CHAPTER 67
CHRISTIAN ‘VICIOUS’ VOLKOV.
I had breakfast before I left home but her fucking taste was still in my tongue.
Tasty and so ravenous.
If it wasn’t for the fact that I’m doing this for her, I wouldn’t be here.
I’d be at home. Preferably inside her.
That can come later though.
Little nurse might be mad at me but she’s still horny enough to beg me to fuck her.
A duty I take very seriously.
Nico stands by my side as every leader of the other families settles themselves in the conference chairs.
Basilio Agrusa settles himself to my left.
Ginnio La Monda, the fat fuck, settles to my right.
Allagra Pallis sits next to Domenico, albeit begrudgingly.
I had seen these people in my youth.
Back when age wasn’t their kryptonite and their ambitions weren’t as high as the Berj Khalifa.
I saw how my father handled them, used them like his little puppets.
I’m not beyond following my father’s footsteps to keep them in line either.
“Ladies, gentlemen–.”
“Oh, cut the crap. I want my daughter, Vitello”, Allagra slams her hands on the glass rattling it.
I expected this behavior from her when I called in a meeting.
For her to lash out? Yes.
For her to do so, so soon? No.
“Allagra”, Ginnio jumps in my defense, “We understand witnessing your daughter getting cozy with umm…Christian
Vitello is a little bit hard but you know the rules.”
“He is engaged to Athena!”
“And he is clearly not interested if he laid claim on Alessandra”, Domenico comments.
Allagra almost blows steam off her ears.
“Are you listening to yourselves? You speak of my children as if they are goats being picked and dropped by this man. He cornered my daughter. She—she is blind.”
My fists tighten.
Is that the crap she’s been feeding my little nurse?
That she’s a frail blind bat that needs to be kept an eye on?
That woman might be blind but she’s got the biggest and toughest steel balls I’ve seen on a woman.
“Did you not throw a ball for anyone to claim your daughter’s hand, Allagra? For God’s sake, sit down and let’s get this over with-.”
“He will not take my daughter from me. I refuse to allow him to-.”
“It’s a good thing your daughter has free will, doesn’t she? She fucking chose me, she’s carrying my children so why don’t you sit down and shut the hell up while we get this meeting to start.”
Basilio looks between me and a fuming Allagra.
Ginnio’s jaw can be seen on the floor.
“She is pregnant, that changes everything”, Domenico says as if his words would be able to keep me from my woman.
“No, he will not get his throne if he doesn’t marry Athena, that was the deal!”
“Technically, Alessandra is a Pallis too”, I challenge.
Allagra’s face turns pale.
Pale with fear? No. She wouldn’t be Alexia’s mother if she got scared easily.
Pale with running fumes? Hell yes.
She’s about to oppose me, the other leaders are about to shoot whatever statement she comes up with down (because there’s nothing better like getting on the good graces of the next Cosa Nostra heir) when my phone buzzes in my pants.
I take it out.
The name Jett litters my screen and I don’t have to be told shit just went sideways.
Every time Jett calls nothing ever goes right. Lesson learnt from the past.
“Hello?”
“Boss”, Jett groans.
Motherfucker.
“They took her, I don’t know how they did but they took her. Brenda and I are–.”
“Were you fucking Brenda when they fucking barged in and took her?”
“Boss-.”
“Get your ass here. Now! You’ve got the footage?”
“From the backup cameras, yes.”
“Send it to me and Jett?”
“Yes, boss?”
“You and your wet dick better pray they are both alive.”
I hang up.
Everyone heard me.
Including the woman seated at the edge of this conference table gazing at me confusedly.
That puts her out of the equation.
Allagra Pallis had nothing to do with this.
Domenico and Basilio still wear the same stupid concerned faces.
And Ginnio?
“What happened?” Allagra asks, “Where’s my daughter?”
“Is the padre here?” I ask.
Nico nods at me and I tip my head at him to bring in the padre.
“What did you do to my daughter, Vitello?” Allagra stands.
Impatience leaks from my seams and I stand pulling the gun from my holster and pointing it at her.
“Sit the fuck down. Sit. Down.”
“Boy, this is not the way to earn respect”, Basilio comments and I move my gun a tad close to his head.
“I never asked for your respect, old man. Call me boy one more time and the next bullet lands between your eyes.
You are going to sit down; the padre is walking in here and doing what he has to do and then? We are all going to play a nice game of Russian roulette.
A little forewarning though, you are all sitting here with no weapons and no bodyguards to come to your rescue. I wouldn’t try anything if I were you. Not with the kind of moods I’m in.”
Nico walks in with the padre.
The one carrying a few rosarios in his hands, the purple cloth by his meaty neck an insignia that he is a holy man and the holy book he’s carrying lying to everyone that sees it that he’s as pure as the air from Antarctica.
Hypocrite.
My gun is on him next as Nico takes his out, pointing it at a dazed Allagra.
“Start the initiation, father.”
The father reads the room then he tenses.
“There…there are rules followed for generations when it comes to initiation. There’s a system–.”
“Father”, I grit, my molars grinding in my mouth to dust.
My phone dings in the other hand.
Jett has sent me the footage.
The father wipes sweat off his bald forehead chanting a few Hail Marys before he starts to stutter,
“With God as the witness and the other families, Ginnio La Monda, Domenico Albano, Basilio-.”
“Get to the last part now, Father, before I sin and smear the walls with the blood of a holy man.”
That gets him shaking.
Looking between me and the book in his hands, he decides to listen.
“Christian Vitello, do you accept to be the next head of the Cosa Nostra, taking over your father, Moretti Vitello’s legac-.”
“Yes.”
“Then by the power bestowed upon me-.”
“Get him out”, I signal to Nico.
The next minutes go on with me looking at the footage again and again.
Getting mad again and again.
Plotting how I’m going to kill them over and over.
I look up at the four pairs of eyes glaring at me like I’ve gone mad.
Maybe I am mad.
Maybe madness comes with the new title.
“Christian Vitello of the Cosa Nostra? Kinda has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?”
“I will end you”, Allagra doesn’t coat any bullshit.
I turn to Ginnio La Monda.
“What about you, old man? Any words to the new boss?”
He chuckles. Like we are buddies discussing how vintage his house wine is.
“Your father would have wanted this to go down differently but I’m sure he is proud.”
I laugh.
“Are you proud of me, Ginnio? I might have been a kid when you visited me in my father’s basement but I remember your words clearly. Tied in chains, beaten black and blue and you were there watching me, agreeing to my father’s sick methods. You told me I was weak, that I would never take over my father’s throne because death would snag me before I did. Spoiler alert, it seems death and I have a love-hate relationship.”
“Christian-.”
“It’s boss to you.”
“Your father was teaching you a lesson. I only–.”
“Wished I could die and rot in that basement while you manipulated my father to your bidding?”
“No. No. Of course not.”
My heart churns at his fake words.
“I’d put a bullet right in your mouth and out the side of your head but it seems as though I’m in a conundrum. Your son seems to might have forgotten his place in the world and I might be the only one who can get him straight. You just had to do it, didn’t you? The thought of a Moretti and a Pallis being together gave you heartburn. All that power and none going to you? It must have hurt.”
“Christ—Boss-.”
“Call your son right now, Ginnio.”
Nico opens the conference doors, a rifle in his hand this time.
Anyone tries anything and they are dead.
The walls are soundproof. No noise out, no noise in. No bodyguards, no savior is coming to save them till I have what’s mine.
I saw Junior in that footage.
Taking advantage of her, luring Alexia out of that room with his accomplice.
That tall sack of shit is going to pay though. Him and his fat fuck of a father.
“I have not spoken to my son, he-he might not be in the country-.”
I tap my phone. I came here prepared.
What I didn’t expect was for them to take my woman from my mansion while we were here.
“Ten million dollars sent to a cancer research center in Hungary from your bank account. A million euros transferred to your mistresses in the East Coast. Five million transferred to charity towards the kangaroos in-.”
“You wouldn’t!” He stands up but his phone starts to buzz in his pants and I watch as his soul leaves his body when he realizes the amount of money he’s lost in a minute just by looking at said phone.
I tap my screen, “Three million from your offshore accounts transferred to-.”
“Stop!”
“Make that call, Ginnio. Your money or your son.”
“You should have died in that basement. I should have ensured he killed you”, Ginnio blabs, his face flustered, that tie around his neck a little bit tight for him.
In the end he chooses his death.
He calls Junior.
I yank the phone from him watching it ring.
I place the phone against my ear.
“Papa. We’ve got her”, Junior speaks. Like he’s won villain of the year.
“You failed all your SATs and not for lack of trying but because the teachers declared you clinically stupid. Which is why a clinically stupid fucker wouldn’t pull such a plan on his own.
Hang up and your father dies leaving you nothing but the clothes you are wearing right now or listen up and listen up good. Your accomplice is there, isn’t she? Give her the phone.”
Junior goes silent.
Ginnio looks at me like he can breathe better knowing his money is now safe.
It takes two long minutes for me to hear heavy breaths from the other side but she doesn’t speak.
Typical.
I move around the conference table right to where a pissed off Allagra is staring.
“Here’s how this is going to play out, princess. You are going to bring what’s mine back. You know where we are, don’t you? You are going to wipe any blood on her and you are going to pray to your God that when Alexia gets here, that she and my baby are not hurt otherwise-.”
“Why would I do that?”
Bingo.
I spotted her caramel hair in that hoodie.
My mistake was letting her live.
I won’t let Athena Pallis live when I see her again.
“Funny you should ask that.”
Lowering my gun, stepping a foot back, I aim my gun and fire and Allagra Pallis falls back on the floor clutching her wounded leg that’s starting to color her white pants red.
“That’s one bullet to your mother’s leg. Enough to make her use crutches for weeks and not paralyze her. The next time I aim, your mother will be using a wheelchair for life.”
“Y-You wouldn’t…she is Alexia’s mother too, if you kill her, she will never forgive you.”
“I can live with that. But can you live with getting your own mother killed?”
My nurse can hate me but she’ll still be breathing.
“Athena?” Allagra asks from the floor, shocked.
“Mom? Don’t you dare hurt her, Christian! Don’t you hurt my mother; she has nothing to-.”
“Twenty minutes. Bring my woman back in twenty minutes or your mother is dead and I don’t bluff, principessa.”
I hang up.
Then I turn around and I fire my gun at Ginnio. The bullet goes through his skull and he falls to the ground with a thud.
That’s for putting ideas into your son’s mind that he can have what’s mine.
I walk to my seat and looking at everyone, I declare, “Now we wait.”