Page 22 of King of the Bronx

“I bought some homes over on Eighth Street. Been trying to fix them up, but you know the neighborhood over there…”

A smile stretched across Gio’s face. “Like hell I do. Running into problems, aren’t you?”

I let out a breath. “Yeah, one of my houses burned down this morning and not by accident.”

Gio chuckled and leaned back in the chair. “So what do you want to do about it?”

“Take out the leader. Get this shit over with in one swoop so it doesn’t become a continuous problem.”

A gang like this could continue to cause problems for us down the road, and I didn’t have time to deal with it. When leaders die, organizations re-evaluated what they were doing.

Giovanni stayed silent, as if thinking it over. “How big is the gang?”

“Small. Nothing compared to my crew.”

“Alright, but it’s a good idea to keep tabs on them, even once the leader is taken out. I don’t want this coming back to haunt us down the road. If they are just street thugs, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

I nodded. “Thanks, Boss.”

I stood up to leave, but Giovanni put a hand up to stop me. I slid back into the seat, even though I was eager to get back home and go another round with the beautiful redhead in my bed. I should be more focused on one of my homes burning down, but Raven was stuck in my head.

“How’s the gambling?” Gio asked.

“Good. Overhead is low so everything we make now is profit. People don’t win very often when they have an addiction. And when they do win, they just bring it right back to lose the next night.”

“Guns, coke? Everything selling?”

I nodded. “Both are selling great. I’ll probably need to actually get more coke from Tommy soon. We’re running low.”

“Alright, let me know if you need anything else.”

I got up from the chair and left. I drove at least twenty over the speed limit in anticipation of getting back to Raven. The sun was high in the sky. I wondered what time she normally woke up. If she was at the brothel until the wee hours of the morning, then she was probably still fast asleep. I took the elevator up to my floor and walked inside the apartment. I shut the door quietly behind me, but when I got to the bedroom, the bed was empty. The covers and sheets were still wrinkled and twisted together. Her shoes were missing from the floor where she’d kicked them off, and in her place sat Bello with a smile on his face and his tongue sticking out.

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