Page 17 of Taunt Me (Dark Odyssey 2)

Gabe

Okay…

I managed to get myself here in one piece.

We’re meeting at Vincent’s office in town. It’s stylish and I like the design of the place.

While the rest of us split our time between The Dark Odyssey and Giordanos Inc., our family-run shipping company, he has his own business here.

We’re accountants at the shipping company and we do the books for the business and private clients. Him though, he decided he wanted to take things up a little more than that and be an investment banker.

He was the only one with the passion for it and the man can work miracles.

He has the same job Donny Revello had ten years ago, he’s just more niche.

Vincent works with investment deals in the Caribbean. Which is why he’s perfect for this new venture Salvatore and I want to get in on.

We want to own the Caribbean. We want the whole scene there, to set up a complex of luxury hotels which each have their own clubs comparable to The Dark Odyssey.

It’s a fucking good idea so I can’t fuck it up. I can’t and I decided yesterday that I need to take charge of myself.

I’m not at the stage yet where I think I can let Charlotte go.

I’m stubborn, worse than the proverbial mule, so while I know I need to do something it just takes me a while to get it done.

Yesterday I decided that it’s something I need to do though and that was a big step for me. It was a massive step considering each year I feel like shit for being as helpless as I was when Antonio took Charlotte, it reminds me that I truly loved her.

It’s a thing I will remember because the memory of it is all I have.

Now I’ve got to get my act together before I piss off my brothers even more.

Salvatore and Vincent are already inside Vincent’s office. They’re talking and laughing about something. It sounded like some shit about some doll chasing Salvatore. It’s the curse of the Giordano men, we always have women chasing us. I’ve never known it to be the other way around.

Vincent was saying something about Sorcha, his wife, when I came in. He’s been loved up with her for the last five years. The man still has women chasing him but he’s not a cheater, unlike Pa. It grieves me to even accept that because every time I see Pa with one of his women I remember that day with Antonio and how he was ready to risk everything for Ma. He’s like that all the time with her so I don’t get it.

The worst part is she knows about the women and puts up with it to the point where it’s not cheating anymore. It’s an allowance of sorts that actually makes me sick. Maybe though, it’s part of where we get our flair for the risqué from.

Salvatore, Nick and I own The Dark Odyssey with our cousins Christian and Georgiou. Salvatore and I have no qualms about sharing women and having threesomes but, fuck, Georgiou is the most liberal of us with his doll he’s married to and shares with his best friend. They only got married by way of arrangement but she belongs to both of them.

Christian is like Salvatore. Very private. I feel though that he’d be the same like me or Salvatore, where we wouldn’t share women we love and want for ourselves.

The laughter dies when they see me and Vincent straightens up against his leather-back chair. Salvatore turns so he can look at me from head to toe, inspecting whether I look suitable for business.

I can’t complain since I brought this shit on myself. The worst was when I fell asleep at the shipping office, naked on Pa’s desk. That was when everybody got the inkling that all was not well with me.

“Well, he’s dressed and looks decent.” Salvatore smiles.

“Shaved too and had a trim. Looks dapper in his shiny shoes and Armani suit,” Vincent chimes in with a smirk. Of all of us he looks most like Pa. The rest of us are a mingle of both our parents. Nick got Ma’s eyes, other than that you can tell straight away we’re brothers.

“I’m here,” I answer and take my seat next to Salvatore who is sitting in front of Vincent’s desk.

Both are looking at me with assessing eyes.

It’s because of my calm demeanor that they’re not used to. I’m not a calm man in the least. Today, however, I do an award-winning performance of one.

I don’t want therapy. I don’t want to get help and share the shit on my mind. I just want to deal with myself and by myself.

Salvatore throws a punch in my arm. “Fuck, liven up bro, what the fuck is this?” He sends another punch at me trying to elicit a response.

---