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Chapter Five
JULIAN
This day has been beyond hectic with two cases in court and a third giving me a headache with the inaccuracies of my client’s alibi. Some days I hate working for rich assholes, because they always assumed I would be on their side, that I’d turn a blind eye to their lies, their money somehow rendering me into a clueless idiot when it came to their half-truths. Composing a quick email, I forward Eli the client’s details for further investigation, hoping that The Family could find a valid reason to take care of him. I didn’t trust Malcom Radcliffe as far as I could throw him, slimy mother-fucker and I’d sleep much happier at night knowing that disgusting human was off my streets.
Not only did I have that to contend with, but now I have to go for dinner with a potential client when all I want is a good sweaty session in the gym and to get in some swimming afterwards. Fitness and taking care of my body had been drilled into me at a young age, my father adamant that I not be ‘weak’ or a ‘sissy pushover’. With every lap of the park or painful sit-up I’d cursed him silently inside my head, wishing him a painful death for the life he made my mother and I live. Now exercise was one of my addictions. I needed the burn of my muscles, the ache distracting me from the million responsibilities weighing on my shoulders. It also helped keep my sweet tooth in check, another addiction. This one my father hadn’t been able to beat out of me, despite his best efforts.
It’s not that I don’t love my job, because I do, being a lawyer was the only choice I’d gotten to make in my whole life, but everything was intense right now. Belcastro left The Family in a mess, with in-fighting, depleted resources and still stuck in the dark ages. I want to break it down and meld it into something new, something stronger but resistance is making that difficult and then add in a high-pressured day job. I was like pasta dough, being pulled too thinly in too many directions.
All eight of my Captains were useful in their own ways, but promoting unity and bringing The Family out of the ‘old ways’ was still proving difficult. I didn’t blame them, not really. The mafia was an organization built around family, trust and tradition and I was attempting to shake that up. Given that half of my Captains had been my father’s before mine, I knew I was fighting an uphill struggle before I’d even begun. Thankfully, some of the younger ones like Matty Jr, Zeno and Nicco were less resistant to change, and understood the necessity of moving into the twenty-first century.
Family dynamics could wait, first dinner and schmoozing. I was lucky, in that I owned my own firm, started with the support of The Family and grown through my own hard work, allowing me to pace myself a little more and yet…and yet I still don’t get the freedom to go for a fucking swim when I want. I inhale slowly, count to five and exhale with a deep sigh.
“And who is my dinner with?” I ask Daniel as I get into the car and loosen my tie.
“A potential client,” he says, checking the watch I’d gifted him for his birthday as he climbs in beside me. It’s unlike him to be vague but he seems on edge this evening as we drive downtown.
I open a bottle of water and chug down half of it, preparing my liver for what’s about to come. Many of my clients liked to indulge at these meetings, since they were usually at my expense and it would be rude if I didn’t share a drink. I’m not much of a drinker typically, I find alcohol gives me a headache and I can’t think straight. Last week at the charity gala I’d indulged more than I usually would, and where had that gotten me? Dancing with my enemy, inhaling her ridiculously sweet scent as I held her close to my chest. It had come back to bite me, literally. Reaching up to stroke my ear, which was now healed, I flinch.
“And what’s the case?”
Daniel shrugs. “They said they wanted to discuss it privately with you. I think it’s something to do with property rights and fraud.”
“Hmmm.” I don’t like the sound of this client already, they seem demanding.
“There will be two bodyguards outside at all times,” Daniel reassures me with quiet confidence. I don’t usually require bodyguards to tail my every move, but Elijah is away on a reconnaissance mission for me trying to hunt down Rosie once again while looking into some murmurings about a Mexican cartel trying to move in on my turf.
I haven’t heard anything from Rosalyn Gambino since the gala and it unnerved me for some reason. It wasn’t strange in itself, as I only hear from her on the anniversary of her parents’ deaths normally. She commits her little acts of violence, posts me my gifts and fades back into the shadows but this time she’d approached me in public and I was hoping to get a lead on her before she vanished for another ten years.
After that night, when she’d fled and my father and Belcastro had forced her to go into hiding, I often wondered how she’d lived. How she’d survived, alone without a dollar to her name and with The Family hunting her down. I had my suspicions that she’d left Newtown completely, hiding out somewhere else for a few years and my theory seemed to fit with the timeline as the first hearts didn’t begin arriving until three years after, on her twenty-first birthday. It took my father a while to realize who was behind the gift that had shown up at our home, addressed to me but once he did, it brought up all his anger again. He’d broken three of my ribs that night, said I deserved it for not handling the ‘Gambino bitch’, like I’d been told to. I push down the unpleasant memories resurfacing, cursing Rosie for stirring up my life once again.
“Fine.” I scroll through my phone and see there’s been another dead body washed up along the riverbank. I wonder who pissed off Lawrence again as I skim the police report. It looked like his style of kill; throat cut with multiple poker burns littering the victim’s body. My Captain was very lucky we had an excellent relationship with Newtown PD. That and I had deep pockets. Turning my attention to Daniel, I ask, “Will you be joining us?”
He shifts in his seat, and glances out the window nervously. “I have that hospital appointment with my mother, Sir.”
His mother. She was in a nursing home with dementia and with his father dead, it fell to Daniel to take care of her. I seemed to recall they were currently investigating some suspected frontal lobe damage, which must be difficult for my soft assistant. “Ah, I forgot. Okay, I’ll see you in the office tomorrow then.”
He doesn’t reply, just nods. Talking about his family always makes Daniel clam up and I’m not entirely sure why. I mean, it was common knowledge, even outside The Family that my father was a tyrant. He’d been too tight with his affection and too liberal with his anger, and my mother had suffered the most. By the time she died half of her face was paralyzed from nerve damage and she walked with a limp, something that was often speculated about in gossip rags. I wasn’t strong enough back then; I hadn’t been able to do what needed to be done. He’d been a Captain for Frank Belcastro but Felix Asaro had always had bigger plans and he had no qualms when it came to getting what he wanted. So, if anyone has any reason to be ashamed of their parents, it’s me. I came from a monster. And I too became a monster.
We pull up outside an expensive restaurant I’ve visited a few times where they do the most incredible chocolate mousse, so maybe tonight isn’t a complete write off I think with a small smile. Getting out of the car I watch as it drives off to take Daniel to the hospital and after straightening my tie once again, I put on my lawyer face, a charming smile and enter the fancy venue with my black bank card burning a hole in my wallet.
I’m shown to a private room in the back, and as promised two bodyguards nod as I enter.
As a lawyer I often meet unsavory, desperate people.
As a wealthy man from a prominent family, I meet false, lecherous people.
And as the head of The Family, I meet greedy, homicidal people…like the one sat before me wearing a fitted white dress with bold red lipstick.
“Well, are you just going to stare?” she asks, pouring two glasses of red wine gracefully. For a moment, I wonder if poison is how I die. It would figure, since our relationship is already toxic. Intoxicating.
Without the mask hiding half of her face, I can see her clearly now. She looks older, the softness of her youth a little faded around the edges but she’s still beautiful. Still deadly. Her dress hugs her curvy frame, and for a moment I think about how she’s the image of her mother. My chest tightens with guilt, that I swallow as I step closer. Her blonde curls are delicately pinned up with an oriental hairpin, a ruby flower catching the candlelight every time she moves.
Raising my eyebrow, I look down at her. “What’s going on? Are you here to kill me, because I warn you, I have men outside.”
Not that they would be much help. We both knew she could do some serious damage before they even opened the door. She wasn’t just a pretty face, and she wasn’t called the Queen of Hearts for nothing.
“Do you now?” She flashes me a sneaky smile, and my stomach sinks. “Because I’m pretty sure only one is actually yours, Jay.”
Great. If I call out or cause a commotion now, her man will deal with mine before he even sees the betrayal coming. And if they successfully manage to take each other out, or my bodyguard disarms hers, I’ll still be left with the Queen of Hearts and I’m not a fool, I know she’s better in close quarters than me. She was trained from birth for this role, something my father had always admired despite how much he hated Vincent Gambino.
“It’s Julian,” I correct with a fake smile, fixing my lawyer person in place as I cross my arms. Patience is a virtue; one I was very adept at. I just need to wait, bide my time and see what game she’s playing. Once I figured out what her angle was, what she planned to do, then I could tug on the threads of her little scheme and watch her unravel.
“That’s funny, that’s not how you introduced yourself all those years ago.” Tilting her head, her big baby blue eyes watching me carefully she retorts, “You also didn’t seem to mind it at the gala.”
“We were kids, Rosie. And you caught me off guard at the gala.” I wait, watching as she tucks a glossy blonde curl behind her ear. Why did she have to be so attractive? When I read the reports of her crimes, or saw the troubles she was causing in the lower ranks I always tried to imagine her as this plain-looking woman, twisted with hatred but she was flawless, like a Venus flytrap, drawing me in and I hated it. I hated my reaction to her. I’d almost invited her home with me at the gala, and if she hadn’t told me who she was, she might have been naked in my bed that night.
“Rosalyn then.” Her eyes sparkle as she takes a sip of her wine; she’s enjoying this too much. She’s plotting something.
Holding up my hands in defeat I growl, “Fine. Be infuriating.”
