the big bag of garbage, into which Benito and I had put all the broken glass, sitting on the floor in the middle of the diner. It wouldn't make a great impression on the customers for them to see that sitting there, so I dashed over and grabbed it before they started walked in, and ran out to the back door to take it out to the alley.

  I opened the door and walked out to the trash cans – and then almost jumped out of my shoes with fright as I saw Manny between two trash cans. He had been tied up, and a rag had been stuffed into his mouth. His eyes were wide with fright, although when he saw me a look of relief passed over his face.

  I quickly knelt and took the rag out of his mouth and then cut off the cable ties that were around his ankles and wrists. After I pulled the rag out of his mouth he coughed for a long while, but after that he looked up, his dark eyes full of compassion and sadness, and smiled.

  “Thank you, Miss Verde,” he said in his deep, sonorous voice. “I'm very happy to see that them thugs didn't hurt you. The bastards ambushed me here, just jumped me and whacked me over the head, almost knocked me out cold they did! It was mighty sore, it was.”

  “I thought that you were skipping work today,” I replied. “I wish that that had been the case now, after seeing what those bastards did to you.”

  “Me, skip work?” he said, grinning broadly. “Miss Verde, when have you ever known me to do such a thing? Ol' Manny skippin' out on work? Never!”

  I hugged him.

  “I'm sorry that they did this to you Manny.”

  He squeezed me back. He was about the only family I had left now. Not official family obviously, but Manny had worked at our diner ever since I had been a little girl, and I had grown up with him watching over me like a kindly old uncle.

  “No Miss Verde, don't be sorry about no old man like me. Be sorry that them thugs laid they hands on you. I'm sorry 'bout that, real sorry. It's a terrible thing t' have happen t' ya. Them damn young thugs, why if I was a few years younger, I would have given 'em an ass-whoopin' t' remember, teach them young fools some damn manners and respect!”

  “I just wish I could have gotten to my dad's gun in time,” I said.

  “What did them thugs want anyway?” asked Manny. “Was they here to rob the joint? Funny thing, I think I seen 'em before, hanging around in the street, watchin' the diner. I didn't think nothin' of it before, just thought they was hangin' out on the street coz they ain't got nothin' better t' do. Now I know, they was casin' the joint t' rob us.”

  I shook my head.

  “No Manny, they weren't here to rob us. Well, not in the traditional sense of the word, at least.”

  Manny was, as I said, like family. I could be completely honest and open with him, and there was no point in trying to hide the real reason those CM guys had come in here earlier.

  “They wasn't?” he asked, looking confused. “But then, why was they here?”

  “They came to collect money owed to them – money owed to them by Sal.”

  Now his expression changed to one of anger and disgust.

  “That low-down, dirty two-bit hustler,” he growled. “I'm sorry Miss Verde, but that hustler sure did pull a number over your dear mammy, and now even in death he's screwin' ya family over. The extent a' that bastard's lies an' cheatin', I can't hardly believe it! What he owe them damn thugs money fo' anyway?”

  “I know Manny, I know. He's still stealing from us, from beyond the grave.”

  Manny, like me, was a good judge of people's characters, and like me he had taken an almost instant dislike to Sal, right from the outset. He had warned my mother about getting involved with him, but all of his warnings had, unfortunately, fallen on deaf ears.

  I sighed and shook my head before I continued.

  “These guys, they said they're from a gang called Coup Militants.”

  He nodded.

  “Ah yeah, I done heard a' them. Real nasty bunch, at least that's what the word on the street is about 'em.”

  “And Sal was apparently paying them 'protection money' every month. Since he's been gone for over a month now, they hadn't been paid. So, they showed up here and tied you up and roughed me up to demand the money.”

  “I heard the sounds a' things breakin' and people hollerin' inside, Miss Verde. What did they do in there? They didn't hurt you, I hope.”

  “I'm not really hurt. But they managed to smash up the place good with a baseball bat. Smashed a whole bunch of cups and some glass tables, and the glass of the donut display.”

  He shook his head, and there was both sadness and anger in his eyes.

  “Those low-life, scumbag bastards,” he muttered. “Bastards! How much bread did they want anyway?”

  “A thousand a month. That's what they told me.”

  “A thousand a month! Who do they think they is?!”

  “I know Manny, I know. But there's more. After they left, another guy came in – another guy who Sal owed money to.”

  Now, while I loved and trusted Manny, I wasn't about to go into the details of the crazy and twisted agreement Sal had made with the Sciotti family. I wasn't ready to talk to anyone about that particular bit of craziness just yet.

  “Oh Lord!” he groaned. “There's more, there's more!”

  I nodded.

  “There's more alright. This guy was a representative of the Sciotti family. You heard of them, Manny?”'

  He nodded.

  “Oh yeah, I heard a' 'em. Italian mobsters. They big in this town, have been for generations. Nobody messes wid' those guys. So, old Sal, he owed 'em bread, huh? How much, if you don't mind me askin'?”

  “A lot, Manny, a lot. Probably . . . probably more than this diner is worth.”

  Manny's jaw dropped with shock.

  “Miss Verde . . .” he managed to ask. “What . . . what are we gon' do?! What we gon' do?!”

  “Manny, there's no 'we' here. It's not your problem, it's mine, and I have to figure a way to sort it out.”

  He was resolute in his response though.

  “No, Miss Verde, I can't let you deal wid' something like that all on your lonesome. I done lived and breathed this diner fo' almost twenty-five years now. Anything I can do to help, I will. And you Miss Verde, you like my own daughter, if you don't mind me sayin' so. This ain't only your problem – it's our problem. We'll figure it out.”

  I appreciated Manny's sentiments, but really, there was nothing he could do to help. And after reading the contract, it had become clear to me that what Benito Sciotti really wanted was not money. No – it was me, and me alone, and nobody could help with a demand like that. This problem was solely mine, mine to bear and mine to solve, if there was even a solution.

  “Maybe . . . maybe I should sell the diner,” I said softly. “Maybe that's the only way out of this. Maybe it's time to just throw in the towel. I mean, today alone I've been dealt two powerful blows. I just don't see a way out of this.”

  Manny gripped me by the shoulders, and shot a fierce gaze into my eyes.

  “No Miss Verde. No. You can't do that. This diner is all in
this world that's left a' yo' mammy. And while that asshole Sal did his best to destroy it, it's still here. An' it's in yo' blood, Miss Verde. You gots t' keep the diner. You gots t'. We'll find a way to solve this.”

  I realized that he was right. This place was in my blood, this diner was everything to me, and it was all I really had left in this world. And I wasn't going to let either violent thugs or handsome mobsters take it away from me. I breathed in deeply, possessed now of a new sense of determination and strength.

  “You're right Manny,” I said. “You're absolutely right. I'm going to keep the diner, and I'm going to find a way to repair all the damage Sal has done, gangsters or no gangsters. I'll find a way . . . find a way.”

  CHAPTER 5

  Benito

  I walked out of the diner with a grin on my face, despite the fact that Bethany had just been screaming her lungs out at me. Alright, maybe her reaction had been a little more extreme than I had hoped it would be. Sure, I guess things could have gone a little better. In terms of everything I had been fantasizing about over the last couple of months, I guess a part of me had hoped that she would be totally smitten with me, and would fall into my arms, and see me as her savior, as someone who could rescue her from all the damage Sal had done.

  But I guess that was just fantasy, and I had always been a realist at heart. No, it had been stupid to think that she would be anything but upset and enraged – and dumbfounded with disbelief, of course – when confronted with the truth about what Sal had arranged with my family.

  And I could understand that. Had someone come up to me with the same sort of message, that my father (well, step-father, in her case) had sold me to them as collateral for money loaned to finance gambling debts, I'd be pretty damn pissed as well. Hell, I'd probably put a few bullets through their heads.

  So, had it gone how I had hoped it would – or rather, how I had fantasized it would? No, not at all. Had that surprised me? No, not really. Because while I had been fantasizing about Bethany for a long time now, and waiting for this day to come with eager anticipation, I had also known that it would be a difficult day. And the realist part of me, as much as I hadn't wanted to admit it, had known that things would go down exactly like this. I guess I just hadn't really wanted to accept that she would be so hostile about the whole thing, even though I had, deep down, realized that it was gonna end up like this.

  The reason I was smiling, though, was that fate seemed to have intervened – and it had most definitely intervened on my behalf. I hadn't known that Sal had been paying the CM guys protection money. Now, on one level I was pretty mad that I didn't know – my informant who had been watching this place should have picked it up. Still, my annoyance aside, this whole thing with the protection racket with the CM guys worked out in my favor, and it did so in two ways. Firstly, it narrowed down the options Bethany had. Now that she had pressure coming from them, she couldn't just as easily brush me off if they hadn't been on her case, demanding money from her.

  Secondly, it put me in the position of being able to help her. She was obviously scared of getting the cops involved in this thing, and for me, that was a good thing. I had the means to make her problem with the CM guys disappear – all she had to do was reach out to me, and those thugs would never even come within two miles of her diner again, let alone even look at her again. I could, and would make sure of that – but only if she agreed to our arrangement.

  Still, she was backed into a corner now. I knew how bad the diner's finances had gotten, with Sal's gambling and other vices reaching a peak in the last few months of his life, and I knew just how badly Bethany was doing financially. She couldn't afford to pay the CM guys, at least not by tomorrow or the next day. I figured they would have given her a pretty tight deadline. She was backed into a corner, and the only helping hand extended her way, the only hand that could pull her out was mine.

  And that was why I was smiling, despite the fact that the echoes of her enraged screams were still echoing in my ears.

  I got to my Mercedes and climbed in, and as I did my phone started to ring. I took it out and saw that it was my older brother.

  “Primo,” I said as I answered the call, “how are you doing?”

  “Oh, I'm just fine, Ben, I'm just fine. The real question is how are you doing? I assume you've told Bethany about our family's deal with Sal by now. How did all of that go?”

  I chuckled before I answered.

  “It uh, I guess it didn't really go as smoothly as I had hoped it would.”

  On the other end of the line Primo roared with laughter.

  “What did I tell you? What did I tell you Ben, huh? I told you, I told you that she wouldn't just jump into your arms and give you a damn kiss and a hug!”

  “Yeah yeah yeah Primo, I know, I know, you don't need to rub it in.”

  “So, what did she say then?”

  “She uh, she looked at the contract and ripped it up. And she told me to get my ass outta there and never come back.”

  “Yeah, that's pretty much how I envisioned it going. She's a real feisty one, that. Real feisty. But I guess that's all the more reason for you to like her, huh Ben?”

  I grinned and nodded, fully aware that he wasn't there and couldn't see me.

  “Damn right big bro. She's got fire in her blood, and you know how girls like that have always turned me on.”

  “Well you've always been the fiery one in our family, Ben. I'm not surprised that you're so attracted to her.”

  “Yeah, I'm not either. So, is there any other reason you're calling, Primo, or did you just want to find out how the thing with Bethany went?”

  “Well yeah, I wanted to find out about that, but I also wanted to tell you that there's gonna be a meeting with some of the boys at Controversy later. Around lunch time. Be there.”

  “Sure thing. Oh, and there's one more thing I gotta tell you about this Bethany situation.”

  “Yeah Ben, what's that?”

  “Some Coup Militant thugs were just at the diner before me. They smashed the place up pretty good and roughed Bethany up a bit too.”

  As I said that, a jolt of hot anger rippled through my veins. Again, the thought of those bastards laying their hands on Bethany made me angry, and I wanted to take a baseball bat to their heads. I probably would, at some stage – but not just yet.

  “Interesting. Did you find out what it was about?”

  “I'm ninety percent sure that they were trying to squeeze her for protection money. They've done it to plenty other businesses in this area. My guess is that Sal was paying 'em before, and now that he's been dead a month, they haven't had their pay – so they came to Bethany to demand some money, and busted the place up to show her that they weren't messing around.”

  “Sounds just like their usual way of doing things,” commented Primo. “It's probably exactly like that. They're probably doing exactly that.”

  “It works out well for us though,” I said. “Now that Bethany has pressure on her coming from them, she'll be more inclined to come to me.”

  “Yeah, and that's why it works out well for you, Ben, not for us. You made the deal because you wanted her. It's not like you're gonna share her with anyone. But anyway, that's your affair to deal with; I have plenty of my own on my plate. We'll talk more at Controversy later. See you there, little brother.”

  “Yeah Primo, I'll see you there.”

  I hung up the call and started up the car, still grinning. Things hadn't worked out quite how I had wanted them to – but they had actually worked out far better than they could have, had certain variables not come into play. Now all I had to do was wait, and then Bethany would come to me. Oh yes, she would come to me, she would – I just knew it.

  LATER THAT DAY

  I pulled into the Controversy parking lot, which only had a few cars parked in it at this time of day. The club had just opened, but like most strip clubs, things didn't really get going until well after dark, and things only really started getting busy la
te at night.

  Still, there were some guys who came in during the afternoon; guys who worked nights or weird shifts that meant that they were only getting off work at this time – and then they came here, to stuff their hard-earned cash into strippers' G-strings and drink away their worries and sorrows with some well-made drinks at the bar.

  I didn't like strip clubs much myself – I didn't see the point, personally. Looking without being allowed to touch? That was like having a glass of fine whiskey dangled in front of your face, so close that you could smell its rich aroma and almost be able to taste it – but then not being allowed to drink it.

  Still, I didn't own this place for the entertainment value, I owned it for the profit it brought in. There were plenty of saps all too eager to part with their hard-earned dough for a glance at some pretty young thing's tits and ass, and who were even more willing to drop their bread when said pretty young thing was grinding those tits and that ass all over them in a lap dance. My dancers gave the best lap dances in town, but they sure as hell didn't come cheap. And that worked out well for both the dancers, who earned a pretty good living here, and for myself and my business associates, who turned a good profit.

  I got out of my car and walked around to the back entrance, which lead to the backstage areas, change rooms and the office.

  I unlocked the door and walked in and was greeted by the janitor, an old Mexican guy called Sanchez.

  “Afternoon, boss,” he said, grinning at me with his gap-toothed mouth. “The other guys, they’re waiting for you upstairs.”

  “Thanks Sanchez,” I said with a smile. I always treated my employees with a friendly manner. They knew enough about who I was that they understood that I was a man not to be messed with, so I didn't need to exert my authority by behaving like a jerk. And besides, employees who were treated well were much more likely to be loyal and work hard. “And how are you, how's your grandson doing? His Little League team been winning their games recently?”

  He nodded, still beaming a smile at me.

  “Oh yeah Mr. Sciotti, Carlos is doing real well. That boy can pitch a baseball, I'm telling you, man! He's gonna be a pro one day, I just know it. Then we'll be watching him on TV, and I'll be the proudest granddad in the world!”