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Nineteen
Player
“I’m not doing it!” Massacre shouted.
God help me. I was going to kill my brother before Gio did.
When I initially suggested this plan, I knew would be a test of patience, especially dealing with my brother, Massacre. I knew how he felt about our family. He had been crystal clear many times. My brother hated our mom’s side of the family, and the feeling was mutual.
I would never know how my Irish father met, fell in love, and married my Italian mother. Typically, the two backgrounds never mixed. Yet they did, and they created two of the biggest hotheads on the planet. Well, I was more sedate. It took a lot for me to get mad. As for Massacre, he was the worst part of both our parents. Nothing was more volatile than an Irish/Italian mix. Throw in some testosterone and a penchant for violence and Viola! You had Massacre.
However, I never expected my brother to revert to childish tantrums. I guess I should have known better. My brother never was one to play along. Hell, he bitched every time he lost at Monopoly.
We’d been on this damn plane for two days now; because Gio had business, he refused to reschedule. So, we were forced to tag along while our cousin was off doing God knows what. To make matters worse we were confined to the damn plane. Now that we were finally able to leave the fucking tuna can of imprisonment, Massacre flat out refused to get changed.
I knew this whole idea of mine was going to test the limits of my sanity, but I never thought I’d be the one willing to put a bullet in my own brother’s head. “I want off this tin can, Dwayne. What’s the problem? It will grow back!”
“That’s not the point. I ain’t part of his family. Never have been. I don’t have to follow his rules. Until Reaper tells me to do something, I ain’t doing shit!”
“It’s just a damn haircut and shave!”
“Do you know how long I’ve been growing this beard? Years!”
“Only took me a few months to grow mine out,” I muttered as I got comfortable in the chair. Gio had kindly called the family tailor and requested that suits be made available for Massacre and me. Since he still had our measurements on file, it wasn’t hard. Gio procured several new suits for us and provided Layla with clothes and everything else she would need while we stayed in Chicago. The moment we landed, Gio also hired a hairdresser to come aboard the plane to give us haircuts and shave our beards.
Appearances were everything to the family.
And it was the last step before we left the damn plane.
I wanted off this tin bucket, and so did Layla.
The only person holding us up was Massacre.
I already had my hair cut and beard shaved.
I wasn’t happy about it either, but Gio was right about appearances. If we wanted to blend in and not be seen, we needed to look the part.
My haircut didn’t look that bad, and though I was already missing my beard, I knew it would grow back.
“I think you’ll look handsome with a clean face, Massacre,” Layla said, sitting in a chair next to Gio, who was shaking his head as he looked at something on his phone. “Don’t you agree, Giovanni?”
My overbearing cousin stopped typing into his phone and looked sweetly at Layla. “You are absolutely right, Cara. Dwayne would look so much better clean-shaven.”
Layla smiled brilliantly at Gio.
Since leaving the compound, I didn’t know what it was or what happened, but Layla had started to come out of whatever funk she was in. Maybe it was the fact she was out of California. Perhaps it was because she was thirty thousand feet in the air? Maybe it was knowing that she was far away from the bastard who hurt her. I couldn’t figure it out, but she was smiling and talking more. Especially to my cousin, Gio. Who, like the perfect gentleman he was raised to be, soaked up all her attention.
At first, I was happy that she was opening up and heading back to the land of the living. Now, I wasn’t so sure. They talked for hours, and Gio even took her with him to his last business meeting. When I tried to stop her, Gio got in my face and threatened me with death. Yeah, talk about a piss your pants moment. He clearly stated that she would always be safe with him, more so than staying on his plane without any bodyguards to who he was taking with him.
In the end, I relented and said nothing.
Gio turned from Layla and clearly said, “You are not leaving this plane with that scruff on your face Dwayne. Either let Sebastian shave your face, or I will have my men hold you down, and I will shave you myself. Either way, you are cleaning yourself up.”
I was about to say something when my phone rang. Looking at the caller ID, I didn’t know who was calling. “It’s an unknown caller.”
“Answer it, and then the caller will not be unknown,” Gio sighed shaking his head as he never looked up from his phone.
Shrugging my shoulders, I answered. “Yeah?”
