Page 3 of Shotgun Daddy
It was bad luck to assume that you were going to get the part as an actor, but as hard as he tried, Reece couldn’t stop himself from thinking that his name was written all over this part – and it was only going to take a single audition to prove it…
Chapter 2
Faustino
10 YEARS AGO
The drinks were flowing, and the smiles and laughter were in abundance too. Faustino looked across the table and cast his eyes over Justin. He was sexy, sassy, and had a twinkle in his charming blue eyes that could have lit the darkest cave in the largest mountain.
“How about we finish desert and go for a walk?” Faustino asked, smiling as he reached across the table and rested his hand on Justin’s far more delicate hand. “I could say it was Daddy’s Orders if that helps…”
Justin giggled and took one last spoonful of lemon sorbet in his mouth before nodding in agreement. Faustino hadn’t known Justin for too long. It must have been two months, maybe a little more. But the pair of them had formed a bond that seemed destined to go the distance. Both fairly new to the Daddy and Little world, Faustino and Justin were navigating the new and exciting way of life together. It was still early days, but there was no doubting in Faustino’s mind that this could lead into something very special indeed.
As the pair of them got up from the restaurant table and made their way outside, Faustino draped his hand over Justin’s petite shoulders and the two of them began to walk down the busy street together. It was late evening and there were plenty of people all around them, reveling in the night and out and about having fun and good times with one another.
“Club?” Faustino asked, looking into Justin’s eyes and smiling once more as he looked back at him with a mixture of lust and longing. “Or maybe my place?”
“I think I’d like to go back to your place, Daddy,” Justin said, his voice trembling just a touch as he uttered the D-word to Faustino for the first time. “I think I want to stay the night.”
Faustino didn’t need telling twice.
With his heart thumping and every inch of his body telling him that this was the green light he needed to give Justin the best night of his life, he swiftly looked around for a nearby cab to hail.
“Damn. There’s always a ton of cabs when you don’t need one,” Faustino said, a wry smile on his face. “But there’s never a single one when you do. Come on, let’s walk for a bit. We’re not too far from my place. If we see a cab, we’ll take it. But if we don’t-”
“You’ll let me ride on your shoulders?” Justin smiled, sassily nudging Faustino in his side and then flashing his impossibly sweet smile in his direction.
“You know what? Sure,” Faustino laughed. “Daddy knows how to treat his boy right.”
With that, the two of them walked and talked their way for a couple of blocks. Suddenly the crowds that had surroundedthem outside the restaurant were gone and the streets were a lot quieter. This was no big deal to Faustino. Other people might have been scared about walking the streets late at night alone, but Faustino was a Fendi. No one would touch him. As far as Faustino was concerned, these streets were his to do with as he pleased. He might have been a young street soldier, but Faustino was already developing the kind of reputation that would make even the most grizzled veteran want to steer clear of him.
“Are we nearly there yet?” Justin asked, a slightly impatient tone in his voice. “I want some fun with Daddy!”
“Hey, so do I, believe me,” Faustino said. “And, yes, we are nearly home. Just one more block. Come on, let’s cross over here.”
However just as Faustino and Justin were about to cross the road together, a blacked out SUV pulled up and slowed right next to them. Before Faustino knew what was happening, he was diving and pulling Justin with him as gunfire rained through the night air.
“Stay down, I’ve got this,” Faustino said, pushing Justin behind a metal bin and locking and loading his trusty pistol.
“I love you, Daddy,” Justin replied, a smile on his face that Faustino would never forget.
It didn’t take long for Faustino to force the mystery gunmen into retreat as his accurate shots were more than a match for their wild spray of bullets. Faustino was about as skilled a marksman as it was possible to be and actually took his training in the Fendi ways seriously. There were too many henchmen and thugs out on the streets who barely knew how to reload agun, let alone master how to fire one. Still, that was for another time. All Faustino cared about was getting back to his boy and making sure that he was okay. The likelihood was that Justin was bruised or maybe even sprained something as Faustino brought him to the ground, but other than that he would be just fine after a hot cocoa and snuggle back at home.
But when Faustino saw Justin lying on the floor, his body still, he knew that it was much more serious than a sprained wrist…
“No, no, no, no, no!” Faustino shouted, quickly realizing that not only was Justin not responding to him, but he wasn’t breathing either.
Faustino felt everything go black as he turned Justin onto the side and saw bullet wounds that must have caught him on the way down. Everything else fell into the background and Faustino held onto Justin and cried out for him, praying to a God he didn’t even believe existed to bring him back and let him live once more.
Even as pedestrians slowly started to approach and offer their help, Faustino couldn’t believe what had just happened. He knew from that moment that life would never, ever be the same again. And, more than that, Faustino knew that he would never be the same again either. From that night on, Faustino was determined to be the most feared, crazed, ruthless psycho killer that the Fendi family had ever produced…
PRESENT DAY
The time was ticking slowly, but Faustino was more than able to handle it. In fact, Faustino felt as serene as was possible in hislife as he patiently staked out his next victim, watching on from his car while his trusted sideman Owen sat across from him.
“You do know we’re not killing this asshole, right?” Owen chuckled wryly, no doubt drawn to the fact that Faustino’s hand was twitching as it rested on his trademark shotgun.
“Bullshit,” Faustino replied, in no mood to take orders from anyone – least of all his brother Michael and cousin Matteo.
