Page 14 of The Sting of Love
A dirty mobster who took advantage of the poor doll who I knew was looking for an escape. I wanted her to escape in me. I took advantage of her need to forget whatever shit sent her to the club by herself, but the joke’s on me. I got caught in my own trap because she’s the kind of woman you don’t forget.
I want her again, but I know I’m supposed to leave her alone. Women like her are alright to be with for one night and one night only. Just to indulge the curiosity for a taste, and that’s it. You don’t take them into the darkness of the criminal world.
That’s what my life will be like, and I learned that the hard way when I watched the bullet rip into my mother, killing her. I might be this smooth-talking raw-assed gangster, but I know if I ever fell in love and loved hard the way my father loved my mother, it would kill me if I ever lost my girl to violence.
So, last night was last night, and that’s all it can ever be.
My phone rings, signaling business. It’s in my pants pocket on the floor.
I rush to answer it.
“Hey, Donny.” It’s Alex.
“Hey, man, everything cool?” I check the clock on the wall and wince when I see it’s after ten. I’m normally up well before now. I don’t like sleeping in, just in case there’s trouble.
“Not really. Gibbs found some stuff. Can you come to my place?”
“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes,” I answer.
“Cool, see you then.”
I hang up, take a quick shower, and get dressed. Then I take my motorcycle because it’ll be quicker to speed to Alex’s. He sounded serious, and if Gibbs found something, it means shit just got real.
Every time that man finds something it means things are about to change in a big way. Gibbs is the type of PI who can find things nobody wants found. I don’t know how he does it, and he’ll always say he has his ways, but I wonder what his ways are and who the fuck he must know to give him the intel he can gather. Sometimes he finds things we can’t even find, and that’s near impossible.
I pull up on Alex’s drive in the next five minutes and see Gibbs’ Harley parked on the side. That was the first thing he insisted on getting when we arrived days ago. I just wanted to get to my place and call my father to let him know I’d arrived. Pa lives near the club in the vineyard I grew up on, and he’s adamant I see him soon.
I was going to see him today, but from the sounds of this call, that might not happen.
Alex’s door is already open, so I just walk in and find him and Gibbs in the living room mulling over some paperwork.
Alex has a crease in his brow and doesn’t even give me the standard greeting I usually get from him.
“Take a seat, bro. This is not good. Not in the least,” he mutters, and Gibbs looks over at me, tipping his salt and pepper head for a curt nod.
I nod back and grab one of the chairs from around the dinner table.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
“It’s shit. All of it is fucking shit and worse than I thought. Thank fuck for the tip-off we got because it wouldn’t just be Claudius who’d get stitched up and screwed all six ways to Sunday. It would be all of us,” Alex scuffs.
“Show me,” I demand.
Gibbs runs a hand through his gray beard and gives me some pictures. They look like the standard ones you’d see when taken from far away. That’s to say the least though. It’s who’s in the pictures that catches my attention.
There are three guys. Two are brothers I’ve known of for a long time. Their names are Amadeo and Leo Fettuccine. They’ve been in the alliance and clients in the business since I was a boy.
The other guy is a known human trafficker called Xiou Ming. He works for The Triad.The fucking Triad. The three are standing in a circle just outside the docks by The Caterina, the hotel linked to Bel Posto
The briefcase being handed over to Amadeo is a dead giveaway that they’re definitely doing some kind of business.
“Fuck,” I hiss, baring my teeth, but I continue looking through the pictures. All of them are of the three fuckers either near the fucking hotel or the club. My hands still when I get to the fourth, and the blood drains from my skin.
The picture has four young girls chained together entering a truck. The fucking truck is parked in the loading bay of the hotel. A place that’s password protected.
I look to Alex then to Gibbs.
“My camera guy was able to get these. It happened last night,” Gibbs explains. His dark brown eyes hold a sheen of rage I don’t miss.
