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Mafia's Cruel Arrangement chapter 10
ASHTONHer entire system was decrepit. She was still operating on a handwritten ledger. The bare minimum was computerized. I was getting a headache just staring at her computer screen. It looked as old as the first computer ever created.My phone was buzzing.I pushed back the desk chair, which had a good view into Easter Lanes as I reached for it. “Yes?”Silence, then a growl. “You’re at Easter Lanes?”This was Detective Worthing.I stood up, phone pressed to my face as I stared at the window where I could see Molly behind the counter. She was helping a few customers, but there. I saw it. Her head was folded down. Her shoulders hunched forward. She was looking around. The customers left, and she remained in the same spot, her hand reaching for a rag and wiping the same circle over and over as her eyes were skirting around the place.What did she do?“Should we expect a surprise visit from you soon?”A dry laugh again, caustic at the end. “Can’t say it would be a surprise, considering
Mafia's Cruel Arrangement chapter 11
MOLLY“You close early on Sunday nights?”I almost screeched as I jumped backward.I grabbed onto the counter, glaring at him behind me. “Why are you still here? What do you actually want from me?”I was scowling as he stilled, his own eyes narrowing, and I had an image of a cobra raising its head, eyeing who it was about to attack.A chill went down my spine, and I shook my head, trying to clear the unsettling image from my mind. Then I remembered what he’d originally asked. “We do. Ten.” I looked at the clock. I’d made Pialto leave an hour ago, along with the rest of the staff. I could handle the last three customers, but they’d just left as well. I was ignoring the pit in my stomach because I didn’t think Ashton remembered what usually happened on Sunday nights here.“Why?”The bell above the door jangled again, and I looked over, half expecting one of our customers coming back. A lot of people forgot their jackets, but it wasn’t a customer. Two men were coming in, their badges fla
Mafia's Cruel Arrangement chapter 12
MOLLYHe took me to Pedro’s, a very exclusive small restaurant that most people only heard about. As we pulled up, going down an alley and then stopping at what looked like their back door, I could attest to how special I already felt. A back entryway. Two members of their waitstaff came out, dressed in black pants and shirts and nice-quality cream aprons, to greet us. The chef stepped out as we got to the door, and he embraced Ashton, speaking in Spanish.We were getting this special treatment because of Ashton, because of who he was. Ashton was Mafia. I caught the looks from the staff through the windows. These people knew it.They were all watching.I couldn’t catch what was being said, but it was beautiful to hear, a touching moment to witness, and then the chef came to me and took my hand in both of his. He was speaking again, blinking back tears.I thought Ashton would translate, but he didn’t. His eyes were on me, and they’d gone back to their normal hardness. A chill started t
Mafia's Cruel Arrangement chapter 13
Molly They hated my father, but that wasn’t new. I barely registered it, but I had that morning because it felt wrong, not wanting my dad to go inside when normally I knew it was only better when he was away.Then Ashton came out. They bypassed each other, and the look Ashton gave my father.He hated him. He wanted to kill him. The sneer. The disdain, and a surge went up in me.He was cute. So cute.I didn’t remember what he was wearing that day, just how he looked and how I knew, no matter how old he was, that he had darkness in him.He could do what I couldn’t, and even back then, I hadn’t wanted to admit what I wanted to do.That darkness inside of me.I wanted to be away from my father.Ashton, this boy going past him, could do that for me.I knew it then, and that’s why I never forgot him. I couldn’t.He was the prettiest and cutest boy I’d ever seen. Beautiful black hair that he’d been raking a hand through. Eyes that were so dark I was sure they were black. Eyelashes that fram
Mafia's Cruel Arrangement chapter 14
ASHTONIt was a local neighborhood street festival, but it was late, nearing midnight. So many had retired for the night, but not my family. My cousin Marco asked for me to stop by.We parked at the front of the carnival and walked in.My men got out first, with Elijah opening my door.I was out next and felt the attention. I wasn’t surprised. I was used to it, having been watched all my life, but this time was different. There was more weight, more responsibility.Some little kids were still playing, kicking a soccer ball around. A couple chased each other, wrestling with balloons. They were squealing, laughing.That was nice to see. A moment of lightness amid this heavy night.“Ashton.” Marco was coming toward me, smoothing a hand down his shirt. He was dressed up, like me. His hand was out, and we shook hands but moved in and did the typical cheek kissing. Because of our grandmother, it was a family tradition. He stepped back, taking me in, and nodded. “You look good.”I nodded, me
Mafia's Cruel Arrangement chapter 15
Her eyes flickered, seeing me, and the ends of her mouth curved down. “What do you mean?”“I need you to ask your father to do something. That means I need you to bail him out, first step. You are blocked from doing that. What can I do to help remove that block so you can stomach the idea of seeing your father?”She lifted a shoulder. “Beat him up? I don’t know . . .” She looked away.I frowned, moving closer. “That’d make you feel better? If I beat him up?”Her head folded down, and she was tapping her pen down onto her desk.I looked her over, seeing the rigidness. The tension, so I took a moment, one moment, and put myself in her shoes. I considered what I’d told her, what she’d said. Her mother. The truth. Her father. His hand in how he helped to take away her mother.My gut flickered. “I could have that done. Easily.”She looked up, her eyes clouded over. The tension still visible on her face, tightening around her mouth.She didn’t agree, but she didn’t disagree either.I took a
Mafia's Cruel Arrangement chapter 16
MOLLYI wasn’t drunk, but I wasn’t totally sober when I went to bail out my dad the next morning. I knew what Ashton said, use Kelly and Justin, only think about Justin and Kelly, but it was hard. So because I’d had a few shots, I had Pialto drive me.Then my dad came out, and Ashton had done his job. Half his face was covered in bruises and swollen so I could barely recognize my father. I loved it. Thank you, Ashton. And bonus points because Shorty Easter was limping as he approached me. “Heya, little Molly bean.” He lifted his arms to hug me, but I turned my back and started for the parking lot.I motioned for him to follow. “We’re out here.”“We?”I ignored him, walking to the car.My dad followed, and he slowed, taking in the car. “Whose car is this?”It was a battered old Buick. We’d found it in Pialto’s grandma’s garage. It was his grandfather’s, but rest his soul, he wasn’t using it since he was buried in New Jersey and had been for the last six years. His grandmother kept up t
Mafia's Cruel Arrangement chapter 17
ASHTON“One of our judges got picked up by the Feds.”Marco was on speaker as I was at Katya, a nightclub Trace and I owned. The same nightclub where Jess’s second job had been as well. I was in our private area, the windows overlooking the club below. We had a box to the side with a patio that extended out with a bench by the back wall. I was standing at one of the walls overlooking the section that Jess Montell used to cover. It was being handled by another bartender, but not one as good as Jess. I never cared much for the employees at Katya, one of the legit businesses that Trace and I both owned. It seemed pointless. They were fine. The business was fine. There was no worry about it. My attention went toward our other endeavors or the family business because I’d always been more active than Trace had been in the earlier days. And by earlier days, I meant in the time before the Worthing family put out a hit against both of our families.Those days. Back when we still thought we had
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Mafia's Cruel Arrangement chapter 11
“He has a point. You got shot four times.”“Six times, actually.” I touched the spots on my body like a prayer. “Drive-by shooting. It was apparently meant for him, but I stepped out of the house at the wrong time, and boom. They decided to settle for his daughter instead.”“That’s not supposed to happen,” Mona said, frowning. “We’re not supposed to be fair game.”“It’s not a game to them though, to guys like that. Those assholes don’t care if we’re innocent or not. They’ll hurt us if it gets them what they want.”“I’m sorry that happened to you.”I waved it away and stared out over the yard. I didn’t remember much from the aftermath, but I remembered it happening vividly: the black truck that pulled up, the guns that appeared in the windows, the way I screamed, the pain as it flared, the weird, almost calm knowledge that I was going to die. Then black, then waking up in the hospital, in pain, very, very angry, and all the rehabilitation, the surgery, the bullshit. It took months to g
Mafia's Cruel Arrangement chapter 10
Amber After that very strange, but surprisingly good night out at the bar, I did my best to hide from him for the next couple days. When we were sitting at the bar, our legs touching slightly, I felt it: that tingle down my spine, that buzz on my lips. We ate, he asked about me, made me laugh, and toward the end of the night, our fingers touched as we reached for the check, and I stared into his eyes, and I knew in that moment that if he’d kissed me, right then and there at the bar, I would’ve kissed him back. We walked back together, said goodnight, and I’ve been hiding from him ever since. I should hate him. I don’t understand what the heck would attract me to a guy like that. He robbed a man in front of me for fun. I hated that sort of thing, hated men that bragged about crime and thought it was exciting, hated that sort of macho arrogant crap most of all, and yet somehow, he was different. He didn’t seem to take himself too seriously, and he made jokes all the time, and of cou
Mafia's Cruel Arrangement chapter 9
I walked along the bar toward a large man up near the door. He was on the way to the restrooms, so I had a good excuse to pass him. I exaggerated my sway, just a little bit, making myself look drunker than I was. The guy had a goatee, a double chin, and a tiny sprout of hair at the top of his head. I noticed the Rolex first, then the way he leaned toward a much younger, much prettier girl and grinned at her with a creepy hunger in his eyes, and I’d watched him down three drinks since I’d started my first. He was rich, he was trying to impress a girl, and he was drunk, which made him ideal.It wasn’t a complicated maneuver. Amber stared at me, wild and ready to get up and chase me down, so I hurried a little bit. I turned the corner toward the restrooms and bumped into the guy, grunting as I did it loudly. My hand slipped into the pocket of the jacket he had hung on his chair— found nothing.“Shit, sorry,” I grunted, and slipped my hand into his pants pocket. It was tricky, but they we
Mafia's Cruel Arrangement chapter 8
“To our night out,” I said.She smiled, met my toast, and sipped her drink. “This place isn’t so bad.”“You got a lot of spots like this back home?”She shook her head. “I didn’t come to fancy places like this. I’m more of a dive bar girl myself.”“Funny, I’m the same way. South Philly is filled with little holes in the wall, bars that have been there for generations. Some real cheap, trashy places, but you can get good and drunk and see the boys from the neighborhood there, so it’s not so bad.”“Philly’s a weird place. It seems so small, you know?”“It’s old. Not built in an ideal spot. Didn’t sprawl out like the newer cities. Chicago’s kind of that way too.”“I guess that’s true. I like it though. It’s got character.”“That’s what I think. Philly’s got everything you could want, and it’s cheaper than most other cities, plus it’s a lot smaller, so you can get around way easier.”“If you’re trying to get me to move here permanently, I think I’m sold.”I laughed. “I’m not sure you’d wa
Mafia's Cruel Arrangement chapter 7
Ren At first, the job wasn’t so bad. I hung around that big house, watched TV when I felt like it, bothered Amber when I got bored, and kept out of Mona’s way as much as I could. Things were quiet for a while, but after a few days it started to get real old, real quick. Amber wasn’t happy. That got pretty obvious by the fiftieth time she told me to go fuck off. Not that I minded if she told me to go to hell, to be totally honest—I sort of liked that she pushed back against me. The girl had spirit, she was a goddamn handful, but I could tell something hung over her. I kept thinking about those fresh-looking scars on her body, so like the bullet wound scars I’d seen on countless other guys, and had a couple myself, but that made no sense. I couldn’t imagine what a girl like her would be doing with bullet scars. One night, Mona decided to head into the city. Amber watched her go like a sad puppy, and I knew she wanted to go with her, if only to escape the house for a little while. I l
Mafia's Cruel Arrangement chapter 6
I climbed out of the water, intensely away of his eyes on my body. He was a good-looking guy, muscular but trim, with light eyes and dark hair slicked back. His pouty lips would’ve made a younger version of myself swoon, but I was over all that, over and done with it. I felt self-conscious, though, and realized that some of my scars were visible— the two on my leg, and the one on my shoulder. I quickly walked to my towel and grabbed it, wrapping it around myself, but too late. I caught him looking with a thoughtful frown. “We should set up some ground rules, if we’re going to do this for real.” He looked at me and shrugged. “All right. You played along with me, so I’ll play along with you. Give and take, the bedrock of any healthy relationship.” I doubted he’d ever been in a healthy relationship, but I didn’t say that out loud. “When I’m swimming, you can’t sit there and watch me.” “Fair enough.” “And you can’t follow me around all the time.” “That’d make me a shitty bodyg
Mafia's Cruel Arrangement chapter 5
Amber Vincent hustled me out to his house in Mt. Airy the next day, accompanied by my hired goon babysitter. I ignored him. It wasn’t easy though. He was a big guy, broad shoulders, stubble on his face and chin, but he held himself with this strange grace that I couldn’t totally understand. He commanded a room, and I kept sneaking glances in his direction, and caught him looking back at me, seemingly unashamed at being caught. I didn’t know what his deal was, but it annoyed the hell out of me, and drove me wild at the same time. The Mt. Airy house was Vincent’s wife’s place, a nice, pretty girl named Mona. She met us out front in black pants and a white button-down shirt. She was a few years older than me, with dark hair cut short, and dark brown eyes. She smiled, hugged me, glanced at Ren, then held me by the shoulders. “You must be Amber. Vince told me all about you.” “Yeah?” I asked, smiling a little, trying to ignore the way Ren loomed behind me. “I hope it’s all good thin
Mafia's Cruel Arrangement chapter 4
“If you’re asking me to fight your war, I’m not interested.” He shook his head and held up his hands. “Something simpler, actually. There’s a girl that came to live with me, daughter of a capo in the Chicago family. She went through something recently, they’re having their own problems out there, and she was sent here to get away from the heat. Unfortunately, things are getting hot around here now, too.” I thought of the girl I’d seen with the long dark hair and the intense expression. She must’ve been twenty, maybe a little older. It must’ve been the same girl he was talking about. “Not sure what she would have to do with me.” “I need you to be her bodyguard.” I let that sink in for a second then burst out laughing. He stared at me, eyes hard and cold, and I knew this wasn’t a joke—but it had to be. I wasn’t a bodyguard. I was a thief, and the occasional thug. I had a reputation for myself, sure enough, but nobody entrusted a life in my hands—much less the life of a young, bea
Mafia's Cruel Arrangement chapter 3
When Vince came calling, I had to answer. The Leone family was the largest mafia in Philadelphia, and I was still an independent guy, working all my jobs alone. I was happiest that way, and didn’t want to get tangled up by the Leones, but their money was good and the job was simple: track down a couple goons and beat the ever-loving shit out of them. I brought Floyd along and offered to split the pay sixty-forty. He thought it was an even split, but shit, that’s on him for not asking. “Either way. I hope they got the message.” Vincent smiled and clapped me on the shoulder, the one with the knife wound, and I grimaced. He had the good manners to look a little embarrassed before turning to Floyd. “Thanks for the assistance. I’m sure Ren will have your money soon.” “When I get paid, he gets paid,” I said, nodding. “Very good.” Vincent squeezed my shoulder. “I actually have another job for you, if you’d be willing to talk?” I hesitated. I really didn’t want to get too involved. The Le
