Page 13 of King of the Bronx

Chapter Six

Enzo

“How much for the three on this block?” I asked Tom, my real estate agent. We stood on the sidewalk of one of the worst neighborhoods in the Bronx. Tom looked like he was going to shit himself.

“Three-hundred thousand for all of them. They are in pretty bad shape right now…”

I looked at the three buildings in front of us. They were all brick, and two of them were boarded up. The lawns were overgrown, and an abandoned tricycle was left flipped over and forgotten in the small alleyway between the buildings. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a few homeless people who squatted inside during the cold winter months.

“I’ll take them,” I said without hesitation. I didn’t need any additional ways to clean my money, but if I did, this was a great way to do it. I wanted to restore some of the rough neighborhoods. It wasn’t something I had to do, and sometimes, I questioned why I even wasted my time. There was a good chance the houses would just get trashed again. I’d already bought five houses on the next block over, and every time I put new windows in, a drive-by shooting would take them out. I was starting to think that the neighbors had a personal vendetta against me.

“Do you want to come by the office and talk about loans?” Tom asked.

I shook my head and stepped around Tom to open my car door. I’d decided to leave the Lamborghini at home for this trip. I wasn’t scared of anyone trying me. I think it’s rude to flash around my wealth when so many people in this area were going without the necessities. I reached into the back of the car and grabbed a duffle bag. I threw it to Tom, who took a step back with the impact. I paid the guy a lot of money to handle the buying process without a lot of interaction from me. With everything else going on in my life, I didn’t have time to worry about these projects as much. Once everything was finished, I’d have contractors come in and let me know if any of the houses were salvageable, or if it was better to completely tear them down and start over from scratch.

“Let me know once everything is finalized so I can get my contractors over here,” I told him.

Tom nodded and, with the bag in hand, quickly walked to his car.

I stayed and watched to make sure he didn’t get robbed before turning to my own vehicle. I paused with my hand on the door handle when I noticed the five men standing on the other side of the street. They all had snares on their face.

“Problem?” I asked, my voice filled with annoyance.

“You buying these homes like you’re from here,” one of the men said, taking a step forward. I could see the gun clearly tucked into the waistband of his jeans. He wore a white beater and red basketball shorts. He must have been the leader of the group.

I almost laughed at their appearance. They were nothing compared to the power of Cosa Nostra, but they could still cause problems that I wanted no part of.

“If you have an issue with it, you know where to find me,” I said before getting in the car and driving off. The small street gangs were going to be a problem. They didn’t like change, especially in a neighborhood where they made a lot of money off people who bought drugs over groceries. I kept my crew off their territory and they stayed off mine, but the gangs were starting to look at me buying these houses as an attack. The last thing I wanted right now was more problems, but the project was already underway. Hopefully, they wouldn’t be stupid enough to make a move.

*****

I jogged down the steps to the underground and almost ran smack-dab into Raven. I caught her arms to steady her. “Whoa there.”

She gave me a forced smile. “Oh, hey Enzo.”

She was dressed more casually each time I saw her. Today, she wore tight jeans and a flowy top. Her long red hair was pulled up into a big bun on top of her head. I would have never guessed that she ran a brothel just by looking at her. It scared me to think of her being the only protection between a man and one of the women. I didn’t know much about brothels, but I figured it was a pretty dangerous business to run. It was the only illegal business I hadn’t gotten myself involved in.

I cleared my throat. “Going to work?”

“Yeah, I was just going to grab some coffee first.”

“I’ll come with you,” I said. I wasn’t sure why I offered. There was business to take care of at the underground, but going to get coffee with Raven seemed more important. I wanted to know more about her. How did someone so beautiful and put together end up running a brothel? What was her story? She opened her mouth, probably to tell me to get lost.

“Just in case you get robbed again,” I added. God, I sounded lame. I hadn’t hooked up with anyone since the first night I’d seen Raven walk into the door of my gambling room. I’d been working from sunup to sundown, so I hadn’t been in the mood to call up Amber or any other of my regular fuck buddies.

Raven bit down on her lip. “Fine, come on.” She turned around to start walking.

“Let me drive,” I offered. She hesitated for a second. “If I was trying to kidnap you, I would have done it the other night.”

“Fine, but I don’t normally get in cars with men I don’t know.”

“Good to know.”

I started walking the other way toward my car, and she followed behind me. I was parked down the street in a well-lit area. I pulled my keys out from my pocket and pressed the unlock button. The lights on the car lit up.

“No fucking way,” she said.

I turned around to see that her eyes had widened to the size of saucers. I smiled at her. I was used to getting that reaction when I brought out the Lamborghini. I had a small collection of really nice cars, but the Lambo was my favorite.

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