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Prologue
Hector “Junior” Valladares
I have been up since six-thirty this morning, though to be honest sleep never really came. Last night, I killed two men. Two brothers actually, then I called my brother to clean up my mess. No one and I mean no one embezzles money from the Valladares family and gets away with it. After the kills, I was way too amped up to sleep. Sure, the men deserved it and it doesn’t weigh heavy on me, so I am not sure why sleep eluded me. My father texted me at seven-fifty to advise me of a meeting in the dining room at eight. A hot shower, a suit, and some toast later, I am the first to arrive.
I haven't had a lot of time to wonder what this meeting could possibly be about, but I take the time now. He never needs all three of us at once. Normally, he and I meet daily at around ten. He tells me what needs to be done and I give orders to the capos who then carry those orders out, usually using soldiers to make it happen. I take a seat at the table, coffee in hand.
I don’t have to wait long. A few minutes later, once my brothers, Eco and Benny are seated, my dad walks in with a stack of folders tucked under his arm. My sister, Ivy, is off doing her own thing as usual.
“Boys, inside these folders are your future. I have met with four of the other heads of families. We have no choice but to unite forces against the Popov family. They are systematically killing our men. Each family has lost at least one enforcer in the last couple of weeks. They want to take over East Coast Operations and we can’t let that happen. Marriage is the most sure-fire way to unite. I have decided who is best suited to you based on these dossiers,” he says in a no-nonsense voice. That doesn’t stop Benny from questioning him though. I keep my laughter at bay as Dad puts him in his place.
This is just about the craziest idea I have ever heard, but once Dad leaves, I stand and stare at the pile. “How should we do this?” I ask, laughing.
“Just pass the damn things out,” Benny says, grabbing the first folder in the pile. Eco and I grab one, opening them. I look over at him to find him looking at me. We each shrug and swap folders. Opening this one, I get an entirely different feeling than when I opened the first one.
Carmen Yazmina Abrantes’ picture is staring back at me and I begin to feel something. Something that I have never felt before. Desire to bed a woman, but it’s more than that. She looks like my wife. My soulmate. Her long chocolate brown hair is slightly curled at the ends. My hand involuntary twitch at the thought of running my fingers through what is sure to be silky strands. Her green eyes are staring up to me. I can imagine her looking up at me, begging me to take her. Own her. Breed her. When I look up from the folder again, both Benny and Eco are long gone. Taking my phone out of my pocket, I call Levi, our tech master.
“Levi, it’s Junior. I need you to run a name and get me everything you can on her,” I say.
“Sure thing, Boss. Her name?” he asks. I love being the fucking boss. My orders are obeyed like second nature. No one wants to be on the receiving end of either my wrath or my blade.
“Carmen Abrantes, age twenty-two. I mean everything Levi, starting with where she’ll be this afternoon.”
“Give me ten,” he says ending the call.
I head into the kitchen for another cup of coffee while I wait. I am an impatient man and I hate to wait. I scroll through my phone to get a feel for Carmen’s social media presence. On her Facebook, her profile picture is set to one of her with a man. I growl under my breath. She better not have a man, because I won’t hesitate to kill him. I am irrationally pissed by the mere fact that this picture exists. Fuming, I keep scrolling. Thankfully, nothing else I see sets me off. I see that she recently received her red belt in karate. She also is into kickboxing and pilates. She also posts a lot of memes. A lot. Mostly involving cats. She also posts a lot of self-defense tips. I would not have expected that from the picture of my girl in the folder. Both sides of her appeals to my nature.
Levi calls me less than ten minutes later.
“Boss. Hey, she’ll be Enrico’s Gym around six. She is currently at work. She is a paralegal at Graham, Feinstein, and Polling in Newark. She takes her lunch at noon every day and shares an office with another paralegal James Tallmound, twenty-five. Her mother, Jocelyn was murdered in front of her in 2005. She was injured, but not critically. The assailant was never caught. Her cell phone number is 908-989-1869. She’s a parishioner at St. Rita’s in Plainfield. I have other less important information I can email you,” he says.
“Email is fine. Thank you, Levi. I’ll let you know if I need anything else.” We hang up and a few seconds later, the email comes in. It’s only nine-thirty. What the fuck am I going to do until six?
I make a fresh cup of coffee and head out the back door. Across the lawn is my private quarters. It’s a smaller version of the big house. As soon as I walk in, I take notice of my surroundings. It severely lacks a woman’s touch, but I’ve never really thought about things like that. Will she even like this house when I get her here?
I’ve got a few hours to ponder that, though.
