Page 9 of Generation Lost

“And the rest of these animals?” he frowned.

“That’s not nice,” said Alec, standing behind the man. To his credit, he jumped and moved away from the dark figure. “We’re all her nephews, and we’ll be sleeping here for the foreseeable future.”

“Boys, dinner is ready.” She opened the door as the men smiled at her. “Oh. It’s you.”

“You fucking old bitch!” growled the man.

“You speak to that woman like that again, and I swear to God, you’re gonna regret getting out of your car,” said Tailor. “Now, you get back in that fancy vehicle of yours and head on out of here. This property is not for sale. It’s bought and paid for, and so are the other eleven homes.”

“It won’t matter. She can’t live here without neighbors, and all the rest will come down soon enough.”

“No, they won’t,” said Miller, walking toward the man. He shoved a sheet of paper against his chest. “You obviously don’t listen well. The other houses have been paid off as well. All eleven of them. They are not for sale.”

“I’ll pay you double the value of the house,” he said to the old woman.

“I told you before. This is my home. I ain’t goin’ nowhere. This place has memories for me, and whatever you were gonna offer me can’t replace the memories.”

“You have no idea what you’ve done,” he said, staring at the men, then back at the woman. “All of you! You can’t be here all the time. Sooner or later, she’ll be alone, and this house will be unprotected. That old place will be easy to burn down.”

Alec gripped the man’s throat, lifting him off the ground.

“If so much as one window is scratched, one door touched, one mark on this property happens, I will make sure that you are wiped from this earth.” He flung the man against his car, gasping for air.

“You’re dead men! All of you are dead men!”

“I feel like I’ve heard this before,” said Gabe.

“Same,” smiled Miller. “Skull? You heard this before?”

“I believe I have. Miss Miranda, didn’t you say something about dinner being ready?”

“I did,” she smiled. “Chicken and dumplings. Let’s go, boys, wash up. You can be on your way now, Mr. Rizzoli.”

The men stared at him, then back at the older woman. Rizzoli expected them to have some sort of reaction, but there was nothing. Everyone knew his name in this city. Everyone. Why didn’t these men show any fear?

“I’ll leave. But this isn’t over.”

They watched as he left the neighborhood, his two-hundred-thousand-dollar German SUV roaring with power. Miller and Bull watched until he was gone, then looked at one another.

“Fucking Rizzoli family,” frowned Miller. “This just got big.”

“Yep,” nodded Bull. “Big and messy.”

“Can I ask y’all a question?” said Nine, staring at the table of newcomers. They all nodded their heads. “Why didn’t you tell us that the Rizzoli family is behind all of this?”

“We didn’t think it would matter,” said Herb. “They’re just a development group. No one special.”

“No one special?” frowned Ian. “The Rizzoli family has direct ties to the mafia, both here in the U.S. and in Italy. They are an old school family who doesn’t take kindly to losing.”

“What have we done?” frowned Grace.

“You haven’t done anything,” said Ghost. “Don’t misunderstand our curiosity. We are not going to stand for this, but it would have been helpful to know that the Rizzolis are pulling the strings in all of this. Men like the Rizzolis always have an underlying reason for what they’re after. I don’t believe for a minute that they’re building condos or townhomes.”

“Then what would they be doing?” asked Lila. “It’s not near enough to the city, so it wouldn’t support a shopping mall. It’s too far from Bourbon Street and that area to build a high-end hotel.”

“I think we might know the answer to that.”

CHAPTER SIX

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