Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 77160 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77160 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
His assignment is simple: gather intel on a casino owner.
His solution is anything but: getting the help of the beautiful lounge singer who the owner is obsessively fond of.
She’s just supposed to be an entry point.
A means to an end.
Instead, she becomes a complication he couldn’t see coming because the deeper she’s pulled into his world the more dangerous her role becomes.
And walking away is no longer an option.
For either of them
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Playlist
“I’ve Been Kissed Before” - Rita Hayworth
“Fever” - Peggy Lee
“Do It Again” - Shirley Horn
“Big Spender” - Peggy Lee
“Go Slow” - Julie London
“My Daddy Rocks Me” - Blue Harlem
“Cry Me a River” - Julie London
“Black Coffee” - Peggy Lee
“Autumn Leaves (Les Feuilles Cortes” - The Charlie Biddle Trio, Stephanie Biddle
“Till There Was You” - Peggy Lee
CHAPTER ONE
Milo
“Ma, can I call you back later?” I asked as I pulled into the parking lot of Famiglia.
“Oh, so busy. Heaven forbid you spare your mother five minutes of your precious time.”
“I’m gonna be at Sunday dinner.”
“You said that last week. And your setting sat empty all night.”
“I had—”
“Work,” she finished for me. “Haven’t we talked about the difference between making a living and making a life?”
“You just want me married and popping out babies for you to love on.”
“I want you settled and happy.”
“I’m happy.”
“You’re busy. Not happy.”
“Being busy makes me happy.”
“There’s more to life than money.”
“Would it make you feel better to know that all the money making is so I can give my future wife and kids a nice life?”
The pause let me know I had her.
“Slightly. But I still want you at my table this weekend.”
“I got every plan to be there. But Luca is waiting on me, so I gotta go.”
“Tell him I send my love.”
“Will do,” I agreed, hanging up the phone.
My sisters getting into relationships really screwed things up for me. Now my mom’s focus was on me all the time since I was the last one to settle down. Or even show any signs of it.
I hadn’t been lying, though it was important to me to be in a really stable place financially before I found a woman and started a family. So I’d been busting my ass since I got made.
So it was no surprise, as I climbed the steps up to the over-water restaurant that served as our boss’s headquarters, that I saw Domenico standing on the deck waiting for me.
Because we were the only two capos who hadn’t settled down and gotten busy making a life—and babies.
Dom was tall with black hair and eyes and the kind of frame that said he spent a good chunk of his time in prison working out in his cell or on the yard.
The general “fuck off” on his forehead meant that even outside of prison, everyone gave him a wide berth.
“Guess we got a job together,” I said when I saw him.
“The new dream team,” he agreed, heading to the door.
Inside, we found Luca in the party room, sitting with his back to the wall of windows that gave a view of the waves crashing below.
“Did you carpool?” he asked when we walked in, a small smile tugging at his lips.
“You got a job for us?” I asked, dropping onto a chair.
“God forbid we have a little small talk before we get down to business,” Luca said, shaking his head. But because he knew me, and because he benefited almost as much as I did from my work ethic, he shrugged. “But, yeah, I have a job for you. But it’s a little unconventional.”
What in our business wasn’t? It wasn’t like we were paper pushers. We imported illegal shit for our own criminal empire… as well as other organizations who used our docks for a fee.
“Unconventional how?” Domenico asked.
“It would be asking you to leave town. The area, actually.”
“What? Do the New York Families need us for something?” I asked.
“No, not exactly. Right idea, wrong location.” It wasn’t like the mafia was limited to New Jersey and New York. But as far as I knew, we didn’t have strong connections to the families in Chicago, Philly, Detroit, or Boston. “Do either of you remember Uncle Luigi?”
The name had a familiar ring, but I couldn’t make any connection.
“Luigi. Did a life bid for a double homicide,” Domenico supplied.
“Right. He was a big deal during my old man’s reign as boss. Back before we stabilized as an organization.”
I had heard stories from some of the old-timers about how it had been the wild west from the seventies until the nineties. So many murders (both of our own people, and us needing to take out enemies) and a bunch of arrests.
“Thought he died in prison,” Dom said.
“He did. Over in Illinois, where they shipped him to isolate him from the Family. But when he first went away, he had a wife and kids. Because she wanted to be closer to the prison, and because shit was so dangerous around here at the time, his wife decided to relocate. So those kids were raised far away from any of us.”
“Until?” I prompted.
“Until one of the sons decided he wanted his Family heritage back.”
“So he’s back in town,” I said.
“Not exactly, no. I did have a meeting with Remo when he first moved through this way. But he made it clear he didn’t want to work in Navesink Bank.”