Page 47 of King of the Bronx

Chapter Twenty

Enzo

I stared into my wife’s eyes. It was weird to think that I was a married man now. All the hook-ups and fuck-ups from before are now over with. Nothing can really change over the course of a few moments, but in my mind, everything had changed. Being a husband meant taking care of my family, even if my family was only Raven…for now. Were kids something she would want? Most couples had that conversation way before they got married. We obviously didn’t have that luxury, but we had our whole lives to figure each other out. If she wanted kids, I had no problem giving them to her. And if she didn’t, I’d be fine with that too. A piece of her red hair fell from the updo, and I didn’t hesitate before reaching out and tucking it behind her ear. Her chest stopped moving as if she was holding her breath.

“So what now?” she asked quietly.

I leaned back into the chair and took a drink. “Now we enjoy being married for a day, go back to the Bronx tomorrow, and, soon, we’ll be the owners of the brothel. Problem solved.”

A hint of a smile ghosted her lips, but it was gone again before I could engrave it into my memory.

“You’re not going to try to take over the brothel once we own it, right?” she asked.

“Not unless you want me to. Although, I think it could use some updates to make it a little more upscale.”

She bit her lips, but I could see the gears turning in her head. If we could update the brothel and keep a couple men stationed there, it would bring in better clients who would pay a lot more. Raven wouldn’t feel bad about taking a bigger cut of money from each transaction if the men were paying twice as much as they’re paying now. I might not know a lot about the brothel like Raven does, but I knew a shit-ton about running a business.

“Upgrading would be nice,” she finally said.

I nodded. We both finished our drinks before making our way up to the bedroom to consummate our marriage.

*****

Our time in Italy seemed to fly by, and before I knew it, we were back in the Bronx. Raven was still getting over her jet lag. She was asleep when I snuck out of the house. I was happy for that, considering I didn’t want to have to explain to her what I was going out to do.

It was hard to track her friend Ben down, the one that she’d bought the brothel from, but I finally found out where he was staying. Jacob, my private investigator, had to do some digging to find the location, which made me think that Ben knew at some point he’d be in danger for the stupid stunt he pulled.

I took a day trip out to Arizona to surprise him. When I pulled up to the two-story family home, I knew the Irish must have given him a good amount of money to keep his mouth shut. I wonder how much money it cost to screw over someone that considered you a friend. Respect was everything in Cosa Nostra, and men who didn’t have it disgusted me. I knocked on the door as Cal stood behind me, looking intimidating as hell. The door opened and a woman stood with a baby on her hip. It caught me off guard, but my surprise was quickly replaced with anger. While Raven was terrified of her girls being taken away, this man had been playing house with the money he used to scam her.

I cleared my throat, trying to keep my temper at bay. “Is Ben here?”

The woman’s eyes shifted to Cal briefly. “Give me just a moment.”

She attempted to close the door, but I put my foot in between the door and the frame.

“We’d love to wait inside,” I said with a sadistic smirk. Now, the woman looked scared, but she didn’t say anything as we both walked into the house.

“Ben, you have a visitor!” she yelled up the stairs.

I could hear his footsteps on the stairs, but as he came around to the last flight and peeked around the corner, he took off, running back up the steps. Cal ran off after him, and I followed close behind. Ben was trying to open the window when Cal grabbed him around the waist and threw him to the floor. The man was a twig and probably weighed less than Cal benched.

“Take a seat,” I said, tilting my head toward the bed in the middle of the room. The man got off the floor and lowered himself onto the mattress. He already looked like he was about to shit his pants. The baby downstairs started to cry.

“Make sure the wife doesn’t call the cops,” I told Cal. That was the last thing I needed.

Cal grunted and walked past me back down the steps.

“I did what you asked, I don’t know what more you want. Please just leave,” Ben begged.

I raised an eyebrow. “And what did we want?”

“For me to get rid of the brothel.”

“Who told you to sell the brothel?”

Ben kept his mouth shut as he realized we weren’t with the Irish.

I let out a sigh. “You have a beautiful family downstairs. If you want to keep this little perfect life you have, I suggest you start talking.”

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