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She grins sarcastically, probably believes I’m bluffing. “I have no idea what you’re talking abou—”
I grab her chin with one hand, scrunching her cheeks just hard enough to scare her. “Don’t play cute with me.”
She slaps at my arm, and I let go. “Cut it out with the fucking manhandling!” she shouts, eyes daggers. “Or I’ll go right back up to my fucking tower and rot.”
Wants to rot huh? Maybe she should spend some time bunking up with my prisoners in the basement, see just how much she likes truly rotting.
But I do want this next job to work out smoothly.
“Listen. The arrangement is as follows. I don’t endanger any Rigianos in the process. In exchange, you tell me all there is to know about the Barone card game and identify who I ask you to. Do we have a deal, Ellie?” I lean in so close our foreheads are almost touching.
She twists her lips. “Fine.”
“Good. Get in.”
Chapter 9
Ellie
My little rouse backfired. Teasing Donny was meant to keep myself alive, not join his damn family. It’s like no matter where I turn, I’m tethered to the life of organized crime with no light at the end of the tunnel. Cozy in the back of Donny’s beat-up black taxi, I try to ignore his fierce grey eyes looking back at me from the rearview mirror.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want him. But I want to be free more.
Thoughts of how he protected me against his horrible hitman and rapist father send slivers of comfort squirming around my belly. It’s true, I feel safe around him, even if he did try to discipline me like a dog. Paid him back at least, and I’m still breathing, so that says something.
The locks only work from the driver’s seat, and the windows are tinted almost black. Donny is detail oriented, I’m recalling. He’s careful and capable. Guess that’s how he survived so long in the sewers of the underworld.
My dad always said the Valentinos were barely a family. More of a den of snakes who would eat each other if the opportunity presented itself. No honor. No dignity.
While that is certainly true for Don Gio, his son… I’m not so sure.
The passionate kiss last night sweeps over my thoughts, and I bite my bottom lip to stop myself from indulging too far in the fantasy. I haven’t felt electricity like that in, well, maybe ever. It certainly doesn’t help that I haven’t touched a man in over a year. Put me in front of a topnotch dark stallion after that period of time and what do you expect?
I sigh as we cross into the Bronx. Observing people traveling back and forth on the streets makes me jealous. A part of me wants to break the window and scream for help, but the other part tells me I’d be a dead woman. Paul – the dirty cop – would sniff me out in a second. Surely he wouldn’t trust me to stay silent after his little stint.
Then there’s my brother, Marty Loophole Rigiano. He’s been ensuing chaos according to Paul, and defaming the family name to no end. He fights dirty – luring rivals into public places for a meeting and having them shot in cold blood. No one can trust him. Would he even protect me anymore if he found me?
As much as I loathe my father for ensuring my fate, I miss his order and rule. I felt safer then.
The old days… when me and Marty were kids.
He was kind, then. He’d share his toys when we were toddlers and protected me in school when boys were being mean to me. It wasn’t until he was a teenager that things changed. Dad took him on his first few rides, and before I knew it, he was talking in slang with slicked back hair. Like the devil fed him a morsel of his food, and he was never able to get out the taste.
Donny pulls up to a residential street of one-family houses. He puts the car in park but keeps it on.
My eyes follow his out the window.
“I got a tip that Tuesday games are played here. Rumor has it two Barone capos take turns running it through a mediator. Any idea who it might be?”
No one comes to mind. My father had the Barone boys over all the time. I was even friends with their little sister – Bianca. “I have no idea, Donny. It’s true I know the Barones. I can name them all for you. I know what they look like. But I don’t know about their inner dealings.”
He grunts in frustration and shuts the car off. “Then we’re not leaving until you see someone you recognize. I know the Shadow was big on invites. He’d welcome whole crews for dinner so he knew who he was conducting business with. That means you’d know the mediator if you saw him.”
“Okay… yes… my father did tend to do that. But he’s in jail now. Who’s to say the mediator isn’t a new blood?” I ask.
“You think they’d entrust an age-old game filled with kingpins to a new blood? Don’t be ridiculous.” He eyes the block carefully and points to the two houses beside the one he’s targeting. “See anything strange there?”
At first, nothing comes to mind. But when I notice a car pull out of the driveway down the block, I realize it. “Those houses have no cars in their driveways. No decorations in the windows. They look empty, like model homes.”
