Episode 17

Gabriel

"More. Give me more," the woman in my arms demands as I nip at her lower lip.

I was just getting used to the fire in her mouth, her impatience, and above all, her surrender when suddenly she wants more.

More.

I lift her thigh and hike it onto my hip to show her how excited and lost she has me right now.

She gasps, and my body tenses and hardens even more. She has me like a desperate thirteen-year-old boy about to make a move.

"Is this what you want, little wildcat?" I murmur against her lips, challenging her with a glance.

"I want more," she surprises me by requesting. She grabs my face with her small hands and drags her nails across my scalp. "I need more," she adds with a plea that has me at her feet.

I wonder if she knows that I'm about to take her in my friend's room, with people dining just a few meters away, and with my own daughter witnessing this raging inferno that has seized all my senses.

I can't explain it, but this feels so right. Her petite body fits perfectly against mine.

My hand nearly covers her entire back. I'm aware of how fragile the body in my hands is—almost too much so—with just one move, I could end her life, and that realization makes me feel... weak. As if I'm the one in grave danger, not her. I can't understand why.

"Oh, crap. I'm sorry." Sophia pulls away from me, and I want to scream in frustration at the loss of her warmth, but I also want to scream in relief because I never want to feel weak and scared again. "Gabriel, it's an emergency," my friend insists.

His eyes tell me it's indeed something serious.

I look at Sophia, unsure of what to say. She's staring at the ground with her face flushed, refusing to make eye contact with me.

I could force her to look at me and say something, but I choose not to do anything because right now, I can't think straight. I move away from her without looking back. Overwhelmed by the weakness I felt moments ago by her side.

I leave the room and close the door behind me.

"La Cosa Nostra?" I ask, and Dante nods. "Any damages?"

"Twelve men and they burned one of our drug stashes."

Damn it.

"Please tell me it's the one in Baltimore."

"Atlanta."

I punch the wall with my fist. That underground warehouse held two tons of cocaine.

Two damn tons we were planning to move to Canada next week.

"How the hell did they find out the location?"

Dante shrugs. "I guess how we found out about theirs."

"Informants."

"Yes. We need to find out who they are and take them out," he says like it's obvious. "We can't risk them spilling more valuable information."

"Any suspicions on your end?"

"No, but I wouldn't vouch for absolutely anyone."

I think about my people. "It's likely the snitch is from my side. There are captains who haven't taken well to my leadership."

I take my phone and call one of my most trusted men.

"I want you to detain the wives and children of Conti and Ferraro," I state when they answer. "Tonight," I add before ending the call. I look at my friend. "If it's them, we'll know tonight."

Dante grins with glee.

"We're in for some fun today," he retorts. "I've eaten all the leftover pasta, I'm free."

*******

One of my captains' eyes sparkle with rage.

"Your father didn't touch family."

"My father didn't have the guts," I shoot back, without tearing my eyes from the image on the laptop screen of a six-year-old girl and a boy around four years old, both still in pajamas, holding their mother, who's blindfolded.

They all look terrified.

"We have all night," Dante adds. The light in the room where Conti's family is being held goes out, and the children scream in fear. "For now, it's just the lights, but later, someone else will enter the room with them, and I'm sure you won't want to see that."

"I know nothing!" he persists. "Take my wife, but leave my children alone."

"Is it me or is Conti offering us his wife?" Dante asks, feigning amusement. "I don't know, she's not my type. What about you, Gabriel?"

"Not mine, either," I answer. Lately, I've had a thing for young, defiant women with curly hair and eyes that always beg for more.

I force myself not to think about her right now.

"Maybe we should hand her over to Jeffrey," Dante suggests.

"Jeffrey prefers children," I lie, trying to break the man, and it works.

He collapses to the floor and clutches my knees. "Please don't hurt my children. I was offered a lot of money. I have gambling debts, and those men didn't want to sleep with my wife in exchange for giving me more time. They were going to kill me if I didn't pay."

I watch in disgust as a strong man breaks before me, crying and begging for mercy. Every man, no matter how tough, has his weakness—in Conti's case, it's his children.

I think about my daughter and know that will never happen to me. She won't become my weakness. Neither she nor anyone else.

"Who was it?"

"A captain from La Cosa Nostra. They want revenge. They want to destroy the Camorra."

"They will fail. But first, I must make sure of that," I say, lifting him from the floor and plunging a knife into the lower part of his belly.

Conti's screams echo off the walls as his blood splashes onto the floor and me. I drag the knife up through his stomach, spilling his guts onto the floor, ensuring the men present witness the fate of a traitor.

"Damn, that makes two good shirts I've ruined today," Dante laughs. "Release the children and the unfortunate woman who had the bad luck of being a snitch's wife. And clean up. It stinks of traitor in here," I order before walking out with my friend trailing behind.

"Remind me never to betray you," he jests.

"I presume, my friend, that you're far worse with informants."

Dante grins. "I let them choose how they want to die."

"How generous," I say with irony.

Dante seems like a kind man, but I know him—he's just a facade hiding a true psychopath. Lucky for him, he was born into the right family.

"To Atlanta," I instruct my pilot, who was waiting outside the door.

"The fun continues," Dante adds.

It's going to be a long few days, but we need to recover from this attack and strike back. Soon La Cosa Nostra will know what happens when you rob the wrong person.

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