Page 2 of Fixate (Devious Mafia Daddies #2)

Ricardo

When I was brought into the Cosa Nostra, I figured they’d train me up to be a bruiser of some kind. I was pretty scrappy for my age, and I had enough anger to fuel me in those times I wasn’t strong enough.

Domenico had other plans though.

He wanted to mold me into his perfect image of a soldier. I trained day and night to be whatever he wanted. Not because I respected the man or anything. It was simply an understanding we had.

He kept me alive, fed, and off the streets.

I did everything he wanted without question.

Besides, growing up in such an environment wasn’t all that bad. Domenico’s son Dante was around from time to time, though he and I weren’t all that close. I knew him well enough, had even hung out a few times when Domenico had business we couldn’t be in on.

We were nothing like best friends or anything. Not like he was with Lloyd, the man some knew as Preacher, Dante’s partner in all things. Those two were inseparable. I’d noticed it the minute I first saw them together.

As time moved on, I also noticed their closeness was more than friendship or brotherhood. It was in the subtle touches; in the way Lloyd couldn’t keep his eyes off Dante anytime he was around. I saw it when Dante always managed to find Lloyd in a room full of his father’s men.

So honestly, it was no surprise when Mr. Romano called me in and declared the two needed separating. “We can’t let this go on. I know what those boys are up to now. It’s time to put a stop to it.”

For my part, I was assigned the task of ushering Dante away.

We’d be going overseas for a bit to give him a chance to learn from the old families.

Then, once he’d had some time to cool off, we’d be allowed to travel more, though never back home.

He couldn’t be allowed anywhere he might run into Lloyd.

Those were Domenico’s demands.

Along with a fucking mile-long list of other shit.

It seemed the farther I got from my boss, the tighter his leash on me became. Over the years, I began to despise him. He spoke to me as if I were still the fourteen-year-old boy he’d spared.

I’d long since grown up. I’d earned my dues. Put in my time.

There was no need for his treatment. I had no claim to power, nor did I want it.

Those in power were always in danger of being taken out. I knew this as well as I knew my own name. Being at the head of the table was a temporary position in this business.

“Ricardo,” Domenico’s voice echoed over the line.

His call meant he had important news. Most of our conversations were via text and the very rare video conference.

“Mr. Romano.” I didn’t need to ask the reason for his call or anything. He’d get straight to the point. There was no fluff in Domenico’s world. Only hard edges, death, and ultimate power.

“I’m calling you first to ensure you coordinate the transition. Dante is coming home. It’s time for those in this city to see his power, to remember I have an heir to continue my work long after I’m gone.”

I nearly snorted at the notion. Dante was nothing like his father. Not in all the ways that mattered.

They might resemble one another; however, their personalities were on opposing sides of the coin. Dante was loyal, fierce, and a champion of the little man. Domenico was brash and violent, striking when he felt the need or simply to humor himself.

There would be no ‘continuing his work’ from Dante. If anything, I suspected the younger Romano would burn the whole fucking thing to the ground if given the chance.

Rather than talk back, I asked him, “When do we leave?”

“Tonight. You’ll pack what you can. The rest can be replaced. I don’t want to give him a chance to run.”

“You think he’ll run?” I was curious where his mind was at. If anything, bringing Dante home was a blessing in the young Romano’s eyes.

He thought I didn’t know about his obsession with getting back to the city. I wasn’t so foolish as to have forgotten how upset he was when we first left.

Preacher was more than his best friend. I knew it before we were forced out, and it was confirmed with each day that passed. At night, Dante would cry himself to sleep. Then he’d spend hours crying out for a man he’d never be able to have again.

Or at least, that’s how it seemed.

Going home meant Dante would have hope of reconnecting with the other half of his soul. I didn’t doubt Domenico had some kind of failsafe in place to stop them, but I had no clue as to what it was. I didn’t have clearance for such things since I was merely a babysitter.

Fucking asshole.

“I’ll take care of it, sir,” I said. “Anything else to know?”

“No. I expect you to handle this well, Ricardo. If you do, then you’ll find yourself with more options than you could dream up.”

I wanted to laugh at his lies.

There was zero chance of him giving me anything to do other than watch over Dante.

At first, it had seemed like a protection gig. Being with the heir to the Cosa Nostra day in and day out, ensuring he didn’t have anyone tracking him. I thought maybe I was finally being thought of for a serious role.

Except the longer time went by, the more I realized I wasn’t protecting Dante from anyone. He could take care of himself. He was a trained killer after all.

When he turned himself into The Monster and began taking out bad guys, I accepted the reality of my role as his babysitter.

But I also told myself I’d be his friend.

Dante wasn’t the reckless child his father tried to make him out to be. He was smart, cunning, and more than capable of leading the men his father had trained over the years. Befriending him felt natural.

So, I sat by and kept my nose out of things. Dante had loads of freedom while we were overseas. It was only when we came back to the city that his father’s chains tightened on him.

We both knew Domenico was watching us. Maybe not every minute of every day. Still, he had enough people to ensure we weren’t doing anything to topple his empire.

Six months after returning home, everything went to hell. And ironically enough, it wasn’t because of Domenico.

Correction: It wasn’t directly because of him.

He’d set the train in motion years prior, without a clue how it would pan out. That’s the thing about believing you have absolute power; you tend to lose the paranoia you need to make sure no one is going to fuck with your stuff.

And fuck with his stuff is exactly what someone did.

One morning after another restless night of vigilante bullshit, I went to shower while Dante reviewed some footage on the computer. It was a normal pattern for us. Nothing should have been amiss.

Except when I got out of the shower, he was gone. My friend, the man I’d spent every day with for years, had disappeared into thin air.

Thus began the longest fucking day of my life to that point. I waited for some sign he was alive and attempted to keep my cool.

Dante wouldn’t leave without a word. And since there wasn’t any sign of forced entry, I had to believe he was merely out on a stroll or some other bullshit excuse I could conjure up.

When the message finally came from an encrypted number, I felt a swell of relief. Then I immediately felt irrationally angry.

How dare he be vague? Didn’t he understand I needed details to make whatever I told his father work?

Sure, I’d lie for Dante. I’d done it plenty of times.

But being back in the city completely changed the rules. I couldn’t ensure we’d both escape Domenico’s wrath if he kept me in the dark.

Using a few contacts I’d made outside of the Cosa Nostra, I checked around the city for information on anyone who might be able to create encrypted video formats.

It took several hours before anyone reached out to me, likely due to time differences and the fact that they wanted to vet my intentions.

One should never blindly trust anything on the internet.

A hacker friend of mine, known by the handle MindUrBzzness, said there were only a few people they knew who could send a file with those specs. They sent over the three names, then we wiped the server to avoid anyone else stumbling on the information.

While Dante worked on his persona as The Monster all those years, I put my head to ground to find something useful to do with my time. I got certified in a number of computer programs, while also busting my ass to keep up with anything I could find in the not-so-public parts of the internet.

As I made my way down the list of names, I wondered who the culprit might be. Which then led to me wondering what in the world they wanted Dante for.

Did they know he was the heir to the Cosa Nostra? Or was this something lucky?

Either way, I’d find him and bring him home. There was no way I’d let anything happen to my friend since he was the key to fixing everything.

With Domenico in power, I’d never be free. At least, not in the sense I wanted to be. I didn’t mind being part of the mafia life. It was good work, with damn good pay. People respected me, either because of fear or because they knew my character. I wasn’t picky as to which.

But I didn’t like the current boss’s need to treat me like a pet. I was, in his mind, an errand boy who watched over his precious heir.

An heir he had no intention of handing things over to anytime soon. I didn’t care what he said about bringing Dante home. He was no more ready to step down than he had been years ago.

The first two names on the list proved to be dead ends. One, literally, since they’d been shot in a mugging two days ago.

On the third, my gut told me I might have found the answers I was looking for.

Memphis Braxton

NightShade Security

Not only was he local, but he worked for a massive security firm I’d heard stood a little left of the right side of the law. If that intel was right, then he’d likely be the person who sent the video of Dante.

I mapped out the location of the NightShade offices, then called for a car. If I got lucky enough, I’d be able to get information on where Dante was. If I didn’t, then I’d have to fight my way out of a (likely) heavily secured building.

No biggie.

Mostly.

It was mostly no big deal.

So long as bullets didn’t go flying, I’d be fine. Hand to hand was a specialty of mine thanks to all the frustrations Dante had when we first left — before I got into the computer stuff, and he became a pseudo-Batman.

I met the car two streets over from the house since I wasn’t sure who was and wasn’t watching the place. It took climbing a few fences to get there, but if it gave me some lead time, it would be worth it.

The driver took me to the NightShade offices deeper into the city. I stared up at the massive skyscraper with a sense of dread.

I didn’t know what had changed in the last twenty-four hours, only that I knew in my bones things were different. Maybe I should have listened when Dante said he felt like someone was watching him.

Clearly they had been.

And said person got the jump on us both enough to sneak in and steal my charge without making a sound. What a great fucking protector I was.

Inside the building, a burly guard stopped me before I could get to the elevator. “Everyone gets a badge,” he demanded.

Nodding, I followed his pointing finger to the reception desk.

Or was it a security desk? I couldn’t tell since they’d made the place look like every other business office I’d ever been in.

You wouldn’t know one of the largest security firms in the world operated out of this HGTV office edition of a building.

“Good morning, sir. Are you here for an appointment?” an older gentleman asked as I approached.

I shook my head. “I’m here to meet with Memphis Braxton and his boss. They sent me a message earlier today that I needed to follow up on in person.”

“I see,” the man said slowly. “Let me just call to confirm. Please wait here.”

Ignoring his whispers into the phone on his desk, I turned to examine the room. It was bustling with people moving around from place to place. I noticed it was large enough to have what looked like a deli on the first floor, which seemed to be where most people went.

The glass walls gave a natural glow to the space. It was welcoming, despite being very heavily guarded in subtle ways.

I easily spotted where the obvious cameras were as I waited. The harder task was locating the ones hidden from plain view. Those were what told the true story of the business. They’d be focused on whatever the company thought was a true threat.

Before I could think on it any longer, the man behind me spoke up. “Sir?”

I turned. “Yes.”

“Tank said he’d see you now.”

“Tank?” I questioned.

He squinted, confusion filling his features. “Tank is Memphis’s boss.”

“Ah, yes. I’d love to see him.”

Tank… Memphis… it didn’t matter who met with me. Someone was going to give me answers. I wasn’t leaving until I knew more about Dante and this disappearing act.