Chapter 14 “There are those who are afraid of the dark, not just because it’s dark, but because of what’s inside the darkness.” — Timothy LongJORDAN POV“And then another one bites the dust. Hell must be freezing and demons fleeing with the way everyone is just getting hooked. Tell me, what in the world is going on? Is the earth running out of women or something?” Quin drawled smoothly before winking at me, the glass of whiskey lingering on his lips for a moment. “Something,” I grumbled nursing my own whiskey like it was some kind of a relaxing charm.“Besides, I haven’t agreed on getting married.” I finished the sentence, the word ‘married’ sending a jolt of pain to my brain. I was too fuckin young to be tied down to a woman. Not just any other woman, but Melody.“What’s the worst that can possibly happen? It’s Laura Fuckin’ Alderman you’re marrying. That alone is enough to put you down that aisle by the altar and marry the shit out of her.” Quin’s voice crackled over the blastin
Chapter 15“We’re all but broken men searching for meaning in a twisted maze which is called the world.” – Eddie MELODY POV I felt like a stupid teen tiptoeing out of the house and hiding in the shadows. The hd=ide and seek from the cameras made me feel even more sheepish that I found myself giggling along the driveway that felt like both a millisecond and a fuckin’ century. ‘ For starters, I couldn’t believe I was sneaking out in the middle of the night to meet my supposed fiancee. That’s if he signed the papers. But I loved the feeling. I couldn’t believe I was getting adrenalin pumps by the stupidest thing ever. If any of my sisters ever tried this, I was going to break both their legs and have them sitting in a wheelchair for a minimum of 2 years. “Signora.” Dante, our head of security erupted from the bushes just right by my side. I stopped myself from planting my heel in the middle of his head, right where his cranium was soft enough to be shattered into pieces. “Damn it, D
Chapter 16Nobody on this earth is perfect. Everybody has their flaws; everybody has their dark secrets and vices. – Juice Wrld MELODY POVIt has been a whole week since I saw him. But the memory of his laughter and the way his car smelled of him was forefront and center of my brain. There was nothing I could hold without the voice in my head whispering ‘Jordan’. Every waking hour of the day, I thought of the man.I hate to admit it, but I could feel the danger looming in the distance. Jordan was slowly transforming into something entirely apart from what I had planned. He was becoming a sole part of my life, a weakness. “MEEEEEEEL!” Momma’s loud yell disturbed my musings. I jolted from my seat before fixing the diamond necklace on my neck, then fixed my hair just a little before hoisting my clutch and running out of my room.“Coming Mother,” I screamed back as I walked down the vast hallway towards the big Victorian staircase. “Look at you. We are all waiting for you.” Mama's com
Chapter 17“There is nothing in the dark that isn’t there when the lights are on.” – Rod Serling MELODY POVThe sun burned hot and unforgiving for the late afternoon. I imagined if I laid down on the patio, right on the bricks instead of the perfectly mowed grass, I would be scorched nice and well like the eggs I had for breakfast.Not caring to dwell on the matters of the gods being angry with the people and deciding to barbeque them for the greater good, I charged into the house before racing to the elevators that were on the left side of the foyer on the farthest wall. The sound of my heels against the marble floors was ghostly and haunting.My parents' house was more than the blinding lights and vastness. The four floors above the ground were every architect's dream, and the three floors stretching beneath the ground were the base for all other nighttime activities. And no I don't mean sex. There was smuggling of diamonds and guns, drugs, and making fake cash before laundering it
“Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up.” – Anne LamottJORDAN POV“First night as an official couple. What are your plans for the rest of the night?” I intoned latching a hook onto her bandage, then smiled down at her before brushing a pad of my finger on the rough material. “I had planned to take a long bath, soak inside my tub while reading My Stepbrother and His Friend…” she mused lightly before a burst of loud laughter rumbled out of her at my shocked expression. “Not what I had in mind.” I contradicted, my hand falling on her bare thigh. “You might have a better idea. I’m all ears.” She threaded her fingers with mine, and for the umpteenth time since I stepped foot into her bedroom, I wondered if I was in the presence of Bloody Mel, or the sweet innocent Laura. The latter was rather befitting. The woman in front of me had laugh lines at the corn
“You are only as free as you think you are and freedom will always be as real as you believe it to be.” – Robert M. Drake JORDAN POVThe morning came sooner than I hoped, and I fought curses from raining down my mouth as I rolled off the bed before sitting on the edge of it, my feet disappearing into 4 plies of lushness and softness of the big rug in Mel’s room. My head felt heavy, and my back felt like it was under the endless torment of being pricked by millions of needles every now and then. My skin was hot, feverish even, and my breath smelled like I swallowed 10 dead frogs. A heavy groan escaped from my mouth as I got up, and winced when a slicing pain soared through my back. I stood stoic for a second, letting my body get accustomed to being awake and very much alive. I must have pissed the gods. That would be the only plausible explanation to my sudden rotten luck. But hey, all of that started when Melody walked into my life. But last night made me see her with a differen
Chapter 20“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” – Plato MELODY POVUnease settled in the messy puddle of my stomach, terror icing the blood in my veins with every tension-filled second. Damir showed up unannounced in the morning, before dropping a bombshell to our lap that they were invaded by some miniature cartels forming all around him. I previously thought it might take time before the dimwits revealed the color of their roots, or show the world how stupid they were. But all of that was a white lie. They were up and acting. And they were acting fast. They did not just attack our Russian base. They hit us in the stomach by bombing our Krokodil plant. And that was going to cost us a fuckin’ arm and a leg to recover. Krokodil was lethal, and it was our best-selling drug thus far. Man-made morphine that guaranteed you a prolonged state of high, and some sweet, sweet addiction. I grew impatient in
“Every moment of light and dark is a miracle.” – Walt WhitmanMELODY POVBreath ragged from the run, I yanked off the band that held my curls in an upward ponytail throwing it into the neatly trimmed bushes marring the small roundabout in front of the manor. I didn't stop until I was pushing the heavy double doors made of pure oak only to halt when a pair of hard eyes landed on me. My heart skitted to a stop before I found my breath, and all I managed to do was let out a small smile. Jordan stood by the staircase, looking as sinful as ever in a pair blue of jeans and a white T-shirt. The ink running down his arm was on full display, and my mouth dried up instantly."You’ll tell me when you're done glaring." his voice sounded like Christmas morning, and it took every ounce of my willpower to not jump his bones and start kissing the living life out of him."You are early." I was abrupt as I took small steps to where he was standing. My main target was the staircase, not him."Change of
"Together, we are untouchable. Like Bonnie and Clyde." ~ UNKNOWNJORDAN POVI knew he had to die. I knew I should have killed the bloody bastard the first time I learned of everything he had done, instead of letting him breathe for another second. Nothing killed a husband more than seeing his wife crumbling and fumbling for control when everything else just continued spiraling, and I hated that I seemed powerless and helpless about it all. Peter Rothschild should have died a long time ago, but I hesitated;And now he was brazenly threatening everything that my wife and her family had worked for so long… for decades. Maybe I wasn’t being loyal to blood. But blood alone was not what made you family. And learning everything that my grandfather did just proved that. My family was with Melody, because it was with her I got to be the man I was today. And the mere fact that my in-laws would burn the whole world for me was what made them family to me, and I wouldn’t trade them for anything.
“Any distraction tends to get in the way of being an effective gangster.” — Terence Winter~THREE WEEK LATER~MELODY POVIt was nostalgic. Almost not disheartening now that I knew where it came from. Like back when I was young and everything was just going so smoothly. I woke up every day and lazed around the rest of the day like a headless, aimless chicken with nothing to do on my hand. Maybe I was so used to spilling blood that going on for three weeks straight without seeing red coating my hands was a sin in itself.But this one was boring as hell. Sure, it was better when I was younger and didn’t know what had happened when my fathers were all home. But now I did, and I kind of missed the thrill of the fight. With these thoughts coursing through my mind, I glanced at an empty space beside me on the bed, and then thought hard on it. The sun was already out, and it was dang late. But I had no fuckin’ plans. Sure, I could visit the coke plant and see how my people were doing, and
“Best way to not get your heart broken is to not have one.” ~ UNKNOWNMELODY POVWe slipped through the security, and one of the guards (whatever his name was) took us up to the VIP booth on the second floor. “The Eagle is one of the most… he is not our usual client. So we thought we could take him up to the VIP.” He explained, stopping outside the booth that was covered with a violet curtain. “Is it true he is unarmed?” I asked with knitted brows, and the man nodded. “He didn’t bring any of his dogs?” Jord chimed in, and I looked at him before shifting my questioning gaze at the gaze. “He just showed up. No underman, nothing.” The man explained with a puzzled shrug, and my gaze collided with Jord’s.“Sounds fishy.” He said the exact thing I said when Douglass laid the news to me. “Okay, bud. Keep out on the lookout for things. And if you see anything out of place, kill it. No second thought or hesitation.” That came from Jordan, and if I wasn’t as puzzled as I was, I would have
"Blood makes you related, and loyalty makes you family.” ~ UNKNOWNMELODY POV“The Eagle is here.” The words caused the hairs on the back of my neck to stand on attention. My expression morphed from one of softness to stone cold in a fraction of a second, and I heard a small whistle coming from the other side of the terrace where Emily stood. I gave her a stink eye before getting up from where I was perched, then walked away without much of a word.“What the hell is Valero doing here? Is he armed?” I asked when I was out of ear shorts, already racing down the stairs to put on different clothes. I didn’t approach situations like those clad in jeans and a sweater. “That’s the exciting part. He is alone. He didn’t bring anyone with him and he is unarmed.” He revealed, and my confusion spiked through the roof. “Where are you? Is he with you?” I got into my bedroom before heading straight for my closet, then rummaged through my collection of leather pants because truth be told; nothing
"A guy told me one time… don’t let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner.” ~ Neil McCauleyMELODY POVThe touch came in innocent; like the feel of a light feather when it ghosted against the skin. My mind exploded under the two stimulants of the hot, soft tuch and the thickness and richness of the hot chocolate, causing heat to flood to every single part of my body. Every cell in my body buzzed with alertness when Jordan’s strong arms trapped me against the kitchen island. It was 8 in the morning, and he had to have left for work already. Sometimes I liked to picture us living in the classic French house with a white picket fence and annoying shit machines running around the house and wreaking havoc in nothing but diapers. It was safer to have a little bit of reality escape, especially when it was free to think. “What are you thinking of?” He drawled, his fingers caressing my barely dressed self
“I don’t like violence, Tom. I’m a businessman. Blood is a big expense.” ~ SollozzoJORDAN POVThe evening was pleasant, with the fresh scent of a live city and blinding lights. Few clouds hung from the sky staring down at the world like they were watchers of humanity. The air was dense, and humidity painted small vapor droplets on the windows. Everything was pleasant, everything but the LA night traffic which was a colossal pain in the ass, and every second we wasted traipsing in a convoy made me want to lose my mind.. Melody's presence was a heavy entity dominating my resolutions by my side, and her thoughts were so fuckin' loud I couldn't focus on anything but everything that turmoiled in her mind. And to think we ditched our own party and ran behind some retarded folk gangster to save the damsel in distress still sounded so crazy to me. But in all honesty, I would do it all over again if my time with my woman was guaranteed. I mean, what can I say? Mel always had that effect on m
"Do not fear death. Death is just a reformation of something even more magnificent. Death is where it all starts, death; it’s not the end.’~ UNKNOWNJORDAN POVAs though it was waiting to be opened, the first thing to flash across the screen was a blurred video that seemed to play on a broken loop. A few seconds in, everything cleared, revealing a very familiar, sweet, and feminine voice. The voice belonged to none but Emee, and that spiked my interest in knowing what exactly was in the device she gave us.Probably because I was still in wonder. Wondering how the hell someone like Emee, someone so kind and loving ended up licking the ass of someone as horrible as Peter. None of this made sense. Grandpops... He used to be... he was so different. He was a man. A father. Or maybe everything I saw through the eyes of a small boy was just a facade, and everything I saw was him trying to butter me up and suck me into his lair. Just that my father refused to give him that chance. And Emee
"I don’t wanna be a product of my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me.” ~ Frank CostelloEMILY POVLike a ray of sun piercing through the darkest clouds of a bitter storm, her presence alone was the resemblance of the sweet taste of redemption. For over twenty years now, I have been living as a hollow of a woman I once was. I saw myself changing in front of my eyes, from a loving, caring human into this shell of a human that cared less about… anything. My soul was so empty, my heart so drained. I lived every day like it was my last on earth, having no hope of seeing tomorrow or even the thirst of dreaming about the future. Everything was here, yet so out of reach. I had everything a woman my age could think of. Everything money could buy. But happiness? Freedom? Those were the two things that millions in my bank account failed to give me. Of course, on my most blue days, I drowned my sorrows in a bottle of the world's most expensive alcohol, but that was just
" “The loudest one in the room is the weakest one in the room.” — Frank LucasJORDAN POVI didn’t realize the restlessness that ghosted under my skin until I tried to sit down and calm the fuck down while trying by all means not to murder my grandad who stood in front of me like a pompous dick he was. I watched with obsidian as my wife skitted across the room towards the wine cabinet, then poured some good whiskey in the four flutes before returning with a tray. Always a good hostess she was!‘’A drink?” She stood in front of me and bent down to place the tray, sounding as though she was making an offer while I knew damn well in my heart and my soul that she would blow the fucker’s brains out if they tried to turn down her whiskey offer. Nothing got in the way of whiskey to Mel. And I just loved her for that. Emily jumped up and took a glass, passed it to Peter who leaned in to place and caught her by her nape before devouring her face in a sloppy wet kiss that had me gagging eve