AllFreeNovel
Share Us
There’s silence from outside, then one of the guys yells, “OK.”
I grab Amelia and pull her away from the line of fire, planting myself squarely in front of her, my gun drawn and ready.
The door opens slowly.
All the mafiosos are standing off to either side, all of them with guns drawn and ready, their faces peaked with confusion, eyes widening with disbelief when they see Ralph’s naked body twisted grotesquely in death, head turned the wrong way, eyes half-open, tongue hanging out, cock limp in defeat.
Amelia leans out from behind me and shows the thugs the transmitter. “I press this button and a hundred Volini soldiers launch a full-scale assault on the Romero Estate in about five minutes. You might win the battle eventually, but not without losing a lot of guys. Do you really want dozens of your buddies gunned down when you don’t even know who you’re fighting for?” She pauses as the Romero thugs glance at each other, then look back at Amelia. “Look,” she says, her voice softening slightly. “The Romero bloodline has been wiped out. You guys can’t take over the territory yourselves. You try that and the Consortium will step in, seize everything, divide up the Romero territory between the East and Southeast Families. It’ll be a total mess. There’ll be infighting and a bunch of soldiers killed on all sides. Nobody wants that. And there’s a way to prevent that, for everything to be business as usual for you guys, carry on like nothing happened, keeping the Romero operations running just like they are now, all of you still making money, living your gangster lives.”
One of the Romero guys grunts out a nervous chuckle. The thugs glance at each other again. Then one of them lowers his gun, furrows his brow at Amelia. “We’re listening, Princess. What are you proposing?”
Amelia smiles, steps out from behind me in her wedding dress. “Ralph Romero insulted the Volini Family. By Consortium law, we’re entitled to respond with violence, to avenge the insult, show that the Volini Family will not stand to be disrespected.” She shoots a careless glance at the dead Ralph Romero, then shrugs at the thugs. “And since we’ve defeated the head of the Romero Family, by Consortium Law we can legally take over all Romero territory and operations. So, technically, you now work for the Volini Family. Business as usual. You all keep your current operations, run your little fiefdoms. Once we get things organized, I’m sure we can arrange for a bonus, address any grievances you boys might have had with the previous ownership.” She shrugs again, puts her finger on that button. “Or you can try to avenge your dead boss and we can all go to war.” Now Amelia drops the smile, and in her eyes I see the defiant mafia princess who I sense is about to become a queen. “But please hurry up and choose. I have to pee.”
Another of the goons chuckles now, and then all of them lower their weapons. They’re still hiding off to either side of the door, glancing at me cautiously because my gun is still ready and armed, the glint of murder still burning strong in my eyes.
“Honey, I think we’re good,” Amelia whispers up at me when it’s clear Romero’s men have seen the light and decided they don’t want to die trying to avenge Ralph Romero. They’re good with becoming Volini soldiers. Same shit, different day. “You can put the gun down now, Sweetie.”
“Mine,” comes the low rumble from my throat, like my vocal cords are stuck on repeat, my brain branded with this manic mantra of possession, of ownership, of dominance.
And of love.
A dark kind of love.
A wild kind of love.
Our kind of love.
“What about Ralph's body?” asks one of the men.
I grunt, think, then grin. “We'll take him back to Florida. The Volini gators love Italian sausage.”
The Romero men stare at Amelia with gaping mouths. She keeps a straight face and nods like that's totally how we roll in Florida. “We'll tell the Consortium the body was donated to a good cause.” Amelia flashes a toothy grin, the kind of vaguely unhinged sweetness you might expect from a demon-possessed little girl in a horror movie.
Romero's men back away slowly, not daring to turn their backs to us before they're at a safe distance.
“Told you they were fucking crazy,” whispers one of the goons as they trudge down the hallway, exiting the surreal stage where a curvy little princess in a blood-stained wedding dress is kissing an overgrown assassin who’s clutching a pair of white panties in his big fist like a perverted creature of myth and fantasy.
And maybe we are fucking crazy, I think as I take my sweet Amelia into my arms, kick the door closed, then carry her to the king-sized bed, making sure to step on Ralph Romero’s dick on the way, squishing it into the floorboards like discarded sausage on the meat-factory floor.
“Um, maybe I should call my father first,” Amelia whispers into my mouth as I almost eat her entire face with my hungry kiss. “OK, I guess we can take care of this other thing first. Oh, Zedd. Oh, baby. Oh. Oh,Oh!”
“Mine,” I grin as I feel the dark curtains of our fantasy draw shut around us, my lines glowing red on the ephemeral cue-cards.
Just one word on my script though, and I’ve got it memorized, got it branded on my brain, carved in my soul, hammered into my heart.
Just one fucking word.
Mine.
Mine.
Mine.
∞
EPILOGUE
THREE MONTHS LATER.
