Cocked: A Stepbrother Romance (34 page)

“We’re over.”

“Oh yeah? That sucks, you were pretty into him the last time we talked.”

“Yeah, well, he turned out to be an asshole.”

He gave me a look. “Shit, don’t they all.”

I laughed and we dove back into the nachos. Mention of Vince, though, put me back on edge, and I found myself glancing over my shoulder toward the entrance as if he was going to sneak up from behind me and steal me away right then and there. Vince was crazy and dangerous, but he wasn’t that crazy.

Nick launched into a story about his most recent conquest, some college boy at the University of Pennsylvania, and how he was so close to landing an actual gallery spot for his paintings. I found myself only half paying attention, and almost jumped out of my seat when the waitress interrupted to remove the demolished nachos and to place our actual meals in front of us. Nick resumed his story, oblivious to my small freakout moment, and I forced myself to smile and ask questions.

But no matter how distracted I tried to make myself, Vince kept bleeding in around the edges.

I
was sweating a little bit as I pushed open the cheap metal door and walked into the deli. Air conditioning blasted me in the face, and so did the smell of meat and more. Two guys in white stood behind the counter, slicing and packaging, but I wasn’t there for food. I walked directly toward the back door where a big guy in a tracksuit sat on a stool. He looked up at me as I approached. He was your typical mob muscle, probably pretty low down on the totem pole. Definitely not a Made Man, at least.

“I’m here to see Jimmy.”

The guy’s expression didn’t change. “Who the fuck are you?”

“Colin Blake. He’s expecting me.”

The goon knew exactly who I was, but we had to play our parts. Sometimes it was exhausting trying to keep up with all the bullshit.

He stood up slowly, frowning. “Got to check you.”

I nodded, knowing the drill. I spread my legs and arms and let him pat me down. His clumsy, ham-like hands found the small piece I always carried when I was out running errands tucked into my waistband. I wasn’t exactly trying to hide it from him, but he gave me his triumphant look anyway, like he'd pulled one over on me.

He pulled it out and held it up. I shrugged and gave him an innocent smile. “I forgot about that one.”

He didn’t laugh, just jerked his head at the door and held onto my gun. I grinned at him and pushed through.
Humorless goons
, I thought to myself.

Inside, the room was dark and smoky. Sitting around a poker table playing cards were six men, four of whom I recognized, plus a few women sitting on stools around the perimeter, chatting and watching TV. I looked at the girls for a second, and was suddenly reminded of Brenna. Where those women were all rail thin with huge tits and big hair, Bren was curvy and pouty and fucking sexy beyond belief. That was the problem with mob girls; they were all over-the-top and fake. But Brenna was natural, normal, and something about that drove me insane. It was her curves and the way she carried herself, like I couldn’t resist it.

As I moved further into the room, one of the guys caught my eye.

“Well look who it is,” he said.

“How are you, Jimmy?”

“Fine, I’m fine. The fuck you doin’ here?”

“I thought we could have a little conversation.”

I look at Jimmy and smiled. The men were all wearing dress shirts and suit pants, and Jimmy was the best dressed of the group. He was a few years older than me, though still young to be a boss. His hair was cropped short and he was starting to go a little soft in the middle, but he was still athletic and strong.

There was a strange, tense moment as all the guys stared at me, but I looked back without flinching. I knew it was just a scare tactic, trying to set me off-balance before we began to speak in earnest, so I didn’t let it get to me. I would never in a million years enter one of the Italian Mob’s places without announcing myself first. It wasn’t like our two organizations were at war or anything, but we were competitors in most deals, and it was best to keep a level head and to play by the rules when dealing with them. Jimmy knew that I was coming and absolutely expected me, but it was part of the game that we played.

Finally, Jimmy laughed and stood up. “Come with me.”

The other guys grinned at me then went back to playing cards. I noticed more than one of the girls staring, and I went to lengths not to stare back. Normally, I would have taken a pass at one of them, if only to try and piss off Jimmy, but suddenly I wasn’t interested at all. Not since Brenna had come back, at least.

Jimmy led me into a little back room and sat down behind his desk. He was a mid-level boss, nothing special or important, but we had a good relationship. I had helped him out with some legal troubles a while back, and he hadn’t forgotten that. Ever since then, we would trade information and exchange favors when possible. Although I could have gone higher up in his organization because of my promotion, I trusted Jimmy. At least, I trusted him as much as was possible in our line of work.

“So, what’s going on?”

“Not much, the same old shit.”

He laughed. “Same old shit? I heard you got a big promotion.”

I shrugged. “I guess so.”

“And here you are, still coming to see the lowly likes of me.”

“I have to be out among the common people every once in a while.”

He laughed and reached into his desk to pull out a bottle of whiskey and two glasses. He poured generously and nudged mine toward me. I took it.

“To our continued friendship, and to your success,” he said.

“Salute,” I replied.

“Salute.” We clinked glasses and drank.

That was the traditional opening.
Now, down to business,
I thought.

“Okay, what can I do for you?” Jimmy leaned back in his chair.

“I’m looking for some information.”

“What sort of information?”

“Do you know a guy named Vince Fabrizio?”

He paused and cocked an eyebrow. “He’s one of ours, from New York.”

“Yeah, he is.”

“He’s the son of one of the biggest bosses up there. What do you want with him?”

“You know Boss O’Brian has a daughter.”

He nodded. “What’s her name? Breanne?”

“Brenna.”

“That’s right, Brenna. Pretty name.”

“She lived in New York for a while. Got involved with the wrong people.”

Jimmy sighed. “Always a dangerous thing.”

“She dated Fabrizio. Got pretty close, apparently.”

He frowned, but didn’t say anything.

“Jimmy, he’s been making some threats. Even smacked her around a little bit. She’s back home now, but she’s scared.”

He held up his hands. “This is a bad situation.”

“Boss O’Brian is understandably pissed off. We can’t be having this sort of thing.”

“Of course. That sort of thing, it’s unacceptable.”

“We both know it gets overlooked all the time. That shit happens sometimes and sometimes we turn a blind eye on it because of our rules. But this, it’s different.”

“Of course, of course. Boss’s daughter can’t be treated that way.”

“What can you tell me about him?”

Jimmy sipped his drink, frowning. “First, what do you intend to do?”

“Right now, nothing. O’Brian isn’t stupid, he doesn’t want to start a war. We all know that we can’t touch a Made Man without repercussions.”

He nodded. “But?”

“But, I want to keep him away from Brenna.”

He leaned back and sighed. “You’re putting me in a tough spot, Colin.”

“I know. Just give me what you can, and forget I showed up. I’ll owe you.”

“Favors from you hold a lot more weight, now.”

I nodded, keeping my face impassive.

Jimmy looked pensive for a second, and then spoke. “He’s in the city.”

That was a surprise. “Really?”

He nodded. “Came in last night. Showed up at the big boss’s place going off about how the Irish took his girl, fucked him over. Said he owned her.”

I narrowed my eyes. “What do you mean, he owned her?”

“This is pretty awkward, Colin. You really don’t know?”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Ah, shit.” He took another drink and sighed again. “He claims they got married.”

That hit me like a ton of bricks. I gaped at him, at a complete loss for words. I couldn’t imagine that Brenna would marry an asshole like him in a million years. But if she had, if she really had married a made Italian Mob guy, then that would be a serious issue. He would have genuine claim over her.

But I’ll never let them have her
. The thought came to me, completely unbidden, and I knew it was true.

“Is he bullshitting or what?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Not sure yet. Boss sent a guy up to New York to find out what he can. I haven’t heard anything since then.”

I leaned back in my chair and sipped my drink. “So Fabrizio is in Philly, he’s pissed, and apparently they’re married.”

Jimmy nodded. “That’s the situation we find ourselves in.”

“Anything else you can tell me?”

“One thing: he was ordered to go back home, but he refused. We don’t know where he is.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Sorry, Colin. We lost the bastard. Apparently he’s pretty slippery.”

That pissed me off even more. Not only were they not telling us right away that the guy was in town, but they had lost him, too. He could be anywhere.

“Does he know where O’Brian lives?”

“No, or at least I doubt it.”

“We better hope he doesn’t show up there, Jimmy.”

“Yeah, trust me. It’s the last thing we want. We’d rather work this out peacefully.”

“O’Brian is going to be angry.”

“Yeah, well, so are my people.”

“Shit, this is a mess.”

“You’re not kidding.”

There was a short pause as the huge amount of information I had just been given swirled around my brain.

“I’m sorry I can’t be of more help.”

I nodded. “Thanks, Jimmy. You told me more than enough. I owe you a big one, then.”

“Yeah, you do. Hopefully I’ll get to call that in, you know.”

I knew exactly what he meant. Hopefully our two organizations wouldn’t be at war over this. Hopefully we wouldn’t have to try and kill each other.

I stood up. “Thanks for your help.”

He stood and we shook hands. “You want something? Some meat or something? Maybe one of the girls?”

I laughed. “You can just give the girls away now?”

He shrugged. “They seem to like you, so who knows.”

“No thanks, I’m good.”

He walked around the desk and opened the door, and I walked back out into the main room. Nobody bothered to look up at us.

“You send my best to O’Brian, yeah?”

“Sure, Jimmy. Same goes to your boss.”

We shook hands again and I walked back out through the main door. The goon was still sitting on his stool, and didn’t look up at me. I stood in front of him and cleared my throat, cocking one brow. Without glancing up from his newspaper, he held my piece out. I took it, tucked it back into my pants, and then walked back out into the street.

My mind worked overtime as I walked down the block toward my car. The Italians obviously didn’t want a war if Jimmy was willing to tell me all of that. They probably knew I’d show up there sooner or later. Ordering Fabrizio home was a good move on their part, but losing track of him was a total fucking nightmare.

And worst of all was his claim that they had gotten married. Why wouldn’t Brenna tell me about that? As far as the Italians were concerned, when you married a woman she was yours for life, no matter what happened. You didn’t just marry a Mob guy on a whim, because it could be a prison sentence if you weren’t ready for it.

What the fuck was Brenna thinking?

I climbed into my car and gripped the steering wheel. I was pissed, angrier than I had ever been before. And I knew it wasn’t just because of the shit situation we found ourselves in, because the idiot Italians had lost track of Fabrizio. The Italians and the Irish had been on the brink of war a hundred times and we had always figured a way to work things out without spilling blood. I wasn’t worried about that.

No, I was pissed that Brenna would marry a dumb fucking goon like Fabrizio. I was pissed that some asshole got to have her, when she was all that I had wanted for years. I wasn’t sure why the marriage made things worse, but somehow it did. I wanted to break him into pieces, to tear him limb from limb.

Fuck, that was a shitty thing to think. I had no claim on her. She was her own damn person with her own choices to make, and I had no right to second-guess them. I had my chance years ago and fucked it up beyond belief.

But the memory of her body pressed against mine, and how hard my cock was, and how badly I wanted to taste her lips overwhelmed everything else. Her innocent eyes staring at me with pure lust like she was practically dripping already.

I started the engine and headed back toward the house.

A
fter lunch, I got back home as fast as I could. Even though I knew it was crazy, I kept thinking that I saw someone over my shoulder, following me through the streets. I knew it was stupid, but the text had put me way on edge, and my mind was playing tricks on me.

I pushed open the front door and walked into the main foyer.

“Hello? Dad? Colin?” I called out, but only got my own echo in return. I shut the door behind me and bolted it.

With a sigh, I went upstairs, passed my room, and headed up toward the roof deck. I pushed out and walked down the wood boards, sitting down under an umbrella. The city spread out ahead of me and I looked around, smiling to myself.

Which is when it hit me. The last time I was out on the deck during the afternoon was years ago.

I was pissed, really pissed,
I remembered.
I sat down with a huff and crossed my legs. The door to the house opened a minute later, and Colin stepped out.

“Hey, Bren. You okay?”

I looked up at him, biting back tears. “I’m fine. What do you want?”