KON (Trassato Crime Family Book 2) Page 9

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Konstantin

  “What’s the verdict?”

  I spotted my father at the edge of the sidewalk, his face stern and his feet shoulder width apart. “Verdict?”

  “I know you went to see Carmela two nights ago. You need to do a better job of keeping me informed.”

  I erased any hint from emotion from my face. My father clearly had arranged to have me followed. That was the only explanation for his statement, and he wanted me to know it. Sure, he could have a tracking device on my car or phone, except I’d parked a few blocks away and distinctly remember turning off my phone. The news pissed me the fuck off. I wouldn’t let him know it, though. He liked to get under people’s skin, and I’d be damned if I let him know he was dangerously close to getting under mine.

  The last time I let him live rent free in my head was when Laney went off the rails. I’d met Laney the first summer I spent in New York with my dad’s family. She was literally the girl next door. Laney made the time away from the rest of my family and Nebraska bearable. In fact, she was the reason I moved to New York after high school to help my dad with his fucked up criminal enterprises.

  “I told you I’d take care of this and I will.”

  A grin slashed his leathered face. “So you told me. I’m not sure I can trust you. You haven’t been the same since the bullshit that went down with Laney.”

  Desperate to keep any trace of frustration off my face and out of my voice, I smirked instead. I didn’t want to think about the bullshit with Laney. I trusted her, and she betrayed me first by getting hooked on drugs and then by getting pregnant.

  Although she tried to pass the baby off as mine, I knew better. She’d been so far down the rabbit hole of addiction at that point that we hadn’t had sex for nearly three months. While we still lived together, I’d moved her into the guest bedroom and acted more like a nursemaid than a boyfriend, holding her hand through withdrawals, trips to the hospital, and two attempted checkins to rehab.

  Sadly, I would have put up with her drug addiction, but I couldn’t put up with her disloyalty. To this day, I had no clue who the father was. As far as I could tell, she didn’t know either. Poor kid. Laney cleaned up during her pregnancy. Her redemption didn’t last, though. In all likelihood, I’d get a call in the not too distant future informing me she was found dead with a needle in her arm. Heroin was her drug of choice.

  “I don’t give a shit about Laney. I haven’t thought about her in over a year.”

  “Speaking of Laney, she’s living at her mom’s house with that bastard of hers. Cute kid.”

  “Great. Glad to hear it.”

  “The boy doesn’t look much like her, though. In case you had any lingering doubts, the kid’s definitely not yours either. It’s unusual for two blond-haired, blue-eyed parents to have a brown-eyed son.”

  “I never thought it was mine.”

  Truthfully, for one delusional week, I went along with her story, hoping the baby would be the magic bullet to solve her drug problem and our flailing relationship. That fairytale crashed and burned at the first doctor’s appointment when the doctor declared Laney to be eight weeks pregnant.

  Laney went crazy, first begging the doctor to check the measurements again and then calling the doctor a liar. I dragged her out of there and dropped her off at her mother’s house with firm instructions to never contact me again.

  “She got out of rehab a couple of weeks ago. She’s clean again in case you were curious.”

  “I’m not, but good for her. Maybe this time it’ll stick.”

  I didn’t know what my dad’s angle was. He made no secret of the fact he wanted her out of my life. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had been her drug dealer at some point just to mess with us. He thought I was too young to be serious about someone I didn’t know very well. Turns out he was right. The Laney I knew wouldn’t have taken drugs and cheated on me, which meant I didn’t know her at all.

  My dad rubbed his fingers through his graying beard, his dark eyes cold and calculating. “Did you take care of Carmela?”

  “You gave me a week. It’s only been forty-eight hours. You’ll be the first to know if and when there are any developments.”

  “I better be.” He opened the door to the restaurant owned by the DiTonnos and waved his hand. “You first, Romeo.”

  “Alesio,” I shook his hand. “Good to see you.”

  His eyes darted to my dad, then back to me. “Yeah. Likewise. Come back to my office. We need to go over a few things. But before we start, I wanted to talk to you about what happened the last time we met. I hoped we could smooth things over.”

  “Go ahead,” I said, following him down the hall to his office.

  “Renzo’s a nice kid, but he hasn’t been himself since his brother died in the car fire after getting into it with the Trassatos. He blames all of them for his death, including your friend, Carmela.”

  “I don’t see why. His brother killed a made member of the Trassato family. Isn’t that how things work in your world? An eye for an eye?”

  While I didn’t understand the inner workings of the Italian mafia, I knew killing a made man either resulted in death or a mob war. In the case of the Trassatos and the DiTonnos, it caused both.

  The Russians weren’t like the Italians. We didn’t have familial or ethnic requirements. We didn’t have a Don calling the shots. Our organizational structure changed constantly based on who was doing what, which was good for me. I couldn’t stand all that old school shit. I needed the flexibility to act quickly, and strike while the deal was hot.

  “You’re right. Most people think it was justified regardless of how it happened.”

  “Do you think so?”

  “From what I gathered, Marco and Rocco were messing around with the same woman, and she ended up pregnant. As you can imagine, neither of them liked the idea of another man dipping his dick into his territory. Passions were running high, and they both made bad decisions. As far as I’m concerned, they got what they deserved.”

  “That’s bullshit. Rocco was engaged,” I snapped, wanting to defend Carmela for some fucked up reason.

  He clucked his tongue and lifted an eyebrow. “Yeah, so? What’s your point? Men will be men.”

  “What’s this got to do with us?” my dad interrupted, his tone curt.

  Alesio shrugged. “I know your daughter married Gian Trassato, and I don’t want you to get cold feet because you think we’re still gunning for the Trassatos. The family doesn’t want to get pulled into that bullshit again. I’ve taken care of Renzo. He won’t be a problem anymore. He knows his place.”

  “That remains to be seen.” I didn’t trust that Renzo would fade quietly into the night. He was driven by revenge, and sometimes revenge left little room for logic. I’d have Anatolyi keep tabs on him and make sure he didn’t cause trouble. That was all I could do now, but if he fucked up again or interfered in my life, he’d pay dearly.

  “We’re businessmen first,” my dad said tipping up his chin and signaling the end of the conversation. My dad was never interested in emotions and passions. According to him, they interfered with business. Money was his god to be worshiped above everything and anyone else.

  “Good, seeing that I asked you here to discuss expanding our business partnership,” he replied, handing both my dad and me a sheet of paper.

  “What’s this?” my dad asked, tossing it back on the desk.

  He couldn’t be bothered with the details. My dad sucked at numbers and math. Other than being his son, my talent with math was one of the main reasons he recruited me. I scored ridiculously high on every math test, and I took math classes at the local community college during high school. Numbers made sense to me. I could calculate problems in my head that took other people ten minutes to solve.

  I browsed the handwritten spreadsheet, quickly double-checking the figures for the stolen car sales over the past twelve months. While the notes were purposely vague, I didn�
�t like any of this stuff documented on paper. “Do you have a problem the payout? I did the math myself so I know it’s accurate.”

  “It is,” Alesio declared, resting his elbows on the scarred wooden desk.

  I folded the paper in half and stuffed it in my back pocket. “Then why are we here?”

  “I’ve been talking to some of my associates in the Chicago area and we’d like to replicate this business model there, with your help of course. You have the contacts to make the sales happen in Russia and our associates have officers on the pad to make any trace of our business dealings disappear. We’ll set up everything. We already have a warehouse to store the cars before they’re shipped.”

  “Ah. And who are these associates?”

  “Don’t worry about it. The DiTonnos are well connected in Chicago.”

  “We’d have to vet them personally,” I countered. “I’m not going into this blind.”

  “I wouldn’t expect you to.”

  My dad pulled his phone out of his pocket. “I have to take off, but it sounds like Kon has everything under control. You two can work out the details and Kon will let me know how everything shakes out.”

  “Right. Of course,” Alesio said.

  “I’ll talk to you later, Dad,” I chimed in, relieved he was leaving.

  I couldn’t stand to be in the same room as him another second. I felt like I had a black cloud hanging over my head every time I was in his company. As a kid, I looked up to him. We had inside jokes. He was interested in everything I did, always so proud of all of my accomplishments. I didn’t know how or why it changed. Right around the time Laney started dabbling in drugs, he turned into a self-absorbed prick. Then I found out about the human trafficking and things went from bad to nightmare in the blink of an eye.

  The door shutting pulled my head out of the trip down memory lane. “So what are the terms?”

  “We want sixty percent of the profit.”

  I groaned inwardly. This was going to be a long fucking afternoon when I was gunning to hunt down Carmela. She’d gone radio silent again after the night in her room. While I didn’t normally give a shit if I heard from a woman after spending time with her, I was far from done with Carmela and her sweet curves and sassy mouth.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Carmela

  I plunked the binder down on Nico’s desk and slouched into one of the olive green chairs opposite him. “This is everything. Let me know what you think of it.”

  He grinned, his deep blue eyes twinkling with amusement. My life would be so much easier if I felt something for Nico. My family approved of him. We shared a common history and life experience. Ava had told me no less than a dozen times I was crazy for being so lukewarm about him. I couldn’t help it, though. My soft spot for Kon had been growing at an unsustainable pace. If it kept up at this rate, I’d be claiming something dangerously close to affection for him any day.

  Flashes of him stripping off my clothes and giving me the most insane orgasm two nights ago zipped through my head. I pushed away the thoughts of Kon with the same mantra I’d been repeating since I woke up the next day wearing next to nothing.

  I don’t like Kon. He isn’t my future. It didn’t mean anything.

  Nico opened the binder and flipped through a few pages. My leg bounced up and down. I stared everywhere except at his face. In all honesty, I feared his reaction. Gian loved the way I decorated his house. Nico was only the second person I knew personally to look at or consider one of my designs. The people I met through my website and communicated with via email never met me face to face.

  He tapped his fingers on the arm of the tan leather desk chair, his face completely unreadable. I wanted him to like the stuff I selected for him.

  Tap. Tap. Tap.

  “Do you like it? Is this the sort of stuff you’d pick for yourself?”

  “Me?” I asked, wondering why he wanted to know if I liked my work. I wouldn’t put something together for a client if I didn’t love it.

  “Yes. You.”

  “Oh, well, it has some masculine touches that are more suitable to a bachelor than a couple, but overall it’s beautiful.”

  “How much do you think this will cost?”

  “My time or everything?”

  “Everything.”

  “I’ve included high, mid, and low options for all the furniture so it depends on you. The last page has a total for each package, but you can pick and choose. The cost will be between $35,000 and $55,000.”

  “How much of that is for your services?”

  My face had a plastic quality when I smiled at him. “I wouldn’t charge you anything. We’re…friends.”

  “Uh huh.” He rubbed the back of his neck “Does that mean you aren’t going to fight your family and me on the engagement?”

  I blinked, then stared at him for a second. “I’m not ready to move forward yet. I heard about the engagement party in a week, and I’d like to postpone it.”

  “Postpone, not cancel? I can deal with that provided we set a definite date for the engagement party. Will a month be enough time to get your head wrapped around the inevitability of our marriage?”

  My stomach soured. A month and my fate would be sealed. It was strange how life worked. Before Rocco died, I had my future all planned out. I’d marry him, have a couple of kids, and live happily ever after with my best friend. One stupid fight and four bullets later, and my future took a sharp turn away from a fairytale to a blank page. It had been blank for nearly three years, and now I had a month to get used to the idea of a life with Nico. A man I didn’t love. A man I’d never love.

  With our union, I’d have to say goodbye to Kon. A man who evoked contradictory emotions in me. A man who made me feel alive for the first time in years. A man who made me burn for him with one look or a casual brush of his hand.

  A thread of sadness wove around my chest and for a beat I couldn’t move. I begged my legs to snap into action and carry me away from this. Instead, numbness seeped through me, and I felt tired, defeated, and trapped. I should accept this without complaint. That was what my family expected, and I hadn’t bucked their authority before because I never needed to. I had loved Rocco for most of my life, and my family loved him too. As a matter of fact, my mom admitted she and Rocco’s mom started planning our wedding before we could talk. Most women related to made men weren’t as lucky as me. They were told who they were going to marry and shortly after that it happened. End of story.

  “I can live with that timeframe,” I conceded, hoping Kon would understand and agree it was enough time to get what he needed from Nico and Dominick.

  “Really?” He stood, circled the desk, and grabbed my hand, pulling me to my feet.

  “Yes.”

  “We should go ring shopping this weekend. You can pick out anything you like. I’ll make this good for you. You’ll see. You won’t regret marrying me.”

  I nodded noncommittally, wishing I believed him even for a while. Marrying him would feel like being sentenced to a gilded cage without love or companionship. I’d get every material thing a girl could ever want. I’d never get Nico, and that was fine considering I didn’t want him anyway.

  “What about my design proposal? Did you decide what you wanted?”

  “You pick. Make sure it reflects your taste. You need to feel comfortable here. It will be your home soon enough.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  My whole body itched with the urge to escape. In less than a year, I managed to arrange two marriages for myself. When I agreed to the deal with Kon, I thought I’d sold my soul to the devil. Now, however, the emptiness I felt when I looked at Nico made me wish Kon had dragged me to the altar the day after my agreement. At least with him, I felt something. Hate. Passion. Desire. Frustration. Excitement. That confusing mash of emotions relentlessly careening through me when I thought about him was better than nothing.

  “I’ll pick you up next Friday for dinner to celebrate our engagement. J
ust the two of us.” He paused. “Unless you want to invite Gian and Evie.”

  “Um,” I said, stalling for time. I had plans already, and I knew for a fact Gian didn’t want to go to dinner with Nico. Sure, he’d go if I asked and he’d bring Evie with him so I could spend time with my best friend. Gian hadn’t said anything to dissuade me from dating Nico, yet I got the distinct impression Gian only tolerated Nico, and he didn’t want to associate with him other than on a professional level. “I can’t. I have plans with Ava.”

  He dropped my hand and his lips thinned. “You do?”

  “Yeah. Is that a problem?”

  “No. I just didn’t realize you two were so close.”

  “In the past, we weren’t especially close even though we’re cousins. We hung out at family things, but she contacted me when Gian and Evie got engaged. I guess she realized I was lonely.”

  “Well, that was nice of her,” he replied looking like he wanted to say the exact opposite. Maybe Ava’s flirtatious, touchy-feely behavior annoyed him more than he let on. “Do you need a ride?”

  “No.”

  “In that case, I’ll walk you out.”

  He opened the door and grabbed something from his pocket. “Here.” He held out a gold key. “Take it. It’s a key to my house. You’ll need it for measurements and whatever else is necessary to get the place looking how you want it.”

  I took the key, stuffed it into the outside pocket of my purse, and got into the elevator with Nico. “Thanks. I guess we’ll be in touch.”

  When the door slid open, he walked me outside and said, “Your mom invited me to Sunday dinner tomorrow, so I’ll see you then.”

  He brushed his lips across mine. Every cell inside of me rejected the advance. At the wedding, the kiss we shared was okay. No fireworks, no desire for more. It was pleasant. Today, his touch felt like a betrayal despite the fact that Kon and I weren’t anything except accomplices. I only had a month left of freedom, and I intended to use my time wisely. With any luck, I’d stumble upon my prince charming, and he’d scoop me up and take me away from the mess I made.