I made a big mistake by getting involved with Aria Lovrić, one that could have spilled a lot of Marcone blood if it blew back on me.
I escaped by the skin of my teeth.
I may not be so lucky next time around.
Which is why there won’t be a next time around.
The stress knot at the base of my skull tightens. It’s taken up residence there ever since the day Aria left my villa.
And me.
Blood rushes between my ears as the fury bubbles just below the surface. It’s never very far from erupting out of me anytime those memories flare up like herpes.
I trusted her. I exposed myself. I let her in.
And she fucked me. Literally and figuratively.
The weight of what I did, what it could mean to my family…it keeps me awake at night. Every night, actually. I toss and turn and plan.
Then I wake up with nothing but hope that my actions won’t come back to bite me in the ass. But hope ain’t a match for bullets or blades. It’s not fucking Kevlar.
Sil, Aria, Mirko.
There’s a lot of vengeance hanging in the air, and someone’s gonna be back to exact it.
I look at my brothers again.
The threat looms large, and they have no idea.
I lost the control they count on me keeping.
And that dark, dirty secret, like all the rage, perpetually ravages me.
“Hey, Vince,” Tommy says, snapping his fingers. “You with us, or what?”
I scrub a hand down the front of my face, pushing the toxic thoughts to the deep recesses of my mind.
Unraveling isn’t an option. Ever.
I’ve seen firsthand how the sweetest pussy can threaten my empire and my life, and I’m not gambling anymore.
Ironic, since we’re all gathered here today to talk about our expansion into the gaming industry.
Las Vegas. America’s playground and the future home of our new luxury resort, the Excelsior.
“Yeah, I’m here.” I twirl a pen between my fingers, eyeing the contracts. “Funding is handled. We have the permits and ground breaks in about a month.” I look at Tommy. “It’s your show, buddy.”
He grins. “Our show, brother. Do you realize how much pussy you’re gonna have access to as part owner of the hottest new hotel on the Vegas strip?”
“Don’t let Alek hear you say that,” Cristian quips. “We’re gonna be direct competitors of his family’s hotel, the Montepremi.”
“A little competition is good for the soul,” I mutter, staring out the window of my office on the outskirts of Palermo and away from the craziness of the city.
Because I’ve got plenty of my own personal crazy within these walls.
“So who’s gonna be running the day to day?” Cristian asks. “Someone has to be on point to make sure we’re making all the right friends, yeah?” He winks at me.
“Tommy will be heading out there soon to oversee the restaurant plans. Ant and Diego will take turns backing him up on the rest of the hotel construction.” I let out a deep sigh and sit back in my chair. “And Paolo’s got skin in the game, too. He’s offered up his sons Dante and Sergio. They’ll be handling security.”
“What about the hot chick who helped with the cartel hit? She gonna be hanging around, too?” Tommy waggles his eyebrows at me and my spine immediately stiffens.
“No,” I say in a clipped tone.
He lifts an eyebrow, leaning toward me. “You gonna finally tell us what the hell the story is with you two? Deny it all you want, Vince, but there’s some serious tension there, tension that needs to be worked out. Like maybe with whips and handcuffs and lube.”
I clutch the pen, nearly snapping it in half. “There’s nothing to tell,” I hiss.
“Uh-huh.” Tommy grins at me. “I’ll let you stick with your story. For now.”
“It’s not a story!”
“Easy,” Tommy holds up a hand. “You’re getting pretty defensive for someone who claims he’s got nothing to tell, bro.”
“Don’t fucking question me, Tommy,” I say, my voice choked.
“Then don’t treat me like an idiot, Vince,” he replies, his eyes narrowed.
“Hey, let’s get back to why we’re here, okay? And it’s none of your goddamn business whether or not he tapped that, Tommy. Focus on your wedding planning.” Ant goes for another serving of dessert, and Diego pulls out his gun.
“Don’t even think about it. Drop the spoon now,” he grunts before giving Tommy a wink. “This shit is incredible.”
“It’s the smack I added to the recipe,” he says, his face deadpan. “Instant addiction.”
“Okay, if you guys can take a second to breathe, let’s talk logistics,” I say, rubbing the back of my neck. “The plan is to open in twelve months. We have a lot to manage in that amount of time.” I give a stiff nod toward Tommy. “Did you pick the chefs you want for the restaurant?”
Tommy nods, his gaze still hard. “Already hired.”
He’s pissed off, and I can’t blame him. It’s taken us awhile to rebuild trust after everything went down with Juan Salazar and the cartel because of moves he made on his own without my consent. He’s never gonna let this thing with Aria go. I showed him too much of my hand already and he’ll be back to dig for more. He’s a persistent little fuck when he wants to be.
“Already?” I make a note on one of the pages in front of me, ignoring the ever-present gnawing feeling in my gut that things are most definitely not over — not between me and Tommy, and not between me and the huge ass elephant in the room, namely Nikola Lovrić.
His lips pull into a tight smile. “I work fast. I’ve got Michelin stars. Who wouldn’t want to work with me?”
“The chefs who don’t already know how much of an egotistical prick you are,” Diego quips.
“Easy or next time I’m gonna serve you up a nice fat fist to the face, D,” Tommy jokingly snarls. “That or my next kill. With a side of au jus, of course.”
Diego clutches his throat and pretends to fall out of his chair.
I look around the table at my brothers laughing, flinging insults at each other left and right with lightning speed. They’re loud, obnoxious, and hot-headed as fuck.
But there isn’t anything they wouldn’t do for each other.
Or me.
They may not think before they act.
They may not be able to resist temptation.
They may not see the big picture…ever.
But they love deep and they value that love above all else.
The family, the life, the code.
We have to respect it and honor it in order to survive.
I know all of that, but I still lost sight of it.
And now my survival…our survival…is questionable.
That’s the part that eats at me day and night. For years, I strategized about the future, I made plans, I established partnerships and created businesses, all to ensure that the Marcone family has a thriving future.
I put all of that on the line when I got involved with Aria Lovrić.
And it’s still hanging in the balance.
My cell phone buzzes on the table next to me and I grab it, silencing a groan. “Paolo, give me a second.” I mute the phone and look at my brothers.
Well, all except Tommy.
“Cristian, have a safe trip back. D, Ant — let’s set something up for later this week to talk more about the build and the contracts, yeah?”
They nod at me and keep eating what’s left on the dessert tray.
My eyes tangle with Tommy’s for a brief second and I give him a nod. “I’ll catch up with you later,” I say, not waiting for a response before heading into my private conference room. I slam the door shut and collapse into a chair. “What’s up, Paolo? Everything all set with Dante and Sergio?”
“I need your help, Vince,” he says, his voice grave. “We have a problem.”
I sit straight up, the vein in my neck throbbing. “If it’s a
bout the hotel, then yes, it’s our problem. But there isn’t anything else that bleeds from your life into mine anymore, Paolo. We settled up, remember? One hand washes the other? We’re even now.”
“Funny you mention blood,” he says with a dry laugh.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
He sighs. “It’s Aria. I’ve had a tail on her for the past week, just watching her. She’s in bad shape, Vince. Has been ever since that night Mirko killed her mother and then showed up at your place looking for her.”
“Get her some therapy.” I drum my fingertips on the table.
“I’m afraid she’s getting her own. But it’s not the kind where you pay a chunk of change to tell your problems to a shrink with a bunch of degrees. It’s more of the bloody and destructive kind, and payment is a dead body.”
I furrow my brow. “So she’s gone on some kind of killing spree?”
“Not just any random killing spree. It’s a little more targeted.” He pauses. “This morning, the guy I had tracking her turned up dead on the back doorstep of my restaurant. There was a picture pinned to his jacket of Aria leaving a hidden exit of a club in the city. There was a date and time written on the back of it.”
“Fuck,” I breathe. “Did the guy tell you where she was?”
“Yeah, I got a location before he was popped. Did some investigating since the club owner is one of my associates. There was a guy found in one of the rooms, slaughtered. Cops found a girl, too. She’d been drugged and raped, but she was alive.”
“Security footage?”
“Still being reviewed.”
“And you think Aria did it?”
“I know she did. I found a blood-stained dress stuffed into a bag in the pool house this morning when I went to look for her.”
“Did she give you anything?”
“No, she was gone. But that’s not the worst part.”
“I bet the slaughtered guy would disagree,” I mutter.
“The club owner said the guy who was killed was Croatian. When the cops ran his prints, they found him linked to sex trafficking crimes from here to Ibiza. Do you understand what that means? He’s an affiliate of Nikola Lovrić, Vince. Nikola is here in Sicily. He’s coming back for Aria.”
I stuff a fist into my mouth to keep myself from slamming it into a wall. Jesus Christ. It didn’t take long for shit to go completely sideways on me. “No, Paolo, he’s coming for all of us.”
“I need you to get to her, Vince. If any of my guys or I show up in her shadow, we’re finished. He’ll be waiting for us. But you can fly under the radar. He won’t be expecting you.”
“I’m sorry, Paolo. I can’t get involved. I’ve already put my family in enough danger because of the debt I paid you.”
“The debt isn’t paid off yet, Vince,” Paolo grunts. “And if you want to keep your family safe, you’d better realize that this is your war, too.”
“Fuck that!” I yell. “It’s my war because you dragged me into it!”
“Just like you dragged me into the bloodbath at Tommy’s restaurant?” he shouts back. “I hate to break it to you, but this is how shit works when you’re in business together. There’s no separation, Vince. All for fucking one!”
Beads of sweat pop up along the back of my neck and my pulse throbs hard in my throat. “This war doesn’t touch my family,” I seethe.
“The only way to prevent that is to win the goddamn war!” Paolo thunders. “And if Nikola really is watching, if he finds Aria before we do, then trust me, we lose. This vendetta won’t stop with her. Now tell me, are you ready to fight?”
But before I can even say the words, the door to the conference room slams wide open and Tommy glowers at me from the doorway.
“War, huh?” he growls, his jaw twitching as he inches toward me. “I think it’s about time you share the battle plan, Vince. And if you try to fuck with me, you’re gonna find out just how many creative uses there can be for that dildo I left at your place!”
Chapter Twenty
Aria
I glance down at my ringing cell phone and see Paolo’s name flash across the screen. I stuff it back into my pocket and turn my attention toward the girls in front of me who are beading bracelets with the kits I brought with me this afternoon to St. Elizabeth’s Home for Girls. My heart aches as I watch them talk and laugh as they choose from the brightly colored beads, creating their own unique designs, leaving every unpleasant thought about their troubled, orphaned lives outside of these walls.
Little kids can be so resilient.
It’s when they get older that the festering emotions become a problem…one that needs to be handled with blood.
Well, at least that’s the case for me.
One of the girls, Cassia, jumps up from her spot on the well-worn rug and runs over to me. “Aria, look! It has all of my favorite colors in it!”
I take it and let out an exaggerated gasp. “Cassia, this is just beautiful! And the blue matches your eyes.” I smile at the little blonde girl before giving her a big hug. When she hugs me back, tight around the neck, tears spring to my eyes. On the outside, I’m smiling, but on the inside, I’m weeping for the kind of lives these little children will have if nobody recognizes what gifts they are?
I smooth back Cassia’s hair and force a quivering grin.
What kind of life will this little girl have if she isn’t adopted? And how likely is it that she will be taken in by a good family who will love her and protect her and give her everything she deserves?
I know what happens. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.
So many times, these girls age out of the system feeling desperate, rejected, and alone. They search for meaning in all the wrong places and become prey to people like my father and my uncle…men who want nothing more than to make a quick buck off of their low self-esteem.
Tiny hairs on the back of my neck prickle.
Me being here won’t fix all of the wrongs that my family committed.
Hell, it won’t prevent the same horrors from invading the lives of these girls, either.
But I can at least show them that they aren’t alone, that there are people out there who care about them, who want to spend time with them and make them laugh.
I can’t fix the past, but I can try to mend the future.
Theirs and mine.
My ring tone blares out again and I grit my teeth and shut off the volume.
“Aria, who keeps calling you?” Elena, one of the other girls, asks. “Is it your boyfriend?”
All the girls giggle and hoot, and I join in because she doesn’t realize how far from the truth her question is.
Boyfriend.
That’s a joke.
I don’t think too many guys are chomping at the bit for a girlfriend who’s a completely unhinged vigilante seeking death for her childhood nemesis.
A tiny shiver runs through me.
I had a chance to feel normal, but I ruined it.
I could have chosen happiness.
I could have chosen love.
Instead, I chose vengeance.
And months later, I’m still trying to pick up the pieces.
Alone.
I ruined my chance at happiness. I let my agenda get in the way of a future with a man who still has an incredible hold on me, after all of this time.
Of course, I’m sure he still hates me, too, even though I returned his Bugatti.
I’d hoped to see him when I dropped off the keys, to try and explain what was going on in my head…and my heart.
To see if there was a chance…a third chance…for us.
Stupid me.
All I got was a cold look from his assistant when I handed over the keys.
No words. Just harsh judgment.
I deserved it. But I’ve lain awake every night since I left him at the villa, tossing, turning, and wondering what would have happened between us if I’d have been honest from the start, if I’d shared my plans with him, if I hadn’t
toyed with his emotions and tempted him with sex to do my bidding.
Because for all of my plotting, there was one thing I didn’t plan on.
Falling in love with him.
But, like everything else in my life, any shred of happiness I have a shot at clinging to is prone to shatter.
“No, it’s my cousin,” I say. “He’s probably calling to find out what I want for dinner.”
“Dinner,” Cassia says. “Yum. I’m hungry.”
Elena rubs her stomach. “Me too. I wish we could have pizza. We always have the same things.”
I lean my head on my hand. “So what would you eat if you could?”
“I’d have loads of macaroni with marinara sauce and cakes and cheese and meatballs!” Cassia says, her eyes bright. “I’d eat until I was ready to pop!”
“Yeah, anything is better than macco soup and couscous,” Elena says.
I scrunch up my nose. I have to agree.
I help the girls string a few more bracelets before it’s time for me to go.
I have places to be.
And people to kill.
I give each of the girls a hug, and their excitement charges me. I can’t save them all, I realize that. But if I can just give them a sliver of happiness, something to look forward to, anything that can bring smiles to their faces, then I’m doing something right and good.
To try to make up for all of the evil.
For now, that’s all I have.
I hate leaving the girls. I wish I could adopt them all.
But I have to fix myself before I can help anyone else.
I stop by Alice, the administrator’s, office on my way out and pop my head in. She looks up with a troubled expression on her face and waves me inside.
“Can you close the door?” Alice asks.
I pull it shut and step toward her desk. “Is something wrong?”
She presses a hand to her temple. “Did you see the news?”
“No, why? Did something happen?” I chew the inside of my mouth, wondering where this is headed.
Alice lets out a deep sigh and turns her computer screen toward me. It’s an image of the aftermath at the club.
My aftermath.
I nibble my thumbnail and feign a surprised expression. “Oh my God, what happened?”
Fallen: A Dark Italian Mafia Romance (Men of Mayhem Book 4) Page 17
