Chapter Thirty-Two-Nico
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO-NICO
I listen as Luc and Angel give me their reports on our search for Sanchez.
O’Doyle isn’t taking me cutting him off and rejecting his daughter lying down. That asshole has been trying to get others to align against me.
It’s slow going for him, but it’s only a matter of time before some young punk thinks he can defeat me. So, we hit them. And we hit them hard.
But not how they expect.
I don’t send my guys to rough up theirs. I don’t burn their warehouses. Or attack their families.
Nope.
I don’t need to resort to violence.
I can do that. I am more than capable.
And I am willing.
More than.
Especially when I think of how scared my wife was when I was wasting my fucking time in Boston.
But I don’t. Because I’m not looking for a war. I’m simply making a point.
The Vipers aren’t the only game in town, but we are the motherfucking strongest.
Life is good when everyone can drink from the only water source in town.
But I control the ports. So, to get my point across, I close the gates. I let everyone feel who has the real power.
Power isn’t in how many city employees or government officials I have in my pocket. It isn’t in how many guns I have, or able-bodied soldiers.
Money is power. And whoever controls the ports controls the money.
If people can’t ship or receive their goods, legal or not, then no one makes money.
So this is my play. I’ll squeeze them until they serve Sanchez and O’Doyle to me on a fucking silver platter.
Those two bastards interfered in my business. They tried to take what’s mine. To manipulate me. They killed my wife’s brother. Set her apartment on fire .
I think of how Anna looked the first time she came to me. She was willing to pay her brother’s debts with her body, and yeah, I let her.
I manipulated the whole thing just so I could have her.
I should regret it. I should feel bad, or something. But I don’t.
Anna belongs to me, and I was going to have her any way I could get her.
The fact someone else tried to get to her pisses me off. That Sanchez thought he could hurt the woman I love, even if he didn’t know she was mine, fills me with rage.
I think of how O’Doyle kept dicking around with me. Flaunting his daughter. Acting like we could maybe make some sort of alliance if I dumped my wife and married that simpering conceited child of his.
And I get mad.
Motherfuckers.
Dead motherfuckers. Both of them.
I sit in my office with my thoughts and my rage, and I think about my unborn child, and something else hits me.
Pride. And then fear.
Yeah, I was afraid when I got the call about Anna being taken to the hospital. For the first time in my life, I care about something, about someone, more than I do myself.
Suddenly, I realize being afraid doesn’t make me a coward. It makes me human, and that’s something I was beginning to doubt.
My humanity.
But I am human. Very human. I was alone before, but I am not now.
Anna is my family. She’s at home, growing our baby. Doing it for me. Cause she loves me, and my heart squeezes in my chest.
I’m going to be worthy of her. I will work every day to prove my worth.
If I have to hunt down every piece of shit threat to my organization and break their necks with my bare hands to keep her safe, I will.
But I don’t think I’ll have to. I think squeezing the others, letting them know who’s the real king of this city will work for me.
It’s not about who works harder, it’s about who works smarter. And I don’t need a degree to run this town.
No. They’ll find Sanchez, and they will bring him to me. Because it’s the only way I’ll allow them to get back to business as usual in my fucking town .
And make no mistake, this is my fucking town.
I own it. And I run it.
If they didn’t know that before, they do now. You don’t walk into a viper’s lair and fuck with him.
Not unless you want to die. And I got no problem with killing.