Mafia Scars (The Accidental Mafia Queen Book 2) Page 9

  “I’ll ask the questions here. You set me up for this, and all these weeks, I’ve wanted to speak to you, but you refuse to talk on the phone, and you refuse to talk to anyone else.”

  He lowered his gaze, and when he looked back up to me, his eyes glossed over with what I thought looked like guilt.

  “I’m sorry about that, son. I had my reasons.”

  “What the fuck’s going on, Raphael?” I couldn’t help the desperation in my voice. All I wanted right now was my girl, and I didn’t even know if she was safe. “Who is doing this to us? And why didn’t you just send me to LA to get Amelia? Why the secrecy? Why tell me all that shit about marrying your daughter before I could take the lead on the business?”

  “The phones were bugged and… I can’t speak to anyone here.”

  “My father is your best friend and confidant. You’re telling me you couldn’t tell him anything?”

  “The person… the person who’s doing this is a friend we both had in common. We used to run as a trio. I’m not ready to lose your father’s friendship yet.” His cheeks flushed.

  “Who is it?”

  “I prefer to tell you and Amelia together. Let’s wait until she gets here.”

  Like hell. “Fuck that, Raphael. You have no idea what shit I’ve been through, and look at me, I don’t even know where my girl is.”

  Something flickered in his eyes past the guilt. In the space of seconds, the man looked younger, as if given new life.

  It was something I said. What did I say to make him react that way?

  My girl...

  That was it.

  “You… love her,” he observed.

  “What?”

  “You love her. I can see it written all over you.”

  My eyes widened, and my heart skipped several beats.

  Why did that surprise me? It shouldn’t. Didn’t I know I’d been in love with Amelia from the first time I saw her? And all these weeks.

  She was important to me and became so from the day I started calling her mine.

  My girl.

  “It’s irrelevant how I feel if she doesn’t want me.”

  He bit the inside of his lip. “Why wouldn’t she?”

  “I’m a mobster, Raphael. She hates our kind, and she won’t live our life.”

  “What does that mean for you? The business is yours, Luc, if you want it.”

  “If I have a chance with your daughter, sir, I’m afraid I’ll have to decline that offer.”

  He smiled wide and placed a hand at his heart. “Then you’re a better man than me, and better than what I ever thought.”

  I stared at him trying him out. My earlier worry about him picking me because he thought Amelia would like me more than Claudius was correct.

  But not the way I thought.

  He knew or at least hoped this would happen.

  There was a lot I had to answer for, a lot of wrong I was tied to that stemmed beyond me going to LA and meeting Amelia.

  However, turning down the business was a start.

  It was a start for both of us. Me stepping away from something I’d worked for practically my whole life. Her. Seeing that I was willing to change a big part of my life to be with her.

  I just didn’t know if it would be enough.

  It was for me, and that was saying a great deal.

  I was incredibly wealthy off my own back. There’d been something about me that wanted more, and more. Mainly because of my childhood, growing up in LA with nothing and barely surviving in the piece-of-shit trailer park we’d stayed in for far too long.

  It never occurred to me at the time that, that had been all of us trying our hand at a normal life for my mother’s sake. Claudius and I were too young to know the full story, until we were old enough to understand that my father had left Raphael here to try and live a crime-free life.

  For years after, I’d believed that normal meant poor.

  However, I knew it didn’t’ have to.

  “I want this sorted out, Raphael. I want this problem gone. She deserves to have normal, even if that’s not with me. She deserves to be Amelia Rossi and not have to constantly watch her back, or change her name, or take on a profession because she feels she always has to fight a cause. She was supposed to be a dancer, Raphael. How could you allow her to lose her dream?”

  I thought back to when Amelia first told me about her dancing, and every time we talked about it, her face would light up. Those beautiful eyes that I loved would sparkle, and I could see her soul.

  Raphael’s eyes fell to his lap, and he looked away toward his window. It was open, and the curtains swayed lightly against the cool night air that drifted inside.

  “I know I messed everything up.”

  “Help me fix it,” I reiterated. “Tell me what happened. Who is doing this?”

  “His name is Taglioni Donachie.”

  I released a breath. Taglioni, they called him Tag for short. My father spoke about him often when we were kids. He was his friend.

  “Tag.”

  Raphael nodded and gazed at me tentatively. “Tag was my friend, and he was a good friend to your father. If you don’t mind, I’d like to tell this story in full when Amelia gets here. She deserves to know the full truth about everything. What I will tell you now is this. I ruined Tag’s life. I took everything from him, and he never knew that it was me until months ago when I received this.”

  He flicked to the back of the Bible and pulled out a note.

  I retrieved it when he tossed it on the bed.

  It said:

  It was you, wasn’t it. You caused me to lose everything.

  You’ll pay with what you hold dear.

  Tag

  “I’d taken all manner of steps to make sure Tag never found out that I was guilty of ruining his life.” Raphael sighed and bit the inside of his lip, taking a moment to think before continuing. “When Amelia left home, I was terrified for her safety but then I realized it was a good thing. It kept her out of harm’s way. Better for her to be away from here and me. I don’t know how he found out what I did, but he did, and I knew that the only thing left in my life that I held dear was my child. He confirmed my fears with a phone call. He told me he figured it all out and he’d be going after her. That was when he tracked her to LA. At that point, though, he didn’t know her identity.”

  I should have followed my initial suspicions. At the time when I was sent to LA, I’d foolishly thought Raphael hid her away from us because she became a cop.

  It was all beginning to make sense now.

  “I’m certain that my father would have understood what was going on.”

  He shook his head. “No, he would not. Because friendship means everything to him, and trust. He would never forgive me for my betrayal, especially because what I did was really bad. Blood for blood. That’s what Tag wants. So, he hired the best people to make it happen.”

  Jesus Christ, I wanted to know what Raphael had done. I wanted to come to grips with all of it, but he was just going to dance around his confession.

  “Victor, who I thought was dead.” I offered up. I didn’t know where the man had been all these years and how he managed to stay off grid. “And Demarco one of the biggest drug lords on this side of the planet.”

  “And others. There were people trying to find out who Amelia was, and there’s someone at the station who is close to her.”

  “Who is it?” That made me sick. The only people who were that close to Amelia were Sinclaire, Jefferson, and Holloway. I ruled Sinclaire out because he wouldn’t have arranged for himself to get shot and he cared too much for her.

  So, Jefferson and Holloway…

  I’d never figured either of them to be that way, but I had to keep reminding myself that everyone had their price.

  I went over all that I’d seen about those two in my mind.

  They were guys I could easily get on with. Nothing stood out about either of them that told me anything.

  “I don’
t know who it is.”

  “What about Roose?”

  “Roose is clean. He’s been trying to figure out things from his end. I gave him a substantial pay raise. I knew once Tag found out who Amelia was that she’d be in danger. So, I got my people too.”

  He focused on me.

  “Me included.”

  “Mainly, Luc. You are my best man here. You are ruthless, but you do what you need to in the best way possible without greed. I couldn’t have gone myself because I’m sick. I doubt I have long left because the tumors are growing as we speak. I don’t even know if I’ll see us through this, but I’ll try my best.”

  “What did Tag do to you to cause all this?”

  That was the question of the hour. The cause.

  He thought I was ruthless. Nah, he was ruthless and one mean son of a bitch when it came to it.

  Look at him the wrong way, and he’d kill you.

  Tag must have truly pissed him off to bring down his wrath.

  “Tag betrayed me in the worst way a friend could betray another. He took something that belonged to me. Something precious and priceless. Something irreplaceable.”

  I narrowed my eyes and tried to decipher what he was saying. This was all about a thing?

  No way.

  It couldn’t be just about a thing.

  “Raphael, you have some much. What the hell could he have taken that was worth so much to you?”

  “My wife.”

  Chapter 10

  Amelia

  I could hear the music.

  Tchaikovsky. It was the intro to Swan Lake.

  I waited backstage for my cue to go on. Waiting but also enjoying the melodious sounds of this masterpiece.

  It was one of my favorites.

  One that I’d dreamt of dancing to from the first moment I knew what ballet was.

  It was the first piece I’d danced to when I was five and my ballet teacher noted how talented I was. I did everything right.

  She’d be so proud of me today.

  This was the show that mattered. A representative from Julliard would be here at the school, sitting in the front row, assessing.

  I’d never made any mistakes when I danced. Never, ever because I never thought about what I was doing. My body just knew what to do. Show me the routine once, and it would be embedded in my muscle memory.

  Any thoughts would be on providing that finesse. Smiling, laughing sometimes, making sure my audience could feel the moves I felt as I executed them.

  Here it was… the cue.

  It was a b sharp and a clash of a cymbal.

  I moved doing a glissade and stood on my toes. Arms out, showing off the beauty of my dress. For I was the Swan Princess. The star of the show.

  The crowd went wild.

  But there, right in the row behind the scouts, were my parents.

  The two of them looked so proud of me. Mom was already crying. God in heaven. And Dad, he looked so proud I could see his eyes beaming with it from here.

  My body moved as it should, dancing to the music. A pirouette into a leap and then an arabesque.

  As I danced, everything came alive, the music, the people, the atmosphere. It was electrifying. Then…

  Something happened.

  Everything faded to black, taking everyone with it. Where did everyone go?

  The music stopped, and I straightened, standing still and waiting. Suddenly, there was a gun in my hands.

  Confusion filled me. How did I get here?

  “Hey, Detective, get that guy,” someone yelled at me. I didn’t know who said it or where the sound came from.

  I’m a cop, but I was just dancing. Julliard. My parents. Why was I a cop?

  I backed away into the nothingness of faded black.

  Light pierced my eyes, and before I knew it, I was standing in the cemetery under the weeping willow that hung over my mother’s grave.

  I remembered she died.

  I never got to say goodbye. Someone killed her and took everything I loved out of my life.

  I dropped the gun when something wet trickled onto my face.

  It was blood.

  I looked up to see that it had started to rain, but instead of water, blood poured from the sky. I screamed and screamed, and then I felt arms around me.

  “You are mine,” I heard another voice say.

  Luc. That could only be him. I’d recognize his voice anywhere.

  “Luc.”

  Someone was shaking me…

  My eyes fluttered open, and I found myself staring into the deep blue eyes of… no, only one eye was blue. The other brown.

  Unusual.

  I searched his eyes, then his face and focused on the tattoo of a small cross on his cheek.

  “Luc?”

  “Claudius,” he corrected. At least his face had softened somewhat than earlier.

  He released his grip on me and dabbed at my nose with a tissue.

  When his hands came away, I saw the tissue was covered with blood.

  I’d never had a nose bleed before.

  He gave me another tissue.

  “Thank you.” I pressed it to my nose quickly and tilted my head back.

  “Is everything okay?” A stewardess came up to us and asked. Concern filled her delicate-looking face.

  “We’re good. Could you get me a cup of sweet hot chocolate and a few dry rolls?”

  She nodded.

  We were on a private jet. His private jet.

  We’d ridden on that bike for what seemed like forever. I went hours with no water or rest. Although those comforts were the last thing you thought of when you were fleeing for your life.

  Victor and his men had pursued us as far as they could. As most of them were on foot inside the mall, there was only one car that followed us when we got outside.

  They did their best and tailed us until Claudius did some mad shit I’d only seen in something like Dukes of Hazzard and drove over the side of the road above the main state road. Jumping us at least ten feet down.

  I thought death would take me then, and I wasn’t sure how the bike survived.

  We hit Nevada two hours later. It was already dark by then, and we discovered that he’d lost his phone in the commotion. I’d lost my whole bag at some point and couldn’t place where, or when I lost it.

  He went to what I thought was an abandoned hangar. Except there was a state-of-the-art jet inside.

  Once we were there, we sent a message to Chicago to let them know we were on our way.

  It was bright outside, so I guessed I’d slept through the night.

  “You okay, princess?”

  These men with their names for me.

  I nodded. “I think so.” I looked at the tissue and saw there wasn’t much blood. Another dab at my nose, and I seemed to get the last traces of it.

  Nose bleeds, whatever next? It had to be the stress and the trauma of yesterday.

  “Bad dreams all night?” He quirked a brow.

  “I’m sorry. I …”

  “It’s understandable.”

  “Thanks for coming to get me, for saving me.” I couldn’t remember saying that, and I should.

  “My brother and I don’t exactly get on most times because we’re so different, but I’m there for him when he needs me.”

  That was nice. “How different are you? You tend to act similar, and you look alike except the hair and…” Maybe his eyes weren’t something I should mention. What if I offended him? I’d heard of the eye color mix, just hadn’t seen it on anyone myself.

  “My eyes. I got cursed. My father’s eyes are blue, and my mother’s are brown. I guess I got one from each.”

  Luc had told me about his mother. About how she’d left them when they were younger. It figured the curse was having her eye color.

  “Oh. My father’s eyes are brown, and my mother’s were gray.” If we were talking along the lines of curses, then I guess I was, too, with having my father’s eyes.

  He chuckled at t
hat. “You’re okay, not bad for a cop.”

  Of course, I was entering territory where I’d most likely be the scourge of the earth.

  “Is that what people are going to be like when they see me? On guard because I’m a cop.”

  “Nah. They won’t. There are only four people who know that. Me, Luc, my father, and yours. Wouldn’t be too good a thing to alert the whole underground that we’ll have a cop amongst us, and hey, the cop is Raphe’s long-lost daughter.”

  I noted that he and Maurice had called my father Raphe and Luc by his full name.

  “I’m just going to Chicago to… I don’t know. There are several reasons to be in Chicago, and there’s only one that I truly want.”

  “What’s that, princess?” A lock of his long hair fell over his brown eye, and in his face I saw Luc.

  If there was anything yesterday taught me it is that life was short, and I didn’t want to live it in confusion.

  I didn’t want to spend it wondering if I should be with Luc or not.

  Claudius was living proof of how much Luc cared for me.

  Right now, all I wanted was Luc, to be in his arms and hear him telling me that I was his.

  “Luc,” I breathed, eyes averted from Claudius, staring at the jagged patterns on the carpet.

  “Well, well. The cop and the mobster,” he taunted. I returned my focus on him. “Can’t wait to see how this works out.” A smile inched across his full lips.

  “You don’t think it will?” It was the only thing I could come up with because of his vague attitude.

  “You’re a cop; he’s a mobster. You do the math. One of you has to stop being who you are. And I don’t see you giving up the badge.”

  Gigi had assumed Luc would change for me. I’d assumed that he would too because he didn’t want my father’s business, but did I expect him to be a cop?

  He hated being a cop.

  So, where did that leave us?

  Although…

  Who I was, who I truly was, was not a cop. Amelia Taylor was a cop. Amelia Rossi was a dancer.

  I was kind of done being Amelia Taylor.

  So, what did that mean?

  “Bigger fish to fry, princess. I’m sure if you want to, you’ll figure it out. You’re important to him. That’s the only reason why I came to get you. It’s a starting point.”