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“They’re dead. The whole family,” I snarled, curling the tips of my fingers into the glossy black and white photos of me and Blue. I had her pressed up against Johnny’s SUV the night I slummed a high school party knowing she’d be there. The night she tried in vain to fool me. But I tasted the sugar in her kiss. Knew the powder was fake. I understood why she did it. My fierce girl on the verge of being all woman was scared of me. Of us. Of how we combust every time we touch. She’s seen the darkness in me and isn’t afraid of it. I see it in her too. The two of us together is a force neither understands.
I don’t care to analyze it. Twist it around and around in my head or overthink it. All I know is Blue is in me. Digging in deep and burrowing somewhere I thought couldn’t exist: a heart. Fucking flowers and all that shit. Poetry. The words that weave around my head when I think of her and how she makes me feel is sheer poetry. Dark as much as light.
“You wanna handle this personally?” My cousin, Vito’s eyes were cold as death as he looked down into the club below.
Johnny set us up in a soundproof room with a floor made of glass. From our vantage point we could peruse the scene below all the while sitting on black velvet couches with cognac and cigars. To anyone looking up, we were just five guys enjoying a Saturday night.
I nodded to Vito then scooped up the pictures, dumping them on the middle of the table I poured my liquor and flicked my lighter.
Blue and I went up in flames.
I smirked as Johnny freaks out. “You cocksucker! The damn alarms are gonna go off and what I don’t need is my club crawling with fire and police!”
“You mean your Daddy’s club?” Rafe mocked.
Johnny jumped on the table. His heavy black shoes tried to stomp the flames, but her and I…we burn. It’s what we did.
“You knew better.” Geno’s eyes were accusatory.
I shrugged. “I did. But I won’t give her up.”
Vito scowled then starts cursing at me in Italian. “We’ve worked so hard building the foundation to our dynasty and you want to go to war over a high school girl? Geno and I… we did the dirty work. And you take all the credit.”
“Are you challenging me?” My chest puffed out. My eyes glittered like hot coals. My cousins better back the fuck up. I made them. Cared for their families. Made sure everyone they left behind were clothed and fed. Some of their sisters are even doctors today because my blood money paid their way.
“The Castellione’s are a problem. They know you live. Know the Salvatore king has a throne in America.”
“So? Let them come.”
“They already did.”
“The pictures?”
“No, Roque. We had a visitor… a messenger…Vince Castellione.”
“That puppet shit? The one with the big ears and buck teeth?” I remembered Vince from the time I lived with Constantine. Vince was such a fucking lapdog. I remembered thinking he’d never make a good Don. The kid was dumb as a box of rocks.
“He wants a meeting. He handed me the pictures…Roque…they know we did the hit on Constantine.”
“Of course, they do,” I smirked, “we lived. Ran off with his estate’s money and have a foothold in Chicago. But the Castellione’s are still over there. They can’t touch us here.”
“It’s not just them. All the old families are pissed. We broke the rules.”
“Fuck the rules. I make them now.”
“With what army? You still have two more years at Princeton. The Castellione’s want to broker a deal. You need to meet with Vince…”
“Don’t lecture me on what I need to do Vito,” I sneered, feeling the walls closing in. I wasn’t ready for this. For my old life to fuck up and invade my new one. Not yet anyway. Especially now when things with Blue…ah fuck… that girl we have places we need to go together, and this shit is complicating things.
“I don’t see a point.”
“There’s a hit out on you and the girl.”
“Pussies,” I muttered, downing my drink and slamming the empty lowball glass down on the charred photos still smoking.
“Don’t take it lightly. I can spare a few men from here but the five families from Italy? If I fuck with them for you… the wrath of the families here will be on my head. Use your head, Roque. The big one. If the old school mob starts a beef here in the states, everyone will want a say. Even the Lamatti’s.”