Page 31 of The Taker

I’m going to rip Ronan’s head off and mount it on the wall across from my desk, so Leo and I can look at it while I fuck him over it. How dare that two-bit piece of shit threaten what’s mine.

“Lionheart, look at me,” I order him. He burrows further into my chest, soaking my shirt in tears. I pull his face away, and my need for vengeance grows tenfold. “I promise, you and your sisters are always safe with me.”

“Are you sure?” he asks me, his voice laden with suspicion. “My sisters are the most important people in the world to me. I took this job to give them abetterchildhood than I had. A safer one where the only person they have doesn’t die!”

He starts crying in earnest now. “You have no clue how much I sacrifice for them. How fucked they are if anything ever happens to me.”

“That’s true,” I agree with him, much to his shock. “When our enemies shot both my parents dead in a home invasion, Don Vettore took me in and treated me like a son.”

I have no clue why I’m sharing this with him. I never talk about my parents’ death, ever. But the more I talk, the softer his features get and the less he cries.

“I was supposed to be home too, but I left to play video games with my cousin Franco. I never got to say goodbye.”

“Me too. My dad left for work like he did every day, and then one day he never came home,” he says wistfully. “I may not have seen eye to eye with my dad a lot, but I still loved him. I’m angry at him just as much as I miss him.”

“What about your mom?” I ask. I know the general story with her, but not the details.

Leo’s face darkens, his light blue eyes turning a stormy gray. “My mom left in the middle of the night without saying goodbye. Now that I look back, I realize she always had a prescription pill problem—depression meds, sleeping meds, pain pills. Then she moved on to harder shit after my dad died. She’d leave for a few days at a time so she didn’t get high at home and upset the girls. One day she called us from wherever she went and told us she’dbe home in a week… she never came home or called us again. Her phone number doesn’t work anymore, either.”

What kind of mother willingly lies to her children and leaves them to fend for themselves? I tamp down my urge to drive to Vermont, slit that lying bitch’s throat, then give her larynx to Leo as a gift.Fucking cunt.

“I promise you, nothing will happen to you, Julia, or Lucy. You’re all safe. I’ll make sure Ronan knows to never threaten what’s mine.”

He leans in and kisses my cheek. “Thank you. Please be safe tonight.”

“Thank you,sir,” I remind him, ignoring his request. I won’t guarantee my own safety, mostly because it’s an empty promise. “Now get on your knees. I want to feed you dessert before I go back to work, cumslut.”

The darkness and worry melts away from my lionheart’s face as he drops to his knees between my legs. Seems being treated like a dirty whore is the way to make him feel better.

The roaring fireacross the street is so hot, I have to unbutton my camel skin overcoat. The flames dance and spread, lighting up the dark residential street. People gather around, far enough away to be safe, but close enough to watch the destruction. It crackles and spits before a beam in the ceiling falls in, all but ensuring Ronan’s drug den will be condemned property by the end of the night.

If you want to sell drugs in this city, you get permission from us and pay us our share. And you sure as fuck don’t mess with me.

The exorbitant fees Don Vettore had to pay our contacts in the police and fire department to give us a half hour head start were worth every penny. Burning that slimy fuck’s drug operations to the ground sends a message.

No one threatens my lionheart.

It turns out that the owner of the store, Vince Amante, didn’t want him there, like I suspected. The Amante family passed the convenience store down through three generations. Vince’s grandfather owned it, then his father. He took it over this past year when his father passed unexpectedly. We worked out a deal, giving him a brand new store front in our territory and a good deal on protection.

Look at me, being an upstanding citizen and caring about my community.

“You can handle the rest?” I ask Giuseppe. He and a few of my other men are standing at key points around the store, making sure no civilians try to enter it and no one from Ronan’s crew comes around.

“Of course. Have a good evening Mr. Vettore.”

As soon as I hop into the back of my car, I direct the driver to take me back to my penthouse. I pull up my surveillance app to check the cameras in Leo’s room. The screens are black. I check the second camera in his library and the third in the kitchen, and all three are black.

I immediately call Milo, who’s heading Leo’s security detail tonight.

“Update.”

“Everything is fine, Mr. Vettore. Leo and Lucy are inside playing board games and eating death by chocolate cupcakes. Julia is at her friend’s house for a sleepover,” he mumbles, as if his mouth is full.

“And how do you know what type of cupcakes they’re eating, Milo?” I huff around an exasperated sigh. Leo baked a doublebatch today before he left this evening, leaving half of them for me. Milo shouldn’t know how they taste.

“Leo offered me some with a glass of milk. He said I may as well enjoy myself if I’m going to be standing out in the hallway all night.”

A twisting green jealousy weaves around me like an insidious vine. He’s talking to the guards and telling them to enjoy themselves. Was he flirting with them?

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