Chapter 23 – Moretti
Chapter Twenty-Three
Moretti
“Come along, darling.” I prepare to lead my wife back upstairs, but she twists out of my hold.
“I want to hear more about this incinerator.” Vanessa holds her hands out, pretending to weigh them. “Having to smell Grigoryan. Staying here and learning how to get rid of dead bodies. It’s really a no-brainer.”
Magnum snorts from somewhere, but I don’t spare him a glance.
“I’ll be happy to show you the crematorium another time.” I hold out my hand, wiggling my fingers. “It’s not that exciting.”
“No, I’m good. I could use a lesson in murder cleanup,” Vanessa says, nodding vigorously.
She doesn’t get to choose Magnum and Hawk over me again. Striding forward, I scoop her up, tossing her over my shoulder.
She yelps, trying to push her top half up using my shirt as leverage. “What are you doing?”
I swat her ass and wrap my forearm around the bottom of her dress to keep her from flashing my men as I spin and head for the stairs.
“Every second we spend bickering is another moment Grigoryan is free to roam the club. Picking you up to bring you with me seemed faster than continuing to hash out whether you were coming. Surprise, darling. You are.”
“You’re an ass. You know that?” she mutters, bouncing around as I stride to the stairs that lead back to the club.
We make it to the door in front of the stairwell, and I carefully place her on her feet, holding her arms until I’m sure she’s not wobbly.
“If I was truly evil, I would have carried you up the stairs with little care about if the bouncing made you sick.” A lazy smile crosses my face, and I offer her my hand. “Now, would you like to walk with me, or should I pick you up again?”
She looks down at her necklace, adjusting it. “You’re so damn lucky you didn’t break this. I love it. You have good taste.”
“Thank you.” I barely hold back a laugh. She is very good at trying to distract me. “Would you like to walk, or should I pick you up again?”
She rolls her lips together and grabs my hand. “I’ll walk. Thank you.”
I chuckle, intertwining my fingers with hers. “Good choice.”
I’ve always known Vanessa was the most potent scent match that I could find, but I never expected to genuinely like her so much. Perhaps my mother was right when she told me the universe doesn’t make mistakes when it comes to soul matches.
Now the world gets to see exactly how ruthless I’m willing to be when it comes to protecting my literal other half.
When I purchased the club, it was failing under its previous management.
The fact both buildings on either side were vacant didn’t help anything.
That part was confusing to me, as I’d think it would be valuable not to have other businesses vying for parking space or complaining about the noise.
However, it boiled down to the entire area being dead.
It didn’t take much to put in a pizza place and a sandwich shop in the building on the left.
Everyone says restaurants are tough to keep in the black, but so far, they’re more than earning their keep.
They serve dinner and stay open to accommodate the crowds looking for carbs before calling it a night.
The top floors are rented out as leases to small businesses that need office space.
The building on the right was a bit harder to fill, but we stuck a dry cleaners on the front, and the back is a crematorium.
The licenses for that were significantly more complicated, but as it turns out, pet cremation is a hot venture in Boston, and we treat their pets with the utmost respect.
We just occasionally toss a human into the incinerator here or there as an easy body-disposal method.
With a little work, I’ve managed to revitalize this entire area by bringing in jobs and foot traffic.
It basically runs itself, which is good. If it didn’t, I’d shut it all down without a second thought.
I can’t be in hundreds of places at once, but I make sure my security staff is trained well, especially in the club. They know all the family heads, and there’s a protocol in place for any time one pops up without warning.
By the time Vanessa and I make it downstairs, the club security has Grigoryan and his men surrounded in one of the areas with high-top tables. My personal team lingers nearby, watching, as always, but attempting to blend in with the crowd.
The club security team is supposed to attempt to funnel any family heads into the conference room that we use for staff meetings. They got him close to the hallway, but I’m sure he wanted to stick around in the club to make a scene.
Vanessa leans in close to my side, her arm bumping mine as we move.
The security team parts when they spot me, but I don’t enter his orbit.
“Stavros, if you’d like to follow me,” I say without stopping.
I never call Grigoryan by his first name, but I use it purposely to get under his skin. It’s strange that he has an Armenian last name when he actually runs the Greeks, but much like the Russians could never gain a solid foothold in Boston, the Armenians couldn’t either.
If I had to guess, I’d say his family was living pack life twenty years before the rest of Boston. I can’t think of another reason his father and several of his men would all take his mother’s last name, but from what I understand, his first name was his father’s last name prior to marriage.
It’s just one of those things. Packs vary in how they choose which surname to go by, so some children might not even be related to the parent whose name ended up being the pack last name.
Vanessa peeks over her shoulder, like she’s afraid to let Grigoryan out of her sight. My personal security team would have him flat on his back before he could aim.
We make it into the hallway, and the double doors that lead to the conference room are just down on the left.
“What fucking games are you playing at, Moretti?” Grigoryan asks from behind me. “I’m not following you anywhere. Turn and face me like a man.”
I chuckle, releasing Vanessa’s hand to wrap my arm around her middle.
I lift her, pulling her with me as I face the piece of shit.
As a bonus, I get a lovely view of her tits jiggling under the silky material of her dress.
The necklace falls perfectly between her breasts, and I’m also glad it wasn’t damaged.
I would have had to buy her an exact replacement. That necklace was made for her.
Her feet come to rest between mine, and she leans back against my chest as I steady her, keeping my palm on her stomach.
Vanessa brings her left hand up, resting it over mine, and I barely hold back the smirk that aches to tip my lips. She knows how to play the doting wife to perfection, and I love that she’s showing off her ring while simultaneously proving the point that she enjoys touching me.
“You sought me out. Not the other way around.” I quirk an eyebrow as the portly man comes to a stop several feet away.
His cheeks are red, and his hairline is sweaty. I can’t smell him—thank God for small miracles, but I really wanted no part of dealing with any additional problems tonight.
Two of his men frame his back.
My personal team of three follow them, blocking any more of his men from getting too close.
It’s unfortunate that I’m unarmed, but I took my holster off, along with my tie and jacket, while I was dealing with Stephen.
His enforcers better not act rashly. There’s a club full of people only twenty feet away from the hallway.
If they start shooting, we’ll all end up in prison, and it won’t be a short stint.
At least not for me. I will personally end each and every one of them that puts my wife in danger.
“If you have something to say, say it,” I tell Grigoryan, trying to keep myself from acting prematurely.
“You know what you did,” he hisses, jabbing a meaty finger toward me. “Are you trying to start a war with me? Is that what you want? You’re too young to remember the chaos of the old days when Boston was like a war zone.”
Vanessa’s stomach bounces under my palm as she sucks in a sharp breath. Her pheromones are tinged with the scent of her stress, and my system wants me to demolish whatever is causing the reaction.
A good husband probably would have let her stay with Magnum and Hawk, but with what they’re about to get up to, it won’t be any less messy or traumatizing than this.
Sometimes it’s about picking the lesser of two evils, and I wanted the opportunity to show her firsthand that I can also protect her, no matter the foe.
“I have no issue with you,” I lie. “At least not yet. I’m not fond of your tone, but I understand your frustration.
You had plans, and I ruined them. Vanessa and I are a scent match.
The pull is magnetic. I couldn’t bring myself to try to fight it any longer, and I certainly couldn’t allow you to marry her when there was a chance she could be carrying my heir. ”
Grigoryan’s face turns reddish-purple around the edges. I’ve only seen that particular shade on someone being choked out.
It’s probably too much to hope that he has a heart attack. It would save all of us a lot of trouble if the universe decided to end him for me.
“You think I give a fuck about that bitch? She was ruined the moment you touched her,” he hisses. “You burned down my property with hundreds of thousands of dollars in product. You owe me a quarter of a million dollars!”
My hand tightens on my wife’s stomach, and I once again lift her, using her back against my chest as leverage. Twisting, I deposit her behind me and step forward to ensure she won’t be caught by my elbow.
I try to keep violence to a minimum. Grigoryan was right. The mafia world runs nothing like it did fifty years ago, but I was raised old-school style by men who didn’t shy away from getting their hands dirty.
He’s just so fucking smug.
My dress shirt is tight, digging into my shoulders. I might pop a seam, but it’ll be worth it.