Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
NICCO (THE DON)
Iwoke up without the aid of an alarm. It was just like another night at the Palladium.
I didn’t get much sleep, and I slept less now that I was the don.
I looked over at Marie Ignacio lying beside me.
She’d been back from Wisconsin for three days now, and the suite already showed signs of her return.
The clothes she brought back were neatly hung in the closet.
Her toiletries were arranged on the bathroom counter.
I studied her face. She was peaceful in sleep.
I considered how quickly she’d settled back into my routine.
It was almost as if she hadn’t been thrown in a trunk, kidnapped and held hostage.
I reached for my cell phone on the nightstand.
Marie stirred beside me, her eyes opening slowly, adjusting to the morning light.
She always woke when I did, another habit she’d developed during our time together.
Her dark hair was tousled from sleep, framing her face in a way that made her look younger than her thirty-two years.
“Good morning,” she said, her voice still hoarse with sleep.
I just looked at her and then went back to scrolling through my overnight messages. The first one was from my wife asking if I was coming home.
I glanced around the hotel suite, noting the subtle changes since her return.
An unpacked suitcase stood in the corner, lid open, half-emptied.
A few children’s toys, small plastic dinosaurs and a well-loved stuffed rabbit had been carefully tucked onto a shelf.
She was making herself at home, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.
Marie sat up in bed, pulling the sheet with her to cover herself. Her eyes followed me as I moved around the room. Still, I could sense something brewing behind those dark eyes.
“I brought my laptop back from Wisconsin,” she said, breaking the comfortable silence. “Your security people have all of our electronics. I was thinking I could email Tom’s old address? I know he probably won’t respond, but I’d like to try it for you.”
“For me?” She was trying to butter me up with her words.
Tom. Her brother. The one loose end I hadn’t been able to tie up. He killed my father, and I couldn’t find him. My soldiers couldn’t find him. My Triad allies in Chicago couldn’t find him. At this point, I was willing to try anything to get any information about his whereabouts.
“You’re willing to set your brother up?” I asked, moving toward the bathroom.
“Yes, I want to be free of all of this.”
“I’m going to kill him. You know this.”
“Tom is my brother by blood, but I care more about my kids. I wasn’t brainwashed by Fredo. I hated him. He was a monster, and he made Tom a monster just like him.”
“Your mother is dead. Tom is the only family you have left.”
“I have my kids.” She clarified.
“If I let you email your brother, how do I know you’re not going to try to warn him?”
“I want out. You can trust me. My kid’s safety is more important to me.
I considered her request as I stepped into the marble shower.
The hot water hit my shoulders, easing tension I hadn’t realized was there.
The water pressure was perfect, as always.
I expected nothing less at my own hotel.
As I washed, I weighed the pros and cons of her request. Allowing contact with her brother was a risk.
I didn’t know what Tom knew. I needed to end this.
I needed to avenge of father’s death. So far, Marie had been cooperative.
I stepped out of the shower, wrapping a towel around my waist. I walked back into the bedroom. Marie had moved to the edge of the bed, watching me with those careful dark eyes.
“I will get your laptop. You can send the email tonight,” I decided, moving to the closet. “When I’m here. I’ll need to read it first.”
Relief washed over her face. “Thank you, Mr. Bregoli.”
I selected a charcoal gray suit, one of my favorites.
The Italian-made fabric was smooth under my fingers.
The craftsmanship was impeccable. I laid the suit on the bed and checked my phone again.
Three messages from Cenzo about the LaGrassa negotiations.
One from the manager at the Othello about casino floor numbers.
Nothing from Lord. I’d expected that. He was still pretending that his breakup wasn’t affecting him.
Marie watched me dress, her eyes tracking my movements. She’d been quiet since her return, and even more obedient. I knew what was coming next from the way she straightened her spine, gathering courage.
“I was also thinking,” she began, “my kids, enrolling them in school? They’re falling behind.”
There it was. The real request. I finished knotting my tie before turning to face her.
“No schools,” I said firmly. “Not yet.”
“But they need—”
I raised a hand, stopping her mid-sentence. “I’ll hire someone. A private tutor who can come to the Palladium and homeschool them. Someone discrete.”
“They need friends, interaction with other kids.” There was a hint of desperation in her voice now. “They need normalcy. They were left alone in Milwaukee.”
“But they’re here now. I got your kids and brought them here to you.” I glared at her as I grabbed my Glock off the nightstand. “You got your kids’ birth certificates and the other shit. That’s what you wanted, so shut the fuck up.”
“I know. Thank you. I still want to stay in Vegas and make this our home. There is nothing left for me in Wisconsin.”
“Listen, I don’t know what I’m going to do with you.” My tone was gentle but left no room for negotiation. “Until I locate your brother, the children stay here with me.” That and a huge cock was all I could offer Marie at this time.
“Yes, I understand.”
“Don’t fuckin’ piss me off. You only breathe air because I let you.”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Bregoli.” Marie’s eyes dropped to the floor, a sign of submission I’d come to expect. “I understand.”
“You’ll get a teacher for your kids.” I said. “Someone who can teach them whatever they need. Math, science, art. Whatever kids learn these days.” I tucked my Glock into the holster under my arm.
A small smile touched her lips. “Thank you.”
I finished dressing, checking my appearance in the full-length mirror. Perfect. Professional. Powerful. Marie remained on the edge of the bed, watching my reflection.
“Will you be back for dinner?” she asked.
“No, I’m not eating with you.” I turned to face her. “I’ll return tonight with your laptop so you can email your dead brother.”
She nodded, accepting this as she accepted all things because she didn’t have a choice.
I’d been with enough women to recognize the signs.
Was Marie an obedient soldier, or was she biding her time, waiting for an opportunity to flee?
I had possessions of all the things she brought back from Wisconsin.
I made a mental note to have someone check her browser history and review her previous cell phone calls.
I couldn’t call on Tino LaGrassa, the best hacker in the business, because he had been killed in Chicago.
That was just another situation I had to deal with.
My arm rose in the air, and I watched her scurry over and take my hand to kiss my ring.
For now, I believed in her immediate loyalty. Not completely, but enough to appease me for the time being. I pressed a kiss on her forehead. I saw this gesture of possession masked as affection. She leaned into it slightly, playing her part in our carefully constructed dynamic.
I paused in the doorway, looking back at her. She appeared small in the enormous suite, surrounded by luxury that was as much a cage as a comfort. Marie was still my kidnappee. There was an armed guard right outside the door.
I stepped out of the Palladium’s private elevator with Punchy.
We went down into the underground garage where my bulletproof Bentley truck waited, engine running.
Lefty, one of my most trusted men, stood by the open rear door, his face impassive.
He’d worked for my family longer than I could remember.
I remembered he started as muscle for the organization before proving himself valuable enough to serve as my personal driver and security when I turned twenty.
He nodded once as I approached, a gesture of respect without unnecessary words.
I appreciated his efficiency just as much as his discretion.
“Morning, Don Bregoli,” he said, the only words he’d speak unless I engaged him further.
“Lefty.” I slid into the back seat, the leather cool against my suit.
The door closed with a soft thud, sealing me into the climate-controlled interior that smelled faintly of leather polish.
Punchy entered the Bentley in the passenger seat.
Lefty slipped behind the wheel and eased the car out of its reserved space, navigating through the underground garage.
The tinted windows filtered the harsh Vegas morning sun as we emerged onto Las Vegas Boulevard.
I pulled out my phone and opened the encrypted messages from my capos.
All my men knew better than to send incriminating messages over the phone.
The moving truck was already at Lord’s house.
The men had been instructed to be efficient and respectful when helping Labria with her things.
Everything was going according to plan. I preferred it that way.
Disorder was bad for business, and the Bregoli business was everything.
The truck moved smoothly through the morning traffic. This left me free to think, to plan, to calculate the various moving pieces of the day ahead.
Labria Harris had become an unexpected complication in what should have been a straightforward arrangement.
Lord had brought her to Vegas. I positioned her at Stern, Foster, and Pellegrino, and everything had been good until she’d discovered Lord with Lolita LaGrassa.
Or at least, that’s what she claimed. I still wasn’t entirely convinced.
Lord hadn’t mentioned anything about Lolita to me, and that wasn’t the kind of detail he typically kept to himself.
Something didn’t add up. Their stupid little lovers’ quarrel wasn’t my most pressing concern at the moment.
I had the Tino LaGrassa mess to clean up.
I had to compensate Primo LaGrassa for the untimely death of his nephew.
After that, I had to find and kill Tom Ignacio.
Labria had left Lord and run straight to Maurizio.
Trust a Black woman to create a love triangle that could disrupt Bregoli family harmony.
I needed that situation resolved quickly and quietly.
Lord wasn’t just my brother and best friend.
He was the underboss and too valuable to the organization to be distracted by relationship drama, also known as Black pussy.
My thoughts drifted back to Marie and her request to email her brother. There were parallels between the two situations. Both women were under my protection and making choices that could complicate my best-laid plans.
I gazed out the window at the Vegas streets rolling by.
This city belonged to me in ways most people couldn’t comprehend.
Not just the Palladium, but the flow of money, influence, and power that ran beneath the surface of the neon glitz and glitter.
My father built this empire with calculated risks and deliberate choices.
His legacy lived through me, and I would never let him down.
We exited the freeway and entered the residential area, passing security gates where a guard waved us through, recognizing the car.
The houses here were large, set back from the street, with immaculate landscaping that defied the desert climate through liberal application of money and water.
Lord had chosen well when he purchased here.
Private, exclusive, secure. I’d approved the location myself before he moved Labria in.
As we approached the house, I mentally shifted gears, preparing for the interaction ahead.
Labria would be in a bitchy mood, possibly hostile.
She wasn’t completely afraid of me. That was part of what made her interesting, but she was smart enough to be cautious.
She knew I had dirt on her. I was the only person on the planet who knew she murdered a made man.
She didn’t know that she had actually done me a huge favor getting rid of my uncle Gianni.