Chapter 13ANGELO

Chapter 13

ANGELO

My smart watch buzzes with a notification from the secure text app designed by Dominic's crew. His hackers are better than anyone the FEDs have on their payroll. That means we can communicate freely on it.

Doesn't mean we do. But we could.

The buzz pattern tells me it's Mario or Derian. Both are on Candi's detail tonight and now's the time she heads home from the club. I'd be there to watch over her…hell, I wouldn't have left in the first place, but Severu is meeting with the Godfather of the Night, head of the Greek mafia on the East Coast.

Having two such powerful men in the criminal underworld meeting means next level security. That means I'm here, protecting my godfather's back.

When the Council of Nine meet next year, it's going to be Defcon One level security measures.

Tonight's top secret meeting is more Defcon 3. But as the godfather's top enforcer, there's no way I'm not here. I don't just make sure Severu's orders are carried out; I guarantee his safety.

And still, I surreptitiously flip my wrist over and tap the screen's central biometrics scanner so I can read the message that just came in. Because it's about Candi.

Mario : Ran into a river .

When I read those words, I maintain my security vigilance, but tune out the voices of the two men talking.

River is our codeword for moderate trouble. Flood means rescue is needed, but even a stream's worth of trouble when Mario's texting while on my woman's security detail is too much.

A second text comes in shortly after the first. Part of the app's security is that texts are permanently deleted three seconds after being read or received in the already opened app. So, we keep them short.

Mario : La Barbarina has bad timing .

This, I know. Her decision to make a move on me tonight sucked timing wise, no matter how delicious it was. Even if it was safe to let the world see who and what she is to me, there was no way I could skip this meeting.

And once I get my sweet dancer under me, I'm not leaving her until I've slaked us both. That's not going to happen in the backroom of Pitiful Princess in the few hours I had before I needed to be here.

But that dance? Was fire.

She is every bit as skilled as the 18 th century Italian ballerina La Barbarina and hell of a lot sexier. Which is why it's my codename with my men for her.

Mario : There's a guy on the course that didn't pay fees to play .

Mario : He got caught in a sand trap .

Some schmuck didn't pay his debt to a Family business and Candi witnessed him getting a beating? Not good.

Mario : La Barbarina tried to get out of their way so they could play the 18 th hole .

Fuck me. Take not good and give it a shot of steroids. My girl witnessed the start of a hit and tried to run? Why the hell were Capo Bianchi's men planning to execute someone in the alley behind the club though?

You take someone to a black site for shit like that.

If you don't have your own, you take them to The Box. Every Genovese capo has access to the subterranean rooms of the Oscuro building used for interrogations and executions.

Does the capo know his cousin is that stupid?

Mario : CB's guys want to play her at the 18 th hole .

The fuck they are going to kill my woman.

With a quick hand signal, I bring two of my men to take over my spot at Severu's back. I don't leave the room, but step aside and pull my phone from my pocket.

Death : You better play the 18 th hole with them first .

Mario : I got a hole-in-one on the 18 th playing against G .

A head shot, execution style? Nice. But G? Then it clicks. Fucking Gino Bianchi, no less. A leader of one of Capo Stephan Bianchi's collection crews who also happens to be one of his distant cousins.

But the stronzo wanted to off my woman? Fuck that. He's lucky he died so easy.

If Mario capped him, he had it coming.

Candi's old boss was a Gino too. I'm never letting another man by that name within breathing distance of her again. Who knows what the next one might try to do to her?

Gino Bianchi got mercy he didn't deserve. If I'd gotten him to my black site, he would have hurt and begged for mercy twenty-four hours for every minute Candi feared for her life before I finally ended his miserable existence.

Threatening my woman's life is a capital offense, but I still need to get the hit sanctioned by Miceli before I can go to her. Especially considering his distant family connection to the capo, not to mention Aria De Luca, Severu and Miceli's mother.

Death : Other player?

Mario : Sitting this round out .

Not a threat then. If he were, he'd be dead too. Doesn't mean he'll survive the night though.

I hold grudges and everyone in the Family knows I have a protection order on Candi. If they don't, that's their problem and if they act out of that ignorance, then I make it mine.

And my solution for dealing with problems like that isn't quick and it's not merciful.

Death : Gate-crasher?

Mario : Contemplating the sand trap .

Still alive? That's good. It means Candi didn't actually witness a hit, but things between us just got a lot more complicated. Even with Gino Bianchi's hit sanctioned, she still witnessed a beat down and threat to murder.

Excitement pours through me as I realize the curvy dancer is safer with me than on her own now.

My men are going to bring me the best pre-Halloween treat, the only Candi I want to eat.

My phone buzzes again.

Mario : CB is La Barbarina's father .

Mario's shock saturates those five words. Mine matches it. What the ever loving fuck?

How did Candi end up in foster care in the first place and having to dance for a living to support herself and her mom and sister if her dad is a capo in the Genovese Family?

Bianchi is old school, and it's obvious Candi is the result of one of his affairs, but he's still an asshole. You don't abandon family.

That's a lesson my mom didn't learn either. Another thing my perfect woman and I have in common.

Mario : CB wants his golfer to bring La Barbarina to his private course .

Like hell that is going to happen. There's only one place Candi is going tonight.

Our new home.

Death : Take her to the Long Island course .

Death : Send men to keep her two caddies in the game .

I don't trust Bianchi not to use her mom and sister as leverage against her.

Satisfaction fills me that I assigned my top men to watch over Candi when I left the club tonight. I trust all my men, but Derian and Mario don't back down. Not even to a capo.

There's a chain-of-command in the Cosa Nostra. Just like in the military. But you can't run a crew of enforcers when they're afraid of offending someone higher on the food chain than them. Enforcers have to stand outside the chain of command while respecting the one within their team's ranks.

That's how I operated during my years of military service and it kept me and my men alive deep in enemy territory. The same standards make it possible to do my job as Severu's top soldier among la famiglia .

My men are taught to do the same. They respect me as their boss and Severu as mine, but they ignore the political jockeying for position among the capos and other high ranking made men.

As it should be.

The men who get caught up in it don't stay on my team.

Even so, Derian and Mario are the least likely among them to let a capo push them around.