Page 53 of Bloody Savage God
Doing as I’m told, I study the man who is still running the empire he’s built over the past two decades. His hair is thin and his skin has an unhealthy tint to it. It’s stubbornness more than anything that has allowed him to hang on to his role for so long, though we all know it’s not going to work for much longer. Of course, that doesn’t mean he can’t put a bullet in a few more heads before he takes his last breath and I’m eager to avoid that particular head being mine.
“What’s going on?” I ask, pretending ignorance. For a split second, my eyes dip down to the table, under which I know my father’s oxygen tanks are hidden. Not that their presence could ever be unobtrusive, given the nasal cannula he is wearing.
Cystic fibrosis is a bitch. About a year ago, his lung damage got bad enough that his doctor recommended home oxygen treatments. For a moment, it had looked as if my father was going to pull a gun on the guy, but he’d managed to restrain himself. Instead, he’d killed five guys the following week.
We all have to deal with bad news somehow, I guess, but knowing his temper can be explosive doesn’t leave me particularly eager to give him some bad news of my own.
“Where the fuck have you been?”
Best to stick with a partial truth, so I give him a cocky grin. “Sorry, I met a lady that had me a bit distracted.”
My father’s expression changes to exasperated rather than full-on angry, which is a significant improvement.
“What are you? A horny fucking teenager?”
“Not a teenager, but I have been fucking.”
My father’s expression darkens again. That was probably a bit too much, so I rein it in again. “But I’ve also had a chance to look into the Leonardo Bruno murder.”
That has my father looking up in interest. I don’t usually bother to take the initiative when it comes to recon, preferring to let others deal with that kind of stuff. “Well, what is it?” He is anything but a man of patience.
I considered how much I should share with my father, not prepared to betray Gianna’s trust despite the loyalty I feel to my own family. Gianna’s ambition makes her who she is, and I’m fucking obsessed with that woman, which is why I decide to limit my report to only the relevant information my father needs to know.
“Mario Romano, Bruno’s consigliere, had a decent amount of debt, owing none other than Benny Ronaldo. Looks like he didn’t keep his fingers clean while working for his brother-in-law.”
“He owed the Ronaldo kid?” My father’s wheezy breathing changes to a whistling noise as he scrunches up his face in thought. “The fucker can’t have known Benny’s father uses our services.”
The way my father says it almost sounds like we run a legitimate business, instead of the pussy bars, shakedowns, and occasional protection and enforcement we do for Ronaldo senior.
As a media mogul, Ronaldo senior doesn’t like anyone spilling their guts to other new stations, especially not when it has anything to do with his affairs, his wife’s cocaine habit, the disgruntled service personnel they abuse, or his no-good gambling addicted son. Which has provided us with a good amount of jobs in the past years. All of which were handled discreetly, and given the Bruno family’s ignorance to the dramatic expansion of our business, we were rather successful in that.
“Want us to get involved?” I ask, curious about how my dad wants to handle things, but also intent on keeping the conversation away from my own temporary disappearance.
My father tilts his head, making his nasal cannula move up toward his eye since the tape has come loose. “I’ll think about it,” he declares as he pulls the thin cannula down with a grunt of annoyance.
“Anything else you need done?”
That earns me a sharp look. “That you do your fucking job and answer the phone when I call you.”
I nod quickly. He’s got a good point, and one he would have never needed to make hadn’t I been kidnapped and then caught up in Gianna’s plot. Usually, I thrive off of the work I do.
Gianna is the only one who has ever been able to divert my attention so entirely.
“Actually, there is one thing I need you to look into,” my father continues after acknowledging my agreement with a grunt that could mean anything fromgoodtoyou’re on your last warning.
“What’s that?” I ask, glad we’re moving on from my lack of presence in the past three days.
“Remember how I had you take care of that bookkeeper a couple weeks ago? The stealing piece of shit? Well, Lev was supposed to take care of his associate who’s locked up in Millhaven, that Samson guy. You remember the file?”
Well, fuck me.
“Yeah, I remember.” Especially since I just saw his daughter a day ago when the current Bruno mob goddess released me from her sex dungeon. Safe to assume it’s better for my health that I leave that unsaid.
“He’s out of solitary and needs a lesson. I’ve decided you should pay his daughter a visit. Make sure he remembers his manners.”
Yeah, fuck me all right.
I don’t give a shit about Mia, but if I go after her BFF, Gianna is going to flip, and my dick still has a gash in it because she was in agoodmood yesterday. I can fuck up the best of them, but I’m not in the mood to mess around with Gianna. Not when she’s already got enough shit going on.
