Chapter 1ANGELO

Chapter 1

The Summer Before Severu De Luca Becomes Godfather

ANGELO

I'm itchy under my skin.

I haven't seen Candi in four days and it's pissing me off.

Flicking my gaze up to the security camera in the corner of the holding cell where Miceli and I are interrogating the member of a gang foolish enough to encroach on our territory, I nod to myself. Yeah, that'll work.

A camera outside her door. Maybe one inside her apartment. Her mom is always home.

Which is not the obstacle some people think it is.

It's time I met my obsession's family, even if it's as the apartment building's new maintenance guy.

"What has you smiling, you psycho?" Miceli asks from the other side of our guest.

"None of your fucking business." I kick the dealer so eager to sell his shit on the streets of Manhattan. "Not this asshole."

All yelled out, the stronzo grunts in pain.

Miceli squats down beside him, grabs his hair and yanks his head up. "You are alive for one reason. You take a message to your homeboys. Stay the fuck off our streets. The next one of you we find in our territory, for any fucking reason, even if it's to visit your sick grandma, ends up in the soup."

Our enemies know what that means, but I spell it out for him anyway. "Once we dump your body in the soup, you don't exist. Not even as a trace of DNA to leave behind."

~ ~ ~

Pitiful Princess smells like booze, pussy, sweat and disinfectant when I walk in.

I haven't been here since Wednesday and rage rolls through me. I want to gouge out the eyes of every fucking asshole ogling my girl.

That would piss off the boss, though. Severu doesn't want undue attention brought to the family right now. More importantly, Candi would be upset.

The customers are safe as long as they don't touch her.

Like the stronzo who will never have full use of his left hand again. I would have cut it off, but she came into the alley. Candi saw me playing with my prey, looked at me like I was a monster, and ran away.

I am a monster, but I'm not so depraved I will purposefully terrify the woman I plan to spend the rest of my life with.

If she found out later that I had cut the dick's hand off, she would never get past her fear of me. And that would make living together awkward.

So, I let him go.

After beating the shit out of him and warning him to get his ass out of the city if he wanted to keep breathing.

He blubbered about his job and family, but in the end, he saw reason. You don't need a job or miss your family when you're dead.

Without taking my eyes off the pure beauty undulating around the pole, I take my usual seat in the shadows. A minute later, one of the cocktail servers puts an unopened bottle of fizzy mineral water in front of me.

Ignoring the glass she placed beside it on the table, I take out a sanitizing wipe laced with a reacting agent that will change color if it comes into contact with several classes of drugs. I wipe down the bottle, check the wipe is still white and then twist off the lid before taking a sip.

A brand not served to customers, the bottle is from my own private reserve behind the bar.

Aware of all the ways to kill a man, because I've employed most of them, I don't drink or eat in public places unless I have personally vetted the kitchen and waitstaff.

In this case, I've had a little chat with all the bartenders and they know better than to allow anyone access to my stash of mineral water. I prefer a slice of lime and to drink my water chilled over ice, but those components provide too many opportunities for the resourceful.

Unless I get it myself, or have one of my men do it.

When I'm here, I'm too busy watching my girl to bother.

It's Saturday and that means I get to see her luscious tits bare except for the pasties she puts over her perfect nipples.

If she didn't use the pasties and keep her G-string on, I'd have to burn the club down, with all the customers inside.

Candi strips during the last set before she joins the other dancers working the floor. When the familiar music starts, men start throwing dollar bills on the stage. Cheap assed bozos.

I tip five hundred every night I'm in. I'd give her more, but there's no need. Soon enough she'll be living under my roof, eating my food and wearing the clothes I bought her.

There's a whole closetful in the house I got for us to live in on Long Island.

As soon as Severu becomes godfather and I know it's safe to, I'm packing her and her family up and moving them in. She wouldn't be happy if I tried to leave her mom and sister behind, even though neither of them is related to her by blood.

They're important to Candi. She dances here to support them, but soon she won't have to worry about that either.

I sip my mineral water, daydreaming about the life we'll have together once I tell her who I am and who she is to me. I'll be the only one who gets to see those generous tits bounce as she dances around the pole.

Her dance studio at the house has one, along with a chair for me to sit in while I watch her.

Candi looks toward the table in the shadows where I always sit as she unhooks her bralette and lets it slide down her arms. Is she hoping I'm here? Is that move just for me?

It must be.

We are two halves of the same whole. I am the darkness. She is the light. We were separated in the ether before our souls came to earth to inhabit these bodies.

We've never spoken a single word to each other, but we don't have to.

We're soulmates.

My cock grows so fucking hard as Candi drops the bralette to the stage. My fingers fist and release with the need to squeeze those gorgeous melons.

The miniscule skirt comes next, revealing the rhinestone studded G-string covering her pussy lips.

I ordered her one made with pure silk and diamonds because nothing less should cover my treasure.

She tosses a kiss over her shoulder before exiting the stage. Her tits will be covered again when she comes onto the floor. Anticipation thrums through my blood waiting for her to reappear.

When she does, she's wearing an outfit I've never seen before. The gold braid gathers in the nearly sheer white nighty under her generous breasts, the flowy skirt barely reaching the tops of her thighs.

My mouth goes dry at how beautiful Candi looks, but it's the small set of wings made from iridescent feathers peeking over her shoulders that makes my heart pound.

She's an angel.

Is that for me? Her Angel of Death. Now that she's seen me stab a man's hand, she must have asked around about who I am.

And she's dressed like an angel for me.

I nearly come in my pants thinking about it. I'm on my feet before I'm aware of moving, but I manage to stop myself moving out of the shadows.

I don't like how close the customers are to Candi as she moves between the tables. If I go to her, I'll kill the man offering her a roll of twenties for a lap dance.

Asshole.

But I have to let my girl do her thing.

For a little longer anyway.

The club is packed with bodies and I remain standing so I can watch my girl dance. She's moving her body sensually and smiling at her lap dance customer, but the smile doesn't reach her eyes.

Because she's not dancing for him.My girl loves to dance, but she doesn't love dancing for men perving on her body.

That's why I know she isn't going to mind quitting here.

Once I make her mine, no other man gets to see that sweet ass move like that.

I might have to kill the man she's dancing in front of right now. The way he's looking at her pisses me off.

I'll do it away from the club. Disappear him.

No body. No crime.

I don't leave other evidence behind.That should be circumspect enough to make Severu happy.