“One taxi toElectrix,please.”
5
ROCCO
“Claudio Lazzaro is in the private party room on the second floor,” Teo confirms over the phone.
It hadn’t taken Teo long to find him. In fact, I half suspected he might have been waiting for me to crack down on this asshole for a while.
“Any company with him?”
“You don’t want to know.”
I don’t miss the way Martino grimaces as he pulls us up to the security gate of the staff parking lot. “Are you sure you want to do this?” he mutters.
With a long, drawn-out sigh, I glance up at the monstrosity that is Brooklyn’sElectrix.
“Not really,” I answer honestly.
TheElectrixwas one of the only successful things to come out of my father’s reign as the Guild’s don. But only because its vast halls quickly became a playground for some of Brooklyn’s most notorious criminals.
He had no qualms about harboring some of the most vile cretins this city has ever endured. In fact, Giuliano Moretti catered to them specifically. Three floors drenched in the worst kind of sin, all dressed up as the most elite party location this side of the bridge.
If I had my way, I would have burned it down the second my father retired. But there are some parts of his legacy that even I can’t touch.
“I can always get some of the boys in to smoke him out,” Martino offers. “You don’t need to concern yourself with personally upholding our bylaws.”
“You know how much I love to make a statement.” We step out of the car at the same time. “And Lazzaro is just begging to be made an example of.”
“Still, this kind of thing is a little below your pay grade.”
If Martino wanted to be pedantic, he might also mention that our by-laws only concern the spouses of Guild members, not angelic little girlfriends. But neither he nor Teo have tried to point that out since I explained what I saw at theCandelabra.
“Well, shit,” Teo’s voice suddenly sounds out on speakerphone.
“Problem?”
“Lazzaro is on the list.”
Martino curses loudly at my side. “I’m gonna bury Giuliano six feet under.”
My father’s retirement had been an act of unprecedented bureaucracy for the Guild. It would have been far easier to havejust killed him, as many of my father’s lieutenants had advised me to do as soon as I came of age.
But I’d wanted to make a statement, start a new chapter in the Guild’s torrential, violent history of succession. So that one day, my son wouldn’t have to kill me in order to claim his inheritance.
In the end, forcing Giuliano Moretti out had only taken five years to accomplish, and it had required a long list of demands that included preserving theElectrixand, apparently, Claudio fucking Lazzaro’s employment.
“There’s no way around it?” I’m aware I sound desperate. But that bastard is within arms reach, and I’ve been itching to make him pay ever since I saw those bruises on Cas’ arms.
And, if I’m being honest with myself, that’s the real reason I’m here. Statement or not, I couldn’t sleep when all I could think about were those hazel eyes begging me not to make a scene.
How could anyone even…I can’t even bring myself to think about it without white-hot rage coursing through my veins.
“If you’re buying the coffee, I might have something in forty-eight hours,” Teo admits. “I’d have to comb through every report he’s ever made over his decade of employment….see if he’s ever messed up enough for us to make something stick.”
“And beating up his girlfriend isn’t good enough?” Martino growls.
“Not unless she’s willing to come forward.”
