Page 3 of Pirate's Plunder

They all start off working in the garage and are given generic road names until they’ve earned their permanent ones. We currently have five, but after this little job, I’ll cut two.

“Hey Prez,” Ares greets me when I walk in, and I glance around to see all but two members assembled just like I asked.

Knight is following my order and will be back any minute but where the fuck is Flip?

“Spector, where’s my treasurer?” I adjust my eyepatch that hides and broadcasts the fact that I’m missing the orb.

“It’s the sabbath, Prez. He’ll be here after sundown.” I curse in Spanish, making the room chuckle.

“You hired him.” My cousin smirks at me, knowing I won’t call him out for his disrespect, frankly, cause it’s true.

I chased Samuel Benowitz all over Manhattan and Atlantic City until he finally agreed to join the club, but on his terms. He’s got to be one of the strangest Orthodox Jews you’ll ever meet. He has no problems tormenting a man as long as it doesn’t interfere with his religion.

He kept a prospect that was caught stealing hanging upside down over a tank of his piranhas for all seven days of Hanukkah a few years ago.

“What time is sunset?” I ask on a sigh.

“Thirty minutes,” Cyclone answers as he fusses with his watch.

I grit my teeth but nod, because what else can I do but wait? I move through the room and take my seat at the head of the table, where my father’s ashtray, gavel, and signature brass knuckles, where he got his road name from, sit exactly where he left them. I had them welded into the table with a plaque in memory of my parents.

I kiss my fingers and touch the smooth metal before knocking my knuckles on the table three times.

“Any other business we can take care of before Flip arrives?” Slowly, the table fills with my brothers, with only three empty seats.

Knight returns with two of the Tools, Sprocket and Flathead. He tossed them into the corner and pointed at them with a menacing look.

“Don’t fucking move. Stay quiet and listen. You may learn something to keep your sorry asses alive. At the end, one of you is getting a job to do.” He walks away from the men who look like toddlers in time out, only with beards and tattoos.

Knight sits to my right, covering my blind spot. He’s more than my Vice President, he’s my fucking best friend. I would be dead along with my parents if it weren’t for him. He still feels guitly that my eye couldn’t have been saved but teases the shit out of me that he’s the reason my dick still works.

He’s not wrong.

If he hadn’t stopped the bleeding from my groin I’d have lost my penis and leg. The eye doesn’t feel like such a sacrifice when you know that fact, until you look in a mirror and always see what that asshole meant for me always to understand.

That my parents had been set up.

The daily reminder that the monster who did this will never see justice, the same way I will never see the world the same again. But that ends now.

I found his secret and soon I’ll have her under lock and key with the smug satisfaction that there’s not a fucking thing he can do to stop me.

An eye for an eye isn’t possible, but his daughter will do.

Chapter Two

Genesis

“Isaid I’d marry someone you approved, but that didn’t mean now! I’m still in college. I’d like to at least work in my field before you saddle me with an arranged loveless marriage so that I can start popping out babies.” I cross my arms and stare at my feet.

I know better than to talk back to my father, but if I don’t stand up for myself now, I’ll end up with some sixty-year-old man who doesn’t speak English.

“Your father needs a male heir.” My bio dad says through his teeth.

“Alfonso Torelli is not my father, you are!” His hand flies out too quickly for me to brace for the hit.

My head smacks into the wall, stunning me badly enough that my knees wobble in my heels, and I stumble to the ground.

“Have you any clue how hard it’s been for me to watch you grow up under that man’s care? I did it for you! Be grateful and do as you’re told.” Marco storms off, leaving me staring at his back while I cup my stinging cheek.

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