Page 85 of Dark Breaker

“What the fuck have you done?” Massimo asks in greeting.

I bite down the gloating response that comes to my tongue. Instead I feign innocence. “What are you talking about?”

“The police raided the docks today at four,” he veritably spits over the line. “Ours was the only container they searched. Someone tipped them off. ”

“It wasn’t me,” I lie.

“You own the docks…” Massimo insists. “Only you would have known what time our shipment was arriving.”

“Could be a random search,” I suggest.

“Random search my ass,” he says. “They knew exactly what container to search. Exactly what ship. Exactly what time.”

“As if I’d ever call the police on one of my own clients, let alone an ally,” I tell him. “It’s bad for business. You might want to have a talk with the Jackal. I wouldn’t be surprised if he has men casing my port. He’s obviously trying to drive a wedge between us to break up our alliance. You know he has a lot of cops in his pocket, don’t you?”

“If you’re lying to me…” Massimo’s voice trails off.

“I’m not.” I tell him, unable to hold back a smirk. I’m just glad he can’t see my face.

He remains quiet for so long that I start to wonder if he’s disconnected. Then: “If this is part of some stupid revenge plot because we wouldn’t help you raid the Tunisians, it’s not very well thought out. You don’t want us as enemies.”

“Of course I don’t,” I agree.

“Do we need to rethink our alliance?” he asks. “Should we stop sending ships?”

“No,” I tell him. “Your shipments are safe.”For now.

“Good,” he says.

“Is there anything else?” I ask. “Because I’m actually quite busy at the moment. I have to get back to fucking your sister, you see.”

I wait, and can almost feel his face growing red with rage over the line. Finally: “Watch yourself, D’Alimonte.”

“You too,” I say merrily.

I hang up. Well that felt extremely good.

I’m not really sure if the Amatos and Morettis will continue to ship cocaine through our port. If they do, they probably won’t send along any of their family members to personally oversee the shipments anymore, but that’s fine.

I don’t intend to stage any more police stings, as I do still need the Amatos and Morettis, if only to act as a deterrent against the Jackal—it seems my allies won’t help me with much else at the moment.

Yes, as much as I’d like to have all of them arrested, I can’t. I have to control my anger. One Moretti brother in prison is good enough for now.

I’ll take out the rest of my punishment on Rosa when I get home.

I hop in my car. The drive back is uneventful. I toss Giuseppe my keys when I arrive and take the elevator upstairs.

I walk inside and start removing my tie. I see Rosa eating in the kitchen. My stomach growls at the smell emanating from her plate. Looks like some kind of risotto.

She’s wearing an ordinary blouse tonight, paired with leather pants. My eyes linger on her beautiful face, with that long hair draping down on the one side. So innocent. So beautiful. I completely forget that I wanted to punish her.

She’s looking at me with an unreadable expression. When she doesn’t say hello, I feel suddenly extremely bad that I got her brother arrested just because I didn’t get my way with Massimo. In retrospect, it seems like a really childish thing to do.

Fuck. Sometimes I lose control and can’t think clearly, letting my anger take over. Just like I lose control with Rosa.

I don’t know why I’m like this. Maybe there’s something wrong with me. In fact, there probably is, given the life I lead. Normal people don’t do what I do.

I dismiss those thoughts and set my tie on the countertop. I open up the top two buttons of my dress shirt, then slough off my jacket and fold it onto one of the spare chairs.