Page 3 of Capo

The men around the table laugh and joke and think they’re in my good graces. They’re wrong. Few around me are as safe as they think.

“Luci, what’s your thoughts on the Crimson Corp takeover?” Eric leans half-way over Christian to catch my attention. Eric Reed. My second in command. I took him in when he was still in his late teens, some twenty years ago.

“We’ll pay them what their clubs are worth,” I say.

“And what is that?”

I laugh. “Not what they claim. More like thirty percent of that.”

“I say we take ‘em out,” says Christian, joining the discussion. “They’re a fucking mess. They still want to keep a share. They can go fuck themselves.”

Two of my nephews attend dinner tonight. My sister Bianca’s second youngest son, Matteo Russo on my left seems to be having a good time and is deeply engaged in a discussion with some girl across the table, gesturing vividly. The girl laughs and blushes. Matteo goes after anything pretty. Tonight, he’ll tie her up in one of my guest rooms and probably give her the best fuck of her life. Tomorrow she’ll be too sore to walk, and he’ll find some other chick. We Salvatore/Russo men don’t play nice.

Me, I don’t know how to live any other kind of life, and I don’t want to either. I’m perfect right where I am.

Christian Russo sits to my right. He barely speaks, consumes copious amounts of whisky, and has become my most ruthless man. His dark soul seems unsalvageable. Botching a mission, nearly dying, falling hard for his hit and then losing both the girl and their baby hasn’t become him. I’m not surprised he scared her off, making her drop off the face of the Earth. I am as cruel as they come, but even I wouldn’t want to get on his bad side these days. He’s very useful, though. I can pitch him against anyone and he pulls through, leaving no witnesses.

No witnesses. Except one, the one Eric unexpectedly chose as his woman. Anna.

For some reason Christian spared her. I even think he cares for the feisty little lady. Maybe he thinks he made up for his past mistake. Maybe he just respects Eric’s wishes. They’ve worked closely together half their lives.

It’s good. And bad. My men need to trust each other, but they also need to obey me without questioning my orders, and they’ve been fucking slacking in that department lately.

Next to Eric sits Ivan Sokolov. Him, I can trust. He’s been doing my dirtiest business for years. He barely speaks, but he listens. He’s built like a house and looks like a brainless brute with his rough features and his broken nose, but there’s intelligence in those eyes. Munching on a piece of steak and chugging it down with beer, he observes my men, taking stock. He’ll alert me the moment something is off.

I narrow my eyes as I take in one of the men at the far end. Roberto. He’s got a hooker on his lap and a hand inside her blouse, kneading her breast. He’s been seen talking to the competition in a club in Las Vegas. My guess is he thought it was safe to meet up out of San Francisco, but he’ll be aware before the dawn breaks that this is not the case. I’ve got eyes and ears everywhere. The Salvatore network is vast, and I haven’t spent twenty years building it by being lenient.

“Antoine can be reasoned with,” I say. “I’ve dealt with him before. With the gambling club on the west side.”

Christian shrugs. “Yeah, but he’s not the one making the ultimate decision.”

I gesture to the girl who sits by my feet, a dark-skinned beauty Elena found me in the brothel. She’s got a red lacy bra and matching thong. “Take off your bra.” She shuffles closer, still on her knees. The tiled floor must be a bitch to sit on for a long period of time, and I’ve had her sit there for forty minutes. Slowly she reaches behind her back and unclasps the thing, letting it drop next to her, keeping her deep brown eyes trained on me. I pinch one of her nipples, squeezing it between my thumb and index finger, not breaking eye contact with her. Eric clears his throat. “Go on,” I say without looking up. “You think he’ll budge?”

“Fuck, Boss. No, I don’t think he’ll budge to us. He’s loyal to Andrew.”

The girl’s eyelids flutter as she fights the pain, fights to not flinch and pull back. She knows there’ll be more hurt if she doesn’t do what I tell her. They all know this.

“Good old Andy. He’s been a pain in my ass ever since he came here, starting up his clubs.” I glance up at Eric as I grab the girl’s thick curly hair and push her toward my groin. “I’m tired of his antics.”

“So let’s just do a fucking takeover,” growls Eric.

The girl pulls down my zipper and takes out my cock, wrapping her fingers around it as she puts her lush lips where they should have been a long time ago.

I snort. “You wanna kill off thirty men?”

“Andrew and some of his closest will do fine. I’m sure the others can be convinced.”

“We won’t be able to trust ‘em for shit,” says Christian.

“We don’t need to trust them. I won’t fucking employ them.”

Eric throws up his hands. “Where will you find staff for five clubs?”

My cock is growing hard in the girl’s skilled mouth. I clutch her hair even rougher and thrust her head toward me, burying myself to the hilt, a shudder running through me. She’s fucking good. I gotta remember to thank Elena.

“That might be an issue.” I have to fight to focus on the conversation because right now all I want to do is yank this girl with me by her hair over to my private wing of the house, tie her up and fuck her until Tuesday. I pull out and tilt up her head. “Hey, wanna earn some extra cash? Work in a club?”

She widens her eyes. “Yes, sir,” she says breathlessly, “I would.”

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