Page 70 of Sugar Baby
He sighs and grabs my mum by her upper arm to seat her on a kitchen stool close to him. “There has been a feud in the Calabrese family for twenty years, ever since Gino, your great-grandfather, handed over the family to your mother to run. Lorenzo was livid and started a bloody battle to get it back. Your mother, however, married your dad, who is head of the London mafia and, well, two major crime families was a bit more than anyone was willing to take on. Enzo went underground but didn’t stop his endeavours.” He casts his gaze over to Enzo. “How’m I doing so far?”
Enzo grunts his response.
“Wait,” I say weakly. “Mum? You are in the mafia as well?”
She gives me a steady stare but doesn’t answer me. She’s not admitting to fuck all in front of Trent, I guess.
“Well,” Trent continues. “Nico enlisted my help to track down Enzo once and for all to lock him up because of his threat to you.”
“Me?” I look down at Nico. “What threat?”
“Apart from abducting you,” Nico drawls. “He has big plans for you, princess.”
“Which are?”
“To take over from your mother, with him right behind you, whispering in your ear. He knew he could never kill your mother and take her place and have anyone loyal to him. He needed to be devious.”
“Fuck’s sake,” I mutter as I take all of this in and almost start to cry. “My whole life, this prison that I’ve grown up in, has all been aboutthis?”
“Yes,” Dad says, limping into the kitchen, with a wooden box under his arm.
“Daddy!” I cry. “You’re hurt!”
“It’s nothing. Your mother is a crap shot.”
“Humph,” Mum mutters rudely. “Fuck you, Aidy. I could’ve shot your balls off if I didn’t love your cock so much.”
He grins at her and bends down to kiss her deeply.
“Eww,” I mutter, turning away and making a retching noise. “Eww, eww, eww.”
I turn back to them when I hear a thump. Daddy has placed the wooden box on the kitchen island.
“Why is Enzo free then, if he was such a danger?” I ask.
“Your father set him free,” Mum spits out. “That’s why I shot him in the leg.”
“Why?” I ask, getting more and more confused as the story unravels.
“Because it is time to end this feud. I’m sick to death of worrying about you and about him,” Daddy says. “I’m getting old, Sugar. I don’t need this shit anymore. I want to retire from my second job and just be here to run this growing pack and be happy and relaxed.”
“You mean your mafia job?” I stammer.
He nods. “Nico was working for me. This is all my doing. I wanted Enzo locked away so that your mother and I had the opportunity to watch you fly free, Sugar. We also have big plans for you, but that is for another time. Now is the time to put all of this animosity to bed. I’m tired. Really tired.”
I stare at him and see the creases around his eyes, the black bags and how he looks older than his years.
“I guess Mum had other ideas?” I murmur.
“I wasn’t letting him get away with nothing,” Mum states. “He deserved this for all the hell he has put us through. Gino was responsible for this. He handed me the family. If I’d handed it to you, Enzo, then what? Where is the legacy formychildren?”
“With your husband,” Enzo grits out.
She shakes her head. “No. This is aboutblood.”
Enzo apparently has nothing to say to that.
My head is reeling. I feel sick on so many levels.
