*Leo*
After Taylor’s smug remark about protecting Bianca, I was so pissed. I could barely see straight. Then, on top of everything, the bastard hung up in my fucking face. I wanted to cream him.
All I could see was his face. He and Bianca were around the sa age as well.
He was no GQ model like other guys, but he could be competition for Bianca’s affections. Right now, I sounded stupid even to myself. She had said she loved , but lately things had been off between us.
I drove as fast as possible to get to the café. I swerved in and out of cars and damn near had a motorcyclist who thought he was so kind of racer or sothing and swiveled right in front of my vehicle as I was trying to take a turn.
I blasted my horn at him, swerved around him without hitting him, and hit the gas again.
The entire way to the café it never occurred to to slow down. I never thought that I would be too late. All that was on my mind was getting there and making sure she was safe.
When I got to the café, everything appeared normal. I slamd on the brakes, jumped out the car, and looked around the place. I recognized a few of my n that were still guarding the place inside and out, but there was no sign of Bianca.
Then, I saw the bodyguards I’d assigned to Bianca waiting for on the street corner. When the two n spotted , they rushed up to , and before they could start babbling at , I glared at them.
They stopped their forward montum and stood at attention, both of their faces flushed with what looked to be embarrassnt and a hint of fear shown in their eyes.
“Where is she?“ I demanded.
These were the guards that were supposed to be with her at all tis. they weren’t supposed to be obvious, but they were supposed to dog her steps and make sure she stayed safe and that nobody harassed or hard her. I wanted to know why in the fuck they were here and she wasn’t.
“She... Um...” Pauly began.
I gave them both another glare, and Nikolo picked up where Pauly didn’t seem to be able to finish.
“See, boss, this guy... I think he said his na was Taylor, showed up. We thought he was a college friend of Ms. Bianca’s. he intervened in the café after Ms. Bianca asked us to wait outside. We didn’t want to, but you told us to give her room. So long as she was in view and seed safe, we stayed outside and kept an eye out for any trouble.”
Pauly seed to finally find his voice when Nikolo seed to run out of words. The two n always reminded of twins.
They often finished each other’s sentences, damn near spoke a language all their own, and worked well together. It was one of the reasons and Franky tended to put them together on most tasks, but I was not pleased or amused at their ability to talk fast today.
“When we got here, that other guy from the other night nad Liam was in the café. Niko and thought sothing was weird and thought this guy might be working with Michael and his people, but what were we supposed to do when there was no imdiate sign of danger and Ms. Bianca said she was going to be alright?”
I stared at Niko once Pauly was finished.
“Shit, Boss, don’t give us that look. We knew what was going down, but we had our orders. The kid Liam was telling Ms. Bianca that he had her friend and that he’d hurt her if Ms. Bianca didn’t cooperate with him. I was all for dragging her out of there, but she wouldn’t budge. She gave us this look and told us that she would be all right. She even gave us the code word we needed to back off, and we left the café. We stayed close by. Trust , he wasn’t getting out of here with her without a fight.”
“So, where the fuck is she?” I asked, my voice dangerous and low. I was sure I looked like sothing out of their nightmares.
“That Taylor guy went in the café, leaving Ms. Isabella out here with us. We made sure to keep her safe and kept an eye on things that were going on in the café,” Pauly piped up.
“Yeah, he waltzed right in there and kept everything calm until the n ca and got Liam away from your girl,” Nikolo said, shifting his weight from foot to foot.
Both of them were sweating bullets and trying to talk fast, their sentences flying at at rapid speed. They still hadn’t answered my question. I was getting tired of repeating myself. I was going to start sounding like a broken record in a second. I wondered if they knew they were just pissing off more.
“If I have to repeat my question one more ti...” I began.
“She’s with Taylor, Boss,” Nikolo sputtered.
I think my glare beca fiercer because both n tried to back away from . Before Pauly could take more than a step away, I grabbed his collar. He tried to push at my hand and I slapped his away, pushing at his chest, grabbing his collar and pulling him closer to .
“You let my woman drive off in a car with a man neither of us know well enough to trust her safety with?” I asked, my fury so intense, my voice was nearly a whisper.
I refused to yell and scream. It wouldn’t do any good. Bianca was in a vehicle with a man that could easily be a part of this shit, and I was still in a position where she was out of my reach and out of my ability to protect her.
“But, Boss,” Nikolo said, standing behind Pauly. “We thought you knew because Taylor said he worked for Alessandro as a bodyguard sent to protect Ms. Bianca.”
“Yeah, Boss, he said we was to wait here for you to explain the situation and clean up the ss,” Pauly wheezed out, still trying to get out of my grip.
“Fuck!” I hissed, pushing Pauly into Nikolo. “Report to Franky,” I ordered. “And the next ti I give you orders, follow them to the letter. Don’t let so idiot overrule my orders with you or I won’t be so nice the next ti.”
“That was nice?” I thought I heard Pauly mutter under his breath.
As Pauly and Nikolo walked off, I started putting the events together. Taylor showed up around the ti the war between the LA Family and ours was getting more heated. A part of wondered if Alessandro would really have sent in reinforcents without telling .
I would never have done that to one of my underlings. I doubted Al would have done that to Elio either. Then at that, I wasn’t Elio and everyone was indeed testing my tal. I doubted Michael would have risen against Elio, and I still wasn’t sure what all Michael expected to achieve from waging this war with our family.
Trying to take over the city was nearly impossible. We had our territories in the city and we had our disagreents, but trying to take over the entire city and hold it was difficult. All I wanted to do at this point was protect my people and keep the territory we already had.
Fighting amongst each other was just making headlines, getting the cops involved, and calling more attention to us than any of the families in the city ever wanted.
So far, none of the other families had been inclined to take sides or fall in with or Michael. But I wondered how long that would last with all the shit that was going down right now.
I put in a call to the compound in Italy. Interestingly enough, it wasn’t Al’s voice I heard on the other line. Mia had answered. Her voice was like a stiletto carving the first layer of my skin from my flesh.
“Ciao, Leo,”
“Mia,” I greeted politely.
I’d never talked intimately or even personally with Mia. I wasn’t sure, but I always got the impression she didn’t care much for . I rarely put in effort with people who made feel unwelcod. I was over that kind of shit.
I wasn’t a street rat anymore and she wasn’t going to make feel like one either. But here I was feeling like sothing that had slid beneath her shoe, as her cold voice all but whispered syllables and words that made feel inadequate and guilty.
“I am the one who sent Taylor over to the states to protect Bianca because of all the close calls you’ve had in the past few weeks. I do not like the fact that you even brought Bianca into this knowing what the consequences of having a relationship with you could be. You had no right to put her in this position. You should have known better, Leo.”
I kept my mouth shut through her monologue. I would never disrespect Al’s wife, but I was royally pissed as she continued to ream out.
“But there is nothing to be done about that now, I suppose. I want you to send Bianca ho to Italy where she will be safe from Micheal and his thugs at least until you get the threat of Michael dealt with.”
Before I could tell her that I would think about it, she hung up. For a mont, I just stared at the phone and wondered how long she’d been waiting beside the phone for to call. She had to have known I would.
The n in the U.S. were mine. Al would never have overruled my authority like that. He wouldn’t have undermined to my people.
While a part of was still that boy nobody loved or respected, a larger part of was the man who had been trusted enough to be assigned the Don of my own city. While I was having a ti holding the city and having to depend on help from other parts of the family, I was doing my job.
I couldn’t be in more than one place at a ti. I had little to no control over Bianca other than to try and curtail her comings and goings, which had resulted in the exact opposite of what I’d ant to do, which was to protect her.
Now, I was running back and forth across the damn city trying to track her down while she played hide and go seek with and the LA mafia. I knew Mia was right that I should let her go back to Italy because that was one way I knew she’d be safe for sure.
“Hey, Boss,” Nikolo called to as he jogged towards .
I turned to face him. I was sure I still wore the sa scowl I’d had for him before because he stayed out of reach of as he neared.
“What is it, now, Niko?” I asked.
“”Taylor was taking Ms. Bianca back to the compound. I just thought you’d like to know.”
I nodded to Niko in thanks, jumped back into the SUV, and took off to race back across the city. I had to get to her and persuade her to stay right here in LA with .
I swore in that mont that I wouldn’t let them convince Bianca to leave . I loved her too damned much to let her go without a fight. Now, all I had to do was prove it to her.
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