Controlled: A Dark Mafia Romance

Chapter 29

Creed

Family.

It was the one thing that had both been a constant and a pain in the ass in my life. I’d suffered because of having one while in turn, being made one of the richest men in the world. Did the amount of money and toys I had in my collection made up for the loss of having a normal family with celebrations and laughter? As if I knew what that was. I’d been allowed no friends as a boy, never learning to socialize beyond being little more than an overlord.

Even the time spent with my brothers had been jaded, twisted in ways that would turn most psychiatrists into screaming beasts if all our stories were told. However, families were sometimes the reason for behavioral changes, leaving clues that were extremely valuable. In my mind, perhaps that’s why the would-be assassin had been one step ahead of me the entire time. I’d believed whoever was behind the scenes was simply another enemy.

But what if he or she was so much more?

I’d left our bed at three in the morning, pressing a kiss against Bella’s forehead before leaving. I found it interesting that she was more important to me as a family member than almost anyone else had been in my life. After grabbing a scotch, I sat down behind my desk, fingering my phone before dialing the family attorney.

He answered as was required whenever one of the Saint brothers called, but I could tell he wasn’t happy about it.

“For the love of fuck, Creed, don’t you ever sleep?”

“What is it they say, Walter? Sleep is highly overrated or perhaps my favorite saying. I’ll sleep when I’m dead. I need some information only you can provide and I need that tomorrow.”

He yawned and while it was a normal reaction of being awakened so early in the morning, I was infuriated. Perhaps more by the harsh circumstances but that didn’t matter.

“Fine. Let me grab a goddamn pen and paper.”

He rustled around for long enough I tossed back half my drink. The man owned three houses in different parts of the world because of us. He should be at our beck and call.

“Okay, what?” he barked.

“You’re familiar with the name Armand Marcello?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Because I want a full listing of his entire family, the whole family tree. I want to know whether he has a trust fund set up, where he’s hiding his money, who gets a significant portion of his estate, and if there is any dirty little laundry hiding behind cobwebs and concrete.”

“Why do you need to know this?”

As if it was his right to ask. “Let’s just say he had an affair with a prominent actress by the name of Carmine Rothschild and produced a daughter. I need to know if there’s any competition for the man’s estate given his death.”

Walter finally snickered. “And I can’t ask why this is important to you.”

“You don’t read the news? You don’t pay attention to what’s happening in New York?”

It took him a few seconds to realize what I was getting at. “Ah, yes. The woman on your arm.”

“And find out if there’s any scuttlebutt on the reporter who handled the story in the Times.”

“A tall order all the way around. It might take me longer than a few hours.”

“Bullshit, Walter. By noon. Do you understand me?”

He grumbled under his breath, but I knew he’d come through. He always did, especially since he had yet to receive his quarterly bonus. “Yes, Creed. I will bend matter and time to get you what you want. Just remember that often opening Pandora’s Box can lead to disaster.”

Now the man was giving advice? I smiled since he rarely did that, but he was getting up there in age. “No worries, my friend. I enjoy taking risks and delving into the darkness. Call me when you know something.”

“Will do.”

I sat back, leaning my head against the soft leather, shifting the chair from side to side in the darkness. Bella had provided the idea, which could prove to be a good one. The drink wasn’t as satisfying as it usually was. The only thing that seemed to be was being around the lovely woman. When I sensed a presence, I reached inside my desk drawer for a weapon and jerked up my head.

She was like a vision standing in the stream of moonlight, her lithe body highlighted by the warm glow from the open blinds and the soft material of the robe she was wearing. After remaining in place for a few seconds, she walked into the room, taking her time heading toward my desk.

I shifted my chair as she came around, enjoying the moment of silence and the anticipation of what she might do. When she pulled the glass from my hand, allowing our fingers to touch, the sound of her soft moans pushed my cock against my shorts, the only piece of clothing I was wearing. Everything about the girl was fascinating, including the way she tipped back the glass, draining the last of the liquid.

As she climbed into my lap, her knees on either side, she dramatically placed one arm over my shoulder then the other.

“You should be sleeping,” I told her in a husky voice.

“I woke up and you were gone,” she purred and ran the tip of her index finger down the side of my face. “Not acceptable.”

“Well, how can I make it up to you?” As always, her playfulness surprised me, so much so I was ready to fuck her right here.

As she ground her hips back and forth across my throbbing cock, it was all I could do not to toss her onto the desk. She shifted once again, making the moment painful. As I growled, she laughed, the same finger traveling down the front of my chest.

“Come to bed with me. Make love to me.”

There was no need for her to ask me a second time. I stood with her in my arms, leaving work and the ugliness of my job behind. The woman was all that mattered to me. My little family.

Maybe I wasn’t such a madman after all.

Sex.

Romance.

I’d experienced both in one night. Yet business was a constant, the billions of dollars we earned not because my brothers and I sat on our butts on some tropical island drinking margaritas. Although that sounded good right about now, especially with my perfect dancer. I had to wonder how she would handle dancing in the sand.

A laugh formed on my lips as I tried to pull my mind away from the adventure the night before. We’d fucked until dawn. I’d managed a couple of hours’ sleep with her arms and legs wrapped around me, which was highly unusual.

However, getting back to business had been required.

Soldiers had been dispatched to watch Frederico’s family. He and his wife were playing the grieving parents, holed up in their house. I had to wonder whether Frederico’s wife knew he’d been responsible for his eldest son’s death.

As far as the Romanos, I’d called in a favor with a man I’d done limited business with to try to scour the streets to learn of their full intentions. If they were behind the two attacks on my organization, there would be more and planning would be needed.

A dozen of my soldiers had been sent into the streets of Chicago. If Nico Romano had sent a brigade of soldiers to handle the assassination attempt, so far, no evidence had been found.

It was as if a ghost was handling the bloodshed.

“What’s so funny?” Kane asked from beside me on the driver’s seat.

“How much I’ve changed in a week.”

“Yeah, you have.”

I tossed him a look and grinned. It wasn’t often I felt this good, or this satisfied. The fact the business-as-usual mentality had become boring no longer weighed heavily on my mind. It simply meant I’d been ready for a change. However, as much as my thoughts had been directed toward Bella and little else, the pieces were in place to end the ridiculous charade, which meant I could alter my life as I determined.

“There are times when you learn that doing things the old way isn’t in anyone’s best interest.”

For some reason, my Capo seemed uncomfortable, squirming in his seat. “If you say so, boss.”

“Stop worrying, Kane. I’m still the ruthless bastard I’ve always been.”

He laughed and headed down a less than fashionable street in a part of Chicago I certainly wouldn’t enjoy living in. While Gregor had left an address with the ballet, something found easily through my connections, the location had been a lie. The address had been nothing more than a store front to a burned-out building.

His connections with the South American cartel had been verified, his family considered enemies of Carlos and his family. The pieces were falling together, although none of them fit very well. While there was no direct connection with Armand, no flagrant drops of money, emails or texts that could be found, my gut told me Armand had hired him to look after his daughter. The single reason why had been the man’s dance background.

I might find that strange in and of itself but to each their own. Hell, I’d enjoyed hunting humans. Why not the dance?

“Yeah, I know that, boss.”

“You’re sure he’s here?” I asked, glaring up at the group of buildings.

“He’s here. He arrived yesterday afternoon and hasn’t left.”

“Then this should be easy.” I glanced at my watch. It was after eight in the morning. I was more than looking forward to Walter’s phone call to determine if what I suspected was true.

Time would tell.

As with all my more merciless aspects of business, I always brought backup, just enough to keep the wolves at bay while not drawing but so much attention. Not that many people were paying attention to a group of men dressed in suits at this time of morning. Still, one never knew.

While I wasn’t worried about the police, I knew that with Gregor working for Armand, there could be additional lookouts hiding in the shadows. I nodded to the eight men piling out of two SUVs and they scattered immediately. Kane had already provided them with a layout of the building and the area prior to informing me what he’d learned. I had to give the man credit. He’d been working all hours of the day and night to try to help solve the mystery.

Kane, four other men and I headed into the building. I stopped long enough to glance at the surroundings. It wasn’t unlike the warehouse section where we housed our weapons. Nondescript. Close to a true residential area. It was perfect to handle business, including the lower taxes.

But Gregor would appear to be using the building as his home as well. Not unusual except the man had money given his family’s wealth and status within South America.

As soon as we entered the building, Kane’s phone indicated he’d received an incoming text. I was already on the stairs by that point, eager to get the situation handled. As I looked back, he shrugged and pulled his phone into his hands.

It was often impossible to read his expression, the man the master of hiding his true feelings. Not this time. He wore an expression of utter shock. When he lifted his head, his furrowed brow indicated concern.

“What is it?”

“A warning.” He moved closer, handing me his phone.

As with his reactions, it wasn’t often in business that I was troubled by the sight of anything. I studied the grainy photograph, which was obviously taken in the wee part of the morning. While pictures could easily be doctored and had been in my experience, I was fairly certain what I was seeing was real.

Carlos and his entire family had been slaughtered like lambs, their bodies tied to chairs and soldiers holding their heads up by their hair for the picture. The cartels in that part of the world were truly little more than savages. There was no text involved, no second picture and the unknown phone number used was likely a burner, already tossed or burned.

While sent to Kane, it had been done so to further taunt me. Their killings had been a statement and given Armand’s battered body, the fucker responsible was enjoying toying with me. I handed him back his phone, glancing up the stairwell.

“What the fuck are they doing?” Kane shook his head.

“They are telling us that we should no longer consider South America a viable option for any aspect of our business.” But that was only the tip of the iceberg. A takeover attempt was occurring and if both Chicago and New York could be acquired, Los Angeles and Miami would soon follow.

I wasn’t a gambler by any stretch of the means, but I didn’t like the odds.

Or the game being played.

“You still want to do this?” Kane asked, shoving his phone back into his pocket as he glanced up the stairs.

“Didn’t you ever learn that running from an issue would only bring you bad juju?”

“Your father taught you that?”

“Hell, no. A teacher did.” I took the stairs two at a time, wondering whether or not the culprit believed Bella was still alive. It all depended on whether someone had been told to wait and see the outcome, although the soldiers who’d set the bomb in the two boats had only been covering all the bases. They’d placed bombs under every vehicle as well, the cheap and easy method.

While I regularly made sweeps of the house and grounds, I’d rarely bothered with the boats, or the vehicles locked inside a garage that could be considered Fort Knox.

It would seem I’d been lax in my methods of security.

No more.

When I was standing just outside Gregor’s door, I studied the hallway and the door jamb as well as the lock. It would appear nothing had been tampered with. Perhaps Gregor was merely enjoying a few days off and nothing more.

I grinned at the thought while taking the time to pick the lock myself. When I carefully opened the door, I was greeted by silence. The warehouse space was surprisingly well adorned, the furnishings and artwork both beautiful and expensive. As my men piled inside, I immediately headed for the kitchen, which was off to the side.

I noticed a still open bottle of bourbon and a single glass, which was telling. Gregor had enjoyed the company of a recent guest. Where was glass two? However, my gut told me while the conversation had started off friendly, something unexpected had occurred.

I pulled out my weapon, holding it in both hands as I led the men through the apartment. I wasn’t worried about being ambushed unless Gregor was hiding in a closet. I almost snickered at the thought. From what I’d read about the man, he was gruff around the edges.

There was no one in the bedroom and the bed had either not been slept in or the man was meticulous in his cleanliness. The bathroom and practice rooms were also empty, which left one room at the end of the hall.

As I headed for it, Kane tried to prevent me from going in first. I had a bad feeling I already knew the outcome. I gave him a quizzical look and he grinned. That was seconds before I took my time pushing open the partially closed door.

The room was set up as an office, complete with the typical storage drawers and printers. The desk had been placed in front of an oversized window that allowed in the beautiful early morning sunrise. The chair was similar to mine, leather with a tall back. And I had a feeling Gregor was sitting in the seat, as if watching the sun continue to rise high in the sky.

My four soldiers moved in formation on either side as I walked closer. I often hated it when my instincts were spot on. When I sighed, Kane finally moved closer.

“What is it?” he asked.

I spun the chair around, allowing him to see Gregor’s vacant eyes. He’d been killed with a single bullet hole between the eyes. What a pity I hadn’t been able to work him over for an hour or so.

“Jesus. Christ. What the fuck is going on?”

I backed away by a few inches, Kane giving the dead man a quick examination.

“Cleaning up a possible mess,” I said as I eyed the computer. Gregor had a nearly full drink in front of him, the ray of sun and light dust on the surface of his desk highlighting a ring where another glass had been, the visitor sitting in the chair opposite Gregor’s for a friendly little conversation.

Until it had turned into an execution.

“I’m no forensics expert but he might have been dead for two days.”

I glanced at Kane before pressing my finger down on the keyboard to the man’s computer. “About the time of Armand’s death.”

“Are you thinking both were killed by some unknown assassin or that Armand offed this dude before getting killed himself?”

“I’m not sure what I’m thinking.” When I noticed the files had been locked down, I wondered if Gregor’s fingerprint would work. I turned him around, the macabre act nothing I hadn’t done before.

I’d been right, the files he’d been working on pulling up. I navigated to the man’s emails, taking a few minutes before I found what I was looking for.

Emails between himself and Armand over the course of a few months. But there was something else. An email to an address that intrigued me enough to open it.

“Well, well. It would seem the South American dancer betrayed Armand, a man whose employ he’d been in for years.”

Whoever it was with had a tremendous hatred of Armand. Fascinating.

Kane glanced over my shoulder. “Armand was still controlling the drug trade from South America to his sources throughout the United States. All through the dummy corporation owned by Gregor Santiago’s father. Why betray the man?”

Now I had to laugh out loud. “Why else, my friend? Greed? It’s a dog-eat-dog world between crime syndicates. It could also be something very personal that we’ll never know about.”

“Once the philosopher, always the philosopher,” Kane huffed. “That doesn’t answer what we need to know.”

“As my brother would say citing his wife’s favorite movie, patience, grasshopper. All will be revealed on this bright, sunny day.”

“Boy, oh, boy. Maybe I need to find a girlfriend.”

I laughed at Kane’s summation, hoping that Walter came through or my sunny outlook would become someone’s darkest nightmare.

And just like clockwork, or maybe from divine intervention, the moment I stepped out into the sunshine, my phone rang. A smile crossed my face.

“Walter. I do hope you have good news.”

“Let’s just say I hope you’re sitting down.”