CHAPTER TEN
Even prisoners got time off, right? Or at least a break?
Phoenix
I STARED AT THE phone in my hands and tapped the shiny glass surface… I didn’t want to make the call.
I never wanted to make the call.
Maybe in my past life, when I’d still been a horrible excuse for a human being, I’d wanted that type of power, but now it tasted bitter in my mouth, like I was playing God. I had no business saying who lived and who died — I was the least likely of people. I couldn’t see past the fact that it was like Satan deciding who should go to heaven. Unfortunately, the decision was made for me when the phone vibrated in my hands.
“Yeah?” I barked.
“Boss…”
I rolled my eyes and took a deep breath. “Yeah, Nick?” Ever since getting the Nicolasi family thrown in my lap, he’d been my right-hand man, from communicating with the men to helping me wade through all of the drama being a boss brought. Luca trusted him; therefore, I had no choice but to do the same.
“We’re ready for the meeting, but I gotta warn ya… a few of the men are a bit… upset.”
“Define upset.”
“They don’t wanna come. Said they won’t report in.”
“Is that a nice way of saying they’ve gone AWOL?”
Nick cursed. “It isn’t like that, boss. They just… they need time.”
“Do I look like a damn clock?”
“No, sir.”
My palms sweated against the phone, making it slide along my ear. “Listen up and listen carefully. You call the guys who are giving trouble and tell them this.”
The phone cracked.
“Tell them—”I reached into myself and let a bit of the resentment free, a bit of the anger I knew I still harbored. “Che peccato,” I murmured. “What a shame that they’ll never see their families again. Forget their families. They have one sunrise to change their minds. Then I’m putting them on ice. This isn’t a threat to scare them into submission. It’s a promise. You haven’t even begun to see the terror I will inflict on the Nicolasi family if things aren’t done my way. Luca left me in charge because I’m the man for the job. If they can’t come to terms with that, then I’ll at least offer them the opportunity to name their pallbearers before I mess them up and dig a hole. Tell them that, word for word, and call me with their answer. Or hell, just text me one bullet or five. I’ll need to know how many of them to shoot. Don’t disappoint me, Nick.”
“Sir, that is the last thing on my mind… disappointing you.”
“Get it done, Nick, or it’s your head.”
“I’m partial to my head.”
“As you should be.”
“Va’ fa Napoli!” I snapped then hung up the phone.
“There a reason you just told someone to go to hell?” a flirty voice said from behind me. “Because it’s kinda hot, you getting all worked up.”
Not only did I have to deal with my role as the boss of the Nicolasi clan, but now I was dealing with her… again. “Didn’t I tell you to make friends?” I didn’t turn around, didn’t trust myself not to drink her in. I was always weak after dealing with transactions, after barking orders. It drained me because I really didn’t have much left to deal with emotionally.
“Found a squirrel in the parking lot. Does that count?”
“That depends.” I shoved my phone in my pocket. “Did it talk to you? Offer you his nuts?”
Bee burst out laughing. “If he showed me his, will you show me yours?”
“This conversation just passed a really disturbing point of no return.”
“Yeah well…” Bee sat down on the stairs next to me, pulling her knees to her chest. “That’s me, all kinds of disturbed.”
“I’m sorry. Have I given you any indication I’m a shrink, willing to listen to your laundry list of issues?”
“Bad phone call?”
“No. Everything’s fine.”
Bee bit her bottom lip. “You don’t look fine.”
“According to you, I look hot all the time, so now who’s the liar?”
Bee tilted her head like she was examining me, her damn lip still held captive by her straight white teeth. “Hmm, I’d say you still are. Your veins are all popping out on your forehead, and your jaw’s clenched.”
“Yeah, I always look like that. Comes with the territory.”
“Hmm.” Bee looked away. “Can I ask you something?”
“If I say no, does it even matter?” I stood, expecting her to follow me, which she did. I knew how to get to her next class, even though we were going to be a bit early, considering she’d clearly failed in the friendship department.
“Probably not.” She twirled a piece of her hair and pulled out her sunglasses, making slow work of dipping the edges in her mouth, sucking on them like they were candy.
I looked away. I had to. Instead, I focused on trees, I focused on grass — hell, I even focused on the tiny squirrel that ran in front of me.
I pointed. “One of your friends?”
“I’ll call him Chuck.”
Do not laugh. Do not laugh. I kept it in — just barely — and gave her a noncommittal shrug. Damn, it was going to be hard keeping my guard up when she kept trying to scale the walls.
“Who are The Elect?”