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ONCE A BETA, NOW A MAFIA 67
Ghost tapped his feet impatiently as he stared out the window, “Something’s up.” They were parked near the Carianno house.Ryder had a nonchalant expression on his face as he reclined in his chair, “You mean aside from the fact that your boss, Don Carianno, is dead?” he asked in a flat tone.Ghost frowned, he had been shocked to the bones when he picked up the paper on the airplane. Pictures of Don Carianno were littered all over, with witty captions declaring him dead. They had said he had been killed by a small weapon in his own warehouse. He had been too stunned to speak or say anything throughout the flight. Ryder had been the one asking all the important questions while his brain did the overload, “He was more than that to me...”Ryder merely shrugged in response.“I don’t know how I didn’t get any information about this. Why did no one tell me? Scar? Ci...” He hesitated.“Well, you didn’t exactly have any means to communicate with them,” Ryder explained. “When your people tried
ONCE A BETA, NOW A MAFIA 68
She walked into the bathroom and saw a separate shower and a tub at the center. It was old-fashioned, with copper-colored fixtures. She closed the door shut and turned on the water, absentmindedly watching it fill. She was in need of a bubble bath, she hadn't had one in a long while. She was convinced that was the only way to actually strip her skin clean from the dirt and Sergio's vile touch.She poured in soap, hurriedly got out of her dress. She tested the temperature of the water with the tip of her toes before she sunk in slowly. Steam rose out of it, but the warmth felt good, it was relaxing. She reached up and grabbed a small towel, wadded it, and laid her head against it. She shut her eyes, relishing in the warm feeling the bath brought her, the lovely scented soaps that filled the bathroom. It was blissful. She was already dozing off when she heard someone clear their throat.At first, it sounded really distant. Her eyes shot open in panic. She caught her breath when she saw
ONCE A BETA, NOW A MAFIA 69
Scar spat out the mixture of blood and spittle. He was wearing tattered pants, his hands were chained up above his head. Blood and sweat trickled down his marks-ridden body. "So what do you stand to gain in all of this?" he drawled out."Who said anything about gaining anything?" Luca asked, with a wicked smirk on his face. He was a soldier in the Carianno family, a big burly man towering high with rippled muscles and toned abs.Scar’s chest heaved. "Why don’t you just kill me then? What are you waiting for?"Luca bent over and whispered in his ear, "Ghost. That’s the big fish we are hoping to catch."He threw his head backward and laughed, his lithe frame shaking. "I did always think you were smart, Luca. It looks like you substituted your brain for brawn..."Luca punched him in the cheek, sending his face flying in the other direction.He spurted out more blood and let out a pained grunt."Say something smart again, and I’ll make sure you never use your mouth again," Luca ground out
ONCE A BETA, NOW A MAFIA 70
As he flipped through the yellowed old pages, he sat down on the neatly made bed and began to read, curiosity etched on his features. Don Carianno’s writing was in beautiful cursive. It looked like he took his time to scribble, dotting all his i's and crossing his t's. He flipped through the first pages, there was an entry about a new shipment, but it didn’t make sense. He could not decipher the code words. He flipped through a few more pages, and that was when he saw an entry about him. It read: "Ghost, that’s what we’re going to name him. He’s, after all, a Ghost."He pondered on the words, this was around the time they found him, and he had a vague memory of it. The story was that they found him washed up beside a beachside, in tattered clothing. His best guess was Darius and whoever he was in cahoots with had thrown him overboard.There was a new entry on the next page where Don Carianno admitted he had picked him to use as a scapegoat. He was a ghost, with no memory of his life,
ONCE A BETA, NOW A MAFIA 71
Ghost stood in front of a small group of men, drawn from various cities in Italy. They owed him favors, their lives, and their unwavering loyalty. “You know what you have to do?” he asked rhetorically. “I don’t know how many are left...” He paused, swallowing hard. “But they are good men. Men who don’t deserve to die. Our mission is simple: first, a rescue mission, then a mission to eliminate the captors.” A twisted smile played on his lips. “Remember, bring all of my people back to me unharmed. Only then can you unleash hell.”Some of the men nodded in agreement.Ryder approached Ghost, leaning in to whisper, “Remind me again; why do we need them?”“Because it’s war,” Ghost replied quietly. “And in war, we need men to fight.”Ryder scratched his jaw, shaking his head. “I don’t know, doesn’t look much like a war to me,” he whispered back. “You and I could easily handle... the 8 or 9 men inside. We’ve dealt with more than this before.”Ghost shook his head. “None of these men have big
ONCE A BETA, NOW A MAFIA 72
“She’s close, I can feel it,” Ghost said in a harsh whisper. His hawk-like eyes peered out of the car windows.Ryder glanced at him and nodded.Scar was sitting behind, still a little out of it, with bandages all over, but he insisted on coming along. He leaned closer, “But how can you tell? Does this have anything to do with your sharpened werewolf sense of smell? You know, like a dog’s?”Ryder shot him a glare.He backed away in surrender. It had been two days since Ghost had told him about being a wolf, and he was still having a hard time coming to terms with it. Ghost had been gracious enough to do the explaining and clarification up until now. Now, his face was set in a deep frown, his gaze fixated outside, staring at all the incoming vehicles, his heart beating loudly in his chest. They had managed to get information from one of Sergio’s men about Ciara’s whereabouts. According to his intel, she was supposed to be transported past 31st Main Street, where they were currently park
ONCE A BETA, NOW A MAFIA 73
Suddenly, there was an uproar, and guns started firing at them. Ghost was taken by surprise. There were at least twenty men, with big guns slung over their shoulders, firing recklessly at them. Ghost’s men fired back, but they were severely outnumbered. They fired and slowly backed away. Passers-by were thrown into a frenzy. The police arrived at the scene, and it turned into a full-scale gun war. He grabbed her hand and pulled her with him, trying to avoid the flying bullets.Amidst the chaos, Ghost lost his grip on Ciara. Before he could turn around to react, he saw her being pulled away toward a large black van, a hand over her mouth. His eyes flashed red, he tried to get to her, but there was a lot of gunfire. He fisted his hands, his eyes slowly turned amber, and just when he was about to let go, he felt a grip on his shoulders. “Not today, Ghost,” Ryder whispered in a small voice to him.“They took her!” he yelled in response.“You’re a rogue wolf, you’re going to go completely
ONCE A BETA, NOW A MAFIA 74
Ghost and Ryder were the first to arrive at the docks. It was deserted and dimly lit. Ghost was standing in one spot while Ryder was pacing up and down impatiently. Scar was glancing around, watching their backs.“Man, I know you’re losing it but you have to...”“If my wife and daughter are not returned to me in one piece, I swear on the goddess, the whole city will feel my wrath!” Ryder cut in angrily, his eyes blazing murderously.Ghost was rigid, the anger he felt coursing through his framed body. When Ryder had offered to come with him, he didn’t think in the slightest that something like this would happen. He didn’t think Ryder’s family would be on the line like this. Sergio had Ciara, Hara, and Blair, and there was absolutely nothing he could do but wait patiently. He couldn’t even go gun blazing into Sergio’s hideout, as that could hurt either one of them.His ears turned alert when he heard the car pull up from afar, he noticed Ryder’s ears and perked up. Scar looked between t
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