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“Antonio came to our room at 6 this morning to ask something about a twinge you felt when you rolled over, so I guess he’s worrying for both of you,” Suna laughed.
“You’re both worrying too much,” Elena said sagely. She and her husband Rafe had been the first of the family to have kids. Now that her kids were a little older, she got to sit back and relax. Though, I could see she was keeping a close eye on her husband, Rafe, and their daughter Claudia, as he taught her on the bunny slope near the chalet.
“You’re right. In our lives, we have a lot more to worry about,” I remarked, thinking of the dangerous business dealings last week that had sent Antonio home, covered in blood. Retaking Chicago in the aftermath of my late brother’s ill-fated reign had been a hard and bloody process, but we were close. We always had the might and power of New York behind us, as well. Yes, work was hard in Chicago, but Antonio was more than the man for it. He had won the respect of all the De Lucas and continued to do so. He was born to be a boss, he’d just been born the spare in the wrong family. We’d been fated to meet, right from the start, and nothing could ever convince me otherwise. Finally, I was right where I was supposed to be, surrounded by people I cared about.
In the distance, I could make out the tall, upright figure of Suna’s brother, Jae-Han, and the capo of the Korean America Song family mafia, skiing down a tricky slope, with Rocco Luciano. Together, they were the last remaining singles in the group and had become firm friends. It helped that after Suna and Vincenzo’s marriage, the two families, Song and Luciano, had worked together seamlessly.
“There’s always something to worry about,” Elena mused, looking over the slopes, and our men and children. “The trick is to enjoy the days anyway. You never know when they’ll be your last,” she finished.
We both studied her for a moment, and then Suna burst out laughing. “Don’t get a job at a greeting card company, that was depressing!”
“Thanks, I try,” Elena laughed, and held her glass up for a toast. “To us, the bella mafia, and our husbands and children, who we will always protect.”
“I’ll cheer to that!” I clicked my virgin hot chocolate against hers and then Suna. “To the mafia princesses.”
“Princesses? Fuck that,” Suna grunted, “We’re queens.”
She wasn’t wrong.
Jae-Han
3 weeks later
“Idon’t do flesh. The Songs don’t trade flesh,” I ground out, ice spreading through my voice and seeping into the air. Seo Jun knew that, and yet, my uncle was determined to push the sight before my eyes.
He shrugged, raising a cigarette to his lips. “Time to reconsider,” he said.
“And why would that be?”
His grin split his face open. “Because they’re already here.”
My heart sank. We were standing in my offices near the port. Shipping was the Song family strength, and since our arrangements with the Lucianos, business had been booming. That being said, even criminals had to have a line, and mine was being pushed in my face.
“Tell you’re joking,” I said, still icily furious.
“I can’t. I’m not that funny,” Seo Jun said with a chuckle, clearly enjoying himself. Only that sick fuck could joke about trafficking. The man was a monster, which was chilling coming from me. “Come on, I’ll show you.”
I followed, feeling arctic fury creep along my veins, bit by bit. If he was serious, then the power struggle that we’d engaged in since I took over from my father was coming to a head. Seo Jun wanted to be the boss, but he wasn’t capable of it. He was lacking in everything that made a good boss. He was hot-tempered, selfish, vindictive, and illogical.
Now, if he wasn’t lying about the trafficking, he was also dead.
He led me down a long, winding corridor under the office building. We often used it to unload straight from the docks into a secure place. It was dark and smelled like rotten fish and fetid river weeds. The walls were wet, and the weak lights dotted along the ceiling did little to dispel the gloom.
He stopped at a door with two armed guards outside, I studied their faces, committing them to memory. Anyone who helped Seo Jun with this could die with him, as far as I was concerned.
The door opened and the smell hit me. Fear and dirt, the scent of the human condition, in all its terrible glory. I flinched as I stepped inside. Women lined the room, maybe as many as twenty. Their pale faces stared at me through the darkness. The sound of crying filled the air.
“Where are they from?”
“All over. Strays. No one will miss them,” Seo Jun said proudly. That ice in my belly hardened. My hand fell to my gun and flew toward my uncle’s face before I could stop it. I hit him hard, and he fell to the ground with a wet smack.
“How dare you do this. We don’t deal in flesh. It’s a liability, it’s messy.”It’s wrong.
“It’s business. Good business and you’re too pussy to see it,” Seo Jun muttered. I hauled him up and pressed my pistol to his forehead, cocking back the hammer.
“I’ll kill you for this.”
“What will your father say? I’m Min-Ho’s favorite, and you know it,” Seo Jun muttered, gripping my hand. He was right. I couldn’t kill him, just like this. I needed everyone to know why I was killing him, and how he endangered us. I needed time, but one thing was clear, my uncle’s days were numbered.
“Clean up this mess. I want them taken back wherever they came from. Do a good job, and you get to live. Fail, and I’ll hogtie you, lock you in here with them, and let nature take its course.”
I shoved him back and he fell to the floor.
I turned back to the room of women, and they cowered, well, all but one cowered. As they turned their dirty faces, and dropped my eyes, hiding their faces behind stringy hair, one woman held my gaze. My eyes snapped to hers and fixed. She had long hair, blond, maybe? Hard to say. Her eyes were narrowed and watchful. She watched me without fear. It was an odd feeling. Few looked at me like that, now I was boss.
“No one goes in there,” I commanded the guards, as I turned away, leaving the woman with the pale eyes behind me, and striding away from the dank corridor.
Despite the door between us, I felt her eyes on me.
* * *
