Page 105 of Mob Queen

“I want you not to supply him anymore. I’ll buy whatever it is he asks for. I want you to cut him off.”

“And what about what he owes me?”

“That’s something you will need to take up with him.”

There are a few seconds of silence before Pace flicks his chin toward Dario. One of his security guys walks over and takes the case. “As always, good doing business with you.” He extends his hand to shake mine.

G and I watch as Pace returns to his car, and the security packs the case away. I walk back to the car, where Dario is waiting. I slide in, and G sits beside me. “You know how to bring a man to his knees.”

Dario begins toward our next destination. I can’t help but smile.

The drive takes half an hour, and I play the scenario over and over in my head. Once we arrive, G and I both head inside. At a quick count there’s eight old men playing cards. The den is full of smoke and they stop to look at me as I pull my shoulders back and waltz inside.

One of the old men stands to his feet and stops me before I get to the back. “You lost, sweetheart?” he asks in his thick Italian accent. He scans G then returns his attention to me.

“Nope.” I side step him, but he stops me again. “Unless you want your brains on the roof, I suggest you move.” A few of the other men stand to support him. I inhale deeply before lifting my hand. Within seconds, the den is flooded with my men. “As I was saying...”

The old Italians take a cautionary step backward. The one who approached me says, “This isn’t DeLuca territory.”

Technically, he’s right. I look him straight in the eyes and smile. “It is now.” I push past him and head to the back, where I open the door to find Mikey “Money Bags” Carter.

He looks up from his computer and crinkles his forehead. “This isn’t your territory.”

I pull the chair opposite him out, and sit. “We have a problem, Mikey.”

He crosses his arms in front of his chest and lifts his chin. “And what’s that?”

“This.” I make a circular movement with my finger. “Is now mine.”

“What? The boss hasn’t said nothing to me.”

I look over my shoulder to G and nod. G removes his gun from his holster and begins smashing through Mikey’s office. Mikey watches and says nothing until G moves toward the computer. “What do you want?” Mikey asks.

I gesture with one finger for G to stop. He places the computer back on the desk. “You now work for me.”

“Are you a fucking crazy broad?” I give G a nod, and he picks the computer up and smashes it to the ground before opening the desk drawers and taking everything out of them. “Wait!” Again, I stop G with a small hand gesture. “You’re fucking crazy!”

“I have an opening on my books. But once it closes then there’s a nice-looking bridge for you and your family.”

“You don’t threaten a man’s family, DeLuca.”

“Are you taking my job offer?”

Mikey swallows deeply as he runs his hands through his hair. “I can’t.”

I stand to my feet and nod. “Loyalty, I like that.” I hold my hand out to G who gives me his gun. I shoot Mikey in the head. Twice. “Find his books, I want the business.”

G easily locates the paper copy of Mikey’s loan shark and laundering business. “The girl was right about this place. The fucker is running laundering out of our territory.” He shakes his head. “This is a good earner, Frank.”

“Pass the information on to our bookkeeper, and let him take over this debt.”

“Augusta is gonna come for you, hard. Especially now that you’re hitting him where it hurts. His drug supplies are now ours, Pace won’t supply him with inventory, and you just took out his most profitable loan shark.”

Before I head out to the old men, I survey the destruction of the office and feel such a tremendous amount of satisfaction. “He took my father, and I’m going to take everything from him.” I open the door to find the old men standing around trying to see into the office. “Mikey is dead. You can either join him, or join me. The choice is yours.” They know the business. They’ve been around long enough to know this would happen.

“Fuck you,” one of them says.

“Yeah. DeLucas have no business here,” another grumbles.

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