The Italians have their hands in a few different pots. From extortion and illegal gambling to loan sharking. They also have a hand in human trafficking which is why I can’t stand the fucking cunts. I’m no saint, but I draw the line at trafficking innocent people, especially girls.
It doesn’t surprise me that it was Nero and one of his bastard men who played a hand in drugging that girl the other night. It does surprise me however that they did it in my territory and thought they could get away with it.
Opening the door to his office, Marco steps inside and gestures for us to sit on the two leather chairs sitting opposite a glass table in the middle of the room. I walk over and sit down as Marco takes the single chair facing me. Matteo and Nero stand behind him and I look at Lev who’s still standing at the door like he’s stuck behind an invisible threshold.
Both our men and the Italians stand spread out against the walls of the room. Marco looks at Lev and raises his hand to gesture to the empty chair beside me. He continues to stare intently at Nero as he finally makes his way inside the room and sits down beside me. Once he's seated, Marco sits back in his chair and one of his men tops up his now empty glass of whiskey.
“Would you boys like a drink?” He asks as he unbuttons the front of his jacket.
“No.” Both Lev and I say in unison.
I can tell Lev is holding it together as much as he can, but like me, he hates the Italians, their trafficking rings and the fact Nero was dancing with Alina while one of their men drugged her best friend. Still, he needs to be taught to control his emotions as not to give anything away during meetings like this no matter how it affects him on the inside.
“So serious boys.” Marco says through the tension filled stare-offs.
“I invited you here tonight to formally apologise on behalf of my Capo’s son. I can assure you that when we entrusted Nero in accepting your offer, we did not send him to negotiate or for him to cause any offence.” He finishes before taking a drink.
“With the Don returning to New York, we would like an alliance and to accept the terms of thirty five percent. We’ll trade arms, use the restaurant as a front and send you sixty five percent from every trade, if you’ll forgive my son for his attempt at a negotiation.” Matteo finally speaks up.
“We actually have another reason for coming tonight.” I say and I watch Marco glance between Lev and I, holding his drink half way to his mouth before his jaw ticks.
“And what would that reason be exactly?” He raises the glass to his mouth taking a drink.
“Well, we saw something interesting on our CCTV from the night Nero was at our club.” I say looking at Marco. Lev is still looking at Nero like he wants to slice him open from his gut to his throat. Matteo shifts slightly on his feet and Nero blinks a little faster than he was a minute ago before his name was mentioned.
He’s angry. His father knows his son has fucked up and Marco looks back at me while he grinds his jaw waiting to hear what Nero has done now.
“A girl was drugged at my fucking bar. And while you might enjoy drugging and trafficking women, it’s not our—”
“Oh fuck off Dragna!” Nero furiously shouts, cutting off my words as he drives forward and everything descends into chaos within an instant.
Lev is on his feet, gun drawn and pointed at Nero’s head, safety clicked off. Matteo pulls his gun and aims at Lev and men from both sides all have their weapons drawn towards each other from all angles of the room.
“Basta!” Marco shouts furiously as he stands. He looks around the room as his men all begin lowering their guns then back to me as I remain seated. I ignore the rest of the room as Matteo also lowers his gun. Lev however remains with his pointed at Nero and I don’t bother calling him off. Instead I sit back in the chair, spread my legs and bring a hand up to rub my jaw.
“We have a new deal Marco. You’ll still get to trade in arms, don’t worry about that.” I say sternly.
“What was the percentage you wanted to finalise with us Nero? Forty percent was it?” I ask sarcastically in a cool, calm tone.
“Yes.” Nero grits out.
“Perfect. You can have forty percent, you’ll give us sixty and as a real apology and also a thank you for the extra five percent profit you’ll receive, you’ll let us take Nero with us tonight to punish him as we see fit for bringing shit to our door that we don’t want or need.”
Nobody utters a word. Not even Nero, as if he knows there’s a possibility his Don will agree. Another minute goes by before Marco speaks. He doesn’t even glance at Matteo or Nero before he says all but one word.
“Deal.” He clicks his fingers in the air and strides out of the room with half his men following along behind him. Matteo turns to look at Nero who’s brimming with anger and shock that he’s been traded for a measly extra five percent. Matteo only shakes his head at his son before he walks out of the room leaving just two of the Italian guards, Lev, Nero, our five men and myself.
Lev closes the distance to Nero and presses the gun to the back of his head forcing him to start walking towards the door.
We all walk from the office to the restaurants back entrance in silence. I know Lev is going to want to drag this punishmentout to make it as painful as possible, and I can’t blame him. A sly smile forms on my face and I feel exhilarated at the thought of finally having some of our type of fun with Nero.
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We’re a few blocks from the Italian’s restaurant on our way back to the club. Nero is in the trunk of the car behind ours, and Lev had Mikhail put some music on to get him ‘in the mood for torture’.
“I can’t believe the Don just agreed so easily to give us Nero.” Lev laughs, his eyes a little wide with a spark to them.
“Just hold in the excitement until we get back to the club Lev. They could be planning to grab him from us before we even make it back.” I say as I look out the window for any suspicious looking cars.
