21. Chapter 21
Connor
“Ineed a fucking beer.” I smacked the counter, earning a raised brow from the bartender and from the Cassidys. Luca’s excitement drifted to the bar before he sauntered over.
“Rough night, buddy?” He clapped me on the shoulder and guffawed, because he already knew the answer to that. My stomach soured. Rough enough that I was ready for a beer at noon.
Before the glass of golden ale hit the wood, the door behind us slammed open. “Connor!” Ronan Moretti was shouting before the door closed behind him, and Enzo cracked his knuckles and followed. At the same time as I groaned, Mickey and Luca looked at me.
“I swear, I’ve had more Morettis in my bar in the last month than I’ve ever wanted,” Mickey grumbled. Giaco narrowed his eyes when he realized it meant Grace had been here. If only he knew. It would be rage none of us would survive.
“We don’t want to be here either. Relax. We won’t be staying long.” Then, Giaco turned to me, and I clenched my hands into fists. “We don’t want our sister here anymore either.”
Ronan nodded. “In fact, we don’t want her near you at all. Stay away from her.”
“Excuse me?” I sucked in a deep breath through clenched teeth.
“You heard me,” Ronan said. “You and Grace are done. You’re never seeing her again.”
The tension in the room dimmed the already dim lighting.
“You want to try and stop me?” I stepped through the beam of light that carried speckles of dust toward Ronan and Giaco.
They puffed their chests more with each step, and when they took the first step in my direction, Mickey and Luca stiffened.
It wasn’t their battle to fight, but they weren’t going to let any battle happen in their bar.
“Gladly,” Ronan said, stepping past Giaco. “We know you’re dangerous, and if you hurt our sister, we’ll take care of you for the last time.”
“You’re so worried I’m going to hurt your sister, but last night, when your sister came crying to me, who made her cry then? Maybe I should be the one threatening you.” My chest heaved before I smirked. “But don’t worry. I made her forget all about you guys.”
Giaco charged forward, Enzo energetically on his heels. “What the fuck did you just say?”
I took a calm, cool breath and smirked. “You can’t control your sister. She’s stubborn and independent, and she knows I’ll always take good care of her. What exactly did you think was going to happen, coming here today?”
“We’re simply reminding you if you misstep, you’ll regret it.” Giaco smacked Ronan on the chest and looked toward the door.
“Is that all you came here for, Moretti? To harass my guy for fucking your sister?” Mickey interjected, stepping from the shadow and overtaking the room with his presence.
“Or did you also come here to remind me you have no problem encroaching on my territory? Starting in my bar and ending with property that doesn’t belong to you? ”
When Giaco stepped forward, the rest of the room braced itself. “You want to watch your fucking mouth, Cassidy? I’m clearly not in the mood today.”
“Oh? She really is a soft spot for you, isn’t she?
” He stepped forward like a predator setting eyes on his prey, and, in this case, his prey wasn’t going to just lay down and surrender.
“Big brother doesn’t like having something that’s yours taken from you, huh?
Maybe you should’ve thought of that one earlier. ”
“What the hell are you talking about? Are you still this mad about some fucking rentals?” he asked through gritted teeth. Giaco knew he was. Everyone could feel the tension from his jaw grinding. Behind him, Ronan and Enzo rolled their hands into nearly matching fists.
Mickey glanced briefly over his shoulder at the rest of us before he smirked lightly.
“I think you know exactly what I’m talking about.
” He brushed the shoulder of his jacket, even though we all knew there was nothing there.
Mickey was meticulous about the details in his appearance—there wasn’t even a wrinkle.
When he stepped up to Giaco, he met him eye to eye, and the room held its tension.
“You keep taking from me, and there are always going to be consequences.”
“I didn’t take a thing from you.” He knew better. Every property he held the deed to was stolen in Mickey’s eyes, and, based on the way Luca buzzed like an angry guard dog behind him, he felt the same.
“Bull shit!” Mickey’s voice boomed, but nobody cowered in a room like this one. “How many properties did it take before you weaseled your way into my market? Who told you where the exchange was happening? Tell me who gave you the storage location.”
“What exchange?” Giaco’s eyes narrowed with confusion. Ronan and Enzo exchanged a look—one that dropped my stomach a few inches. “Cassidy, what the fuck are you talking about?”
When Mickey spoke again, spit flew out of his mouth with his words and rage.
“The apartments were one thing. Sliding into businesses in the neighborhood like the snakes you are and stealing my clients from under my nose was another.” He was close enough to Giaco at this point, I was sure Giaco could taste his breakfast on his breath.
“Stealing my money is going to get you or someone you care very much about killed. You don’t want to plan another funeral. Do you catch my drift?”
“Steal what?”
Ronan stepped forward like he hoped to defuse the tension that only grew stiffer. “We aren’t thieves. We don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Mickey reached to the table next to him, grabbing a mostly empty glass and hurling it across the bar.
It shattered against the old bricks lining the wall, and shards rained around us.
The Morettis didn’t flinch, but Luca joined the folds, placing his hand on Mickey’s shoulder before he could grab another glass. Or worse.
“You and your guys started coming around this area more often, and we started having more issues. Now, we’ve got weight missing from a recent shipment,” Luca explained. Giaco and Ronan narrowed their eyes suspiciously. “Thirty pounds of it.”
“We don’t do, sell, or steal drugs, Luca,” Ronan said, a lot calmer than his clenched fists led me to believe he would. “We didn’t take a goddamn thing.”
“You really expect us to believe that?” Mickey growled, and Luca stood taller.
“You guys have been trying to shut us down and run us out for years, and your father and uncles before you, and your grandfather before them.” Luca slowly circled the men like a hawk. “Why should we believe that anything has changed?”
Giaco smirked, following Luca’s movements from the corner of his eye. “Oh, that hasn’t changed. We want you all gone, and you can take your whole dirty crew with you.” Then, he looked at me. “All of them. You bring nothing but trouble.”
I glared at him as Luca chuckled. “You say that like you’re not a group of well-dressed criminals yourself. What made you so high and mighty?”
“Maybe,” Giaco said, leaning forward until he was almost nose to nose with Luca, “it’s because we never had to hurt innocent people to get to where we are.” Then, he stood straight and took a decided step backward.
Mickey rolled his eyes. “You say that…”
“I say it because I can back it up. We’re out of here.” But not before he shot me a warning glance. “You stay the fuck away from our sister, or your friends here are going to be looking for you too. I mean it.”
“You can try, Giaco, but I think we both know I’m not going anywhere.” I pictured her tear-streaked face and the way her shoulders dropped before I walked away from her last night. Even distraught, she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. Guilt rolled through me.
“Yeah, we’ll see.” The three of them walked to the door, but before he opened it, Giaco looked back over his shoulder.
“And Mickey—if you ever threaten me again, I’ll burn everything you have ever loved to the ground.
Starting with this bar.” Enzo grinned next to him like he was ready to light the match.
When the door slammed behind them, the tension didn’t break.
Mickey and Luca were static with frustration that could be felt through the wooden floors.
“Can’t say I blame ya, Murphy,” Brian said, breaking the silence and stepping out of the shadow he had been monitoring the situation from.
“The Moretti girl is so cute, I’d probably fight those angry fuckers for a taste of her sweet cunt too. Know what I mean?”
He nudged Luca, looking proud of himself for exactly half a second before my hand curled into a tight fist and launched at his face. My knuckle cracked against the bridge of his nose, and the blood that ran down his lip stained my skin too.
“Oh, fuck, Connor!” he yelled, bringing his fingers to the stream of blood. Then, he grinned, and when he did, blood dripped from his top lip. “She’s really got ya. Must be a really sweet cunt.” He snarled, proud of himself when I lunged forward.
I threw my fist toward his face again, but he dodged it, ducking to the left and bringing his own hands up. “Come on, pretty boy. Try and hit me again.” That was the thing about hitting Brian—he was the biggest fucker here.
“Go fuck yourself, Brian,” I grunted, punching him again. Before my knuckles met his cheekbone, he put his hand up, closing it around my fist.
“What are you gonna do, huh?” He twisted my wrist, folding my arm back until I hissed.
I kicked my heel backward, feeling his knee pop beneath the sole of my shoe and inhaling the harsh exhale that left his chest. Brian let go of me only long enough to grab a hold of my shirt and yank me backward.
“Maybe I should let your little fuck doll watch me kick your ass. Show her what a real protector looks like.”
When his fist smashed into my face, my vision blurred and turned red.
“That will never happen.” I grabbed Brian’s arm, pulling it and flipping him.
Then, I put my foot over his throat, grinding my shoe against his windpipe while his eyes narrowed.
“That woman belongs to me and only me, and if you ever try to lay a hand on her, I’ll remove that hand from your body, one layer of skin at a time. And I’ll gladly let her watch that.”
I pushed my foot down harder, and the red filter over my vision grew darker the wider his eyes got. For a moment, the rest of the bar around us faded. It was just me, Brian, and the gurgled threat hanging between us.
“Get the fuck off him,” Luca snapped, wrapping his arm around my neck and pulling me back. “What is wrong with you? Jesus! She’s just a girl! He’s your family.”
“She’s my family. He’s a dead man waiting for his last day.” My chest heaved while images of Grace rolled through my head like a montage, ending with her broken face walking out of my front door.
Mickey stepped in front of me, breaking my daze when he gripped my jacket.
“Murphy, get the fuck out of here. Don’t come back until you’ve calmed down.
” He shook his head, taking a deep, slow breath to maintain his half-assed composure.
“You need to get your priorities straight, or I’ll solve this problem for all of us. ”
“Now you’re threatening me too?” I asked. If only he had any clue who he was messing with.
“You’re damn fucking straight I am.” Mickey waved his hands and dismissed me. “Get the hell out of my bar.”