Page 3 of Room Twenty-Four: Under Their Hands

“Because his father was my father’s best friend. He was always loyal. I don’t really want to think that his son would do me dirty like that.”

Bruno snorts and his dark eyes flash. “Anybody will do you dirty. It just takes the right circumstances. The guy might be a gambler and need some money to take care of some bills. He could have medical bills. He could just be an asshole.”

“Are you telling me that you’d do something like that?”

“Hell no!” The horror on his face is real. I almost laugh. But I know that it would hurt his feelings. He’d never say so but Bruno is a softie about some things.

Like women. “How are things going with that girl at the club?”

He shrugs. “Meh. She and I have moved on.”

“You gotta stop getting so attached to these girls that they run, man. It’s just sex.”

He gets a mutinous look on his harsh, craggy face. His firm lips tighten. “I want more. But I want a special woman.”

“I know what you want but I don’t think you’re going to find it at that club. I mean, you’ll find the one thing but she’s not gonna be the girl you bring home to mama. She’s gonna be the freak in the sheets that you meet on nights you work late and then go home to your happy little home.”

“You’re a cynical bastard.”

“I’ve seen too much not to be.” My parents’ marriage was not a walk in the park. It wasn’t that happily ever after all women and some men want. It was an arranged marriage between two rival families to stop the feuding and bloodshed.

And it worked. The families came together under one big banner. Until my mother’s death. As soon as she died, her father learned some things about my father that had him steaming mad.

Such as the fact that she’d been disrespected by him for years. His mistress had free rein in the clubs that we ran and my mother was forced to hear about her endlessly every time she stepped foot in the clubs.

It got so bad that she stopped going anywhere. Just sat in the house and painted. Her paintings were a revelation. Haunting, moody and dark. Beautiful.

My favorite one was a painting of the house from the outside at midnight with dark shadows and stark red roses on the metal gates. Moonlight gilds the whole picture in mystery.

Towards the end, she didn’t even bother with that. She just sat and stared off into space.

One month later, she got her hands on some illegal drugs that we were selling and took an overdose.

I want to think that it was an accident but I’m not sure and that haunts me even now.

My father, the bastard, didn’t even bother showing up for her funeral. He was too busy moving his little mistress into the house.

That’s what got him killed. And as soon as he died, I took over the family at twenty-three.

A decade later, I’m still running the family with my best friends, Bruno and Seth by my side. Bruno is my muscle and Seth is the fixer. He can fix anything.

These two men are my family even more than the men under them. I would trust Bruno and Seth with anything. Even my deepest, darkest secrets.

We’ve shared everything over the years. I’ve even been to the club with him and Seth and shared a woman. When I have an itch to scratch.

We all trust each other and know that nothing would ever get out. Both of them had normal families. Or at least as normal as mafia can be.

Bruno sighs. “I know that you don’t have a good impression of marriage or women in general. But there is a woman out there that will be perfect for you.”

“I don’t want marriage of any kind. I prefer to get my sex where there are rules and I don’t have to worry about shit getting serious or getting out.”

He sighs and rubs his hands together. “Well, sometime soon we’ll have to go hang out at the club. It’s probably about that time to get your rocks off so you don’t turn into a raging bastard.”

“If anybody else said that to me, I’d kick their ass.”

I know that. Luckily for you, you don’t have to do that. Because I’d make mincemeat out of you first.”

Snorting, I wrap an arm around his neck and give him a bro hug. “Yeah. You go ahead and think that. How about we plan on a trip out tomorrow night.”

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