Page 11 of Dark Breaker
“Go away,” I tell her. “Do you have to haunt me even in my dreams?”
“I’ll haunt you wherever I damn-well please.” Horns grow from her head, and her face turns red. She points at me with a clawed hand.
“Come here, honey,” she says sweetly. “Let me give you a blowjob.” She grins, revealing razor sharp teeth.
I awaken steeped in sweat and shudder.
I’m not looking forward to marrying her. Not at all. It’s going to be one big long fight. I already have enough to deal with in my day-to-day, and now her. I hope I can make it through this with my dignity, and cock, intact. Assuming I actually go through with the wedding.
The next day, when father’s scheduled call comes through, I pick up and the first thing I say is: “No.”
“Excuse me?” Papa asks.
“I’m not marrying her,” I tell him.
“It’s too late,” my father replies. “The deal is done. The Amatos and Morettis are already making plans. We’re also opening up the docks to the Amatos immediately. In return, they’ll be sending some people out to shore up support among the sponsors. Our man will win yet.”
Palermo mayoral elections were coming up and we had our own mayoral candidate in mind, as did many other mafia families. Father had brought up our candidate at the meeting last night, and Giovanni had agreed to support our man in exchange for access to the northwest port of the city, which we owned. With our help, Giovanni would no longer have to pay huge fees to transport cocaine into the city, saving him million of Euros a year.
I thought that would be good enough for the two of them, but then they insisted they’d need something else to tie our families together. A pact that would not only seal the deal, but alleviate the mutual offenses the sister of Giovanni’s son-in-law and I had inflicted upon one other.
That something else was our little marriage.
It was like my father and Giovanni were trying to teach Rosa and I some sort of lesson by forcing us to marry. What that lesson is, I can’t say. Maybe my father just relishes in punishing me.
I shake my head. “I won’t work with the Amatos or the Morettis.”
“You will,” father tells me. “And if you don’t, I’ll hand over the reins of my business to your younger brother.”
I grit my teeth at that. After all I’ve done to increase the bottom line of our business, he actually threatens something like this? I’m almost tempted to tell him to do it, but I know he would, the bottom line be damned. That would mean starting over again from scratch for me. It would take me years to get back to where I am now, years I’m not willing to waste. I could try to launder some money out via crypto, but eventually I’d be caught, and my father wouldn’t be very happy…
Still, even if pa tried to hand the reins over to my brother, it’s possible Nicolo wouldn’t even accept it. My brother is loyal to me to a fault. I wouldn’t want to put him in that position, though, forced to choose between me and father. It’d be a terrible choice for my poor brother, and a burden for him to live with.
So what if I have to marry someone? I’ll have to get married some day anyway. Might as well be with her—at least she’s not bad looking. I can still have mistresses on the side. An army of them. Like I already have. I don’t really see my life changing that much, not at all. It’s a small price to pay, I suppose, for continued power.
I complained that my father rules my life, but he doesn’t, not really. He is in prison at the end of the day, and while he might like to think he has a tight vise over me, he doesn’t. Yes, my father still calls the shots for most of the bigger business related decisions, but I’m in charge of everything else. He’ll completely transfer the reins to me soon enough, once he realizes how smoothly everything is operating, and then I can work on doubling and tripling our profits. I have some amazing ideas, and I can’t wait to set them in motion.
As for my current situation… it might be fun to cause some havoc among the families of my newfound allies. A few whispered words here, a police sting there, and the Amatos and Morettis will be caught redheaded smuggling cocaine into our docks. I can see the headlines now: “Police make drug bust of the century.” Who knows, with luck father will disavow our marriage and give me his approval for a swift and speedy divorce.
I grin maliciously and reply: “You win, Father.”
He hesitates. “I win? Just like that?”
“Just like that,” I agree.
“Good.” I can almost sense his confusion and suspicion emanating from the line, but he doesn’t press the matter. Let him think I’m afraid he’ll hand over the reins to Nicolo.
We talk a bit longer, covering matters related to the business. We speak in code for this part, since itisan open line. The cops aren’t supposed to be listening in—we’ve bribed them—but even so you can never trust a dirty cop.
When it’s done I disconnect and stand. I rub my eyes and gaze at the streets of downtown Palermo arrayed in haphazard lines beneath my penthouse suite. I watch the people scurrying back and forth in their rush to get to work. The small cars lined up traffic. I’m glad I’m not one of them, a slave to the clock.
I stretch, feeling strangely refreshed.
Yes, marriage isn’t going to be so bad.
* * *
I’m drivingout to visit one of my foremen. Construction and land development form a good portion of the legal side to our business. We buy up properties along the outskirts of Palermo and then advertise the condos online before they’re built. People pay us between five hundred thousand to a million Euros per unit, and after we’ve collected all the money, we build the condominiums.