35. Chapter 34
Arianna
Leyla had been pouting all morning. Jack was out for a college tour today and from how she was acting, you’d think he’d dumped her.
“Cheer up, Ley. He’ll be back tomorrow. And Tuck agreed to let you, Jack, Pot, and a guy of his choosing come over to hang out by the pool, drink, and get laid so your dry spell will be over.”
That brought a smile to her face for the first time all day.
The bell rang for lunch and we walked out of Mrs. Baker’s class ready for a reset. Something about having to do math right before lunch just sucked.
When we rounded the corner right to bring the cafeteria in sight, I knew our day was going to get worse before it got better when I saw Bradley standing there, leaning against the wall, smirk firmly in place when he saw us.
Bradley pushed off the wall heading right for my bestie. “Leyla. Baby.” He grabbed one of her hands and brought it to his lips, but she pulled it away before they made contact.
“Don’t fucking touch me. And I’m not your baby.” She moved to walk past him, but his hand swung out and grabbed her arm, halting her.
There were too many witnesses, so I couldn’t whip out my gun and threaten him again. “What did she just say about touching her?”
He rolled his eyes at me and if this motherfucker wasn’t six feet under by the end of the day, I may end up in jail myself for his murder.
“Cool your tits, mob brat. We’re in public now, after all.
” He leaned down to whisper, but it was loud enough I knew Leyla heard him too.
“Not like you can pull a gun on me now. Especially with Daddy dead and not able to cover your tracks.”
Leyla jerked her arm away and shoved him. “You keep fucking around and you’ll find out, douche canoe. Let’s go, Ari.”
The crowd around us was growing, so Bradley wisely, for once, decided not to push the issue any further.
Leyla and I headed into the cafeteria, and once we were around the corner, I rounded on Christian and Lewis. “Didn’t feel the need to step in back there? What’s the point of you fucking coming to school if you’re not going to do your goddamn job?”
Christian just smiled. “Need me to come to your rescue now, princess? I thought you liked taking care of shit on your own.”
He was right. I hated men jumping in to protect me. But it wasn’t me I’d been worried about back there, it was Ley.
But like the ride or die she truly was, she scoffed at my guard.
“She’s a mother fucking queen and you better never forget it.
” Grabbing my arm, she turned us and we headed to our table.
Her voice dropped low and I knew no one else could hear it because I barely could.
“What the fuck was he talking about back there? When did you pull a gun on him and why didn’t I know? ”
I sighed and matched her voice level. “It was out of my hands. The order came from your dad.”
We sat at the table, Potter already beating us there, but otherwise it was empty.
“That’s no excuse and you know it. We’re fucking best bitches forever.
My dad doesn’t get to come between that.
” Her eyes whipped to Potter, whose eyebrows shot up and he looked a little nervous.
“Did you know about her run in with Bradley that apparently had her mafia princess side coming out?” He pursed his lips and that was all the answer she needed.
“Of fucking course.” She looked between the two of us.
“Is this why we have guards now? Did Potter not actually get jumped and robbed in town? That story never did make sense.”
I’d hated lying to her so much and she was right: I never should have let her dad make that call. “I’ll tell you everything later. When we don’t have to worry about prying ears.”
She nodded. “Thank you.”
Potter breathed a sigh of relief. Leyla was not one to trifle with when she was pissed. “So what brought that up?”
“Bradley tried to stop her to talk. Grabbed her by the hand, then again by the arm after she told him not to touch her. When I tried to intervene, he decided to spill our secret in front of her. Probably thought she knew.”
“I should have known.” The tone of her voice told me she wasn’t going to let this go anytime soon.
Bradley should have already been taken care of and the fact that we were still sitting here apparently twiddling our thumbs was putting me on edge. I’d passed off the info from Sandro a week ago and still… nothing.
Potter’s phone dinged with a text and I saw the notification on the screen before he picked it up.
Dad
Just checked your grades. Great job on your project.
Atlas was a great dad, all the Givenchy men were, but as far as I knew, he wasn’t one that kept up with his kids' grades. Especially Potter. That meant the text was code for something.
I raised an eyebrow, causing Potter to smirk and wink at me. That was all I needed to know exactly what that text was about.
Bradley’s family was going down tonight.
Tucker took my hand in his as we walked through the door to his parents house.
Ashley had planned a family dinner for tonight and said she wanted all her kids at home.
It happened at least once a week so I hadn’t been suspicious, but now I knew it was a cover to have us all together when the news broke.
We were either going to relish in our victory, or start a new plan. Either way, it wouldn’t raise any red flags to the outside world that we were together now.
“Tuck!” Damon ran into the room and almost tackled my husband with the force of his hug.
I absolutely loved how much his little brother loved and looked up to him. It warmed my heart that he didn’t feel the need to hide that love either. Damon could have no better role model than his father and big brother.
My husband hugged him back and smiled as he pulled away and ruffled his hair. “Sup man? How was school?”
Damon’s cheeks pinked. “It was fine.”
Karly appeared from the living room, a shit eating grin on her face. “He has a crush.”
“Shut up, Karly!”
“Hey, don’t yell at your sister.” Zephyr walked out of his office headed towards us. “We show respect to women.” He took us both into a hug before motioning towards the living room. “Thought we might catch the news while we wait for supper.”
I saw Leyla roll her eyes when we walked in. “Why we have to watch the boring ass news, I’ll never understand.”
Zeph placed a kiss on the top of her head before taking the seat next to her and snatching the remote from her hand. “Because, my dear daughter, you never know when there will be some interesting information that could come in handy.”
I had to agree with my friend. The news was boring as fuck. Normally. Tonight, however, I was very much looking forward to it. Zephyr turned to NBS, the National Broadcasting Service, the Blackwood’s most widespread station.
Unfortunately, we were all almost bored to tears by the time they finished the weather, traffic reports, and a story on a park that was getting repaired in a poor part of New York.
The older man, I think his name was Nick, turned to the camera and sat down his papers. “In other news, we at NBS pride ourselves on bringing the hard hitting stories and making sure the public is aware of what’s going on in the world.”
The blonde with overly teased hair nodded.
“That’s right, Nate.” Guess I was wrong.
“That’s why tonight, we’re bringing you a story about corruption and the sex trade in the Bronx.
We were informed today that Carter Pinkston, well known in New York for his role in importing and exporting, as well as setting up a major charity to help homeless youth, has actually been working with the Carbone crime family to traffic people into the sex trade. ”
“That’s right, Sally. Documents show not only pictures of meet ups, but audio recordings as well as a paper trail that link Pinkston to some of the lieutenants of the Carbone family.
These documents also show evidence that they have been paying off the Bronx police assistant chief to make sure that the patrol officers are always out of the area when shipments are moved in and out. ”
Leyla’s eyes widened. “Holy shit.” Her head turned towards me, but she didn’t need to open her mouth to ask the question. I knew she was wondering if we were behind this, so I gave her a subtle nod.
Yes, it was probably safer if she didn’t know, but I was done keeping secrets from my BBF.
When Potter suggested setting Blackwood up, I knew that we had to target one of the five families.
It was the only way to guarantee they went into hiding.
If they just posted something that would get them in legal trouble, they’d fight it.
I mean, they might lose some money in the end, but it wouldn’t be detrimental enough.
The five families operated outside of the law, so they were the ones that would scare him into hiding. It would also almost guarantee their untimely death, something I was personally rooting for.
When I brought it up to Sandro, he agreed wholeheartedly.
This would give him the opportunity to take down Carter Pinkston, punishing him for betraying our family, while also taking out some of the Carbone leadership.
Sandro said he thought they were chomping at the bit to possibly make a move on some of our territory.
I was also thrilled with the idea because it would cut down on the sex trade in New York.
While it wouldn’t go away completely or forever, even slowing it down for a while was a move in the right direction and maybe by the time Luka took over for the Accardis and Dante for the Pesaros, between three of the families they could run the sex trade out of New York.
It was a lofty dream, but it wasn’t one I would give up on.