Page 14 of Vows of a Mobster

“No, I’m healthy as a horse,” he replied quickly. “I’m helping out a girlfriend.”

“Good for you,” Antonio replied, smiling smugly. “We all deserve girlfriends but make sure you wrap it up so you can avoid doctor’s visits.”

Giovanni rolled his eyes. “She is a girl that is a good friend. Nothing else.”

It was clear by Antonio’s expression he didn’t believe him. I had to admit, Giovanni piqued my curiosity. But I trusted him that it had nothing to do with the family. We were all entitled to private life, as long as it didn’t impact the famiglia and the business. Unfortunately, he had to learn that the brutal way. His eye was still scarred from that fucking event, a constant reminder when I looked at him.

“This evening is fine, Giovanni,” I told him. I stood up and grabbed my suit jacket off my chair and pulled it on, covering up my gun holster. “I’ll send you the address.”

Antonio followed along. Once in the elevator, I turned to my right-hand man.

“Any more troubles from the Irish?”

Damn Declan and his group were poaching into our territories. They had something coming if they thought I’d ever allow them to gain an inch of it. I knew they wanted the docks, but as long as I lived, they wouldn’t get it. If they play nice, I might allow them to transport their smuggled goods for a fee.

“No, nothing after we caught the one idiot,” Antonio replied. “Idiot kid, got himself killed by jumping into the bay. His parents were initially calling for revenge and Declan was fully onboard. You know how he is. I showed them the footage so they could see the fool jumping into the water. Why he would jump into water if he couldn’t swim, I will never understand.”

“Foolish kid,” I spat back. I hated seeing lives wasted. The kid was barely twenty. For some stupid reason, he thought by waving a gun at the docks, he was going to take over the territory.

The elevator dinged, signaling the ground floor, the door opening into the garage. We both exited the lift and headed straight for the vehicle when a red Jeep Sahara swung by us, music blasting from its speakers.

Antonio straightened, alarmed, reaching for his gun.

“It’s okay, Antonio,” I calmed him down, both of us watching after the red Jeep with a young woman in it and kept our eyes on it.

When the vehicle came to the screeching halt, its brakes protesting at the sudden insult, both of us watched intently. It stopped roughly thirty feet from us. The music continued blasting about crazy love, words crude but definitely what the younger generation preferred listening to. Seconds ticked by without movement from the driver. I pulled out my gun and Antonio followed the movement, both of us watching the vehicle for any threat.

The Jeep was topless and it would be a stupid way to attack but we’ve seen plenty of stupid moves lately. A young woman exited the vehicle, leaving the driver door wide open. The music continued playing, echoing through the garage, the lyrics sounded vaguely familiar.

She wore a black sleeveless business dress that accented her small figure, combined with bright pink flip flops on her feet. Her dark hair was pulled up into a high ponytail, she looked like a kid barely out of college. I wished her face wasn’t hidden behind her sunglasses.

She never even glanced our way, went straight to the back of her Jeep. Her small frame on tiptoes as she kept reaching for something, leaning over. If she wasn’t careful, she’d tilt over right onto her head.

Damn, she had a nice butt. Her round bottom traced against her dress as she bent over, giving me a perfect picture. This felt rather close to being a voyeur but she could still be a threat, although I didn’t think so. She was too unaware of her surroundings.

“What the hell is she digging for?” Antonio muttered under his breath. And just at that moment she straightened up with a pink baseball hat in her hand, which coincidentally matched her flip flops. I shook my head, tucking my gun back into the holster.Fucking baseball hat.

“Put the gun away,” I told Antonio, as I watched the young girl pull her ponytail through the loop in her baseball hat and get back into her seat. Completely unaware she’d had two men with fingers on the gun trigger watching her for the past two minutes, she put her car into drive and took off.

“Kids,” he muttered.

As soon as the garage returned to its silent state, I remembered the song. It was “Crazy In Love”from the movie50 Shades of Greythat all women were crazy about a few years back. It was a miracle that I knew that, but it was impossible to avoid it. Every mistress I had thought they were so original to make me watch it with them.

I glanced back in the direction the Jeep disappeared. That driver was definitely too young to have watched that movie a few years ago.

Six

Brianna

This wait was killing me. Daphne, Marissa, and all her brothers went to get their blood drawn so it could be tested for a bone marrow match. I felt hopeful. If they didn’t work out, we’d keep searching. If I had to search each corner of this forsaken Earth, we’d find the one that could be the perfect match for my daughter’s bone marrow transplant. I didn’t need my mother. It would be the last time I had ever called her.

After calling her for the first time in over five years and asking for a favor that could potentially save her granddaughter, she cut me off and told me she wanted nothing to do with us. She gave me less than a minute of her time. My mother was dead to me. This was something I could never forgive her for.

Emma and I would come out of this stronger. We’d have our entire lives ahead of us, happy lives with people that mattered and would give their life for Emma.

Since I started working at Agosti Enterprise, I settled into a routine and it was welcomed. I continued teaching ballet class at the local children’s dance school. I loved dancing. Emma loved ballet as much as I did. I was careful to let her pick when and what she wanted to dance. But she always picked ballet. Dancing with my daughter, moving across the dance floor, both of our movements aligned felt so relaxing despite the physical exhaustion.

If my mother hadn’t pushed me so hard to put all my energy into dancing, I was fairly certain I wouldn’t have given it up. But I thought I knew it all back then. I didn’t think any of my actions would have serious consequences.