My focus should be on getting myself and Joey off Savio’s radar.
But somehow, Kristina has altered that focus.
There is so much to her, so many layers, so much she won’t let on to…for good reason.
Case in point, me and the lies I keep feeding her.
She doesn’t know who to trust or where to turn and here I am, desperately trying to convince her that I’m one of the good guys when, in fact, I am the worst one of all.
Chapter Twenty-Five
MASSIMO
“So should I have brought my scalpel?” Kristina asks, jerking me from my own thoughts as I mindlessly swerve in and out of lanes on the Long Island Expressway headed into Manhattan.
“Don’t doctors always carry one on them, just in case?” It’s a weak attempt at humor but I feel the need to lighten the heavy, dark mood wedged into the front seat with us.
“I was actually trying to make a joke, but since we’re on the topic, you haven’t told me where we’re going and I’d just like to have an idea of what I’m walking into.”
The truth is battling with my lips so fucking hard right now.
I wrap my fingers tight around the steering wheel, my mind racing as fast as the engine of my Range Rover. I had Patty do a little reconnaissance after Lugo snatched Joey a few weeks ago. He’s hard up for cash and is looking to build himself up in the drug world, which means he’ll do anything he can to become a player. Unfortunately for Lugo, he’s also known to be a pretty big dumbass…all brawn, no brains. His underboss, Eddie Ramos, is equally stupid so it’s like the blind leading the blind with that crew.
People don’t want to work with Lugo because he’s an impulsive imbecile. And he’ll cause a major shit storm to make a power play that will end up kicking his ass in the end because he never thinks things through.
That gives me two options depending on how much damage Lugo has done…or is about to do.
I can hold him off with money or I can send a message.
A message will have Lugo retaliating so fast, Joey wouldn’t have time to tie his sneakers before Lugo had his ass on a spit roasting over an open flame.
I can’t see any other option besides money, unless I want to jeopardize more lives than just mine.
Lugo runs a strip club on the Lower West Side. It’s not one of the upscale ones. It’s where the C-class girls go to work because the patrons aren’t that choosy…Lugo being one of them.
He’ll screw anything that opens its legs.
Notice I didn’t say “her.”
He’s a freaky fucker, which I have no issue with.
But he’s also a vindictive asshole with a red-hot temper.
That’s the part that inflames my insides.
On one hand, he knows I’ve got an ally in Patty Mulligan, who can throw down with the best of them.
On the other hand, like I said, Lugo’s a fucking idiot.
He should stand the hell down, but will he?
That’s the big question.
“There’s a guy in the city who has made some threats against my businesses and he needs to be handled before he does any damage.”
“Your businesses?”
“Yes.”
“What kind of businesses? I thought you work security.”
Yeah, about that…
“It’s one of the things I do,” I hedge. “But not the only thing. I came out here to help Savio out, but most of my work is in the city. And sometimes I butt heads with the, ah, competition.”
I can see Kristina’s brow furrow as she processes what I’ve just told her. “Wait, so you work in the city, but doing what? Security?”
“Among other things. I provide security services when I need to.”
This is true. I did a lot of ad hoc security for Patty back when he was engaged to his now-wife, Kyla, because they were being hunted by a psychotic drug lord.
“But that’s not your main job?”
Nope, my real work is dealing in arms and drug trafficking with the occasional truck heist of smuggled counterfeit goods.
That doesn’t sound great.
It’s true, but Christ, it even hurts my ears when I say it to myself.
“I’ve been on my own for a long time, Kristina. I’ve had to do a lot of different types of jobs to make my way.” I hold my breath, silently begging her not to press me.
I slow to a stop at a red light once we cross into Manhattan, catching a glimpse of her expression. She looks…sad.
“My dad did a lot of different ‘jobs’, too,” she says in a defeated voice.
Knowing Savio, I’m not at all shocked by the tone of her voice or the way her shoulders sag.
“I saw something months back,” she says, staring out the window. “Something I never told anyone about. Well, except my dad.” She pauses, her voice shaking slightly. “We had a huge falling out over it. It was the reason why I’d stayed away from home for so long. The party…that was the first time I’d been home in six months. My sisters didn’t understand why, since we’d always been so close. I came home for every major event when I was at college, never away for more than a few weeks at a time. I blamed it on my med school workload, but that wasn’t the truth.”
A deep sigh expels from her chest. “I’ve never been naïve about what my father did for a living. I knew he had shady dealings with seedy people. I just never knew exactly what he really was.” Her voice quivers and she presses her hands against her eyes as if that’s going to block out the memories of whatever it is she witnessed.
But it can’t.
Christ only knows, I’ve tried it enough times to know it’ll never work.
The past will always resurface, and sometimes the memories are more vivid than the reality.
“One night, I followed him. He’d gotten a call, was all hush-hush about it, and I had this urgent need to find out what he was up to. All of a sudden it grabbed hold of me when for so long, I’d ignored any inklings.” Her hands rub the sides of her temples. “I’d come home from school for the weekend because I’d heard some rumors about him and his businesses. Evidently, his reputation expanded well-beyond our little Long Island bubble. I tried to ignore them, pretending not to notice when people would stare and whisper. My friends never pressed me for details but other kids just…knew. I guess deep down, I did too. I just never wanted to believe it. But I had to find out the truth.”
“You shouldn’t have followed him,” I say. “You could have gotten really hurt. Or worse.”
“And I almost did. He went to some deserted warehouse in a not-so-nice area. It was dark and eerie as hell. A few other cars were parked outside. I remember getting out and creeping through the overgrown grasses to see what was happening. I figured, maybe it was some kind of exchange. Drugs or weapons.” She shrugs. “I don’t know. But what I saw…” Her body visibly shudders. “Massimo, he murdered a man. Gutted him like a fish while the guy screamed and cried and begged for mercy. That wasn’t even the worst part, though.”
“What was it?”
She turns toward me, her eyes pooling with tears. “He never blinked. It seemed so natural for him to be literally draining the life out of another human being. It wasn’t as if he was acting on pure emotion, like he’d been driven to do it in the heat of an argument. I might have been able to forgive that. If this person had done something really horrible and he was defending us or my mother, maybe I could have accepted it better. But it looked like he was almost impervious to any emotion at all. Like killing a man was such an ordinary occurrence for him.”