Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
“T hey’re late,” Santo grunts from beside me.
We’re standing in a deserted fucking parking lot waiting for a pickup. I should have sent one of the guys, but the new buyer insisted on meeting with me personally. Which is why Santo and I are freezing our asses off waiting for the fucker to show his face.
“I know,” I tell him. I hate tardiness. It’s a sign of disrespect. And disrespect is something I won’t stand for. A lesson the asshole will learn as soon as he gets here.
“Why exactly are we dealing with a new customer anyway?” Santo questions me.
“Money is money. You don’t like money all of a sudden?” I counter.
“We in financial trouble?”
“No,” I scoff. Our accounts have never looked better. But like I said, money is money. And if this guy wants to buy three hundred grand worth of guns from us, then I’m not going to say no. “Why was the doc at Vin’s the other day?” I ask, seeing as Santo is always up on the gossip.
“Cammi was sick. Stomach bug or some shit.” He shrugs.
“Stomach bug?” I raise an eyebrow at him. “Sure he didn’t knock her up?”
“Probably. He looked pretty fucking pale when he walked out, and the doc wouldn’t tell me shit.”
“Fucking hell, you think they’re ready for that?” They’re so young. My baby brother and his wife are still kids themselves.
“I think Vin and Cammi will handle anything that life throws at them, as long as they have each other,” Santo says.
“Yeah, hopefully. He’s here.” I nod my head at the approaching black sports car. Pretentious bastard.
“He come alone?” Santo asks.
“Seems that way. Fucker must think he’s untouchable.”
The car comes to a stop and an overweight, preppy fucking asshole steps out. “Gio De Bellis, I’ve been waiting a long time to meet you,” he says, walking over. All smiles.
As soon as he reaches me, my arm swings out and my fist connects with his jaw. Forcing his head to snap to the side. “You’re late. Don’t waste my fucking time again,” I tell him.
“Aw, fuck, traffic in this city is a bitch,” he groans.
“You know what else is a bitch? Trying to wank when you have no fucking hands. You wanna give it a go? It’d take me two—no, one minute to remove your hands from your wrists.”
Santo chuckles from beside me while Logan Ghost (who the fuck names themselves Logan Ghost, by the way?) pales as he stares in our direction. “W-we had a deal,” he says.
“We did and we still do. You got my money?” I ask him.
Logan nods his head. “In the back of the car. The guns?”
“In a container. I’ll give you the number and the code once I have my money. How you get the shit out of here is your problem. Not mine,” I tell him.
“No worries, mate. I’ve got friends to help me.” As he says the words, I hear the rumble in the distance. Fucking bikers.
I look to Santo. “Grab the cash,” I tell him. Once he’s headed to the rear of the car, I turn back to Logan. “You should find better friends.”
“Why?”
I lift a shoulder as I watch my brother load the bags of money into the back of our SUV. “You’ll find out. Bikers are filthy fuckers. You should never trust them in business,” is all I say before I pivot towards the passenger side. Santo jumps in the driver’s seat. “Oh, and don’t call me again, unless you want your mother receiving your heart and dick in a box.”
As we’re pulling away, I spot a face I recognise. Fucking Tommy. The bastard looks directly at me. If he thinks he’s intimidating, he needs a reality check.
“You need to set up this meeting. We should get it over with. Like ripping off a bandage,” Santo tells me.
“Yeah.” I know what I have to do. I’m not about to let my brothers do this shit without me. “What do you hope to gain out of meeting her?”
“Me? Nothing,” he says. “Don’t need a mother, never have.” His fingers tap the steering wheel. “I am curious, though… about what the old man did to make her leave and stay gone.”
“You really think he knew she wasn’t dead?” It’s out of character for our old man to let anyone live, especially someone he thought he owned. Someone who betrayed him.
“Who the fuck knows?”
“I remember the night before she died, or disappeared, whatever the fuck happened to her… She woke us all up. We were in the foyer and the old man was there. Mum sent us back upstairs. I think she was trying to leave with us,” I tell Santo. I’ve never told him that before. I always thought I’d made it up. Like I wanted it to be true so fucking badly that I imagined things that never actually happened.
“So, what? She couldn’t leave with us, so she just left without us?” Santo asks.
“No fucking idea.” I pull my phone out of my pocket. I have to make the call before I decide to just put a hole between her eyes and be done with it.
After telling Tommy where to meet us and when, I send a text to the group chat I have with my brothers.
Me:
Meeting with the demon birther at two PM tomorrow, old house.
Vin:
Demon birther? I’m assuming you’re the demon?
Marcel:
Even the devil was once an angel. I’ll bring the sage. That place is full of fucking ghosts and evil spirits and probably curses.
Gabe:
I’ll be there.
“They’re going to be blowing up that chat all fucking night now,” Santo groans as he pulls into my driveway.
“Good thing you can fucking mute it then,” I tell him. “See you tomorrow.”
“Gio,” he calls out just before I shut the door.
“Yeah?”
“If you’re going to kill her, don’t do it in front of Vin. He doesn’t need to see that shit.”
I nod my head. I won’t kill her tomorrow. Probably. Either way, I won’t fucking do it in front of our baby brother.