Page 13 of Mafia's Broken Omega

"What's the message?" Tears threatened to fall, but I refused to let this asshole see me crumble.

"You tell Cord that he needs to end this little bromance he has with the Ferrinis. If they continue working together, you and your brat won't continue living. Do you understand?"

My jaw clenched. I fought the urge to move. “Yes.”

The man's grip tightened so much that my feet came off the ground. My breath cut off at my throat, and I struggled against his hold.

His breath was hot against my ear. "Tell him. We'll be watching you, Velvet."

With that he let me go and pushed me forward. I stumbled, catching myself on a nearby shelf. Merchandise fell over and some clattered onto the floor. When I turned around, he was gone. I had no way to identify him except that he was big and his breath was rank.

I stood there for a long moment. My heart was pounding wildly. I knew I had to go to Cord right now, but my feet were not cooperating.

"Can I help you find something?" A young man stood at the end of the aisle with a wide smile and a red apron indicating that he worked there. His name tag said "Ask me how I can help you today!!!" with extra exclamations points.

I didn't even know where to start. "No, thanks, I'm just browsing."

He gave me a lingering look before finally turning around and walking away.

A swift kick from my baby had me finally coming to my senses and moving. I pulled out my phone and ordered a car.

I'd be going straight to Cord's house. My supplies would have to wait.

9

CORD

I wanted nothing more than to climb into my bed and crash. Although most of the family business went down at night, I was not a night person. Couldn't we torture someone for information at eight in the morning? What was so wrong with that idea?

I functioned so much better in the morning. If anything had to be done at night, it was best just to get it over with as early in the evening as possible. Perhaps my enemies would learn that in the evening I was tired and had no patience for fuck-ups.

"Tell me we don't have another late night planned for tomorrow," I said.

Rosco held open the door that went into the house from the garage where we'd just parked the car. "We have nothing on the schedule, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to visit one of the clubs. It always looks good when the boss makes an appearance. It’s been a long while since you’ve been to any of them."

"Or it looks like I'm keeping tabs on them."

"You should keep tabs on them. They are your businesses."

"Hmm. I'll consider it. Though I really wouldn't mind an early night."

"It's only eleven. This is an early night."

I scoffed and clapped him on the shoulder. "Maybe to you, Rosco."

I tried to keep walking, but he stopped me. "You'll think about what Andro said?"

I grimaced. It had been a few days since that fateful intervention. I had given it a lot of thought. Mostly, I worried about what would happen if they found Avery. What would I do? Would I reach out? Would I leave him alone? What if he had moved on? But also I worried about what would happen if I didn’t move on. Would I be pining for the one that got away for the rest of eternity? The loneliness would eat away at me until there was nothing left. "I have thought about it."

"And?"

I sighed. "And I don't know. I managed not to kill anyone in the past few days, and I was very polite with the staff. That's progress, right?"

Rosco chuckled and shook his head. "I suppose it is better than nothing."

"I'll put more thought into it tomorrow. I swear it. I'm doing my best, Rosco." What more could they ask of a man who had his heart stomped on? I couldn’t even blame Velvet for leaving. We had a business deal. I gave him no reason to think it was any more than that.

"I know you are. And even if you are a miserable ass to be around, you are managing the business well and the men respectyou. They also might be more terrified of you than they ever were of Vance."

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