I opened my mouth. “ I—” Nothing but a garbled, cracking noise came out, making me sound more guilty than ever.
I had nothing. His assumptions worked because they were so far from the truth—when I agreed to do what I was doing, I hadn’t known the cost. All I could focus on was keeping Tex safe, keeping the family safe.
But I’d had no idea what it would cost me.
In a way Sergio had made it too easy for me to keep lying, to keep everyone in the dark.
“You’re right,” I whispered. “I’m sorry. You have to know how sorry I am.” I begged him with my eyes.
He looked away as if too disgusted to even make eye contact. “I’m going out, don’t know when I’ll be back.”
“Tex!” I gripped his arm. “It isn’t safe!”
“Safe?” he snarled then threw his head back and laughed. “Right, and you’re so worried about my safety?” His eyes narrowed in on my hand. “Let go, Mo. I’m serious.”
I knew he wouldn’t hurt me, but I was still terrified as I watched the muscles in his arm twist and expand; he was barely in control of himself.
“No.” My voice quivered.
He cursed and pried my hand away from his arm. “Do me a favor.”
“Anything.”
“Stop it.” His voice was hoarse. “Stop pretending to care, Mo. I can’t… I just…” He shook his head. “I can’t do this, whatever this—back and forth thing is. I can’t do it. Hell, if you want Sergio go to Sergio. Apparently we aren’t even legally married.”
“What?”
Oh no, no, no, no, that was the deal!
He shrugged. “You’re free. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a sucker for punishment, so I’ll still do whatever it takes, but this, whatever this is between us—” He pressed his lips together. “It’s done.”
The jackhammer in my chest squeezed my lungs, making it impossible to breathe, as though he literally reached inside me, wrapped his hands around my heart and squeezed until every last drop of blood pulsed out of it.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Drinking the memory of someone away? Doesn’t work.
Tex
T
HE DOOR SLAMMED
behind me as I went to the garage and got into the Range Rover. The engine growled to life, and I peeled out of the driveway. What really sucked? I was making my getaway in Nixon’s SUV. Sure, I had my pick of any of the cars at his house. But the truth of the matter was this.
They were his cars.
His house.
Could I afford my own shit?
Hell, yeah, I could. But what was the point? What was the point of anything? I buy an expensive-ass car for what purpose?
I pushed down on the accelerator once I got onto the main road, the car increasing its speed until I was going around a hundred.
My phone rang.
“What?” I barked into it.
“Tex!” Nixon’s voice was sharp. “What the hell man? We have shit to do.”
“You have shit to do. I have shit to forget.” I pressed end and slammed the phone on the dash as I accelerated even more.
I passed car after car, the speed doing nothing to make me feel better about the sinking feeling in my stomach, or even about the ache in my heart.
Finished—I was finished with her. A man can only take so much and I’d just hit my limit. Visions of Sergio’s hands on her body, his mouth touching her lips, and the simple truth that she was given every opportunity to push him away.
Rather than hold him close.
With a curse, I pulled into the parking lot of Slim, one of the bars I frequented. It was a hole in the wall biker bar that had seen better days, but it was mine. Pathetic. The one thing I owned in this universe and it was a shitty bar.
I liked having my own space to interrogate, and it just so happened that alcohol came in handy when needing to clean up blood, well that and the loud music. Swear, it would make a grown man cry to know how many people lost their lives, their freaking souls in that back room.
I turned off the car and walked purposefully through the front doors with every instinct on high alert—too high if you asked me—I sauntered over to the bar and slammed my hand onto it.
Marco took one look at me and slid a bottle of Jack in my direction. “Rough night?”
I snorted and took a pull directly from the bottle. “Try rough existence.”
“Need me to—”
“No.” I waved him off. I already knew where he was going with his question. He would ask if I needed him to take care of something, I’d either answer yes and slip him the name and address of that certain something, or I’d say no and we’d pretend like he didn’t ask me in the first place.
Being the Abandonatos redheaded step child did have its perks. It meant I got to do things my way every damn time—as long as I got the job done.
“You need anything else, let me know.” Marco slapped the counter a few times with his dishtowel and went over to his next customer.
“So,” a sultry voice said from behind me. “It’s been a while.”
“And it’s going to be a lot longer too,” I said without turning around. “Go to Hell.”
“Ouch, wearing our bitch pants tonight, are we?” Nails dug into my back. I could only imagine the slut thought it would be erotic, when really all I could focus on was the fact that I could peel each perfectly painted nail from her fingers without even blinking.
Yeah, I was in a dark place if I was thinking of hurting a woman.
I’d slept with her once and didn’t even know her name, just that she frequented my bar and was easy.
“Go away.” I took another swig.
“Fine.” She pulled her hand back leaving me alone again.
Within ten minutes I’d had my fair share of the bottle, but not enough for me to forget Mo or what she looked like in someone else’s arms. Damn it!
The house phone rang above the noise.
Marco answered and then eyed me across the bar and rolled his eyes then made a shooting motion with his hand. Bastard probably had an assignment from Frank. Oh right, another fun fact? I completed contracts from all three families.
So I might not belong anywhere, but at least I was rich as hell and damn good at what I did.
The bar fell silent. Curious, I looked up at the door.
Three men walked in.
One had a cane, but it wasn’t for walking, more like whacking if you get me, and not the good kind. The guys flanking him looked like they’d just got done doing steroids and needed a place to release all their tension. Their shoulders were huge, and they were at least a head taller than the rest of the group. The man in the middle paused, his eyes scanning the crowd before falling on me.
A smile curved his lips as he started walking towards the bar.
Well, shit. Either I was dying or he was, and honest moment? I didn’t care which way the tables turned. How sick was that? I needed a damn heart transplant, that’s what I needed. Maybe if I had a new one, the old one would stop hurting so much.
“We finally meet.” The man said pulling out a stool next to me.
“Right,” I snickered. “I’ve been waiting for years to meet you too. Tell me what’s Mom look like? Do I have her eyes? I’ve been dying to see my true family, gosh darn it this is the best day of my life. Can I call you Dad?”
The guy motioned to Marco for a drink. “You… are a smart ass.”
“Aw…” I slapped him on the back earning me a grunt from the other two men who took a step towards us but stopped when the man held up his hand. “Thanks. That’s like the nicest thing anyone’s said to me all day, and I’ll let you in on a little secret, I was having a kick ass hair day so I had all kinds of compliments.”
“Clever.” The man chuckled and ordered a whiskey on the rocks.
“My hair?” I joked, trying to throw him off balance. “Thanks man, I mean I don’t swing that way, but I may make an exception if you keep complimenting me like that.”
“Tell me…” He still wasn’t looking at me, but his side profile gave me all the information I knew. Long scar from his left ear to his nose, like someone had slashed his cheek. Salt and pepper hair, a fit body, probably around five ten and one seventy five. His fingernails were clean, meaning he wasn’t a made man—most likely he ordered things to be done—and his posture screamed control. Slight accent? I needed to listen harder.
“Tell you what?” I smiled willing him to look at me so I could look into his eyes and see into his soul. That’s what I did. I read souls. Not in a creepy way but in a way that made me damn good at what I did. One look into someone’s eyes and I knew… unfortunately it only worked with would-be killers. With Mo? Clueless.
My instincts were always off with her, always had been, always would be.
“Do you truly enjoy this little act?”
“What act?”
“This.” The man finally turned and pointed at my smile. “And do you think you could fool me, of all people?”
“Well, considering I don’t really know who you are,” I said with a shrug “I guess you have your answer, and honestly…” I leaned forward so I was inches from his face. “I don’t give a flying rat’s ass what you like or don’t like, take it or leave it.”
“You should.”
“I should… what? Hmm, Grandpa?”
“You’re funny. “He chuckled throwing back his drink. “And you should… care that is.”
“Give me one good reason.” I let my knife fall into my hands from my sleeve and hovered over his femoral artery, ready to cut within seconds.
“Only a very desperate or very stupid man would kill me. Which are you, I wonder?”
Taken aback that he even knew I had the knife hovering near his leg, I pulled back and answered honestly, “A little of both.”
“This time next month—” He finished his drink. “You’ll be dead.”
“Cool, you telling me ahead of time so I can plan my funeral, or do you just like giving people good news?”
His cold grey eyes looked me up and down. “I expected you to be smaller. Your father, he was a small man.”
“Probably why I killed him. I hate small men. How tall are you?”
“Again, clever act. It would work on anyone but me…”
“Because you’re stupid or… ?”
He leaned forward, the knife dug into his thigh but he didn’t wince. Instead, he chuckled. “Don’t you think your uncle should know these things?”
“Uncle? Wow.” I laughed. “That’s rich. My family finally claims me after I kill the
Cappo
. Nice, let me guess I’m next on the hit list.”
“Funny that you didn’t even know…” The man tilted his head. “Or maybe just sad?”
“Know what?” I kept my smile firmly in place even though I was so curious I itched to torture him so I could find out.
“Your family… the ones you’ve been protecting? They’ve ordered a hit on you worth ten million.”
At that I laughed.
“You’re a loose end.” My Uncle smirked. “And we hate loose ends.”
“So, I’m a wanted man? Cool, maybe they’ll get my picture right this time when they send that text around. Last time they had my hair so freaking dark, well, I mean, to be fair the lighting was horrible and—”
“Listen to me.” He sneered. “And listen very carefully.” His breath smelled like rum. “Kill or be killed. Those are your two options. Be who you were born to be and The Abandonatos, The Alferos? They will kill you. But, if you decide to disappear, then I’ll pretend this little conversation didn’t exist.”
“So.” I laughed to cover my intense irritation, also knowing it would piss him off, possibly giving me more insight into his character. “Let me get this straight. You want me to be a good little boy, stay put, not talk, and not claim my birthright. If I do all that, not only will my own family hunt me down, but my adopted family will as well, leaving me basically without anything? Am I right?”
“Yes.”
“Awesome, so here’s the thing.” I moved my knife lower and made a slice, cutting through his pants then covering the cut with my right hand. With my left hand I grabbed one of the limes from the bar and crushed it, allowing the drips to fall into the cut.
He winced and tried to move out of my grip but I had at least fifty pounds on him, so it was pointless.
“I have no family. Never have. Never will. So when you threaten me, come at me with something bigger than that. Come to me when you’re ready to kill me, not when you want to threaten me, because next time I see your shit-eating face…” I dropped more of the acidic fruit onto his cut. “I won’t just slice you here.” I chuckled. “I’ll slice you everywhere Uncle, but I’ll keep you alive when I do it, and it won’t be fruit but actual acid I drip into each wound until you beg for death. I have no family. And by the looks of it, you like it that way, because it gives you adequate time to take over as
Cappo
, but this is where I want you to listen very carefully.”
His entire face was filled with rage.
I leaned forward like I was going to kiss his cheek, give him the respect he deserved, and instead I whispered in his ear, “The next
Cappo
has to be strong enough not to piss his pants when someone a third of his age makes threats. I don’t just own the families here in the U.S., and if you push me, I
will
step up and I
will
own the Campisi clan. I’ll cheerfully take my place and make you look like the little, pathetic bitch that you are. So if we’re done here, why don’t you run along, hmm?”
I reared back and slapped him on the face twice, then motioned for his two men to come help him up.
“You’re a stupid, stupid boy,” my uncle spat.
“Hey, I think there’s a song with that title in it!” I chuckled loudly, so pissed off that I was ready to pull my gun on him. “We’re done here. Oh, and next time you step into my bar it better be with a bomb chained to your chest. Or I’ll kill you.” I smiled viciously. “
Capiche?
”
CHAPTER TWELVE
How do you miss someone who’s turning into a stranger before your very eyes?
Mo
A
CCORDING TO THE CLOCK
next to my night stand, it was nearing two am and Tex still wasn’t back. I’d texted him a dozen times and even tried calling. Ridiculous! Was I really worried about a man that knew about five hundred unique ways to kill a person? I mean seriously. It was Tex. He was the guy that smiled while he pulled the trigger. But still, he was weak. He was weak, and I’d made him that way, and when he left he was in bad shape.