Chapter 11 #2
“And the kiss at some restaurant?” Nicco pressed.
“A peck after dinner. Nothing more on my part.” I shrugged. “It’s business, Nicco. You know how this works. We use whatever tools we have. Lolita is a lonely woman that should have been married off years ago. I’m the underboss. I’m number two. I use it to my advantage, to your advantage.”
“Did you fuck her?” Cenzo asked bluntly. “Be honest.”
“No.” I met his gaze squarely. “I’ve never slept with fucking Lolita LaGrassa. If I did, I would say it. It’s not like you’re going to rat me out.”
Nicco nodded slowly. “That’s what I thought. But your Black Barbie lawyer believes otherwise.”
“She could have asked me,” I said, feeling a surge of anger. “Instead, she jumped to conclusions, packed her bags, wrote some stupid shit on the bathroom mirror in red lipstick, and ran straight to my cousin.”
“Women don’t usually ask you if you’re cheating when they think they already know the answer,” Cenzo commented. “Especially the smart ones.”
I gripped the armrests of my chair. “She made her choice.”
“So, you’re done with her?” Nicco asked.
Was I done with Labria? Hell no! I killed a fucking CPD cop to protect her. Labria was the woman who’d followed me from Chicago to Vegas? She’d seen me at my most vulnerable and still loved me? At least, I thought she had.
“I’m not done,” I said finally. “But I won’t let her win this time.”
“Win?” Nicco repeated. “This isn’t a game, Lord.”
“Isn’t it?” I countered. “She thinks she can leave me, sleep with my cousin, and I’ll just accept it? That’s not how this shit works.”
“What have you done?” Nicco’s voice took on a warning tone.
I held his gaze, unflinching. “I swapped her birth control pills for vitamins a few months ago. You told me I should knock her up since I can’t legally marry her.”
Silence fell over the room. Even Cenzo looked shocked, which was saying something given all the violence he’d both witnessed and committed.
“You did what?” Nicco finally asked.
“You heard me.” I kept my expression cold and calculating, though inside I felt a twist of something that might have been shame. “I replaced her birth control pills. She’s been taking vitamins for weeks now, thinking she’s protected.”
“Lord, I didn’t think you had it in you.” Nicco muttered. “I’m impressed.”
I simply said. “She belongs with me. She just needs to be reminded of that fact.”
“By getting her pregnant?” Nicco’s voice rose slightly. “She has a career now.”
“It’s effective,” I insisted. “Labria would never abort my child. Her sense of responsibility wouldn’t allow it. And once she’s carrying my baby, she’ll be locked in for life.”
Nicco rubbed a hand over his face. “And what about Maurizio? Your plan didn’t account for him. She is sleeping with him now with those same pills she thinks are working.”
“Maurizio is a problem I’ll handle separately.”
“What does that mean?” Nicco said firmly. “Maurizio is family.”
“So am I,” I reminded him. “And Labria was mine first.”
“She’s not property, Lord,” Cenzo said quietly. “And whatever she was to you, she’s fucking Maurizio now.”
The words hit hard, though I’d known it was true. Hearing it stated so bluntly made something dark and violent stir inside me.
“I’m well aware,” I replied.
“Are you?” Nicco leaned forward. “Because if your little birth control swap worked, you need to move quickly. Before she ends up pregnant with Maurizio’s child instead of yours.”
The thought made my stomach turn. The image of Labria swollen with another man’s child, my cousin’s child, was unbearable.
“That won’t happen,” I said with more confidence than I felt.
“It might already have,” Cenzo pointed out. “How long has she been with him? Three or four weeks?”
I felt a muscle in my jaw twitch. “Look, I have her gynecologist on the payroll. That doctor reports to me. If the timeline doesn’t match up, I will have the doctor terminate it without Labria knowing anything at all.” I corrected. “Not long enough for her to know if she’s pregnant yet.”
“This is brilliant and ruthless. I’m proud to call you my brother.” Nicco said. “But this situation, this little love triangle, needs to be resolved. Fast. I won’t have the family fractured over a woman.”
“I agree,” I said, the wheels already turning in my mind.
I needed to see Labria to make her understand that what she thought she’d seen with Lolita wasn’t what it appeared.
And I needed to deal with Maurizio. One way or another.
Enough time had passed, and I knew she missed me.
That greasy-haired weasel could never be a replacement for me.
My hands curled into fists as I thought about Maurizio fucking my girl. And worse, getting her pregnant. The rage I’d been controlling threatened to boil over, but I forced it back down. I needed a clear head. I couldn’t make any more mistakes. Not with this. Not with her.
“I want to kill him,” I said, the words escaping before I could stop them. “Maurizio knew what he was doing. He knew she was mine.”
Nicco’s expression hardened. “No, you won’t.”
“He broke the code,” I insisted. “He took what wasn’t his to take.”
“She left you before she went to him.”
“That doesn’t matter,” I snapped. “Don’t you Italians got some rules on shit like this.
Unwritten rules that go back generations like that stupid marry an Italian woman rule?
A you don’t take another man’s woman, especially when that man is family rule.
Maurizio knew exactly what he was doing. He’s a fucking snake.”
“I agree he is a snake. But he did just lose his father.” Nicco said. “We don’t issue kill orders over women. Family business comes first. Always.”
I matched Nicco’s hardened gaze. I felt the weight of his position as don bearing down on me. Nicco was my half-brother, my closest friend since childhood, and now my boss. The hierarchy was clear. I couldn’t openly defy him, no matter how much I wanted to.
“Then what?” I demanded. “I just let this go? Pretend it isn’t happening? Allow my cousin to fuck my woman while I look the other way?”
“No,” Nicco said, his tone measured. “You have a conversation with Maurizio. Man to man. Cousin to cousin.” He paused to ensure I was listening. “You make it clear how you feel, but you do it without violence.”
“And if he refuses to back off?”
“That’s a bridge we’ll cross when we come to it.” Nicco sat back down, his decision final. “For now, talk to him. Then talk to Labria. Clear up this misunderstanding about Lolita.”
I stared at him, struggling with the order. The desire to hurt Maurizio, to make him suffer for touching what was mine, burned hot in my veins. I knew better than to challenge Nicco. Not on this. I had other means to get Maurizio out of the picture.
“Fine,” I said finally. “I’ll talk to him, man-to-man.”
Nicco nodded, seemingly satisfied with my acquiescence.
He didn’t need to know that my version of “talking” might not align with his expectations.
I would break bread with Maurizio, and I would make my position abundantly clear.
How that conversation ended would depend entirely on my cousin’s response.
“Now,” Nicco said, shifting gears with practiced ease, “let’s get back to business. Have you spoken with Frankie?”
The change of topic helped me regain my focus. Family business. The reason we were all here in the first place.
“I have,” I confirmed. “He’s made contact with some of the Flip Kings’ lower-level dealers. Offering money in exchange for information about Tom.”
Cenzo moved to the desk, pulling a manila envelope from his stack of files. “We received these this morning.”
He spread several surveillance photos across Nicco’s desk. Grainy images of Filipino men outside a cultural center, more photos of the same men entering what appeared to be a restaurant called “Manila Nights.”
“These are the Flip Kings?” I asked, studying the faces.
“Yes,” Cenzo confirmed. “This one here.” He pointed to a man in his twenties. “Is Leon Marcos. Frankie is trying to recruit him.”
Nicco picked up one of the photos. “Where was this taken?”
“West Side of Chicago, near their territory,” Cenzo replied. “Frankie’s men have been watching their movements for the past week.”
“And Tom?” I asked, searching the images for the man who had killed Dom.
“No direct sighting yet,” Cenzo admitted, his jaw tight with frustration. “But we’re closing in. Frankie says there’s buzz among the lower ranks that their leadership is planning something big. A power move.”
“Against us?” Nicco asked sharply.
“No, I believe the Triads,” Cenzo replied. “But Frankie thinks Tom might surface for whatever they’re planning.”
I nodded, impressed with Frankie’s thoroughness. Our youngest brother had stepped up in recent months, proving himself more capable than any of us had given him credit for.
“We have Marie’s email to her brother and this.” Nicco said. “I hope one of them pays off soon.”
“When we find Tom,” Cenzo said, his voice dropping to a dangerous register as he touched the scar on his neck, “he’ll suffer before he dies. I want him to understand exactly who he crossed when he killed our father.”
This was what united us, even when personal conflicts threatened to divide us. Dom’s murder remained unavenged. That was unacceptable to all of us. A lot of my hate for the man left me when Nicco told me how he watched over me during the years.
“He will get what is coming to him.” Nicco vowed.
We exchanged solemn nods, our shared purpose reaffirmed. Whatever personal issues existed, we were always united. The Bregoli family came first.
I stood, gathering myself to leave. “I’ll handle Maurizio today. And I’ll keep Frankie updated on what we discussed about the LaGrassa situation.”
“Good,” Nicco said. “Keep me informed about both.”
I nodded, understanding the double meaning. Nicco wanted to know not just about the business with the LaGrassas’, but also how my “conversation” with Maurizio went. He was giving me enough rope to handle things my way, but not enough to hang myself, or Maurizio.
As I walked toward the door, I felt a strange calm replacing the rage that had consumed me minutes ago.
I had a plan now. First, I would talk to Maurizio.
Make him understand exactly who he was dealing with.
Then I would find Labria, clear up this misunderstanding about Lolita, and bring her home where she belonged.
And if she was already carrying my child thanks to my little pill swap?
All the better. Some might call it manipulation.
I called it ensuring what was mine stayed mine.
After all, in our world, you protected what belonged to you, by any means necessary.
It was what Dom had taught us. It was what had kept the Bregoli family in power for generations.
I’d deal with the consequences later. For now, I had a cousin to find.