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I lie back and laugh as Sheldon and Penny are talking. An image of Dario, the piano player, flashes through my mind. If I wasn’t worried about running into police or any of the bad guys, I’d go look for him, not that I really need to worry. I make sure I don’t leave any trace that I was there. My mark had two main bodyguards and an army of men with him. Police are looking at another organized crime family as the hitters. They’ll never figure out it was me. They never do.
A knock at the door has me moving to the bathroom and away from any direct shooting. After a pause, another three knocks sound, and I know it’s the team. I didn’t contact them. How did they know I was here? I open the door and take in the two-man team. I don’t turn my back on them as I retreat to the main part of the room.
“I haven’t even called in yet. You guys are on top of it tonight.” I recognize them as two of the men who accompanied me to Bucharest.
I reach for my sweatpants to pull on over my shorts when I feel the sting of a dart. I turn to look at them and find one of them holding a dart gun. I advance on him, but I’m hit with a second dart before I get to him. I try to slow my breathing and control my system, but whatever is in the dart hits hard and fast. I drop to my knees with my sweatpants caught around my calves. Looking between their bodies, I see the doctor enter the room. He comes right up to me and grips my hair close to the base of my skull. I try to fight him as he lifts me up by my hair, but my arms are like lead weights.
“Why didn’t you bring the girl to me?” he spits next to my ear. “You’ll regret that.” He releases me and hits me on the side of my head. I fall to the floor, smacking the other side of my head on the wheels of the chair pushed into the table. My eyes close and I’m out.
ChapterThree
DARIO
Isit across my father’s desk in his office. As he leans over the desktop, I notice the fine lines he had a few years ago are deeper and are full-on wrinkles now. He looks tired. I’ve known for a long time that he expected me to take over the family, but I’ve enjoyed just running the businesses and being able to travel when I want to. I have a feeling that decision is about to be taken from me though.
Just two weeks ago, my trip to Bucharest to meet with a colleague my father wanted me to order guns from was a nice distraction—and so was the beautiful Luna. But the deal fell through and I was left without the shipment we needed when our contact was killed.
“Papà, we really need to consider contacting the Lupo family and negotiating with them.” I’ve been trying to talk him into this for six months. Ever since the Nigerians decided to make a play for our territory.
“No. I won’t give them that satisfaction. Don’t you know that a Lupo is now in charge of the Bocharov Bratva?”
“I heard. She’s also a Bocharov and married to a hitman for the family.” I can’t hide the chuckle. My papà is so old-fashioned he can’t believe a woman can run an organized crime family. Or that a head of the family would marry so beneath their station. His father was the same way. It’s one of the reasons I choose to travel. I don’t want my papà to set me up with women he deems are appropriate. Just that thought causes the blonde with beautiful hazel green eyes to flash through my mind again. My distraction that didn’t happen. She was sexy as sin, but I don’t think the carpet matched the drapes. I wonder what her real hair color is. I wish she hadn’t taken off right before Kovacs was killed.
His death was a blessing. I didn’t want to do business with Kovacs. I’d rather we stay here in Italy and work with one of the other families, but my father doesn’t trust the Lupo family because of how they took over after the Rossis were killed. He isn’t sure he wants to be associated with them either because of their connection to the Morellos and the Kid Killer. Especially now that the Cararellis have come back too. We need to do something to prevent the Nigerians from taking more of our foothold here in Northern Italy. They’ve already opened a club in direct competition to several of ours.
“Do you want to work with the Bratva again? You barely survived the previous Bocharov.” He reminds me of the time when I was almost assassinated by Konstantin, the last Pakhan. He wanted to take over our clubs here in Vicenza, which are huge moneymakers. I was shot several times, my lung collapsed even.
“If I don’t have to, it would be better. But I’ve heard it’s different than when he was in charge. Maybe we should just contact Dante Lupo, the consigliere, and have a meeting with him. I can set one up under the pretense we are honoring his new heir.”
My father tips his head to the side and then slightly nods. “Do it. That way you can also get a lay of their land and see if we should just bury them and take over their area. Then Musa would think twice.”
I shake my head and lean forward, resting my elbows on my knees. “Papà, no. There is no way that Dante will let us get away with that. He and Mattia just went through their own men to test their loyalty. I’ve heard rumors that it’s because they found a living Rossi.”
“What?” He rears back in shock. “That’s not possible. They were killed, all of them.”
I lean back, taking in my father’s defense, and then it hits me. “Fancula. You knew about the hit on the family.” It’s not a question because I don’t doubt he helped coordinate something.
“Don’t you swear in here, Son.” He waves his hand around as if “fuck” hasn’t been said here many times in many languages. “I didn’t kill anyone, I just gave some information I had.”
“Papà, why? They massacred that family, even the wife. Women and children shouldn’t be touched.”
“I didn’t want the Rossis ever coming after us. Giancarlo was eyeing our lands. I know it.”
“You’ve always been paranoid. I have an opening tonight at the gallery. I need to go.” I stand and head for the door.
“Do what I said, Dario. Make the meeting, but don’t talk about an alliance.”
I stop and turn before I open the door. I love my father. I even respect him most of the time, but his thirst for power and his paranoia are getting worse. I’m not going to lie to him, so I just nod and step out.
I move through the house and kiss mynonnaon the cheek before I head out to my black Ferrari LaFerrari. I open the butterfly doors and slide in to head to my small vineyard I’ve been slowly restoring.
As I pull down my long sweeping driveway, I look out over the right side to my now empty vines. Harvest was a couple of weeks ago. On the other side of the driveway, I have olive and fig trees growing. My father hates that I love being out in nature or in my art gallery than being at the clubs. I still like to run them, but the places I feel the most accomplished are here or in town at one of the two art galleries I own.
Tonight I’m proudly showcasing one of my cousins, who has been trying to break into the art world for a while now. She has beautiful pieces that are inspired by some of the classic impressionists. I like to help and support my family to do things other than the family business. My father hates that I’m helping her. As far as he’s concerned, she should be focusing on finding a good man to marry. She told him he needs to step into this century.Nonnatold him to leave her be, and of course he stopped. My grandmother is the only woman he will listen to. From what I understand, my mamma was another woman he listened to. It’s because he lost her to a rival family that he is so determined to avoid others. She was killed by a Romanian, which is why I’m glad we didn’t do business with Kovacs. Sure, not all Romanian organizations are the same, but it’s still a bitter pill to swallow.
I pull into the double car garage attached to the house. The attached single garage is full of construction supplies so I can finish the rooms in the manor. After growing tired of living in a condo in town, I bought this place two years ago and gutted it. I’ve finally got the main floor done. I still need to do the upstairs, but I wanted to get the vineyard running and all its buildings completed. I also restored the pool and spa off the back. It’s too cold to swim, but the spa is nice at night.
Moving through the house to the other side where my office is, I take a seat behind my large desk and log on to my computer before calling Dante on my mobile.
