Gian
“Hey, Nico.” I slid into a dark brown leather booth, opposite him. “How are you doing?”
“Good, good. You?” He leaned forward, resting one elbow on the table and the cutlery clattered. A chunk of dark brown hair covered one of his brows. Most women considered him attractive with his sharp, angled face and dimpled chin. To me, he looked like a smug bastard.
I shrugged one shoulder. “Other than last night, everything is great. Fucking wonderful.”
He brushed a hand down the front of his charcoal suit, looking like Satan in the flesh with his vacant, icy blue eyes crawling over every inch of me. “You want to tell me what happened last night?”
A waiter placed two glasses on the table and a bottle of wine. Not my first choice of drink, but if I wanted to make it through tonight without getting in a fight, I needed something to relax me.
I draped one arm along the back of the booth. “There’s not much to tell. I think you’ve heard what happened, and as of right now, I don’t have a single thing to add. This meeting is a waste of time.”
Nico’s nostrils flared. “Listen here. You don’t get a special pass because Dominick is your uncle. You have to play by the same rules as the rest of us, and that means reporting shit like this to me. First Tommy Calvo and now this. In case you didn’t notice, this isn’t the Gian show. This do ‘whatever you feel like’ shit has to stop. End of the fucking story.”
I took a deep drink of my glass of wine and slammed it on the white linen covered table. Smirking, I squeezed my hands into fists to dial back the anger bubbling in my gut. Punching Nico in the face wouldn’t get me anywhere.
“You have something you want to say to me?” he taunted.
“I didn’t clip Tommy.”
“Doesn’t matter.” He leaned forward, his face within spitting distance of mine. “You need to control the guys under you, or you will be replaced. It’s as simple as that. Some of the guys didn’t think you were ready to be a capo, and now I’m wondering if they were right.”
I ground my teeth together. “I can handle my shit just fine. I don’t need you to babysit me.”
“Fine.” He waved his hand. “Then start handling it, and tell me what happened last night because I don’t have all fucking day to play patty cake with you.”
I shot Nico a humorless smile filled with venom. “A black Escalade rammed us on the way home last night and took a few shots at us. I went down a one-way street and lost them. That’s all I know. Tony and Sal are looking into it.”
“So who the hell did you piss off this time?”
The furious tone of his voice hit me like a bullet to the chest. We hadn’t made it to dinner, and I was fed up with his patronizing ass.
“Other than you?” I slanted forward, my lips curling up to expose my teeth. “Apparently, every fucking moron under me who thinks they have a right to my job, so if you’re looking for suspects maybe you should start there.”
He tugged on his blue tie and grinned like a shark. “Are you accusing me of something?”
“I don’t know? Should I be?” Taunting the resident sociopath probably wasn’t the best choice, but I refused to back down like a pussy. There was a fine line between showing him respect and handing him my dick wrapped with a giant glitter-covered bow.
Nico’s eyes burning dangerously, he steepled his fingers together on top of the table. “Are you done with your poor-me tantrum so we can get on with business?”
“What business? I told you what I know, and I’m sure you already have a mental list of my enemies, so I’m not really sure why you summoned me here. Do you care to enlighten me?”
He leaned back. “What about your fiancée?”
“What about her?” I snapped.
His brows raised and his lips twisted into a sneer. “Does she have any enemies?”
I snorted. “Fuck if I know. She’s only lived in New York for a couple of years, so she hasn’t had much time to piss people off. She does have an ex-fiancé. I can’t imagine him trying to gun us down, though. He’s some pansy ass artist.”
“Yeah, maybe so.” He glanced to the side. “Dominick has Tony digging into her past just to be sure.”
“Great.” I tossed my napkin on top of the table and stood up. I’d lost my appetite. For longer than I could remember, I wanted to follow in my dad’s footsteps, make him proud, and lead his crew. Now, I didn’t know if I’d made the right decision. This was bullshit. I’d never get rid of the shadow over my head. “Tell him to have fun with that.”
“Where are you going?”
“Home to my fiancée. After last night, I’m a little reluctant to leave her home alone. I’m sure you understand.”
I didn’t wait for his response. I didn’t need to hear anything else from him. I got the message loud and clear. Dominick didn’t approve of Evie. He wanted her gone, and the thought pissed me off so much, I wanted to keep her around purely to spite his nosy ass. My family wanted me to marry a good Italian girl within our circle of associates. I always thought I would too, but the more time I spent with Evie, the more I resented the idea.
My life had been scripted from the moment I popped out of my mom’s womb. I’d go to school, join the family business, marry a girl from the neighborhood, and pop out a couple of kids, hopefully boys. Then the cycle would start all over again. I never questioned it…until now.
I pulled into the garage in the basement of my home and ran up the steps to the main level.
“Evie!” I hollered, a twinge of unease raising the hairs on my forearms. When I reached my main floor, glass crunched under the soles of my shoes.
What the fuck?
“Evangeline? Where the hell are you? Are you hurt?”
I ran up the stairs, taking two steps at a time. If someone hurt her, I would find him and rip him apart limb-by-limb with my bare hands. A sickening brew of rage and fear bubbled up my throat.
When I reached the landing, she stepped into the hallway, my overnight bag tucked under her arm and Carmela trailing behind her.
“Oh, crap.” She came to an abrupt halt, her hand flying to her chest. “I didn’t realize you were here.”
“What the hell is going on?”
She glanced at Carmela from the corner of her eye. “Someone threw a brick through the window in the front door, and—”
“I noticed. Why the hell didn’t you call me?” Itching with the need to touch her, my hand edged toward her then paused mid-reach. I didn’t know how to act with my sister’s gaze boring into me with the force of a high-powered microscope.
Evie leaned her hip against the doorframe. “I did. More than once, actually, and it went to voicemail every single time. Luckily, your sister was in the neighborhood.”
“What’s your problem, Gian?” Carmela asked, her finger pointed at the center of my chest. “There’s no need to be an asshole. Evie was scared, and I was in the neighborhood. I asked her to come stay with me because I didn’t want to leave her here alone, and I had no idea when you’d be home. Do you have a problem with that?”
I dragged the heel of my hand down the side of my face and blew out a weighted breath. This night kept getting worse and worse. “Evie, are you okay?” I asked, softening my tone. I wasn’t mad at Evie. Far from it. I was pissed at myself. I shouldn’t have left her alone, not after last night. I should have called Tony even though every day that passed my doubts of his trustworthiness multiplied.
“I think so.”
She didn’t sound okay. Her voice cracked on the last word, and my heart screamed with some unfamiliar emotion. An animalistic possessiveness surged through me at the thought of anyone having the nerve to hurt her, and all reasonable thoughts fled.
Without question, I had managed to turn Evie’s life upside down in a matter of weeks. While I knew that made me a worthless bastard in most people’s book, I couldn’t let her go.
Two steps and I had her cradled in my arms. I buried my head in her hair, inhaling the faint scent of jasmine. I didn’t have the luxury of feeling this way about anyone, especially Evie, but damn if I didn’t give two fucks anymore.
I’d been caught up in her from the first second I saw her, and that hadn’t changed. I had protected her when it went against every oath I made to the family, and I wouldn’t stop now. Her soulful coffee-colored eyes made me believe she got me in a way no one else ever had, except maybe my twin. That was different though. And truthfully, Carmela and I had grown apart since Rocco died. She clammed up emotionally, and I couldn’t reach her anymore. It was like a part of her died along with Rocco.
I smoothed my hand up and down Evie’s back, and she sighed. “Did you see anything?”
“No.” Her eyes slipped closed as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “I think they might’ve wrote something on the brick. I didn’t want to touch it.”
My muscles pulled tight like a rubber band ready to snap. “Good. You don’t need to worry about this. I’m on top of it.”
I would be, because I was nowhere near as calm as I pretended to be on the surface.
“I’m fine.” She pulled away from me, and my arms hung awkwardly next to my sides. “I’m not hurt. Just a little on edge. I’m sure it was nothing.”
“You’re probably right,” I agreed, not believing a single word out of my mouth. I glanced at Carmela. “Thanks for coming, sis.”
“Not a problem. I was having dinner a couple of blocks from here.”
“With who?”
“Ava.”
My eyebrows lifted. “As in our cousin, Ava? I thought you couldn’t stand her?”
Ava spent most of her days whining about everything in her life from her hair to her clothes to a chipped nail. Even when she wasn’t whining, she annoyed the fuck out of me. Everything she said came out in this nasally voice that made me want to stick a knife in her eye.
“If you haven’t noticed, you have successfully monopolized my best friend, so unless I want to sit around eating ice cream, I have to compromise.”
“It sounds like torture to me, but it’s your life.”
She playfully slapped me on the side of my head. “Don’t be a jerk. Ava is charming in her own way.”
“Keep telling yourself that.”
“Ugh.” Carmela flipped her long, dark hair over her shoulder. “Well, now that you’re home, I going to take off. I have to be up early tomorrow.”
Evie pulled my sister into a one armed hug. “Thanks, Carmela. I owe you.”
“Don’t worry about it.” She toyed with the button of her jacket. “This is what friends are for. Let me know if you need anything.”
“Thanks.”
Evie and I followed my sister down the stairs.
“I’ll hammer a piece of plywood to the door and have someone fix it in the morning,” I said.