Ryker

Chapter Three

I leave the elevator towards the crime scene and watch Conner stiffen when he notices me. The sun has just begun to rise over the horizon, and I’m here dealing with this bullshit when I could be home pounding into the woman still lying in my bed.

“Boss.” Conner nods and opens the door for me.

According to Conner, he was only unconscious for an hour. Giving her enough time to interrogate and kill the head mob boss of Brooklyn and Staten Island. The first things I notice when I step into the room are the missing bed sheets and the glass-covered carpet. I shift my attention to Leo’s body and examine him.

“Thoughts?” I ask Conner as I count his wounds. One gunshot to the head, bruising on his temple, an obvious broken nose and jaw, and bruising peppering down his face.

“Seems like she knew what she was doing. Most of the evidence is gone, but I found a red hair on the bed; I’ll give it to Lincoln for analysis, but I did manage to get the CCTV footage.” He holds out a blue flash drive, and I take it and scan the floor.

“He put up one hell of a fight.” I pause as I notice a piece of the carpet has been cut out from under the glass. “He must have gotten her at least once. Look over the room once more, then call Lincoln.” He nods as I exit.

I make my way down to the bar next to the lobby. Leo might not have been a part of my crew or my inner circle, but he’s been under my watch for several years. With him being the head of the Hawkins family, it’s up to his son Hudson to find his killer.

Leo had taken important documents from all the families as leverage, and he is the only person who knows what and where that is. Now he’s dead, and there is a load of shit on me and my family somewhere in the city.

I sent Conner undercover about a year ago to gather information on Leo, but their secrets have been well-kept. His death will cause an uproar from the other three families. For me, that means this whole past year has gone to shit. Someone else was watching him, hired someone to kill him, and took out a year’s worth of my work.

My phone rings as I order my drink and answer it with a growl. “What?”

“The briefcase is gone.” Conner huffs into the phone.

We had it on good authority that Leo never went anywhere without that case, so if it’s not there, that means the leak we have in the Hawkins family is a traitor and a liar and needs to be dealt with, or the redheaded prostitute knew more about Leo than we thought.

“Fuck.” I growl again as I see my sister, Vivian, and her friend, Caroline, approach the bar. I clench my jaw as they sit down beside me, and I take another swig of my drink.

“Ryker… I think the girl you were looking for was in the elevator with me and Caroline.”

I shoot my head towards them. “Did she have a briefcase?”

Vivian nods, “Lincoln told me she had red hair, but this woman had dirty blonde hair.”

“Then how do you know it was her?” I pull my eyebrows together and refocus my attention on the bartender, checking her out as she bends over to grab a beer.

“Well, she was bleeding… looked like she was in a fight.

Something about her…I don’t know. I just know it was her. ”

“Why are you here, Viv?” I finish my drink and stand, throwing some bills onto the bar.

“We stayed here after the club last night.” She shrugs.

She knows I don’t want her anywhere near any of the other families. Especially Leo. Mob bosses like him, like me, are men I don’t want her associating with. She’s so naive and innocent.

She’s been shielded for most of her life about what happens behind our father’s closed office doors, my mother’s call. She’s not stupid and was able to pick up on it when we were preteens. After my mother’s death, my father started to train her. The one thing my father and I agreed on was keeping her ready for anything. We taught her how to fight and defend herself. We tried to get her numb to the horrific acts we do daily, but I don’t think she ever fully distanced herself from everything. She’s still pure at heart, which will eventually be her downfall, and it’s my job to protect her from it.

“I told you to stay away from Leo,” I grumble through clenched teeth and scowl at her.

She scoffs. “Come on, Ry. You know they wouldn’t dare touch me. Plus, you know as well as I do that if Dad ever resurfaces, the first thing he will do is marry me off to Hudson.” She furrows her brows.

“Where did the girl go?” I sigh, pulling us back to the conversation at hand.

“Out the side door.” She points over my shoulder to a door down the hallway from the elevator.

I nod and dial Conner as I jog to try and catch up with her. “Meet me at the side door in the lobby. She’s still here.” I run into the alley and head toward the street, looking for any sign of a woman in a black dress or dirty blonde hair, but I don’t see anyone matching her description .

Conner joins me a moment later. We approach a homeless man, and I pull out my phone to look at the blurry picture of the girl Conner sent me earlier.

“Have you seen an injured girl walk through here in the past few minutes?” I ask impatiently.

“You just missed her. She slipped into that store.” He gestures to a hardware store a few buildings down. “But she didn’t look like that photo.” Conner and I look to the store and see an older woman looking out the window.

When I make eye contact with her, she freezes and backs away. The man holds out a hand for payment for his corroboration. I slip him a couple of bills before I stalk toward the store.

When I open the door, I look around for the old woman but cannot find her. I walk through the aisles, looking for any sign of the girl, but the only thing here is a first aid kit sitting on the counter next to the register. I eye the owner as she comes out of the back room. After a short conversation and a small show of force, I ask to see the back.

After searching every inch of the store, I run my hands down my face and head back to the front when I don’t find her. The owner sits behind the counter and refuses to look at us.

“Are you hurt?” I gesture to the first aid kit.

“No.” She gives me a quick look before glancing away, “I was reorganizing.”

I give her a sarcastic nod and stroll over as I look over the counter. “I see…” I pause in front of her and give her a once-over. Her hands are shaking, she’s sweating, and she has a slight tremble in her lower lip. “What injury did she have? A stab wound? Broken nose? Cuts?” She lifts her eyes up at me and then shifts them between me and Conner .

She looks back to Conner and then at her hands. “She… She told me he was her abusive boyfriend, and she barely escaped. She was covered in bruises and blood… I-I thought…” She shakes her head.

I laugh and turn to Conner, who doesn’t look amused. Probably because she drugged him and held him at gunpoint. If anyone wants her found, it’s him. “She’s on the run. Got herself mixed up in some pretty bad shit.” I cross my arms as I look around the store once more.

“I know…” The woman nods frantically. “I know who you are. I don’t want any trouble. Please. I don’t know where she went. She went out the back…” Before she can continue, I nod in that direction, telling Conner to catch up. Turning back to the woman, I assess her as she watches Conner disappear behind the double doors. I gesture for her to continue, and she swallows. “She had a bruised face and a cut down her arm. She had a handprint around her throat… Please don’t hurt her. She looked terrified.” I watch as a few tears fall from the frail old woman.

I smirk. “We will see, but I doubt she was truly terrified. From what I’ve seen, she’s ruthless. If you see her again, you can contact my office.” I lean in, getting in her face. “If I find out you are hiding the woman somewhere here, I’ll make sure you meet the reaper a lot sooner.” I tuck a strand of her hair out of her face, and she shuts her eyes, squinting hard like that would stop me. “Do I make myself clear?” The woman nods, and her lower lip trembles.

When I return to the sidewalk, I see Conner running around the corner, shaking his head.

“She’s gone.”

About an hour later, I’m at my office, looking through the security footage from the hotel. I watch her exit the elevator, enter the room, and get pulled inside. I fast forward the video, and about forty-five minutes pass before she exits. She’s breathing heavily, has a cut down her left arm, and is limping .

I watch as she runs into the stairway, and not a second later, Conner exits the elevator and enters Leo’s room. There are no cameras in the stairways, so I check every floor to see if she exits, but she doesn’t. Remembering Vivian said she had been in the elevator with her; I forwarded the video feed to Vivian’s floor a few minutes before they approached me at the bar.

Sure enough, Vivian and her friend walk to the elevator and notice the out-of-order sign before they turn and walk into the stairway. I flip through the floors and watch as the doors swing open on the floor below.

A woman in a tank top, shorts, and dirty blonde hair exits and walks to the elevator, holding a briefcase. I flip the camera to see her face and pause the video. She keeps her head bowed, so I still can’t get a clear shot. I zoom in, screenshot the picture, and then hit play. Vivian was right. That was her. I sigh and pause the video, leaning back in my chair.

There was a specific motive. Maybe she was a hired hit woman? She knew where the cameras were and was smart enough to keep her face out of view. If she knew who Leo was, then there was a high possibility she knew who Vivian was.

Knowing information about one family tends to lead you down a rabbit hole into the others. So why didn’t she go for her, too? If it had been a mob hit, she would have had three people she could have taken out. I get pulled out of my thoughts when my office phone rings.

“Sir, Hudson Hawkins is here to see you.” My assistant’s voice echoes through the office.

“Send him in.” As the door opens to my office, I stand. “Hawkins, I thought you were in Italy,” I say as I reach out and shake his hand.

“I got back last night.” He sits in the leather chair across from my desk and scans the room. “So, I’m guessing your father put you in charge?” He asks, running his hands through his messy black hair.

“Something like that.” I cross my arms at my chest and lean back in my chair until his eyes finally meet mine.

“What did you find?”

He got lucky and managed to get most of his mother’s genes. His eyes are brown and are always filled with a glint of humor. Even though Hawkins tends to be one of the few men with a sense of humor, he is still one of the biggest hard-asses. The few things he did get from his father were the face shape, the same square-sharp jawline, and their hard work ethic.

Hawkins is known to be a party boy. One of many, but he also doesn’t let it get in the way of what needs to be done. He understands where his priorities need to lie. It could make him a powerful ally in finding this woman, now that Leo is dead, the future of the Bronx lies in Hawkins’ hands.

Turning my attention back to the computer, I pull up the evidence my crew has started to collect over the past hour. “Conner found a hair on the pillow; we sent it for DNA analysis, but it came back inconclusive. We’re thinking it was a wig.” I flip my laptop around and show him the blonde we have been trying to track down. He nods as he examines it. “Other than that, we are lost. She might be a hit woman. We don’t even have a clear picture of her face. At this point, I need to ask…” I pause and narrow my eyes. “Did you hire someone? I wouldn’t give two fucks if you did. But I need to know if I’m wasting my time trying to locate her.”

“Fuck No. I don’t want to take over yet.” He sighs and runs his hands down his face. “I thought I had at least another two years before his karma caught up to him.” He rolls his eyes as he sits back, relaxing his broad shoulders. “It could be Manzo.”

“They have that business together. I doubt he would unless he wanted full control. ”

“Could it be Marcello, then?” Hawkins leans forward, resting his elbows on his thighs, and interlocking his fingers.

“Marcello is stupid, but he’s not stupid enough to kill your father. Not only would you give him hell, but that would put him back on Manzo’s radar. He just worked off the debt to him and your father. If he wanted him dead, he would have killed him a long time ago. I think this is an outside job.”

“How’s your father?”

I clench my jaw, “I wouldn’t know. I haven’t heard from him since he left for Spain.”

“Three years ago?” Hudson asks, and I nod. He shifts uncomfortably, pulls out his phone, and shows me an email from his father. “There is a contract between your father and mine…” He pauses and swallows hard, quickly looking away as I meet his gaze. “With your father’s death, I’m supposed to marry Vivian and take a seat on your council, merging the two families. Since he hasn’t been seen in three years…” he trails off.

I scowl at the email as I read it over. “My father sold his only daughter?” I grip the phone a bit tighter as I growl out my response.

“Leo went to Marcello first but said he didn’t have a daughter to sell.”

“And you expect me to follow through with this?” I slide the phone back over to him, trying to keep my tone as civil as possible, but I can feel the rage building.

“I’ll void it… if we become allies. Permanently.”

“You have nothing to offer me.” I lean my elbows on the desk and narrow my eyes at him. “As far as I’m concerned, your family issues are yours and yours alone. The only reason why I agreed to help with your father’s murder was because we have the same interest in finding that briefcase.” I gesture to the paused photo of the woman in the elevator.

“With my father’s death, Manzo will look to take over my territory. I need the reinforcement of your men.” He starts to bounce his leg out of nervousness. “My father ran everything into the ground. We have nothing, and I have to build everything from the ground up again. My territory is weak, and Manzo knows it. He will come after me. He knows I have no allegiance to him. Only my father did.”

“Again, what do you have to offer?” “Your sister’s freedom.”

I let out a low chuckle that holds no humor. “You know as well as I do that contract has no hold on her.”

He shoves the phone back into his pocket and grumbles to himself. “You can use my docks.”

“Try again.” I raise my eyebrows in amusement as he clenches his jaw.

He growls and narrows his eyes. “Fine. You can use the docks, and I’ll give you the space your father wanted for the warehouse. I was going to convert it into a club to deal out of, but it’s yours. Plus, you will have my loyalty.”

I eye him for a moment. The warehouse he is talking about borders our two territories. Our fathers fought over it for a few months before I gained control. I didn’t need the space and didn’t think starting a war over one property was worth it, so I handed it over to the Hawkins family without a second thought. However, even before the fights over gaining control of that warehouse started, our fathers were at war for years because his father turned his back on mine.

Manzo’s father had taken down the family that had ruled over Staten Island when we were kids. Gaining that territory on top of already ruling over all of Brooklyn made them one of the highest- ranking families.

When the war broke out thirteen years ago between the Manzo family and the Marcello family, everyone - including my father- believed that Manzo would defeat Marcello and take over Queens. If that happened, Manzo would control all of New York. It wouldn’t have been impossible to take him down, but without the help of the Hawkins family, we would both be screwed over.

With talk of the war expanding into Manhattan, my father and Leo Hawkins began planning for an attack. Somewhere along the way, Leo betrayed my father and started working with Manzo. We aren’t sure how Marcello weaseled his way out of the debt he owed, and ever since, my father has not trusted any of them.

“What makes you think I can trust you? Why should I?” I finally ask after a few heartbeats.

“Because I’m desperate.” He responds instantly, and I raise my eyebrow.

“And what happens when you aren’t anymore? Your father betrayed mine. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

He stiffens, his fists clenched. “I’m nothing like my father. He was nothing more than a greedy man with the need to destroy everything around him. I can’t lose everything generations of my family worked for. You know that as well as I do. All I’m asking for is an ounce of trust because I need time to fix his mistakes.” He pauses and leans forward, placing his elbows on his knees. “Even through all of our family’s bullshit, I always thought we’d been civil with each other.”

I let out a sigh and nod after mulling it over. “You have six months. After that, you are on your own, but for now, you work for me.” I don’t entirely trust him, but he isn’t wrong. I know better than anyone that you shouldn’t be judged for your father’s actions .

Before our conversation can go any further, we’re interrupted by the buzzing in my pocket. I pull my phone out and connect the call.

My Capo Lincoln’s baritone voice booms through the room. “Boss.” I look up at Hawkins and put my phone on speaker. Lincoln has been my number two since my father disappeared three years ago.

He’s a hard-ass who thinks he’s always right, but I put up with his bullshit most of the time because we’ve been friends since we were kids. Lincoln's father owed my father money from gambling debts, and when my father killed him, and his mother died a year later, he turned to my father for help. My mother was the one who stepped in and allowed him to be part of the family. Since then, he’s done more than prove his worth.

“Updates?” I ask.

“Nothing so far. There are no leads on who the girl is. We should reach out to the other families. Have you talked to Hawkins yet?”

“He’s here with me now.”

There is a pause, “I’ll send you the footage to the city’s cameras. I got it from one of our leaks at the precinct, but I already looked through it. I lost her in the subways headed to Brooklyn. I looked over the video feed from the club…” He snickers, “He walked right into her trap.”

“I think it’s time we pay Marcello a visit,” Hawkins murmurs. “Meet me at my office,” I tell Lincoln and hang up the phone.

It took us about two hours before we finally got to Marcello’s office in Queens. Hawkins has been pacing for the past ten minutes as we sit in the waiting room. “I’m going to kill him.” He hisses .

“We don’t even know it was him.” Conner crosses his arms over his chest and leans against the wall.

“Who else has the balls? He thinks he’s hot shit.” Lincoln sneers as his black hair falls in his face.

“Who does?” Marcello asks as he exits a room behind us. “You,” Hawkins growls and stalks toward him, but Conner grabs

his arm to stop the attack.

“Nice to see you boys again. What’s it been… three years? How’s your father?” He turns to me, completely ignoring Hawkins, making his anger grow. Marcello’s blue eyes beam into mine with a cocky arrogance, and I lift my chin and narrow my eyes.

His brown hair is peppered with gray, his nose is crooked from being broken many times throughout the years, and his beard has turned completely white. I scan his body and smirk, taking in his flabby gut.

“Why don’t you boys come into my office? You can leave your dogs.”

I tilt my head subtly, indicating to Lincoln and Conner they should stay. Strolling into the office, I stand behind the chair in front of Marcello’s desk, putting my hand on its back.

“Now, why don’t we start again.” Marcello clears his throat and turns to Hawkins. “You think I killed your father?” he chuckles and shakes his head, “And what? You team up to try and take me down. You boys are adorable.” He laughs again, “I didn’t kill your father, but I can’t say I’m not glad to see him gone.”

I let Hawkins take control of the interrogation; I only needed to read his body language to determine whether he knew anything. One of my many talents.

“She came to your territory.” Hawkins narrows his eyes and takes a step toward Marcello. “You’re telling me a random woman hunted down a mob boss?” He lets out a sinister laugh, “What I think happened is you hired her to seduce and kill my father. Maybe to get back at Manzo, take down part of his organization… make him weak. We might not know how you escaped from Manzo and are still standing, but it had to be big for him to let you go for killing his father. Maybe he changed his mind and now wants you dead.”

Marcello doesn’t say anything for a moment, looking over the both of us. “Interesting theory, but that’s not true. I don’t need to kill your father; if anything, it hurts me now that he’s dead. I had an agreement with him, and I’ve been dreading the day you take over because I knew you and Domincio would team up,” he gestures to me and scowls. “You’re making him even more powerful. None of us need him to get complete control over the East.” He glances at me, “As for her coming here…” He shrugs. “Brooklyn is big. I can’t control every civilian.”

Hawkins whips out his phone, pulls up the grainy picture of the dirty blonde-haired girl, and slides his phone across the desk. His eyes narrow, and I see recognition cross his face. His jaw tightens, and he clenches his fists.

“Who is she?” I ask as I tighten my grip on the seat.

“You can’t even see her face.” He slides the phone back and glares at Hawkins. “I don’t know who that is.”

Hawkins pulls out his gun, pointing it at Marcello’s forehead. “You’re lying.”

Marcello’s hands curl back into fists, and he shakes his head. “As I said, you can’t see anything in that photo. Now, if you boys will excuse me. I have work to do.” He starts to stand, but Hawkins shoves him back into his seat. Marcello lets out a breath of air, and Hawkins’s finger twitches on the trigger.

“We aren’t finished.” He growls. “She stole that briefcase from him in the process. ”

Marcello’s eyes widen.

“My father gathered information on every single family. It’s enough to send hundreds of my men, Domincio’s, Manzo’s, and yours to prison.” Hawkins pushes the barrel harder into his temple. “All of us will be out of business. Then, the streets will turn red because everyone who didn’t get put away will be fighting for power, so either you tell me what I want to know, or I’ll make you.”

“I didn’t hire her, but I remember seeing her long ago with Manzo.”

“One of Manzo’s whores?” I ask, and Marcello nods. “Why the hell would she kill Leo?”

“I don’t know. As I said, she was still with him for all I knew.” “Do you think Manzo orchestrated it?” Hawkins asks.

“Doubtful. They have been allies for years.”

Hawkins’s finger twitches against the trigger again before he finally pushes off Marcello and steps back. Marcello lets out a heavy breath as Hawkins lowers the gun to his side.

Marcello stands once more, sighing. “Manzo is involved with a bunch of shady shit—more than what we do daily. If I were you, I’d drop it and let Manzo handle it. Now that she’s been caught on camera, it’s only a matter of time before he finds her and deals with her himself. I wouldn’t get in his way.”

Hawkins scoffs, “And the briefcase?”

“I doubt she knows what it is. The best case is that she destroys it.” We exchange glares.

“What’s her name?” I growl, and his jaw ticks at the question, but he refuses to answer, making Hawkins grow impatient. Taking another step toward him. Marcello looks at me for assistance. I give him none .

“I just know the first name…” he looks between us, “Bianca…” He pauses. “The two of you need to leave her be.”

“She killed my father.” Hawkins snarls.

“Don’t act like you care about that son of a bitch. We all know he was a despicable man…”

“It’s about principle.” He interrupts hissing. “I might not have cared about that fucker, but people need to know they can’t fuck with me or my family. You know that’s the way things go. I will find her, and she will pay with her life for taking his.”

Marcello starts tapping his finger on his desk, contemplating how to answer. After a few seconds, my patience grows thin, and I start for the door with Hawkins on my tail.

“Let Manzo deal with it. If you get in his way… he won’t have a problem starting a war over her. She’s his. This is your only warning. She’s not to be touched.”

Without an answer, we leave.

The rest of the day was spent at one of the lower importing docks checking on the recruits. I don’t make it out there very often. We have seven docks in total. Most import the less important things such as banned alcohol, counterfeit cigarettes and cigars, and any other small products we are asked to retrieve.

The central docks, 5, 6, and 7, take the more significant items, such as guns, bombs, and all the drugs you could imagine. My favorite business to run is the casinos. To keep the cops off our trail, my father opened one legal business with every two illegal ones. We own everything from restaurants, apartment buildings, hotels, strip clubs, supermarkets, pharmacies… You name it, we own it.

I spent most of the time looking at the recruits Lincoln has been training for the past few weeks, but nobody stands out. Every dock has a Lead. The Lead is in charge of the men who work under them. They report to Lincoln, who reports to me.

The only way a foot soldier gets promoted to a Lead is if they have had years of experience as a soldier or have undergone rigorous training. I won’t have someone incompetent running my men around like headless chickens. They would all end up dead, or worse, I would most likely lose one of my import docks to their idiocy, costing me millions.

When I finally return to the penthouse, I head upstairs to my room and lay down on my bed, trying to doze off to no avail. I have had the longest-lasting episode of insomnia. Considering how many days I’ve gone without sleep, I should be in the Guinness Book of World Records.

I don’t know how much time passes before I get another phone call, right as I’m about to doze off. I answer, not even bothering to look at the screen. “This better be goddamn important if you’re calling me,” I growl.

“Someone’s in a mood.” I hear Manzo’s cocky voice on the other line.

“What do you need, Manzo,” I grumble as I run my hand down my face.

“I heard you and Hawkins visited my good friend Marcello today.” He waits for a response, but I give him none. “Why don’t you bring your new lap dog to my office tomorrow morning? I’ve been looking for this woman for a few years and think we could help each other out. I heard she found the briefcase. She’s smart, not like any of my other whores. She will figure out what’s inside and will use it to take all of us down. Including you. I get the girl, and you can have whatever treasures are hiding inside.”