Chapter 2

Demetri

The rest of the funeral was a blur. The priest tried to bring in a little more about the Lord into the mix, but I had already had my fill. A hole in the ground was the only rest and reprieve I expected after the life I had chosen to live.

I walked away from the crowd and moved along the dirt-covered tombstones as the rain lightly misted from above. I tried to work through the various enemies we had made over the years, finding the list much longer than I had anticipated. But we weren't just looking for a casual enemy or a rival syndicate. Whoever took Vivian's life had to have tracked her to know exactly where she would be, and that Joe wouldn't be beside her.

The fuckers knew what they were asking for. It was a death wish of the most daring kind — to rape and kill a mobster's wife in cold blood.

Joe would grieve today with his family and his kids, but I knew damn good and well that tomorrow he would be on the war path. Nothing would stop him or the rest of the syndicate until this mystery was solved and vengeance was ours.

I turned my head at the sound of footsteps. The leaves lay scattered along the ground from the long winter, giving the scene more color than any of us wanted in the midst of our suffering.

Tugging my black leather bomber closer, I offered a sad smile as I laid eyes on Izabella. Her long dark purple coat hid the black dress she'd had me zip up that morning. Every cell in my body woke up standing in the bedroom behind her, and it was all I could do not to slide the dress off her shoulders and help her forget everything.

I opened my arms to her in a brotherly fashion and lifted my head, beckoning her to come to me.

She walked slowly, her head down, but sea-green eyes cast toward me. Her silky raven-colored hair cascaded around her shoulders and danced along the curve of her breasts. She was a picture of blissful innocence, which didn't belong at all to the sensual vixen who stopped short of reaching me.

We spent all of our time fighting one another, but for that day, for that moment, I would relent and be anything she needed me to be to help her find peace.

I took another step toward her and wrapped her in my arms, leaning down and kissing the top of her head as the smell of her skin tugged at desire deep inside of me. I'd spoken my condolences to her that morning back at the mansion and held her while she cried. I didn't need to speak them again. We were both hurting, and the simplicity of allowing a hug between us was enough. It was more than either of us had offered the other in far too long. I almost couldn't remember why we were so determined to keep ourselves at arm’s length. Seemed futile in the midst of our shared loss.

"I still can't believe this is happening," she whispered against my chest as I brushed her hair back and tightened my hold on her.

"I honestly can't either. We'll find out who did it, Izzy. Don't you worry at all about that."

She laughed sardonically and pulled back, the look on her face quickly reminding me that her innocence was simply a facade that worked increasingly well to get what she wanted. "I'm not worried at all. I plan to find him before any of you do, and then I'm going to make him suffer far more than I do today."

I lifted an eyebrow and gave a smug look. It would be agony to suffer by her hands on a good day, but now? Fuck no. I almost felt sorry for the bastard that killed Vivian simply because nothing caused more pain than a woman scorned. Izabella was far beyond the simple emotion of scorn, which left the recipient of her attack on the wrong end of the battle. It was going to be bad if Joe caught up to him, but if Izabella happened to first...

"What are you thinking?" she asked, pulling me from my thoughts as she backed up a little and pressed her back to a tall pine tree behind her.

The shape of her figure couldn't help but beckon my attention, even through the confines of the large coat she wore. Her long sculpted legs crossed at the ankle, her two-inch heels professional and still sexy as hell. I'd seen what was under the coat a few times in my life, and I'd have paid a lot for the freedom to demand seeing it again.

I gave myself the pleasure of a quick glance across the length of her. Beautiful didn't even began to capture her.

I shifted my eyes up toward hers and found her staring back with no emotion to be found. Cold. Empty. The perfect killing machine.

"I was almost feeling sorry for the bastard that killed your mom. If you get to him first, it's going to be way worse than if Joe or I do." I licked my lips absently and ran my hands down the front of my suit jacket.

"Why? Because I loved Mama more?" Her eyes followed my tongue closely.

"I wouldn't doubt your love for your mom, but I was thinking because we would just shoot him point blank, but I'm pretty sure you'd make him suffer long and hard for what he did."

"Long and hard. Sounds like my kind of date." She shrugged and stood up, stretching a little and turning to walk back toward her family. "Actually, I could use something to get my mind off of things. Long and hard will do perfectly."

A soft chuckle lifted from me as I shook my head. I had something long and hard she could take her time enjoying. It was more than ready to get her mind off of any and everything that might plague her, but it wasn't happening. The last time we let passion pull us into depravity, neither of us had wanted to come up for air. It was a dangerous place to be with so many people working to take your life.

Besides, we were too much like family, and no matter how much we might pine for each other, we kept it to ourselves. We would tease one another for the rest of eternity with the heat of what could be between us, but nothing more.

"Wear yourself out, Izzy."

She walked toward her father, and Joe opened his arms to her as they shared a long hug.

Freddy and Marco stood over to the side, looking sullen.

Marco caught my attention and motioned for me to join them. The oldest boy of the Castaletta crew, Marco was Joe's Consigliere, the guy that made sure all the business shit was in order. I was Joe's underboss, the guy in charge of everyone else.

There had been a good handful of years that Marco had been second in command, but after figuring out that he hated people, he switched positions to focus more on paperwork and managing Joe's affairs.

Freddy was the youngest Castaletta and the capo for our narcotics ring. Too bad the little punk ass smoked as much as he sold. His greasy appearance and glassy eyes made it easy to tell that he was a doper and had been for a long time.

"I think we should let things go for today. Tomorrow we get started again on trying to figure out who did this shit," Marco spoke slowly, his drawl lackadaisical, as was his way of doing things in life.

"Fuck that. I say we get in the car now and go figure out what the fuck happened to Mama." Freddy sniffled, his eyes red and puffy—from sadness or drugs, perhaps a combination of the two.

"Freddy. I don't think that's a good idea with the family here. We need to be with everyone, and you need time to grieve," Marco spoke softly, reaching out to touch the younger man on the shoulder.

"No, I'm with him. We need to get on this. It's been four days since Vivian was murdered." Everyone flinched as I spoke the words no one wanted to say. The Don's wife hadn't simply died, and she hadn't passed — she’d been raped and murdered in cold blood. Someone had gunned her down and taken her life not because she wore pretty clothes or had a nice purse but simply because of who she was.

"And we've been looking for four damned days and haven't found shit, have we?" Marco retorted, his face flushing a little. He touched his finger to his head and closed his eyes. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped at you."

"It's all good." I looked over to see where Izzy and the rest of the crew were, glad that they weren't around to witness the backbone of the organization falling apart. "You go with the family, and Freddy and I will go look at a few more things that I wanted to check out at the crime scene. Today's Election Day downtown. There ain't no damned way the cops will be on site today. I just want more time to look for anything we can find. I'm sure the boys in blue swept the place half-assed like they do everything."

"I think Freddy should come home with me. His mother was buried today. I don't think he's stable enough to deal with anything that you might uncover." Marco moved his hand from Freddy and crossed his arms over his chest.

"I'm fucking right here. I'm going. You aren't my daddy, so back off me."

Marco started to respond, and I stepped in. "I'll take him for an hour, and then we'll be back at the house. Your father and sister are motioning for you to join them. Tell them that Freddy and I are going to grab a few things at the store and then we'll be back at the mansion, got it?"

I stood a good foot over Marco and Freddy. My height and size was something I was more than happy to use to my advantage.

"Fine, but only an hour." Marco looked between us and then turned on his heel and walked off.

Freddy stood stone still and spoke when Marco was out of earshot. "What's his fucking problem? It's almost like he doesn't want us finding Mama’s killer. What the hell?"

I put my hand on Freddy's shoulder and walked toward the long black Cadillac that awaited us at the back of the funeral procession. "I don't think it's that at all. I just think he wants everyone together, which isn't too much to ask."

"Then why'd you front him?"

I rolled my eyes. "I didn't front him. I simply told him that I wanted to check things out, and taking you with me would be a good time to confront you."

Freddy stopped before reaching the car, a look of confusion sweeping over his face. "Confront me on what exactly?"

I slid my tight grip up from Freddy's shoulder to the side of his neck, pinching a little and moving the punk-ass toward the car. "On you not doing your job right and how bad I'm going to fuck up your life if you don't start."