17. Damiano
“Did we really have to come all the way out here for this?”
“I told you—this is the only store in Chicago that sells proper rabbit supplies. Edible hay is hard to get in the city, but the guy that owns this shop orders it special for me.”
We’re sitting in my Rover parked outside the pet store Paige insisted we come to. She was about to go by herself, and take the L no less, but no fucking way I’m letting her head into Falco Famiglia territory—or anywhere outside of Galliano territory—alone until this shit is worked out and I know she’s safe.
I was paranoid as fuck just taking her to the Lululemon in Lake View to buy some clothes, and that’s as deep into our territory as it gets. Paige didn’t seem to notice me looking over my shoulder the whole time we were there. She was too busy flipping the fuck out over me paying $150 per pair of leggings and $80 each for T-shirts.
But the Christmas-morning look on her face when she carried her two shopping bags out—bags she clutched to her chest like they were a newborn baby when I offered to carry them for her—made them worth every penny.
And dropping $900 on new clothes for her was the least I could do. Plus, I liked taking her shopping and buying her shit. I liked putting that smile on her face.
But now she’s torturing me in ass-hugging camo-print leggings and a pink baby tee that shows an inch of her tan tummy. Her silky blonde hair’s in two long braids. She’s fucking perfection. I didn’t want her to leave my bedroom, let alone leave the apartment.
Yet here we are, deep in Falco territory. The Gallianos aren’t at war with the Falcos, but they’re more aligned with the Bagliateris than with us, so I want to get the fuck out of here as soon as we can.
“We need to be in and out in five minutes. Yes?”
“I’ll be quick.”
I look down at my wrist to check the time, but realize Paige is still wearing my watch. I haven’t asked for it back. I like seeing it on her wrist, seeing her smile whenever she looks down at it.
Given how much she freaked out over the cost of her leggings, I wonder what she’d do if she knew that watch set me back $18K.
“I mean it, Paige. I don’t like being in this part of the city.” And I especially hate driving into another Famiglia’s territory in my Range Rover. On the rare occasions I leave our territory, I usually take my Ducati. My motorcycle stands out just as much as a Galliano-signature hunter green Range Rover, but the maneuverability in traffic can’t be beat. Plus it’s easier to shoot someone from a bike than from inside a tin box.
We cross the street and enter the pet store. It smells like stale animal piss. Caged birds squawk, drowning out the buzz of some radio talk show. The linoleum tiles are cracked and dirty, the acoustic ceiling tiles are water-stained and yellow. This place is a shithole.
Paige practically skips to an aisle near the back. “Hey, Roger!” she says to the clerk without stopping to talk to him.
“Oh, hey, Paige. . . Uh. . . How’s it going?” He stands up and leans forward over the counter to watch her ass as she passes. “You need my help with anything today?”
I clear my throat loudly to get his attention. “Focus on helping me. What do I need to housetrain a rabbit?”
He looks me up and down, then sags back down onto his stool. He picks up the copy of the Tribune he was reading. “Housetrain a rabbit? Just keep it in a cage. Change the lining every few days. It’ll be fine.”
“Naah, man. I want to let it hop around my place most of the time, don’t want to keep a wild creature in a cage.”
He shrugs. “You could try a cat litter box. Third aisle.”
This kid isn’t nearly as interested in helping me as he was in helping Paige. “Thanks.”
I head to aisle three. I make eye contact with Paige over the top of the aisle and throw her a wink.
She winks back and tries to hide a smile. Halfway down the aisle, I see her wink at a hamster. God, she’s fucking adorable. And waking up with her this morning—waking up finding myself wrapped around her like a fucking python with my arms and legs all pulling her in tight—it woke something up inside of me. Something that feels whole, that feels so fucking good.
I head over to the counter to put the litter box down. Out the front window, I spot two guys eyeing my SUV. One’s on his phone, the other’s looking around. Definitely Famiglia men, but not my Famiglia.
Adrenaline starts to surge through me, giving me that tingly energy I get when I’m on deck, when I’m about to throw down. When I’m about to conquer.
Seems like they know it’s my truck but don’t know which store I’m in. That buys me a few minutes.
My senses sharpen, my blood pumps faster, my pulse throbs. My balls pull up tight, into fighter mode. My body reminds me I’m fucking invincible and have one singular focus: obliterate all threats.
These shitheads are within fifty yards of Paige, but I guarantee they’re not getting any closer.
I jog-walk back to her. She’s still only picked out two things. I step right behind her, pulling her back into me, her ass in these worth-every-penny leggings rubbing against me.
She sighs, then hugs my arms without dropping her items. “I know you said to hurry. I’m trying to. I am.”
“Change of plans, angel. Take all the time you need.” I kiss her neck. She tastes like my shampoo, but a Paige-flavored version. “I’m going to make a phone call outside. You stay in the store so I don’t lose you, yes?”
“Yes, boss. But be quick, I hear we’re in a hurry.”
One more nibble on her neck, moving her sexy-as-fuck braid out of the way. I walk toward the front of the store, adjusting my dick that just woke up to say hi to our girl.
“Hey, man.” I lean on the counter and speak quietly to the clerk. “Paige’s very recent ex is outside. The dickhead won’t leave her alone. I’m going to go have a little talk with him. You think you can keep her in the store while I’m gone? If she heads toward the door, tell her she forgot something and send her to the back to look for it, yes?”
“Yeah, man. I’ll keep Paige busy.” He nods his head slowly like a fucking creep.
My fists tighten with the urge to rupture his windpipe. He’s just a college kid with a crush . She didn’t pay any attention to him when we got here, and there’s an actual threat outside. Let it go, man. Let it go. Deal with the actual problem outside first.
I leave the store. I took note of the alley one storefront away when we arrived. That’ll be a decent place to dance with these fuckers. I pull the hood of my jacket on, then wolf-whistle to get their attention as I tuck into the alley.
By the time they cross the street, I’m a few feet into the alley, leaning against the wall. Even at midday, the tall buildings on either side cast shadows, leaving it dark in here.
“You call for backup?” I ask, giving away my location.
Their heads jerk in my direction. “We don’t need backup, asshole,” the shorter one tells me, spitting on the ground.
The taller one points a 9mm at me.
I have my Glock, but the thing is loud as fuck. Not ideal for 11:00 a.m. with a decent amount of foot traffic in the area. Bianca, though, she’s a quiet girl. Barely whispers on the thrust in, the softest gurgle on the way out.
I push off the wall. “You’re here to kill me?”
He nods.
“Then you’re going to need backup. Go ahead, give them a call. I’ll wait.”
They look at each other, giving me the opening to lunge at the one with his gun out. One clean punch to his throat with my fist wrapped around Bianca’s handle, making it a punch with the equivalent of brass knuckles on.
He’s done.
The second one takes a step backward, turns to run. Pussy .
I grab a handful of his hair, jam Bianca’s blade up against his throat. “How long until your backup arrives?”
“We didn’t. . . call for. . . any.”
“Fuck you. Of course you did. How long till they’re here?”
I can feel him swallow hard. He’s either stubborn or stalling. I don’t have time for either. The last thing I need is Paige to come looking for me and see me kill someone.
Scratch that. The absolute last thing I need is for their backup to arrive and head into the pet store while I’m in this alley waiting for this prick to piss his pants.
I step my body back away from him, holding him at arm’s length as I plunge Bianca into his neck. I push him away from me as I pull her out so that none of his blood sprays me.
He hits the ground twitching.
I wipe Bianca off on the first guy’s shirt, also checking that he wasn’t just passed out.
I pull the guy’s wallet from his pocket. Address on his driver’s license is only three blocks from here. Fuck , I was hoping these were Bagliateri guys that somehow wandered into Falco territory, but so much for that. Rob’s going to be pissed as fuck I took out two Falco guys, but they started it.
I grab the guy’s phone, then take a quick video of his face with my phone. I’ll email the video to Renatta with a note asking her to drop that into the 3D modeling software she created for me so I can get into guys’ phones even after their faces are no longer available. Most facial recognition software stops recognizing people pretty quick after they find themselves in my workshop. And they never just tell me their codes the easy way. Renatta took all of twenty minutes to create the perfect software solution for me.
And thank god phones switched over to face recognition. Salvo thought it was hilarious this one time to switch around all the fingers and phones I had paired together, and it took me an hour to get them all matched up again.
Normally, I’d do some amount of clean up even in an alley, at least spend time checking for cameras and shit, but not with Paige all alone in the store. I throw two middle fingers up in the air in case there are any cameras, then head back inside.
“You got a sink?” I ask the pet store clerk. There isn’t much blood on my hands, but I’m not touching Paige until I’ve scrubbed them.
“Bathroom’s in the back. Turn left at the fish tanks.”
I pass Paige, still picking items out.
Her arms are completely full, and she’s trying to grab something else. “There you are.” She throws me a huge smile framed by her messy braids, the light streaming in the window behind her making her glow.
I freeze mid-step. The glimmer in her eyes knocks me on my ass. It leaves me speechless, powerless. This girl is my kryptonite. It takes me a long second to make sounds come out. “You get everything you need?”
“Almost. Just one more thing. Can you grab some of this?” She pushes her armful of stuff toward me.
“Yeah. Give me a sec.” I hold up my non-bloody right hand, “I picked up one of the hamsters and it took a piss on me. I’ll be right back. Then we need to go.”
She bites her lip and nods, but I’m pretty sure she’s going to keep shopping until she’s done shopping no matter how much I rush her.
I’m back forty-five seconds later and, as expected, she hasn’t moved toward the register.
Which is actually good because I look toward the front of the store and see what I assume are the backup guys the first two called crossing the street. Heading right for the pet store.
“Did you see the fish tanks in the back?” I ask Paige. “I’ve always thought about getting some fish. Go see if you like any of them.”
“ You want a fish? You don’t seem like the fish type.”
“No?” I put my hands on her waist, against her warm skin and nudge her toward the back as I squeeze past her to get to the front of the store. “Not like a goldfish, but maybe one of the fighting ones?”
“ Ooooh . You mean the ones that are really pretty but like to be completely alone and are vicious as hell when another one gets too close? That actually sounds about right for you.”
“Angel, you call me ‘pretty’ and ‘vicious’ in the same sentence, and I may take you here and now.” I tug on her braid with one hand, slide my other hand up her side, rubbing the outside of her perfect right tit knowing that with her hands full of pet supplies she can’t do much to stop me.
She leans into my hand slightly and giggles. “I’ll go pick a betta for you. You take some of this up to the register.”
She dumps all her crap into my arms, then I watch her pert ass as she walks away. Is that in play, or is it off limits? She was teasing me with it last night, but didn’t actually say yes or no. Please let it be in play. We can work our way up to it. I can be a patient man.
Paige turns into the dark hallway near the bathroom. It’s illuminated only by the lights from the fish tanks. With her out of sight, I adjust my dick, shake my head to refocus, then move to the front of store.
I drop all her supplies on the counter and lean in toward the clerk. “Keep Paige by the fish tanks until I come get her.” I pull my money clip from my pocket and toss it to him.
“Huh?”
“Go to her now and keep her back there. And keep your mouth fucking closed.”
He watches me pull Bianca from my belt clip, then knocks over his stool as he scrambles toward the back of the store.
I tuck behind a rack near the front door. The birds screech and squawk even louder with me here, but nothing I can do about that.
The tiny bell over the door jingles as it opens and again as the door closes.
It’s the last sound the first guy hears, unless his brain had time to register the sound of Bianca puncturing his jugular and blood spurting out.
“Give me a minute,” I whisper to the second guy as I drag the first guy’s jerking body down an aisle so Paige won’t see him.
“I’m not waiting for you to be ready for me to hit you.”
“Professional courtesy, man. Come on.” I dump the first guy in the corner, step over him and move toward the second guy.
“Fuck you, Damiano.” He pulls a billy club from his jacket, snapping his wrist out and down so it telescopes out. Those things hurt like hell. I really don’t want to be hit with that. A solid whack from one can break a bone, easy.
“You hit me with that , I’ll kill you so fucking slow your teeth will have time to rot. Let’s go bare hands.”
“Fuck you. I am definitely hitting you with this.”
So be it. The aisles in here are pretty narrow. He won’t have much room to swing, won’t get much momentum. Another advantage of my beautiful Bianca—she’s the in-and-out type, not the big swinging type.
“Hey, Dom?” Paige yells from the back of the store. “What color do you want? You get to pick. They have, like, every color.”
I turn to answer. “Gree—”
My head snaps back from this asshole striking me in the jaw.
Fuuuuck.
Fuck. When was the last time I got blindsided by someone standing right in front of my fucking face?
Never. The answer is fucking never.
I shake my head to reset. Then I glare at the motherfucker while I answer Paige. “Green, white, or red. Those are always my color choices, in that order.” Good old il Tricolore.
“They have red. But this blue one is really cute,” she shouts.
“Whatever you pick will be perfect.”
“ Whatever you pick will be perfect ,” the guy mocks in a girly voice. “No one told me the Galliano enforcer was a big fat pussy.”
“Yeah? How’s it going to feel to get fucked by a big fat pussy?”
The prick swings his club at me again but doesn’t get much power behind it. I let him connect, knowing the momentum will turn his body somewhat to the left. The move exposes his aorta, but those bleed like a bitch, spewing all the fuck over the place. Easy target, but at this close distance, I’d take a bath.
Instead, I slash the back of his hand, making him drop the club. I spin him around. Pull up tight against his neck with my forearm to choke him out. The guy fights me, knocking a ton of shit off the shelves, but my grip is solid and this isn’t my first rodeo. After twenty seconds of exerting himself while I crush his windpipe, he’s done.
If I were alone, I’d leave him passed out and be long gone by the time he comes to. But he came at me with Paige nearby and he was pretty much a dick. I snap his neck. That’s almost impossible to manage on someone who’s fighting back, but he’s passed out, so it’s easy.
I drag him to the same aisle as his buddy and kick all the shit he knocked off the shelves into a corner.
And just in time too, as Paige and the clerk come walking up to the register. She’s carrying a blue fish in a baggie in a little bowl.
The store takes Apple Pay, which is good since I tossed the clerk my wad of cash earlier and no way I’d let Paige pay for anything while we’re together. The cat litter box does a pretty good job of holding most of the shit Paige picked out, so I’m carrying that in one arm and a small bale of hay in the other. Paige is carrying my new betta that she’s already named Bravo.
I’m sensing a theme with her pets’ names, and I’m fucking into it.
We’re almost out of the store, I’m almost about to let out the breath I’m holding in, when Paige freezes in her tracks. “Oh my god. What are they doing there?” She’s pointing with my fish to the two guys slumped in a pile at the end of the first aisle.
“Who?” I play dumb.
“Those guys.”
“Weren’t they here when we got here? Homeless guys taking a nap, maybe?”
“What? No.”
“Weren’t those guys already there, Roger?” I stare at him so fucking hard his balls are probably shriveling up.
“Uh. . . Yeah. We’re letting homeless guys sleep in here now. Gives them somewhere warm and keeps the animals company.”
“Oh, Roger, that’s really sweet,” Paige whispers as if she doesn’t want to wake the ‘sleeping’ guys.
Roger beams at Paige’s praise.
“It’s not that sweet. Let’s go.”