Daveed was family. He ran the crews that cleaned up behind the famiglia. He wasn’t in line for the throne, but he had a bit of his own power. I was certain he had a few secrets he was keeping, on some of the other organizations we associated with.
I smoked a cigarette, waiting for the cleaners to show up. A dark van with tinted windows pulled up to the opening of the alley. The door slid open and Daveed hopped out, wearing a white hazmat suit.
His men wore white coveralls over their suits, as each one of them greeted me upon their feet touching the ground. They got right to work. I didn’t stay to see them clean. Not only did they have men who would watch the area to make sure no cops came sniffing around, but Daveed liked to work alone.
I headed home with no other stops. The long walk cleared my head, and I started thinking about how I could keep my little firecracker. I hadn’t been obsessed with something in so long.
Not since I appeared, rising from the ashes of a hellish night. I’d gotten Sebastian out of a domestic violence altercation that went awry. Back then, he wasn’t as strong as he was now.
He was a doormat, plain and simple. The bitch he’d settled down with had gotten too comfortable with his ideal of being different. Sebastian had seen many men beat, or even kill, their wives in the life.
It warped his sense of relationships. He veered so far left, he was getting punched in the stomach all the time. She would take her heels and dig them on his hands, while she forced him on his knees.
Anytime he’d try to fight back, she would run crying to her family. The Albanians were supposed to be our allies, but now they were our most powerful enemies. Her brother Arjun had been out for blood this past year.
So, I wanted to keep my little firecracker and hold on to her tightly. When I was deep inside of her sleeping body, I felt somuch peace. Too bad it didn’t last long since Sebastian came back.
If only I could rid myself of him. Couldn’t my little firecracker do that? She was a psychiatrist and the top in her field. If anyone could get rid of my alter, it should be her.
Maybe I could offer her something tonight.
With that thought in mind, I nodded to my soldiers at the gate, and waited for them to let me on the property. It didn’t take long, but Silas met me at the front door as soon as I walked up the steps.
“What do you want?” I groaned, wishing I could get rid of the fucker. Who cared if he was blood?
Silas looked surprised. Sebastian wasn’t a confrontationalist. He typically allowed his brother to walk all over him, but recently, I’d been pushing through our mental walls and doling out my winning personality.
“I just wanted to know where you’ve been?” He held up placating hands.
I chuckled. “I’m surprised you aren’t stalking me, like you do your poor wife.” Where I’d been wasn’t any of his business. Baby brother was getting a little too comfortable in my kingdom.
Silas frowned and stepped aside to let me in the doors. Then he followed behind me as he spoke. “I don’t stalk my wife,” he growled. “I just need to know where she is, so I can make sure no other motherfucker lays a hand on her ever again.”
I didn’t make fun of his passionate speech. I felt the same way. A bit. I wouldn’t admit it. Feelings weren’t something a mafia leader needed. Still ticked me off that he was acting like this was his dominion. Like he was a leader, or had any semblance of power.
“Semantics.” I waved his words away. “Did you need something?”
“I know what you’re doing.”
His words stopped me in my tracks. I turned in place slowly until he stood before me, his hands clutched to his sides.
“And what exactly would that be? Hmm?” I casually stalked toward him, planning my revenge right then and there. His comeuppance was going to happen now. I’d had enough of his uppity attitude.
Silas backed up. “With the Doc. I know why she’s here, and what you do to her at night.”
“You little fucking pervert.” I grabbed him by the lapels of his jacket, and slammed him against the wall as I saw red. “You think I’d allow you to lay eyes on my woman?” I drug him through the halls by the back of his neck, until we reached the basement door.
It was padlocked, and I grabbed the key out of my jacket. Silas was sniffing and sniveling before me, begging for mercy, and asking for me not to kill him. I scoffed. I would not kill him. I couldn’t. It would break the line of succession, even if he was a piece of shit who made bad deals that caused me to lose my entire family.
Not until I had an heir.
Besides, there were consequences for being somewhere he shouldn’t have been. For feasting his eyes on my woman. Something I wouldn’t tolerate from anyone. I couldn’t kill him, but that idea wasn’t off the table. No, I would punish him, and come to a conclusion on his fate when I was less angry.
Emotions led to mistakes. “How long did you watch?” I asked offhandedly, like it was no big deal.
Silas blinked, confused. “Huh?”
I held him up by his throat, choking his life from him, as I snarled in his face. “I said, how fucking long did you watch me and my woman.”