Chapter 1
Chapter One
Dante
I looked over the large desk that dominated the airy room at the two men.
‘So, let me get this straight. What you’re both reporting is that although the casinos are up eighteen percent on last year, and we’ve sold more than double the number of passports in the last twelve months compared with the previous, our profits haven’t increased by the expected amount?’
I looked at both Marco and Ricco individually.
‘That’s correct,’ Ricco replied as he fidgeted slightly and undid the top button of his shirt beneath his tie, but while doing so his eyes never left mine.
‘Yeah, that’s about the up and down of it,’ Marco answered.
I reached out and moved the mouse in my hand, awakening the screen, and quickly found what I was looking for. The title on the page read sundries. I scanned the figures quickly.
‘The consumption of Charlie has increased within the casinos,’ I read out loud. ‘Just under four million Euros worth over the three sites.’
‘Correct,’ Ricco spoke and I turned my head to look at him.
‘And the losses?’ I enquired, furrowing my brow as I looked at him.
‘Roughly seventy thousand.’
‘Roughly?’ I repeated, with an indignant tone.
Marco cleared his throat, and I knew what he was getting at.
Calm it. Don’t react to him.
As always, I found it hard where Ricco was concerned. I’d fought alongside him as our families fought for survival and our way of life and had the upmost respect for the seasoned warrior he was, but, as De Luca’s man, I made sure I was always on my guard around him. Ricco had been tasked to “help me” run the Maltese part of the family operations. With the death of Salvatore De Luca Snr, his position of bodyguard to the old man had become defunct. With this job, he had been treated with the respect he had earnt. He retained a position of use. Under me, he ran the casinos as a glorified bouncer and the new to us cocaine business. Cocaine that I refused to sell anywhere other than inside the casinos, where I knew it was inhaled only by rich idiots and not kids. Unfortunately, I had always been aware that because Ricco had no head for business, he was more useful to my brother-in-law as a way of keeping tabs on me.
Call him my virtual electronic tag.
Letting out a frustrated exhale, I glanced at Marco to let him know I’d heard him and at the same time I reached out with my forefinger to begin to flip over the small white box towards the side of the desk. Allowing myself a few seconds to calm the fury I could feel rising up inside me, I flipped my cigarettes over a few times until I was satisfied I could resume the conversation without going off the deep end.
‘What’s going on? Are the two of you losing your grip?’
‘It’s not that,’ Marco answered.
‘No?’ I retorted sarcastically. ‘Then what’s happening? Tell me!’ I fell back into my chair and picking up my solid silver pen from my desk, I rolled it between my fingers in irritation.
‘I think what started off…’ Ricco began.
‘You think?’ I interrupted. ‘I’m not asking you to fucking think. I want an answer to my question.’
Slamming my closed fist down to the desktop, I stood abruptly and leant over the desk to direct my anger at them both.
‘I’ll tell you what’s happening. What was once the expected skim off the top of our businesses has become larger. It can only mean one thing; someone is working against us and the family.’ I added the last bit as I knew family had a stronger meaning to Ricco. ‘It needs to be stopped and fast. Find them and together we will punish them for their wrongdoing. You have a month to find out what the hell is going on. A month, before I report back to Calabria… Is that understood?’
‘Yes, boss,’ Marco acknowledged.
‘Of course.’ Ricco stood, and I waved my hand at him to release him from my office. As he reached the doorway, he stopped, having seemingly remembered something. ‘One thing, Dante. Gerit wanted me to ask you to lunch one weekend.’ Ricco spoke of his much younger Maltese wife.
‘I’m sure I can manage that,’ I nodded at him as he began to vacate the room, ‘thank her for the invitation.’ I managed a stiff smile at him before he disappeared from my view.
‘I will,’ Ricco replied as he closed the door shut behind him.
Muted laughter left Marco. ‘You’re aware she’s after you, aren’t you?’
I understood he was talking about the fifty-eight-year-old Ricco’s, thirty-year-old wife.
‘Yes, but I can’t keep coming up with an excuse to turn down his invitation.’
‘I understand… surely, he must be able to see what she’s up to.’ He shook his head. ‘I mean she practically climbs you like a fucking tree every time she’s within arm’s reach.’
‘Who knows.’ I shrugged my shoulders at him before picking up my cigarettes and lighter and leaving my desk to go and stand at the window. As I placed the Muratti between my lips, I released some of the tension that seemed to permanently live with me in a long exhale through my nostrils. I sparked the lighter to life and drew in some of the poison I nowadays couldn’t seem to live without. I’d picked up the dirty habit during the first few months of my enlistment and hadn’t cared enough since to try to give up.
Taking in another drag, I watched as down below me Ricco climbed into the back of the ancient looking black sedan he favoured, and then as his men jumped in after him. Knowing that what I’d watched indicated he was going home, which was in a village at least an hour’s drive from Valetta.
‘I’m just glad she’s his problem and not mine. So, what do you think is happening? You’re on the ground.’ I looked behind me at Marco, before extinguishing the half-smoked cigarette on the windowsill. Leaving yet another dirty smudge on the pristine stone. He leant forward in his seat, placing his elbows to his legs, clasped his hands together, and stared back at me intently over my desk.
‘Two years ago, when we arrived, corruption was rife. We learnt huge lessons in the way others could undermine operations for their own gain. We learnt them, dealt with them, made sure others knew we meant business in our dealings with those that worked against us, and subsequently tightened up the way we operated… my money is on an inside job.’
‘Fuck!’ I shoved my hands down deep into the pockets of my suit trousers, and felt the tension begin to make my shoulder blades stiffen.
‘You think I’m wrong?’ he questioned.
‘No, Marco, I don’t.’ I turned away from the window and back into the room that I’d likened on many occasions to a prison cell. ‘I’d just hoped you’d have something else that might at least be credible.’ I pulled my hand out from my pocket, and using my thumb and forefinger I showed him a tiny gap between them. ‘I mean, I was this close to getting out of here, and now this.’
‘London isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.’
‘Really?’ I laughed, before picking up my smokes and walking back to resume my seat.
He started then to use his fingers like a child to count out its many failings. ‘One, there’s always rain. Two, the women wear far too many clothes. The food is…’ He lifted his hand and with it flat out, he turned it quickly from side to side.
‘I know, it’s debatable,’ I agreed.
‘I was thinking that dubious was more like it,’ he laughed. ‘And did I mention the rain.’
‘You did,’ I nodded at him, before exhaling loudly.
‘Stressed?’ he asked.
‘As always,’ I laughed.
‘I have just the thing… not sure she’s a virgin though.’ He laughed at the standing joke between us as he vacated my office.
After she entered the room, she closed the door and sank to her knees. Wordlessly, she began to crawl slowly towards me on her hands and knees, while licking and in turn biting seductively on her freshly painted, scarlet red lips. In those few minutes, the pressure inside my balls reached fever pitch and I felt them tighten in readiness. I looked up and waved my hand at Marco to vacate my large office.
Fuck she was good.
‘Buzz me when you’re done.’ He grinned before leaving the room.
‘Fuck off,’ I countered.
With him gone, she moved quickly under my desk and began to stroke my needy cock through my trousers. Already six steps ahead, I felt precum begin to bead on my crest and soak into my trunks.
‘Take my cock out and put it in your mouth.’
She complied and I released a groan as the warm, wet flesh of her mouth wrapped itself around me.
‘Good… good girl. Now suck me. Suck me hard.’
I reached out one hand to touch the screen that controlled the security in my office and locked him and the others out. Marco might be my right-hand man, and we were as close as brothers, but there was no way he was going to be witness to me shooting my load down her long, slender neck. Or maybe I’d shoot my load over the creamy coloured skin in between her breasts.
After hearing the satisfying click as the bolts shot home, I leant back into the chair, closed my eyes, stretched my arms and pushed the leather wrist straps I always wore down to their preferred place, before placing my hands behind my head and relaxing into her efforts.
‘Very good.’ As I spoke, I put one hand under my desk and wrapped lengths of her hair around it, before directing her to go faster and to take me deeper. I understood that although my desk was large, she didn’t have much room to manoeuvre, but I wanted her to make the most of what space there was. It was better this way than to watch what she was doing, because the women I fucked around with these days, I preferred to keep faceless.
As the head of my cock touched the back of her throat, I released a groan that I knew she’d heard when she increased her endeavours. Spit from her mouth poured over my cock with every downward movement of her head, and as she lifted away, she grazed her teeth up the length of me before squeezing her small hand a little tighter around my girth. In response, I lifted my hips to meet her. Hearing her gag and splutter, I placed pressure at the back of her head, and taking control thrust harder into her awaiting mouth. My legs tensed, my hips froze in place and squeezing my eyes tight shut to extinguish the same memories that always came to me as I prepared to shoot my load, I let my body travel the route it knew so well.
The one that bought me pleasure but no satisfaction.
The same one that gave me pleasure, and also pain.
As I reached the end, I released a deep groan, my body convulsed, my hips pumped in reaction and my balls released the long strings of cum down her throat.
‘Swallow it!’ I demanded as she began to gag harder.
I heard the loud gulps as she struggled to stem the gag reflex that I’d originally started by hitting the back of her throat time after time as I fucked her mouth. At last, there was silence, and I knew she’d complied with my wishes.
‘Very nice. Now clean me up.’
I touched the screen again to release the bolts to my office door just as the woman between my legs tucked my cock back inside my trunks and attempted to zip up my trousers.
‘I’ll do it.’ I spoke to her as kindly as I could, before her attempt to do my bidding and trembling hands saw my cock caught in the zip.
‘Okay, Dante,’ she replied, and as usual I cringed at the sound of her using my name as though she knew me.
As she pushed her hands onto my thighs and started to move out from her position in between my legs, I widened them so she could back herself out from the hidey hole. I stretched out my tight calves, before righting myself. Looking down at my zip I could see a slight damp patch beside it. Zipping myself up, I brushed my fingers over the stained fabric.
‘Fuck,’ I released under my breath, understanding that although my jacket would cover the blemish for the rest of the day, I would throw the whole suit away as soon as I got back to my apartment that night. It was one thing getting head from women I cared nothing about, but I refused to be reminded of the act.
‘Dante, I was thinking...’ Hearing the almost whine in her voice, my head instantly switched off. I’d heard the same conversation so many times over the years, I knew it word for word.
‘You can leave now.’ I looked up at her and knowing our time together was now up, I took her in for the first time in the few weeks she’d been coming to see me. Black hair, dyed from a bottle, but done well. Brilliant blue eyes that could have matched my own, but they were so perfect I quickly worked out that she had to be wearing contacts. She was pretty, but not beautiful. When she began to fidget under my perusal, I hardened my gaze.
‘Hi,’ she whispered, as she tried hard to act coy but didn’t quite manage to hit the mark. Instantly, the smile fell from my mouth.
Marco had done well with this one. She was exactly what I looked for in a woman these days; dark haired, blue eyed and gave head like a pro.
But it was over. He’d have to talk some other wannabe into dying their hair.
‘I thought maybe we could go out… spend some time together.’
I answered her the same way I did them all when they started asking for more.
‘Yeah, unfortunately… It’s over.’
‘What?’ she screamed, as both her hands found her hips.
‘You heard.’ I moved quickly, leaning forwards, making her hands fall away and her to take a step back. ‘Now, either you can go quietly with a large wad of cash in that designer handbag you’re holding, or you can go even quieter?’ I lifted one eyebrow at her.
If I’d been looking closely enough, I knew I would have found fear in her eyes, but I didn’t bother looking, because I couldn’t have given a flying fuck. I was a twenty-eight-year-old arsehole, and I knew it, but that didn’t faze me either. She knew the deal, like the countless others before and no doubt after her.
‘But Dante… I’ve fallen in love with you,’ she pleaded.
Laughter left me because it was fucking comical. ‘You’ve given me some fairly good head over the past few weeks. That’s all…That’s not love. Love is when you can’t live without the other half of you by your side, so instead you come up with the fucking pretence of a life, so you can exist—that’s love. Being seen out together and love were never part of the deal. You knew that…’ I clicked my fingers loudly as I tried in vain to remember her name, making her jump in the process. I sighed loudly at the tiresome woman, but still her name wouldn’t come to me. Marco appeared through the door, as if he had some sort of second sense that he was needed.
‘Grace,’ he called out gently.
‘That’s it!’ I shouted, ‘Grace,’ as I continued being the prick that my situation and De Luca had created.
I watched as Marco held out his hand to her. At first, she looked between the two of us. With the pleasure of my orgasm receding with each second that passed and now needing peace to work through the normal crap that came after it, I rolled out the drawer next to me. Picking up my Beretta, I flicked off the safety and laid it down gently on the desk between us. Then pushing the barrel gently with the tip of my finger, I made sure it was pointing in her direction.
Her contact filled eyes widened, before she almost ran to where Marco was still standing, shaking his head at me, but still with his hand stretched out awaiting her. When she fell into his arms with a sob, I waved him away for the second time that day.
‘Marco, she’s a pro at giving head. Get Grace to suck your cock before she leaves, you deserve it.’
I heard her sob at my words and knew I’d done enough to make her fall instantly “out of love” with me. A wry smile found my mouth.
‘I’ve got no need of your seconds,’ he replied laughing.
As the door closed behind the two of them, I released an exhale and pushed the chair I was sitting on away from the desk. Standing up, I made my way to the nearest of the three large, double windows and looked down at the bustling port below me. The view from my office in Valetta was one of the only perks about running my wider family’s business interests in Malta. Three casinos, cocaine and our import and export business, which made enough money to cover the illegal gaming money we brought in through the smaller ports for laundering. That and the selling of Maltese passports, which of course gave their holders European rights, meant that our ‘Ndrangheta family was now solely responsible for bringing in a total wealth of three percent of the whole Italian economy.
After my exemplary military record, I’d been given the position of heading up the family here. I’d done my time in the army at Salvatore’s insistence, five years to be exact, rising to officer level. Maybe he’d hoped the army would take care of me and stop me returning, but when I had, he’d needed to find another place for me out of his way. So, two years before, he’d semi-reluctantly placed me in charge of this arm of the business and sent his grandfather’s former bodyguard, Ricco, to keep an eye on me.
When I’d first arrived in Malta, with specific instructions to find out what the hell was going on, we’d found it was being run by a local who was so fucking corrupt he made the ‘Ndrangheta look innocent. He was constantly drugged up to the eyeballs and embezzling whatever he could from under our noses to feed his drug, prostitution, and gambling addictions, which meant he was more than sloppy. He couldn’t have given a shit about what he was doing, and he was giving us the finger out in public, which meant threatening to stick a red-hot poker up his arse, while he bargained for his life, had been effortless on my part. As had the simple act of placing my Beretta to his temple and pulling the trigger. He’d made it easy for Ricco and me to bring his life to a close, and in doing so, I knew I’d earnt the old man’s respect. The bastard’s death had gained back our family’s credibility and his brand-new yacht I’d taken for myself.
A lesson had been learnt.
Although our previous Don had been aware that something had been going on in Malta, he’d been too busy fighting off the usurpers from Rome and Sicily when he’d first stepped up to power. As much as I hated it, I wasn’t stupid enough to argue with facts. Salvatore De Luca Jnr had brought such a strength of force to the role of Don when he’d taken over, by taking swift justice in his own hands and killing his own father, peace now reined in Calabria. Because of that, my family was safe and happy, and his empire was stable.
This had meant we could spread our talons out and claw in even more. Malta, being a Narco-state, had been turned around by my sheer hard work and relentless need to be back where I was born to be, in London heading up my mum’s family businesses.
It was a great position to be in, for us all, all except me.
I let out a sigh as I stared out to the beautiful old town in acceptance, before reaching into my pocket for my phone. Making sure, as always, that my number was blocked, I dialled the only phone number I knew off by heart.
Disappointingly, it rang several times, and I was just about to disconnect when she answered.
‘Ciao,’ her breathy voice whispered into the phone and instantly I started trying to work out just what she’d been doing previously, and then forced the vision of her away.
‘Hello,’ she tried again.
Standing there motionless, not even allowing myself to breathe, I absorbed everything I could about her in those few all too short seconds.
Was she happy?
Did she ever want to be with me, or had she bested me at my own game?
And why the fuck did I care?
Like always, I had no answers. Although this time, after mistakenly hearing about her latest news, I also had anger.
‘Dante?’ The way she said my name, slightly breathless and questioning, broke what was left of my heart. And as always, I disconnected the call.
I’d long before stopped wondering why I called her. Why she still kept the phone I’d given her all those years ago. Why I refused to let go of the pain that was still there between us. Maybe it was just to confirm I was still alive. Or, maybe it was because Giovanna was and always would be my obsession. I had women falling at my feet, but I wanted the only one I couldn’t have.
The woman that no matter how hard I tried to get back to, seemed further away with each year that passed.
Because I had a plan to get back, to ask her those same questions, but I was convinced that someone was now undermining me, and now I knew Marco agreed with me. Cocaine and money had been disappearing, not enough for Salvatore to make a fuss about, as we always expected a little to go awry, call it a sweetener. But it was enough for me to need to keep an eye out for the scum who was threatening to destabilise my plans. My idea had been to see out my time, another ten months, and then to take what I felt I was due, return to Italy and then back to London.
If the percentage they were taking increased anymore my plan would be thwarted, because I’d be needed here instead.
A distinct floral smell hit my nostrils, and I recoiled.
‘Huh, hmmm.’ Clearing my throat, I forced down the emotion that nearly always reared its ugly fucking head when I was on the receiving end of an orgasm that didn’t come by my own hand.
Enough.
I pushed my hands deep into my trouser pockets and cursed as the small stain by my zip, although now dry, caught my eye. Trying to take my mind away from everything, I lit another smoke and placed one hand on the wide stone ledge, before looking down at the streets below me. It was late May, and the summer sun was high in the sky and reflecting warmly off our limestone building, which we had spent a fortune on cleaning the previous year, because it represented the legitimate side of our businesses. Some of the tourists were only just disembarking from one of the huge cruise ships that had appeared in the early hours of that morning. From three storeys up, I could hear and feel their excitement at discovering the beautiful country of Malta.
And it was then I thought I saw her, beneath a wide brimmed hat. Surprised, I drew in a long exhale of smoke and held the poison inside my lungs until I began to feel dizzy. There was no clear view of her face, but the way her long, light brown hair shone in the sunlight, stirred the memories I only allowed myself to see when I was asleep and couldn’t fight them off any longer. Watching the movement in her hips as she hurried through the crowd, brought a recollection of Giovanna running through the piazza in Naples before throwing herself into my arms. Finally, I released the smoke and gasped in the oxygen my body was screaming out for, cleansing me and hopefully the view. But it didn’t, because nothing, not alcohol, drugs, or even the threat of death, cleared the memory of her. Like a fucking idiot who used pain as a way of getting high, I pushed my thighs against the window to get a better view of her. The agony inside my chest increased with every footstep she took. I moved forward until I was leaning as far out of the window as I could without falling, following the woman in the hat until I could no longer see her, and she’d disappeared with the crowd.
But it couldn’t be her, so I forced myself away from the window, stumbling backwards until I was seated on my arse.
No more.
Quickly, I righted myself and pressed the buzzer for Marco to come back in.
‘Marco, clear my schedule. I’m going sailing for the afternoon!’ I shouted. ‘And Marco, you’re going out tonight.’
‘Yeah?’
‘I think it’s time you visited all the casinos. It’ll be on me, of course. Take a few select men and make it look as though you’re out to relax.’
‘Sounds good.’
‘I’m convinced that whatever’s going down, is down to Ricco.’
‘Yeah?’ His brow furrowed as he looked back at me. ‘Look, I’m not one to question you, Dante, but are you sure this isn’t because you don’t like him?’
‘I know it’s him.’
‘Okay.’ He held his hands up in surrender.
‘The questions that need asking are… is the cut we’re losing getting larger because of Ricco’s greed? Or, is Salvatore trying to get rid of me once and for all?’
I stared at him as my questions met with silence.
‘I hear what you’re saying. But why would De Luca do it now?’ Marco asked.
‘Giovanna is engaged,’ I imparted and felt the cold steel blade of agony twist deeper inside my heart.
‘Well, fuck!’ I could see the disbelief on his face, and knew my own must have matched it when I’d spoken to Alessio only a week before and he’d absentmindedly let the information slip. ‘I could do with a night out.’
‘Good, report back in the morning.’
‘Boss.’
‘And, Marco—see if you can casually plant a tracker on anyone of any interest.’
He laughed before replying, ‘Will do.’