Page 49

I stepped away. Eagerness filled his beady, greedy eyes. He needed me. He has the numbers, but I have the brains and capability to make this operation. Maybe I’ll do it. Marry the bitch then ditch her. Out her in a pit with her brother….
“If you hurt my sister…”
“You’ll what? Kill me?” I almost rolled my eyes but catch myself.
“No. I’ll kill the girl. Your girl.”
“She’s nothing to me. A quick fuck. That’s all?”
“No… don’t think it’s just that. I saw the pictures. You broke the cardinal rule, Salvatore. Or maybe Constantine didn’t teach you well enough. I bet she’s tight as fuck with that little, bitty body of hers… I have her and the Fiorelli girl. The two girls who are both your weaknesses.”
I spun on my heels. My fist connected with his pug nose. Bones crunched Blood splattered then gushed from his nose. His men went berserk. But Johnny had my back.
“Stand down,” he ordered. “You’re in New York. None of you will leave my jurisdiction alive.”
Vince held a bloody rag to his nose. “Twenty-four hours Salvatore. Then the deals off and the hit on you and her is on. My family won’t intervene. My father meant to keep his word to yours, but it will be out of his hands. Marriage to Julietta is the only way out.”
I said nothing, as I walked out with Johnny guarding my back. In the back of the armed SUV we sat in heavy silence. Through the window, the city streets blur as fast as my thoughts.
“What are you going to do?”
My cell cuts the answer forming in my mind. “Geno?”
“They’re here. Trying to infiltrate Chicago. Trying to get people to snitch.”
“Cut anyone’s tongue out who does.”
“They took my sister Carmela. Grabbed her straight from her dorm room in Boston.”
It’s war.
I’ve been a fool for thinking I could pretend to be someone else. A normal college guy having a romance. Going to keggers and playing foolish teenage games.
I forgot who I was for a minute.
“We’ll get her back.”
“Unharmed? If those fucks touch her…”
“I know. We are blood, cousin. We haven’t survived. Killed. Planned to lose.”
I end the call and turn to Johnny. “I need your Boston connections.”
He whistled low. “The favors you owe me are stacking up and your crew is still too light to offer me anything in return.”
“Someday I’ll be the fucking king and you know it. I’ll probably save your ass a thousand times over. You can thank me now.”
He shook his head but made the call. The Castellione’s are fucked. They just didn’t know it yet.
My cell pinged with a text. It was a picture of Carmela. Bound. Gagged, with wide eyes pleading for help. Her bra was soaked with sweat and her hair was wild.
My sister wants an answer.
I typed back…Vegas. Two weeks. Send me a picture of my bride.
He sent a picture of a pig. Covered in mud.
“Maybe he’s serious? He’ll put a veil on one and walk it down on a leash just to humiliate you?”