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I leaned into Marco’s shoulder and whispered, “Who is he?”
He removed his hands from his pockets about to walk toward the man on the table. “Senator Ackerman.”
I remembered his campaign. He looked nothing like the man I saw on television two years ago. Senator Robert Ackerman was a local lawyer, Ivy League educated, and at one time the District Attorney of Philadelphia.
My father had made a massive donation through one of his offshore companies and called in a few favors to get the vote to swing his way. Every union member from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh voted this man into office. His entire campaign was bought and paid for by my father. Senator Ackerman handed his soul over to the devil. And the devil demands blood. Blood that I had to clean up.
Chapter Four
Angelo
Two year later
I sat next to Gia and her mother in the front row at the Academy of Music and watched as her father was sworn into Philadelphia City Council. He took his oath along with his fellow councilmen, smiling at his daughter the entire time. Gia had no idea how her father earned his place on that stage. She had no idea how corrupt her father was.
Lorenzo Carlini was my father’s inside man, the one man who could help him push contracts and other transactions in our favor. City Council was only the beginning. Next, he would be running for mayor or even governor if it all worked out.
Gia squeezed my hand, smiling up at her father. She was so proud of him. Her dad was never like mine, at least not on paper. He graduated from Strickland University with a degree in business and went on to pursue a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Pennsylvania. That’s why it was so important to him that Gia finished college without getting pregnant and went to law school as we had planned.
My father skipped the inauguration, and instead, he planned a private party in his honor. Of course, no one knew the head of the Philadelphia Mafia paid for the event to honor his oldest friend. Ever since Lorenzo made his play for City Council, he kept his distance from our family. He didn’t even like Gia being seen with me in public, but I never left her side unless business called me away.
So, an exception had to be made for the day. Gia had insisted I sit next to her, whether her father liked it or not. He had agreed, but not without a fight. Even when I wasn’t with Gia, I had her tailed by one of my men. She was my most valuable possession. I owned every part of her. Even Councilman Carlini knew that.
At the event hall the next night, my father got on stage to congratulate his best friend on his inauguration into the City Council. He even made jokes about how a bunch of Wiseguys from South Philly took over the city. My old man almost never smiled, but he couldn’t stop the night of the party. To my father, having one of us on the inside was almost like being made all over again.
In an attempt to keep the FBI off our asses, my dad only invited men within our organization and some of our associates. He kept the families from New Jersey and New York out of our affairs, afraid to draw too much attention.
Waiters walked pa
st us with trays of champagne and fluffy looking pastries. Gia grabbed a flute and what could pass for a dessert. She popped the tiny bite into her mouth and washed it down with her drink.
“Dance with me,” Gia said, slipping her fingers between mine. “I’ve had too much champagne, and now I feel like grinding on you.”
“Not in front of everyone,” I whispered into her ear. “Save that for when we’re alone.” I hugged her and planted a kiss on her forehead. “Is this what you want? One dance?”
I hated dancing and anything formal like this event. It only reminded me of how much of a sham it was for men like me to pretend this was normal when I’d washed the blood off my hands before I picked up Gia. But I would have given her anything.
Gia nodded. “Yes. Give me one dance, and I will dance for you when we’re alone for the rest of the night.”
I shook my head, a smirk slowly forming. “You’re such a bad girl.”
“I’m your bad girl.” She winked. “You wouldn’t know what to do with a good girl if you had one.”
“I’d ruin her like I did you.”
She laughed. “I let you. You seem to forget that. You also forget that back when we met, you were only a boy with chubby cheeks and a squeaky voice. That little boy held my hand when I was too afraid to jump off the swing at the playground. Even then you were still good.”
She took my tie in both hands and pulled me closer, our lips almost touching. “I never do anything I don’t want to do, that much you know by now. If anyone did the corrupting in this relationship, I did it to you. In the beginning, I talked you into doing those jobs for your father because I liked the man you were afterward. I got high along with you. I craved the adrenaline rush as much as you did.”
“I want to fuck you so bad right now,” I confessed. “My dick is getting hard just thinking about all the shit we used to do together.”
“I miss it,” she said, somewhat saddened. “I loved being part of all this. Now you shut me out.”
“I miss it, too. But you have to stay clean. I’m dirty enough for the both of us. I can’t have someone taking what belongs to me.”
“No one and nothing could ever take me away from you.”
If only she’d known how much she would live to regret those words.
