Page 3 of Marrying the Underboss

KANE ROSSI

My dad wasin the Chicago Mafia while I was growing up. When I was eight years old, he was killed when a deal went south, and my mom was left to pick up the pieces of our life. She took what my dad had left her, including a nice inheritance for me, and fled. We ended up living in a small town in the mountains of Utah. This is where I learned most of what I know about living off the land.

Our neighbor, Mr. Flynn, was a retired Army Ranger who looked out for Ma and me. He taught me what it was to be a man. I had my suspicions he cared for her more than he let on, and maybe she did too. When I was eighteen, he and Ma were out running errands and were gunned down in town. The police called it a crime of opportunity. Since Mr. Flynn fought back when the men were mugging them, they put a bullet in each of their heads.

All I could see was red. I dropped out of high school, got my GED, and enlisted in the Army. The four years I was in taught me what I needed to know, and when I got out, I hunted down the men who murdered Ma and Mr. Flynn. They got what they had coming to them.

I spent the next few years as a gun for hire, eventually making my way to New Jersey to find the men who killed my dad. That’s where I met Perrelli. He hired me for a job, and I’ve been with him ever since.

When his phone rings, I’m sitting on a black leather sofa in his office. I have my own office, but I hardly use it. As the Underboss of the Perrelli Crime Family, I’m with Lorenzo Perrelli, aka The Boss, nine times out of ten.

Perrelli takes the call and listens to whoever is on the other line. “That stupid motherfucker!” Perrelli growls a few moments later. “No, we’ll take care of this! Make sure he doesn’t go anywhere!” He throws his phone across the room, making a dent in the wall before crashing to the carpet.

I look up from the newspaper I’m reading and quirk an eyebrow at him. Interesting. I haven’t seen him this pissed in a while.

“Johnny saw Jacob screwing around with one of the receptionists downstairs. And it isn’t the first time he’s done this.”

The man can keep his cool when he finds out one of his guys is skimming off the top or someone jacked a shipment off a truck, but tell him that someone hurt his only daughter, and he loses his ever-loving mind. The family's number one rule is you don’t hurt the principessa.

“I can’t believe he’d do this to me, to Jenny. This is going to break her heart. I’m going to kill that little prick. I’m going to light his fucking world on fire and let him watch it burn. Then I will ring his neck and drop him into the Hudson. Fuck!”

There are so many other things I’d like to do to Jacob, but I nod my head. My depravity is why Perrelli hired me in the first place, only he’s not asking for that right now. He just found out that the man his daughter was about to marry is already cheating on her. Someone he brought into the fold and consideredmaking one of us. The man he treated like a son has betrayed not only him but the one person who means everything to him. Jacob should know better than to be this stupid. Smart as he is, I'm surprised he let himself get caught.

“Get him up here,” he says through tightly clenched teeth.

“You got it, Boss.” I neatly fold the newspaper I’m reading and place it on the glass coffee table in front of me. I stand and stretch my neck before walking to the door to take care of business.

“Shit! Why did he have to go and do this? Three weeks before the fucking wedding?”

I hesitate before opening my mouth. “Free to speak?” I ask.

Perrelli levels me with a look. “Of course.”

“They’ve been together for over eight years. That’s a long fucking time. He waited years to propose, then wanted a long engagement. Ask yourself why. A girl like Jenny, they should have been married years ago.”

“If you’d asked me this morning, I would have told you it was out of respect for me,” He snaps.

I’ve hated the prick since Jennifer brought him home to meet her dad. I knew he was a weasel then, but I couldn’t say anything, it wasn’t my place. I also didn’t want to risk telling Perrelli how I felt about his daughter. Jennifer was in love and happy for the first time in a hell of a long time, and Perrelli ate that shit up. He let Jacob get close because he wanted his daughter back.

“And now?” I hedge, trying to get him there without putting too many ideas in his head.

He moves his head from side to side, thinking. “It’s rather convenient, the timing of all of this. I’ve never thought of Jacob as a stupid man.”

I nod. Same thing I was thinking.

He’s quiet for a moment. “I’ve changed my mind. Take him down south to the cabin. I’ll meet you there. I need to take care of something first,” he says, walking over to where his phone is lying.

“See you soon,” I tell him before leaving his office. Fucking finally. I’ve been dreaming about taking him out to the cabin for years. Dreamed of all the ways I’d torture that fuck for getting a taste of what I’ve always coveted. Now he goes and does this. Fuck that. I usually keep my thoughts to myself, but I couldn’t stand letting him get away with this, not after all these years. Who knows how many other women there have been?

I walk down the hall to my office and put away the files I had sitting out. Then I lay my palms flat on my desk, drop my head, and roll my shoulders. Fuck. Adrenaline is flowing through me like a geyser, and I need to get it under control to do what needs to be done. How do I want to do this? I don’t want to cause a scene, and if I walk up to him in the state I’m in, I’ll tip him off. I need to be smart about this. Pulling my phone out of my jacket pocket I find his name, then text him.

Me:Boss wants us to take care of something. Meet me downstairs at my truck.

Jacob: I’ll be there in ten minutes.

Me: Now.

I’ve never wantedto kill someone as much as I do Jacob fucking Marino. I’ll relive these moments long after he’s in the ground and never regret it. If this is as close as I can get to my sweet Jennifer, my angel, making him suffer will be the highlight of my fucking life.

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