“Who the fuck are they?” I ask Alec as I sit across from him in his office.
My dad and Marco, along with Alec have been busting their asses trying to figure out who the Blue Vipers are and—as much as any of us hates to admit it—coming up with nothing.
The little fuckers have proven to be surprisingly sneaky. Dad has been speaking to the other organization leaders to see what they know and so far, he hasn’t gained much information. Marco has been working with the men we have on the streets, instructing them to find out as much as they can, but that’s slow moving, and we haven’t heard much while Alec has been doing whatever the fuck he does on his laptop.
“I’ve asked around on my site and it seems there’s been whispers online from them, wanting to set something up with someone in Chicago now that their deal has fallen through with Bianchi. No one seems to know who they are, where they came from or where they’re based. They’re some sneaky little fuckers, but it sounds as though they’re growing, which is a good thing. The bigger they get, the more likely someone is to fuck up, and the quicker we can find them.”
Makes sense, though I don’t like the fact that we might have to wait for them to get bigger. The bigger they get, the more risk of something happening to Robyn, and that’s just not fucking okay. I also don’t like how they’re still trying to secure a deal in Chicago. Our family has found out quite a lot recently, like the fact that Izzy’s dad—Antonio Bianchi and the previous Don of the Chicago outfit—was moving into the flesh trade before he was killed by my father for kidnapping Izzy. The rest of my family also found out about Alec’s little side project, FreeThem. I knew he was up to something for a while and knew that it had something to do with stopping trafficking.
What I didn’t know was that his very public, very successful security company was basically a front for a mercenary group working to eradicate human trafficking. The biggest shock of all was that it turns out he and Izzy have been working together basically since the beginning, unbeknownst to him since she kept her identity hidden.
So yeah, fucking weird.
“I just need them gone. The sooner we get rid of them, the sooner Robyn will be safe, and I can fucking relax,” I grunt.
“This girl really has your balls in a twist, doesn’t she?” He grins.
Understatement of the century.
I roll my eyes. “Shut the fuck up, you’ll be the same one day when you meet your girl.”
Alec bursts out into laughter, actually folding over where he’s sat and clutching his stomach as tears roll down his face.
Idiot.
“Fuck,” he gasps. “You Romano boys are fucking hilarious. It’s like a motherfucking pandemic. I’ll have Marco in here next, waxing poetic about his woman when he inevitably falls next.”
I smirk, knowing full well that that’ll only happen if he pulls his head out his ass and revisits his past. Before I can reply, my phone starts buzzing in my pocket and I pull it out, seeing my dad’s name on the screen.
“Yeah?” I answer.
“Marco’s on his way to meet you. You’re both meeting with O’Brien, he has some information for you.”
Marco and I walk side by side into the warehouse. Finn O’Brien is one ballsy little fucker for opting to meet us at one of the warehouses we use to torture our enemies. We know he’s already inside since we got an alert the second he stepped onto our property.
As we walk inside the main room, one of the guards cants his head to the side, indicating that Finn’s already in the back room, the only room with actual furniture for us to sit down and have this meeting. I share a look with Marco before we make our way through, entering the room to find him seated on the sofa in the corner rather than the desk.
Guess we’re not going for formality in this meeting then.
My brother and I take a seat on the sofa opposite him and remain silent, waiting for him to start. I’d love nothing more than to tie him up to one of the beams in the main room and pull whatever information he has out of him as I peel the skin from his body, but that would upset the city’s balance and I don’t think Dad would be too happy if I were to go awol right now.
“Heard you’re looking into the Blue Vipers. I know none of the heads of the main syndicate’s tolerate trafficking in New York, but this rule means more to me now than it has in the last few years. So how about we swap some information and put these fuckers down for good?” he says, his Irish accent barely there since he grew up in New York, same for mine and my brothers Italian.
“Why is it more important now?” I ask.
Finn sends a pointed look towards my brother before answering. “Because my sister finally decided to come home.”
As soon as the words leave his mouth, Marco’s entire body tenses beside me.
Fucking weird.
What has O’Brien’s sister got to do with Marco? I was young when she left the city. I know she and Finn are twins and she left right around the time I was—
Oh. Oh. Oh shit.
An image of a blonde girl with her arms wrapped around my then nineteen-year-old brother spring to mind.
Piercing blue eyes.
Just like the asshole sitting opposite me.
Holy shit.
Knowing my brother like I do; I know he won’t want to hash this out right now. We also have more pressing matters than gossiping like schoolgirls—like making sure my angel is safe.
“Sounds great. So what do you know about the Blue Vipers?” I ask, leaning back into the sofa as if I haven’t just been shocked the shit out of.
He stares at me for a moment before sighing. “Nothing concrete. They seem to be slimy little fuckers but word on the streets is that they’re based out of Queens. I don’t have an exact location yet, but my guy is working on it and hoping to have their location soon.”
I nod. It’s not great, but at least it’s something.
“We don’t have much either. We know they’re growing rapidly and trying to set up a new connection in Chicago since Bianchi’s death. We have a guy tracking their online presence and hopefully that’ll get us something soon,” Marco says, and I zone out as they start going over the specifics we’ve learned so far, my mind occupied by Robyn.
She’s back at work today for the first time since she’s been staying with me and I fucking hate it, knowing she’s not in my apartment and that I don’t have my own two eyes on her. It’s making my fucking skin crawl. I pull out my phone and send off a couple of texts. One to Robyn and one to Leo, the bodyguard I’ve assigned to her. Leo’s reply comes instantly, and I breathe a little better.
Report.
Leo
All good, boss. Store’s not been too busy, no suspicious customers, she’s fine.
I lock my phone and focus back on the conversation, seems like we’ve shifted over into talking about the deal we have with O’Brien down at the docks, and it’s not long before I’m watching as the man himself strolls from the room.
Now that we’re alone, I have to wonder whether Marco’s going to actually talk about the girl he’s been holding a torch for the last ten years or if he’s going to continue living in denial.
“So…” I say and he once again tenses beside me—he knows what’s coming. “The O’Brien girl, huh? I knew that pretty blonde was someone important to you, so you wanted to hide the relationship. I just didn’t realize that the relationship would start a war.” I raise my brow as his face remains stoic as usual.
“We’re not talking about this,” he says in a gruff, no-nonsense tone.
“No? But you were so helpful with Luca, telling him not to let Izzy go. Basically telling him not to repeat your mistakes… she’s in our city bro, so when you gonna see her?”
“Because he still had a chance. I don’t. It’s over Enzo, I’ll likely never see her again, and I accepted that fact ten years ago,” he grunts before jumping to his feet and storming from the room.
Denial it is.
After the strangest meeting I’ve attended in a long time, I went back to finding out everything I could about the Blue Vipers.
Which admittedly, still isn’t much.
I don’t understand how a group of idiots can manage to evade the most powerful men in the city. It doesn’t make sense.
Usually, I’d have managed to find out everything I needed to know within a few hours. Yet these assholes have got me, my father—the Don of the goddamn Mafia—Marco, Alec and the head of the Irish Mob looking into them, and we’re basically no better off than we were when we started. At this point I’m ready to beg Izzy to help us from my brother’s hospital bedside if we don’t get something solid soon.
Though I’ll give it a few more days, I don’t want Luca shooting me for disturbing them.
Prickly bastard.
I’ve been stressed about Robyn too; I don’t like her not being in my line of sight. I know she has my men guarding her, but that doesn’t ease my worry one bit. I want nothing more than to lock her in my goddamn apartment until this is all over, but then she’d fucking hate me, and I can’t stand the thought of that, so I’m just gonna have to deal with it.
If someone had told me a few months ago that some girl would have my balls in a vice, I’d have shot them before they could blink.
Now look at me, it’s nauseating.
I love it.
But I’m finally, finally, finished for the day and about to walk in the apartment where she’s currently waiting for me.
Never in my life did I think I’d be the guy who’d rather get home to a woman than go out and fuck around. But alas, here we are. I’m bursting at the motherfucking seams to walk through that door and see her in my space, I’m like a little lost puppy, wanting to get home to its owner.
That’s actually not a bad analogy, since that girl owns every single piece of me.
