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“What the fuck is that supposed to mean,if I succeed? I will fuckin’ succeed, with or without your backing. And if I don’t got your backing, you better run, because you’ll be the first one I take out.” He shoves his chest upward and his lip curls.
I tilt my head down to him and smile. “Clearly, you’re not ready to have a conversation with me. When you are, let me know. In the meantime, good fucking luck.”
“Where are you goin’, bitch?” he calls out when I turn and start to leave. “Noah, you cunt. You don’t leave unless I tell—”
Slamming the door behind me, I cut him off before I change my mind and challenge him for the position of king. And if I do that, there is no doubt of who the heir to the Gianni throne would really be.
* * *
One day later, I’m being summoned to Renzo’s house in Newark. Francesco’s house. It pains me to answer the request to join him for lunch, but a sense of obligation to thefamigliahas me driving there midday.
When I arrive at the guarded two-story my uncle built from the ground up, I’m hit with déjà vu as I hear the sounds of fucking coming from somewhere upstairs.
“Boss will be down shortly,” one of his men flanking the front door tells me.
His friend, who’s puffing on a cigarette, nearly chokes with laughter. “Yeah, he won’t keep you waitin’ long.”
“Disrespect like that will only get you killed,” I say and their snickering stops immediately.
I push past them, pausing only a second to glance up the curved staircase toward the blatant sound of fucking.
Again, I’m hit with a sense of déjà vu. Renzo is like his brother in far too many ways. It fills me with dread to imagine how much more damage could be done to the Gianni name.
My jaw tightens as I make to sit on the couch to wait out the thirty seconds it will probably take him to finish, but I stop when I hear a female scream for help.
Without a second thought, I fly up the stairs and kick open the door that leads into the master bedroom.
Renzo is towering over a tiny woman who’s huddled in a corner, her arm raised over her face protectively.
It’s the same brunette I saw on theLucky Ladyweeks ago. Ruby. Only, she’s much thinner now. Dark circles beneath her eyes and an old bruise with a greenish hue to it on her cheek make her look downright skeletal.
She presses herself against the wall, clutching at the torn fabric of her dirty white dress. Terror fills her gaze as she glances between Renzo and me. Her trembling is so intense, I can practically hear her teeth chattering.
Renzo wipes a speck of blood from his lip. “Bitch bit me.”
“You deserved it,” I tell him.
“Don’t waste your breath on that whore, Noah. She’s not worth it.” He spits out blood toward her, then moves to his dresser and takes a wad of cash from the top drawer. “Here, bitch.”
Ruby winces when the money hits her face. She grabs it and pushes herself up. When she limps toward the door, I see the large scrapes on her back.
“Did you do that to her?” I demand.
He gives her a side glance but only for a moment, as if he can’t be bothered by it. Sticking a cigarette in his mouth, he lights it. “She knew what she was getting into before she came. Her cunt is too stretched out to make me feel anything. Guess that’s what I get for fucking Joaquin’s leftovers.”
“So you beat her for it?” I toss my thumb over my shoulder, motioning for her to leave.
She scuttles out of view, and in the distance, her footsteps quicken, then disappear.
“What I do or don’t do with my whores is none of your goddam business. Now,” he says, sucking in his cheeks, his eyes squinting as he looks at me, “whatisyour fucking business is to affirm your loyalties to me.”
I narrow my gaze on him. “Is that why you called me?”
He walks out of the room, forcing me to follow him to the study. I take in the space that was once the meeting place for Francesco and his men. He spent a lot of time here, as did my father. This is where I was given my first assignment. Francesco’s own capo who’d betrayed him.
After that, I could come and go as I pleased. A made man, trusted to carry out orders not even my father knew about.
There’s nothing left of that place.
