A day before.
I walked into the dimly lit room of Tommaso Gallo’s headquarters in Miami with Sante and my guards a few steps behind. Tommaso normally didn’t let anyone enter with guns, but as the head mob boss, I never followed the rules. Tommaso sat at the head table, and I sat on the other end of the five-chair table. Everyone waited for me to sit, and I adjusted my jacket to get comfortable before I blew everyone’s world up.
“Thank you for coming, Savio. I know you’ve recently married. Congrats,” Tommaso said in his thick Italian accent and held up a shot glass. I never drank in front of them, nor did Sante. Unless you were my brother or father, I never trusted a soul. Friends made the worst enemies in my world, and Tommaso could try anything.
“I didn’t think you called me here to congratulate me.”
“My apologies, we understand things have gotten a little out of hand with Nevio and Greco.”
Tommaso crossed his hands in front of him and scooted forward at the table to wait for an answer. He liked me, and he was starving to be in my place but respected me and the Calabresi family. I hoped he never tried to cross me; I’d hate to break an arm or worse, send flowers to his mother on her loss.
“I’ve ratified the situation with Greco, but he’s still adamant about me marrying Viviana, which as you know will never happen.”
“Why not have Viviana as your mistress?” Alize asked.
“I barely wanted to marry the one I have, and you think I want a second woman to juggle?” I joked, never giving away any feelings that I’d come to fall in love with McKayla. She’d become more than a transaction for me. Sante cleared his throat, and Alize held his hands up in surrender.
“Problem is that this is bringing more problems to our territories.” Tommaso tapped his finger on the table, and Sante sat up, removed his gun, and put it on the table.
“No one is thinking of that, Sante. Right, Tommaso?” I asked, letting him know we could damn sure end this one way. I could promise it wouldn’t be me or my brother.
“Forgive me.”
“What do you propose we do, Savio? My men have their load getting ripped off,” Alize argued.
“I say we officially vote Greco out.”
“He’s a made boss, Savio,” Tommaso commented.
“I know what he is, but he seems to think he’s above what I say goes.”
“And Maurizio?”
“Maurizio won’t be a problem.”
“How can we be so sure?”
“Sante.”
Sante pulled out his phone, scrolled through to photos of Maurizio, and shoved the photo over to Alize.
“That’s Maurizio in a photo with the police.”
“Nevio’s case?”
“That along with him trying to kill me and my girl.”
“So, why does our territory have police running through it?”
“You have to ask Carmine or Maurizio,” I replied, bringing up his underboss.
“A setup?” Tommaso’s eyes dipped low, and he rubbed his chin in thought.
“I wouldn’t put it past Carmine to try something underhanded to make it look like it’s my family.”
Sante’s phone vibrated, and he scanned whatever the message was when his eyes rose in shock.
“I still think you and Gennaro need to talk. We have too much money on the line for a war,” Tommaso said.
Sante leaned over and whispered in my ear, “You need to stay calm and step over to the corner to talk to me.”
I held up my hand for a moment and pushed the chair back. I rose and followed Sante to the nearest exit. He unlocked his phone and passed it to me.
“What’s this?”
“McKayla ran away from Curtis.”
“How long?” My jaw clenched, and I tried to stay calm, but my heart dropped at the message from Curtis.
Curtis: 911 McKayla ran.
“He can’t determine how long because the saleslady distracted him.”
“Saleslady.”
I gripped the phone tight, to the point of wanting to throw it across the room.
“Is there a problem, Savio?” Tommaso asked.
“We can’t let them know you’re preoccupied. It will show weakness,” Sante explained.
“What if.”
She could be hurt somewhere.
“You can’t think like that.”
I put on a brave face, even though my heart pounded out of my chest.
“I have to get back home to Chicago, a family emergency.”
“Something we can do?” Alize stood, extending his hand.
“No, I’ll have Sante contact you to finish the conversation.”
My men cleared the walkway and escorted me back to the black SUV and headed back to the private airport to fly home. I dialed from my phone to get in contact with McKayla.
“You’ve reached McKayla Stanton. Please leave a message,” the voicemail recording said.
“McKayla, I’m not mad. Just let me know you’re okay.” My stomach churned at the thought of her leaving me.
“Savio, look at this.” Sante brought me out of my thoughts and shoved his phone in my face.
“Savio Calabresi killed Nevio Colombo,” the news headline reported.
“I told him to kill this story.”
“Obviously, she must have gotten to him.” Sante continued to text on his phone.
“What has Curtis said?”
“He went by your condo and your parents’. McKayla never showed.”
“Get us to the airport now!” I shouted to my men and removed my tie.
“On it, Boss.” Mario sped up and cut through traffic. Cars honked as he sped down the ninety-five freeway.
Buzz! Buzz!
I grabbed my cell and lifted it up when I saw my mother calling.
“I can’t talk to her now.”
“You need to say something, so she doesn’t worry.”
“Yes, Mother.”
“I haven’t heard from McKayla; she usually calls me back,” Adelina said.
“She’s probably working.”
I squeezed my eyes shut.
“Well, let her know I want to meet for breakfast.”
“Of course, Mother.”
“Something wrong, Savio? I can hear it in your voice.”
The SVU swerved into the private airstrip, and I hopped out, not waiting for Sante, and ran toward the jet stairs.
“I’m boarding a flight. Let me call you back.” I hurriedly got her off the phone and hung up.
Sante sat across from me and buckled his seatbelt as the plane prepared to take off.
The next day, I was running on empty, and my entire condo was full of my men and my brothers as I paced back and forth, still wearing the same clothes as yesterday. I never went to sleep, tracing McKayla’s phone. It was turned off with the last location being the airport.
“What was she like the last time you saw her?” EJ interrogated.
There was no question that McKayla was hurt somewhere and unable to call me. Even though she would run, I would still be able to have eyes on her in my city, so she had to have flown out of state. Maybe even out of the country.
“Everything was fine, until… that fucking article.” I punched my fist through the wall.
“Are you sure we should have killed him?” Sante remarked, and I waved him off, thinking about last night when I had Joseph taken out for disobeying my orders. They rigged his car, and he went over a ditch.
“Fuck that!” I shouted and pushed over the glasses on top of the bar.
“Savio, we’re going to find her, but you need to calm down,” EJ said.
Ring! Ring!
“That’s your phone,” Sante said. I quickly grabbed it off the coffee table and answered without looking.
“McKayla! McKayla!”
“Savio, I take it you’re missing something,” Gennaro’s raspy voice came through the phone.
“Where is she?” I gripped the phone tight, my breathing heightened. If Gennaro had McKayla, and if he touched her, I would burn his entire bloodline for going against me.
“Put her on the phone.”
“You owe me.”
“If you want to have your next breath, you better not touch her.”
“He… lllo,” McKayla stuttered.
“McKayla, did he touch you?”
Carlos raised his thumb up.
“I’m coming for you, baby.”
I heard the dial tone and groaned in frustration. Gennaro made me his enemy.
“I got a trace,” Carlos said.
“Where is he?”
“Paris.” Carlo turned his computer around and showed an address in Paris.
“Get the plane ready.”
A few days later.
Renato sent me a screenshot of Viviana at some club, partying without a care in the world when her father put a death wish on her back. Tommaso and Alize texted back and forth about Greco kidnapping McKayla and offering to help me in any way they could, on the condition I didn’t do any more damage than eI’d already done. I had two of Greco’s blocks burned down and robbed his gun and drug shipments. Now I had Renato watching his daughter and waiting for the perfect time to snatch her up and show him what it meant when you betrayed me. McKayla was sleeping in her bed at her old apartment, and I sat in the corner chair, watching her. I hadn’t let her out of my sight, and she ignored me when I tried to apologize for getting her in this situation. The last few days had been chaotic, and the beast came out that I never wanted her to see.
Flashback Greco.
Pop! Pop!
I kicked in the door and blasted the first person I saw. Gennaro thought he was protected, but we paid some of his men off to get his schedule and whereabouts. He’d just come back from some meeting, and we caught him slipping. I flew straight here from the States and had eyes on the house to make it easy when we landed. The house wasn’t isolated like I thought it would be, so we needed to be discreet and come in early in the morning before someone called the police. A few of my men shot his as I climbed the stairs and went to Gennaro’s room, but he wasn’t there.
“Boss, he’s trying to run!” He pointed out the window of a side door.
“Get him! Did you find McKayla!”
“I got her, Boss,” Carlo said.
Present day back in her apartment.
“I want some space,” McKayla mumbled and turned over in bed.
“McKayla, I don’t do space.” I started to stand, and she held her hand up to stop me from coming forward.
“Please, Savio, if you have any type of feelings for me, I need some space.”
“If I didn’t have any feelings for you, I wouldn’t have agreed to let you keep this bullshit apartment!” I raised my voice, and she covered her face and cried.
“Leave me alone!”
“McKayla.”
“No, just leave.” She jumped out of the bed and ran to the bathroom. I wanted to go to her and hold her in my arms, but I knew I couldn’t make things worse and force her back into my life. She would learn our life was bonded, and it would never end, but I’d let her have some time to come to grips with seeing me in that way. I walked out of the room, with Renato waiting on me.
“You good?”
“What’s going on with the Greco family situation?”
“We have it under control, and they’ve surrendered.”
“Viviana?”
“She’s isolated.”
“Keep it that way.”
“Don’t worry, her time will come.” He opened the front door, and I grabbed my coat off the chair and looked back at McKayla’s bedroom, closed my eyes, and prayed she would come around soon.