Chapter 5
A sharp knock sounds at the door. I cover my head with a pillow, groaning loudly for them to fuck off, not wanting to deal with whoever is on the other side. The silence in here might be deafening, but at least I’m not looking into the eyes of all the people I can’t trust. Yes, my brother is now on that list. He could have come and talked to me, but again, just like the night my papa was murdered, he chose not to. He doesn’t trust me, and I can no longer rely on him to keep me updated with anything relevant, even if he is doing whatever he can to keep me safe. He treats me the same as any other man in my life, to be seen and not heard or included in the dealings of this fucked-up world.
Yeah, I’m bitter, and the longer I lie here thinking it all over, the worse it gets. I thought my brother was different.
I hear the door push open. “Are you going to sulk around in here all day or are you going to claim your legacy?” comes Geovani’s smug voice from the doorway.
Claim my legacy , what does that even mean? I don’t move. There is nothing to say to him, I might as well just play dead until he leaves me alone.
As soon as his hands touch my sides, I instinctively jump. Before I realize what’s going on, he flips me onto my back. Then he’s lying on the bed, pinning me down, with his legs straddling my waist, his fists holding my hands above my head. I didn’t even hear him enter the room and now I’m trapped under his massive body.
“What the fuck,” I spit back at him angrily, thrashing around as I try to free myself from his grip. “Get your hands off me, Geovani,” I warn him.
“Not a chance. Had to snap you out of your pity party. We don’t have time to sit around questioning our life choices, Red.” He gazes down at me, radiating authority. One I had almost forgotten about in my time with the Moretti brothers, but there is no denying the effect he has on me. I’m powerless under his intensity.
Now I see everything I should have when I met him the first time. The menacing look in his green eyes, the slight bend in his nose where he’s obviously broken it at some time and never got it fixed, the scattering of scars that pebble over his face, hands, and arms. He’s cute in a bad boy kind of way that does things to me it shouldn’t.
With a steely gaze, I mirror his level of intensity and meet his glare head-on, not wanting him to know how giddy being this close to him really makes me feel. “What exactly does being the owner of Havardi Dealings involve?” I finally get out when I realize he’s not going to leave me alone.
“The older generations like to work in physical products: weapons, drugs, counterfeit goods, betting rings. But your papa was ahead of his time. Sure, he had the luxury car showroom to act as a front and help him move product for the Morettis, as well as launder the money they all made, but he was working on a much bigger enterprise. He was well on his way to owning the largest online casino in the world. Taking a massive cut out of Sinners’ Paradise’s profits and making an enemy out of Enzo in the process. Not that Enzo was smart enough to work out what he was up to. Not entirely, anyway, from what I can tell.”
“What do I want with some fucking online casino I know nothing about?” I try to move my arms, using all my force to buck him off me, but he doesn’t budge.
“This casino is now yours to run.”
“Why me? Can’t Marco take care of it?”
His eyes turn into slits as he glares at me. “It’s all in your name, Harley. Your papa left it to you. I don’t think you understand just how life-changing something like this is.”
“It sure is life-changing, just look at me.” I roll my eyes in frustration. I can see he wants me to be happy about this, excited even, but I’m not. It just feels like another thing being forced upon me. “What about you? Who are you?” I snap, frustrated I’m stuck under him while we have this little chat. “Obviously not the cop you told me you were.” I roll my eyes like the brat I am just to show him how pissed I still am about his fucking lies.
“Careful, Red. You might be free in my home, but I’m not above punishing you for your childish behavior. In fact, I would quite enjoy it after the fucking stunt you pulled, following the Moretti brothers back to their place. What the fuck were you thinking that day?”
My eyes go wide, and he must be able to hear the way my teeth scrape as I grind them. Is he kidding me right now? He wants to have a go at me about tailing the brothers when he knew who they were all along and made me believe he was going to help me catch them. I bend my knees, attempting to lift my hips, recalling the techniques he showed me to escape from a similar grip. But he was anticipating me and locks my thighs together, gripping my wrists, shoving them into the comforter with burning force.
“Why do all you mafia men think I have a daddy kink and want to be punished for being a brat?” I spit back at him, the taste of bitterness and anger lingering on my tongue.
“Perhaps it’s because deep down, you long for someone to control you.” I see the flash of disappointment come over his features as he says the last part. “Your piece-of-shit papa couldn’t keep you in line or out of danger. So, the job’s been handed to someone who can,” he adds, a smug sense of satisfaction coming over him.
“Oh, fuck off. You know I’m more than capable. Or I was. The last couple of months have just done a number on me.” I pout, because they have. “There is no way I could have known what was going to happen when I followed them back to that cave. I thought I had the upper hand. The element of surprise, but it was like they were ready for me.”
He assesses me, then shakes his head and purses his full lips. “Do you admit you need me to take care of you now?” There is a caution in his tone I don’t like the sound of.
I blink back at him, squirming uncomfortably with his proximity and his weight bearing down on me. “I don’t need anyone to take care of me.” I push the words through my clenched teeth.
The warmth that comes with his body pressed into mine. The overwhelming smell of his cologne. Oh, this is dangerous territory. I know exactly what he’s getting at. My stupid brain is conjuring up all sorts of scenarios, hoping that this little wrestle of wills can end the same way it did last time. Us rolling round together. I can’t be so close to him, it’s scrambling my brain, taking me back to our last night together. A night where I gave him way more power over me than I should have. But I was feeling so fragile, and he was my strength. Right now, I’m just as weak.
As if he’s recalling that night too, he moves my hands in his so he’s only holding my wrists with one hand, his other gently glides down my face and then traces across my lower lip. I suck in a breath, his tender touch sending a thrill right through my body. This is my time to strike.
To regain control, I strategically position my elbow between his arm and my face, while simultaneously leveraging my locked ankle against his to destabilize him and push him away, rolling us so I’m now the one on top. I glare down at him with a newfound power I quite like the feel of.
The corners of his mouth curl upwards. “Better, Red. That’s it, get that fire back I know is hiding inside of you.”
I shove him in the chest as vigorously as I can, then quickly get off him, needing space before I do something stupid, like kiss him again. But he’s too quick, grabbing a handful of my hair and yanking me back to his solid body so we’re face to face only an inch apart. Tears prickle in my eyes at the sting of the way he’s holding me.
“I thought I lost you to Alessandro,” he growls out, his green eyes portraying the depths of his pain so well that I feel it go right through me. I thought I lost him forever as well. But he did this to us, not me.
I blink back at him, trying not to say exactly what I’m thinking. After what he did to me, he has no business trying to pretend what we had was something more than a fucking ruse. “You can’t lose something that was never yours. In the time we had together, you did nothing but lie to me. I don’t even know who you are,” I spit back at him, my voice trembling with the hurt still wracking through me.
His grip loosens a little. “I did what I had to so I could protect you,” he barks out, a man on the verge of flicking his psycho switch.
I should be scared, I don’t know the depths of what Geovani is capable of. But I’m not. I can feel my nostrils flare as an angry tear slips down my cheek. He has to be kidding me with his bullshit excuses.
His hands move from my hair down my arms, finally landing on my waist. “Forgive me.”
“What am I even doing here, Geovani? What do you want with me?”
He lets me go, seeming to regain his composure, moving to sit on the bed. “I have a job offer for you.”
I stare back at him, a little in shock. His offering me a job was kind of the last thing I expected him to say. “What kind of job? I’d be a shitty gym instructor.”
He laughs; I’m sure he’s imagining it. “You’re not wrong.” He smirks. “I want to utilize your skills.”
“How exactly will I be able to help you?”
“Depends on the day. You’re good at graphic design, right?”
“Yeah, I’m okay at it. I still had a year to go on my degree.” I shrug. Before I came home for Christmas, I was top of my class, but that feels like a lifetime ago now.
“We need to fix that as well. I’ll have Dani look into it. For now, you can work on some basic design stuff for me or research projects I may need help with. The role I need you for is creative director. My business has expanded quickly over the last few years, and where Dani will run the day-to-day of the office, I need you to work on our visual branding to take one role off her hands. I run multiple businesses, ranging from the gyms I own to the underground fights I host and the buildings I like to acquire to have them in. Once the fights are over, we renovate the building and sell them off for a profit.”
I look him over, my expression probably giving away my surprise, but I’m kind of impressed at what the two of them have created here.
“Not everything I do here is illegal, we need to look from the outside that it’s all legit. We haven’t had any trouble with the cops, but the last thing we want is them sniffing around. Your job will be to make me look like a professional businessman.”
I smirk, not able to see it right now with his face covered in bruises. “That’s not going to be easy,” I mutter.
“I’m sure you will find a way,” he snips back.
I join him on the bed, pulling my legs up as I lean into the headboard. “What is Marco doing here?”
“Your brother has a lot of contacts, he’s very useful to me.”
“That’s a bullshit answer if I ever heard one. If you want me to be a part of all this, don’t keep stuff from me,” I snap. Fuck him for thinking I would just nod and go along with it. “I know Marco is no saint, he’s been working for Enzo for years.”
He considers me for a second. “He’s using his contacts to hunt for my pa. Carlo’s lost his fucking mind, and he’s more dangerous than ever before. What he did the night of the rehearsal dinner was reckless. He knew the consequences of teaming up with Enzo. He was seeing dollar signs, and when I wouldn’t help him get what he wanted, he went to Enzo.”
“Isn’t that what you did that night?”
His expression hardens. “What I did that night was try to get you to see the reality of what they were after. Alex will do anything that Enzo tells him to. He’s a devoted son still trying to get his papa’s praise. His intentions were fueled by the idea of what you could bring to the family, everything your papa created and more money for Enzo.”
“What were your intentions?”
“To get you out of there. There was no way in hell I was going to let you marry Alex. I thought I had a deal brokered with Enzo.”
“Because you wanted me for yourself?” I push, needing to know exactly what this is. He could get anyone to come work with him, but he’s gone against the biggest mafia families around to have me. He created enemies, and he knows it.
“Don’t make me regret my decision to save you,” he cuts out, his voice almost furious. “I’m not my pa. That piece of shit thought he was going to get his hands on your papa’s very lucrative online gambling business when he got you, it’s what he was so desperate for. A big fuck you to Enzo. The two of them have been fighting over shit for years, and he believed with your papa’s enterprise firmly in his hands, he would finally have something over him. Something he stole from right under his very nose, and Enzo had no idea.”
I blink back at him. “Let me get this straight—you’re interested in acquiring my papa’s online gambling enterprise? So we can fuck over Carlo?” I fucking knew there was more to his helping me and my brother. This was what Maddox was talking about, that he has his own agenda, but at least he’s coming out with it and not hiding stuff from me.
“We don’t wish to buy it. You have the ability to access everything he was working on, and we know how to operate it. We can team up,” he says, hopeful. “It’s win-win. You get your life back, and I get my pa out of mine.”
“Why would I team up with you for anything?” I stand, trying to get space from him so I can think.
“Because this is the way you get your life back. You want the power to have the life you want without some asshole or three dictating it for you. This is business. You have something I want and I’m willing to trade something I have in return. We will both come out on top in the end.”
I straighten my shoulders, wishing I had more information to go off. I know he’s right. Without his help, what my papa created is useless to me. But if I go into business with him, will he own me? Am I jumping from being owned by one mafia family to another, just in a different way, or will I really be able to gain my independence and get my life back on track? “I have conditions...”
“We can talk conditions, but know your brother is already one hundred percent on board. He leaves the comfort of my protection and Enzo will kill him for betraying him and going against the family, just like your papa did. There are men all over this city who are loyal to Enzo, and they will be searching for him already. You need to remember he betrayed his brothers and the family name for you.”
A silent gasp escapes me, a fresh wave of pain radiating through my chest for my brother. “I didn’t ask him to,” I cry, knowing he did and that I owe him everything for the sacrifices he’s made for me. “I don’t understand why he even did. One minute he was telling me to fall in line and do what the Morettis say, the next I’m here with you.”
“A person can only be pushed so far, Red. Your brother had his limits, and when he worked out Enzo was the one who gave my papa access to you the night of the rehearsal dinner, he knew he had to intervene. Dani might have helped to twist his arm a little as well.”
My eyes go wide in shock. “You set them up! Is she just using him because of you?” I screech in disgust, unable to contain my revulsion. Dani isn’t the person I thought she was at all.
“No more than he’s using her,” he snaps back, a deathly serious tone to his voice. He’s protective of Dani, that much is obvious.
Maybe I’m focusing on the wrong thing, because Marco is a big boy who doesn’t need me getting involved in whatever it is he’s got going on with Dani. The reality of what he just said also registers. “Enzo and Carlo were working together?” I ask, confused.
He nods, and dread fills me, knowing what this means.
I swallow the lump in my throat, thinking back to what Valentina said to me that night, You won’t be laughing tomorrow, sweetheart. Enjoy your last night of freedom. She wasn’t talking about me marrying Alessandro, she was saying that because she knew Carlo was coming for me that night. I knew his parents hated me. All that baby stuff she was spinning that night was just bullshit. She didn’t want me anywhere near her precious son, and she was about to get rid of me. “Is Enzo hiding him now?” I gasp in horror. If they’re working together, I’m truly fucked. But also, teaming up with Geovani to destroy his pa could lead to taking out Enzo at the same time.
“It wouldn’t surprise me. They have been conspiring for some time, but your friend Alex doesn’t know that little piece of information just yet.” The suspicious way he says it has me questioning how he even knows.
Panic and a little excitement race through me. I walk toward the window, looking out over the cityscape as my thoughts start piling up on each other. Valentina knows more than she’s letting on, she must, and with Enzo and Carlo both working together, we’re all in more trouble than we thought.
But we could turn this all around in our favor.
“Why don’t you hand me back over to them then? Don’t you work for Carlo?” a whisper escapes my lips, maybe I’m testing him, I don’t know.
I feel him right behind me. His hand comes to my hip as he moves me to face him again. “No fucking way, Red. I work for myself. Carlo and Enzo are never getting their hands on you or anything you own.”
“What if I decided this life isn’t for me and I take off, you said I was free to go?” The words tremble out of my lips, betraying the strength I’m trying to show.
His lips drop to my earlobe, and a shiver runs right through me. “Then I will follow you like a fucking shadow for the rest of your life.”
A gasp escapes me as I struggle to mask the fear that instantly surges through me. “What if I just disappear?” I whisper, my stomach sinking. I knew the newfound freedom was just an illusion.
His eyes meet mine, staring right into the depths of my soul. “You can’t hide from me, Red. You’re mine. I will always find you.”
His! A shiver runs down my spine because I believe him. He was at the club the night I tried to run, and I knew it wasn’t a coincidence back then. From what he’s saying now, my guess is he was tailing me all along somehow, and he intends to for the rest of my life. What I don’t understand is why? An idea occurs to me. “I could sign it all over to Marco. My papa’s businesses should have been his in the first place.”
“Is that what you really want? See, I think the girl I spent so much time with just a few months ago was hell bent on destroying the family who took hers from her. She’s still in there, isn’t she?”
I take a step away from him, running my fingers through my long curls as I try to get my erratic heart under control. He looks at me like I’m powerful, like I could change the world if I tried, and he makes me believe I could. “I’ll come work with you on one condition. You help me destroy Enzo,” I say the words that have been sitting on the tip of my tongue for so long.
“If you’re up for it.” With a touch of arrogance, he raises one eyebrow.
With each passing second of him staring at me, my heart beats faster, panic and anticipation overwhelming me. I’m safe here with him, alive. But out there alone, we both know I have no chance against the biggest underworld leaders this city knows. I’d be dead within the hour. Also, the deal he’s offering is win-win.
He moves to cage me in, my back shoved against the window under his solid warm body. Tilting his head to the side, he looks so fucking cocky, like he knows me better than I know myself. “What did I say to you last night?”
I stare into the depths of his eyes. “I’m strong, and this won’t beat me.” I repeat his words, not sure why he’s so obsessed with me knowing I’m strong. But the words are empowering, and he’s right. This won’t beat me. While I’m still breathing, I’m going to keep fighting.
“Stop showing me how weak you are then. I can see the fear radiating off you.”
I tilt my head up defiantly. At this point I have only a few options: to go out there alone to be murdered, lie in my bed and cry, or take back what they all stole from me. “Show me the contract,” I say with a fresh wave of determination, and this time when I shove him off me, he moves, sending me flying to my knees. I let out a pained groan. The smirk of satisfaction on his face makes me want to kick him in the junk. “Asshole.”
“Good girl. I knew you would come around. Now let’s get to work.” He dusts off his hands as if he has done his job for the day. I glare after him, knowing I might have just been played. But what he doesn’t know is I’m going to use everything he gives me to seek out my revenge and make Enzo Moretti pay for ever thinking he could fuck with my family.