Page 4 of The Mobster’s Present

He hangs up, not that he needs to say anything. I’m already moving.

Hopefully, nothing happens tonight that makes Dove step in. She’s made important changes at the brothel and it’s now more a novelty used for entertainment than peddling skin. Romeo ran it as if every woman were housed in a cage, which, in a sense, they were. The bars were just a bit gilded.

Dove changed everything because she worked there, not entirely by choice, and under Romeo’s control completely. The building no longer runs on fear and the imbalance of power.

By the time I make it up the back stairs of Second Circle and knock on the office door, I’m even more worried about what I’ll find on the other side. “Enter,” Dove singsongs from the other side of the heavy door.

When it swings open, Dove and Oaklynn are sitting around the bank of monitors like they’re in a movie theater. They even have snacks—a giant bowl of popcorn, more than one kind of candy, and sparkling juice on ice, as if it’s champagne.

Dove shoots me a flat look. “I told Angelo he didn’t need to come, and he didn’t need to call you.” Under her breath she grumbles, “Then the moment I walk out, he calls you.”

“He just wanted me to watch your back,” I point out.

She arches an eyebrow and then nods toward Oaklynn who waves the hand she has clutching as much popcorn as she possibly can. “I brought my own backup,” Dove argues.

“Considering your backup travels with her own security team, just like you do, I don’t think that’s as effective as you think it is.”

The moment I say the words, I regret them. Oaklynn shoves the entire handful of popcorn in her mouth while glaring at me. Her eyes flick over my body, but it’s not in the way people use to check someone out.

She’s assessing me. It’s like she’s looking at me like I’m prey and she’s deciding where the most effective place to cut is.

A shiver runs down my spine, but I keep my face neutral.

Oaklynn pouts before putting her attention back onto the screens before teasing, “Backup who has backup is kind of smarter, don’t you think?”

“With that kind of logic I’m just going to bow out gracefully.” I give a little bow and move closer to the screens. I look toward Dove and ask, “How is everything going?”

“I think someone is using the old menu off the books,” she grumbles. Her sharp eyes are watching the screens as she shakes her head. “I don’t have proof yet, but they’ll show themselves.”

“Are the ladies okay?”

Dove looks at me with pride on her face. It shouldn’t matter, since she’s more than ten years younger than me, but she’s still my Donna.

“No one is talking, yet. I think they want to see how I’ll handle the situation, or if I’ll even notice,” her voice is thoughtful.

“Oh, so they’re testing you?” Oaklynn nods thoughtfully. “Classic. If it didn’t involve a brothel and possible bloodshed, I’d say turn it into a sitcom.”

“If anyone’s life should be a sitcom, it would be yours.” Dove points at her friend and the only other woman in this city who understands what it is like to be the woman next to the men who rule in the shadows and the light. “But you’d have to cut out so much.”

“Why are you acting like I’m naked all the time, and always filled with dick?” Oaklynn pulls a face like she’s actually offended and I look away, pointedly.

Dove blinks a few times and completely innocently asks, “Aren’t you?”

Oaklynn’s mouth falls open before she snaps it closed and grumbles, “Not all the time.”

“I’m just saying from a strictly volume of penis perspective that you would have to spend more time than average engaging with them.” Dove shrugs and reaches for the bottle of sparkling juice and tops them both off.

When she wiggles the bottle in my direction, a clear question on her face, I hold a hand up and shake my head. I will not be joining them for that one. No, thank you.

I’m certainly not going to pour myself anything from the stocked bar. Angelo would shoot me in the head considering he tasked me with keeping an eye on his wife.

The fact that Angelo Amato has a wife is still surprising to me sometimes. It’s not that he was running around with a lot of women, but committing to one woman? That wasn’t something I thought would ever happen.

When he met Dove, everything changed. Not only did it make Romeo, his own brother, his enemy, but he jumped into being with her and making her his queen without hesitating.

I’ve seen a change in him since it happened. He’s still a dangerous fucking man who will kill someone without blinking, but he also has a soft place to land at the end of the day. It’s rounded him out in a way that is both terrifying and admirable.

I’m terrified of what he would do if anyone were to hurt Dove or try to use her as leverage. Burn the world down comes to mind, but it feels too mild for what would happen.