Page 52 of Dare To Free Us

“And you believed that shit? You are one dumb motherfucker, O’Connell.”

O’Connell bristled and rose out of his seat. His son— the spitting image of O’Connell in larger from— followed and somehow grew three inches since arriving. Storm and Rush sat silently.

“Careful, Matteo. You are walking a thin line. You are letting your personal shit get in the way of business.”

“This has nothing to do with personal,” I seethed. “It has to do with you making a deal with a man who threatened to rape my wife into submission, for the goal of taking all of my business. We have a partnership.” He grimaced at that a bit. “You overstepped.”

“No. You overstepped, Matteo.” Now Storm was rising from his seat with his son, tugging at their leather cuts. “You started this and now you refuse to do anything to timely end it. We all agreed to a partnership. One in which if someone fucks with the success of that agreement will be dealt with. Don’t force us to…”

“Don’t finish that sentence,” I warned, standing to my full height. I stared at them with death in my posture.Fuck you morons, come at me. I dare you.

“You are doing this to yourself,” O’Connell added.

“Get the fuck out of my office,” I said with every bit of chill I could conjure. I wanted to kill them where they stood. I let them read it in my eyes. Threatening me in my own office? They were delusional if they thought I would take it in stride.

My chilling command was enough to not only abruptly end the conversation but have Daniel watching me the whole way to the door.

“You have one week to give up the girl to me so we can end this. Or we will be forced to take action ourselves,” O’Connell added just before exiting and closing the door behind him.

My fury burned like lava across my skin. I was known as the man of ultimate control. But at that moment I found myself on the edge of having a full on melt down.

They had ambushed me, made a deal behind my back— one that was total bullshit— and threatened me with an ultimatum. My hands fisted so hard my white knuckles felt like they would crack. Closing my eyes I took deep breaths to stay in control.

“Matteo, maybe they’re right?” Nico’s voice had me spinning on him ready to rip his throat out. He took a step back with calming hands held out in front of him.

“All I’m saying is that things have gotten bad. I agree with the fact we have to take action. We’ve been holding Shura at bay, but without an end game we will end up like we were a few years ago, just waiting for it all to come crashing down,” he argued.

“You know as well as I do that the deal is bullshit. He doesn’t want to be a part of the criminal underworld, he wants to own it. Once they give him an inch, they will turn their heads and he’ll cut them off.”

“So what should we do, wait until we have everyone against us? The Irish and MC are about to walk away and it will be every man for himself. No doubt the Irish and The Devil’s Hoard will still do business, which means we will lose major advantages that we have gained. You can’t just throw that away.”

“I can and will do whatever the fuck I want. I will not allow a man who threatened my wife and killed my men to simply take up shop and let water under the bridge.” Had everyone gone insane? Did no else really see that Shura was playing them? He’d pressured everyone into a state of panic with his tactics, forcing us to argue amongst ourselves. Divided we won’t stand, it’s the simplest base rule for a society since the beginning of time.

“Then what is the plan?” he asked. I did not like his tone.

“I’m working on it.”

Nico frowned at me. I could smell the lack of confidence coming off of him in waves.

“I’m going to call my uncle in Vegas, see if he can send us some help for now.” My mother’s brother owned a few small casinos and held major stakes in a couple of the big ones. Though we did business with him he preferred to remain aloof.

He’d been Don in Vegas for many years, with Nico’s father as his Underboss, married in from another family to my aunt— whom I’d only met once. Nico would have been looking forward to possibly taking over as Underboss from his father one day, but he slept with the wrong cartel leader’s daughter. The man had demanded death but settled for Nico’s banishment from Vegas. Apparently my uncle was pretty heart broken over it because he’d watched Nico grow from an infant. The punishment still didn’t keep Nico’s dick in his pants. Shocker.

Nico nodded in agreement but the lack of confidence was still on his face. I looked at him and wished more than anything he was Luca. I needed my friend. The man I trusted above all others to give it to me straight while also never losing confidence. Luca’s total faith always pushed me to the edge of insanity and back, but he rode the crazy train with me and managed to help me always be the boss that was expected of me.

I was not born to take over. For the first fourteen years of my life I spent it in contentment, knowing I’d never have to live up to my father’s expectations like my brother, Dante.

Hewantedto be Boss one day. Dante craved power as much as my father. Lorenzo was devastated when his golden child that wanted to be just like him died. No more than my brother had been put in the ground and my life changed. I’d always been involved and began to learn how to be an invaluable second to my brother, but after his death all focus was on me. There was no time to be a boy any longer.

My father took me to the underground sex club at barely fifteen, bought three girls and a private room for me. He said you can’t be a man who kills for a living and be a virgin. Then proceeded to tell me I had to stay in there for two days.

I’d been dating a girl at school and still contained enough innocence in me that I was waiting until she was ready as well. My mother had done her best to keep us grounded in the short time we had with her. Doing her best to raise her boys into good men. The epic fail was not her fault.

After that two days, the things those women did to me and they had me do to them, I couldn’t even look at my girlfriend. I did it because my father would have beat my ass, and the idea of disappointing him was enough to tear out my insides, so I didn’t dare refuse.

But when I saw my girlfriend at school the next day I wanted to be sick. I’d seen my mother’s face too many times when Lorenzo would come home smelling like a whorehouse or she'd come home and cross paths with a prostitute in the hallway on her way out. My father humiliated Maria in ways that made me hate him. If there was one thing I promised myself I would never do, it was cheat. So, after I broke up with my high school sweetheart I never dated again.

To my father dating was stupid and expected me to sleep around and create a reputation of my own. So girlfriends were a never. Oh, I had my fun and fucked beautiful women, but always kept it casual.

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