Page 3 of Fixate (Devious Mafia Daddies #2)

Ricardo

After being given a visitor’s badge and strict instructions, I took the elevator up to the floor for NightShade Security. A quiet young man met me as soon as I exited. He led me down a series of hallways until I entered a space filled with unfamiliar faces.

“He’s all yours, guys,” my guide said as he backed out of the room.

Once the door closed behind him, I took in everyone’s scowling faces. They each had unique features that would make them easy to remember after this meeting.

There was the obvious brute. He was huge and frowned deeper than the rest. Another was a pretty boy type, his frown looking more like a smirk.

The next was of Asian descent, and his bored expression told me he wasn’t happy about my interruption of whatever he’d been doing.

Two more guys were hulking giants as well, though with their closeness, I also suspected they were either close friends or lovers. None of my business.

It was the last two men who gave me pause.

The first was big and bulky, his stature that of a commander type. I’d guess he was Tank.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the other man was lean and tall, with glasses that looked two seconds away from falling off his face.

“You must be Memphis.” I said as I nodded his way.

“Ricardo,” he replied smoothly.

I tilted my head. “See, it’s funny that you knew who I was, but I don’t know you. Care to explain? Oh, and maybe you could tell me where the hell my friend is.”

“Your friend?” The man I suspect to be Tank directs the question my way.

Nodding, I leaned forward, my hands moving to the back of the chair before me. “Yeah, my friend. He up and disappeared while I was in the shower. I have to find him and bring him back before…”

I trailed off, unsure how to explain this to them. While I knew they weren’t exactly the good guys, they weren’t also fully ingrained in our world either.

“Before Domenico loses his shit and demands to see his son for some stupid reason? Yeah, we get it. Too bad for him we had a favor to pay back, and Tank here never lets a favor hang loose,” Memphis boasted.

“He’s right. This was about a favor. Several of them actually. All I can tell you is that he’s safe right now. If that changes, I’ll be the first to tell you.”

I shook my head. “That’s not good enough. If you know about Domenico, which it seems you do, then you know he’s watching the house. Without Dante around, he’ll get suspicious. It’s only a matter of time before he tries to call.”

“Which is why you’re going to tell him that Dante is sick,” one of the other men in the room announces. It’s the big brute I eyed up earlier.

“Sick? You expect him to believe this?”

The man stepped forward. “He has to. For your sake and for Dante’s. We don’t have a timeline on this. As much as we’d love to give you one, it’s out of our hands.”

“I’m supposed to go back and act like nothing is amiss while I wait for a call from you?”

“That’s right,” Memphis replied. “It shouldn’t take long for a plan to form on their end.”

“Their? Who is he with? Why are you all being cryptic?”

“Because it’s not our story to tell,” the model looking guy teased.

“And there’s no point trying to break it down just yet,” Tank added. “What if we promise to call you within twenty-four hours? Will this appease your sense of injustice?”

The group laughed at the taunt. I ignored them as I ran the numbers through my mind. Surely, nothing would come up before then.

“Fine. You get one full day. If his father reaches out, I’ll try to buy some time. But I can’t do much more if I want to stay alive.”

One of the loved up looking guys snorted. “Oh, please. Like we’re going to let you die. That’s not how this plays out.”

I raised a brow at him.

Well then. Seemed I was several steps behind whatever plan they had. Guess I just needed to follow along until I got new marching orders.

Unsure of what to do while waiting, I went back to the house the same way I came. Secured inside, I focused on something that might be productive. For Dante’s plan, that meant listening through the recordings from his father’s office.

As I’d hoped, me bugging the room had proven to Dante that I was loyal to him and him alone. Sure, the Cosa Nostra was still family, but his father was a ruthless dictator I couldn’t wait to see be dethroned.

What I’d yet to tell Dante in the rush of things was how many more men felt the same way. I wasn’t an anomaly by any means.

Those who wanted Domenico out of the way would stand by Dante’s side in a heartbeat. Everyone knew how different the two men were, hence why the elder Romano sent his only son away.

Even as a child, Dante could gather supporters better than his father. He’d have been dethroned ages ago had my friend not fallen in love.

The memory of his heartbreak rocked me to my core.

I never wanted to love someone that way. And so far, I hadn’t.

Women were a dime a dozen. I could smile at them, show off some tattoos, and they’d be putty in my hands. Sometimes, all I had to do was raise one eyebrow, and they’d be sucking me off in some dark corner within a few minutes.

But love — yeah, I didn’t do that shit.

Dante had though. And he’d suffered greatly for it.

I pushed away those thoughts to focus on what I was listening to. Domenico talked a lot of crap for a man who was barely holding it together. Through the hours of tape, I heard him on multiple calls, none of which seemed to go smoothly.

There were even several times when he spoke aloud to himself. He sounded off during those times. During one nasty spell he yelled at himself, then turned around and answered by yelling back. It was strange.

Night came, and I pushed away the audio clips to give myself a break. There wasn’t anything I’d find tonight to give me the answers I wanted. Besides, it wasn’t like Dante’s father kidnapped him. That would be too far, even for Domenico.

The next morning, I went on a short run as was my routine. I stopped for coffee, making sure to grab two despite knowing one would go to waste without Dante there.

Back at the house, I cleaned up, got dressed, and then dove back into the recordings. I was a couple hours in with some decent notes when my phone rang.

Dropping the headset I was using, I answered the blocked call immediately.

“Hello?”

“Ricardo. It’s me. I have an update for you.”

I recognized Memphis’s voice.

“Yes?” I pressed.

“There is a temporary delay. A package is needed in Pharrellville. It may be another day or two before I get it to you.”

What? Pharrellville? I’ve never heard of…

Oh, wait.

I understood what he wasn’t saying. Dante must have reached out to Pharrell for help with something. Pharrell was an old associate we’d visited with a couple of times over the years. He was the type of person one wouldn’t forget so easily.

“Thanks for the update. Is there a follow up time I can expect?”

He paused, then said, “Not at this time. I’ll contact you when we know more.”

The line disconnected before I could say anything else. I placed my phone on the table, then leaned back in my chair as I thought over what this could mean.

Pharrell was a powerful player on the West Coast. His main enterprises were in Las Vegas, but his name reached all the way to California.

A big part of that had to do with his wife, Stasia. She was a powerhouse of a woman, who made the perfect mafia wife after having grown up the princess of the Russian Bratva. Her uncle ran the whole thing while her dad was an officer.

Together, the couple had managed to gain hold of more than their fair share of business since their union. The one time I’d met Stasia, she rubbed me the wrong way.

It was strange considering she might have been my type had she not glued herself to Pharrell’s side all night. That along with the glares she sent my way definitely gave me the ‘not interested’ signal.

Dante contacting Pharrell had to mean he was interested in making a move against his father. An alliance of that caliber could be enough to take down Domenico. Especially if I reached out to the men who weren’t still loyal and told them to lay low during an attack.

Yeah. That’s exactly what I’d do.

With some kind of plan in mind, I went back to watching the footage I’d collected. It didn’t take me long to find damning evidence that sent chills down my spine.

“There you are, my love,” a sultry voice said.

Domenico grunted. “Yeah, baby. It’s me. Get over here and show me how much you missed this fat dick…”

My jaw dropped as I listened to the pair fuck in his office. It wasn’t disgust I felt, though I definitely didn’t feel desire either.

It was relief.

Because the minute Domenico called out the woman’s name, I knew shit had just gotten real. When you run into the same people over and over again, you tend to remember names. This was even more true when discussing crime families.

Domenico’s guttural cry of, “Akari” told me exactly who he had spread on his desk: The wife of the head of the Yakuza.

What the hell was he doing fucking around with another mafia leader’s wife? That was more than asking for trouble. He’d be murdered in cold blood if the Yakuza ever found out.

I needed to monitor the situation or else the blowback could interfere with Dante’s plans to take down his father. It wasn’t so much as to who got to kill Domenico. More that we — we being Dante and myself — needed to be there to ensure the transfer of power was apparent to everyone.

If Yamamoto, the head of the Yakuza, came in and decimated the Cosa Nostra, others would believe he was making a play to take our territory and connections. They would see the affair as a side issue instead of the main problem.

But if Dante were there, he could show he’s aligned himself with the Yakuza to allow them to get their revenge instead.

A plan began to form as I kept listening to the recording. While I hated hearing that bastard getting his dick wet, we needed any information he could give me.

Most people didn’t realize how much they gave away in the throes of passion. Passwords, meetup times, names and identities — it all came out when an orgasm was crashing forward.

Domenico proved to fall in line with my assumptions. The second he groaned and came; he was telling her all about his plans to take down the Yakuza and the Russians. He told her that he’d bring her along for the journey, make her his woman and they’d lead together.

She agreed, offering him softly whispered promises of giving him heirs. I heard her mention taking birth control secretly with Yamamoto since she never truly wanted to marry him.

What a fucking disaster.

These two were clearly meant to be each other. Garbage attracts garbage, or however the saying went.

I kept myself tuned in while I turned my focus to other channels. Finding out what all the Yakuza already knew was important to the timeline. And while I wanted to know more about Dante and his trip to Vegas to see Pharrell Lyon, I knew it would have to wait.

The truth would all come out eventually.