BOW DOWN: A Bad Boy Mafia Romance (Barone Crime Family) (12 page)

T
here are
few things more beautiful than a briefcase full of cash. When Wyatt brought it over to the safe house, I had such a huge smile on my face when he handed it to me.

I had a bigger smile on my face when he spread the cash all over my bed and then licked my pussy until my toes curled.

Kasia hadn’t believed Wyatt was going to come through, but he did. She was not a fan of the plan, for a lot of reasons, but she saw why we needed to do it.

The Spiders were spread thin. We were fighting a much more powerful enemy by hitting and running away. We were fighting a guerilla war, but I didn’t want to slowly chip away at my father until he died of old age. I wanted to strike and strike hard, plunge a dagger into his chest.

That was what attracted me to his plan. I knew that if we actually followed through with this, we could have a real shot at overwhelming Arturo before he even realized what was happening.

There were risks, of course. I’d be stretching myself thin. I was also potentially alienating my core group, my girls, the reason for all of this. I was just hoping they’d understand why we were going in this direction, and why they had to trust me.

Preparations went underway the day after Wyatt brought the money. We had some of our own stashed away, and soon Kasia had hired twenty men, mercenaries from all over the country.

They began to arrive over the next week. I didn’t see Wyatt much, since he had to travel out of the city for work. We spread the men out across the various safe houses.

Like I expected, the girls were unhappy, but they went along with my plan. A few left, but nobody that mattered much. All in all, things were going better than I could have hoped.

Our numbers were bolstered by these men, trained killers that would fight and murder for money. I didn’t need anything from them other than they skills with weapons and they knew it. They were being paid well, plus the potential for huge bonuses. I didn’t think a single one of them was loyal, but I made sure to hire men that weren’t from the city. That way, Arturo wasn’t likely to have already paid them off.

Two weeks it took us to gather the men and to supply them. Two weeks of constant work, worry, and stress. Two weeks without Wyatt.

But on week three, we struck.

We started small. A few of the man and a few of the girls hit a small deli that was a mob front, killed everyone associated with the Barones, and took their cash. It wasn’t a big score, so I spread it out over the fighters.

We got more daring. Every single night that week, we launched a raid against the mafia. We attacked them in the north, we attacked them in the south. We killed twenty men and stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, drugs, and guns. We gutted them, and the mafia was in absolute chaos.

They hit back, but not hard enough. We moved our safe houses around, kept nimble. The mafia couldn’t keep up with us, and with our new fighters, we had some serious strength to push back hard against them.

Nothing felt better than knowing that my father was getting pushed to the limit. There were whispers on the street that the captains were getting angry with Arturo, and wanted to get more aggressive against me. Some of them, my brother included, wanted to try and make peace with us like I had originally offered.

I wasn’t going to make peace. Not with my brother, not with anyone.

I didn’t hate Lucas. In fact, I loved my brother. He was the only person in the whole family that ever gave a shit about me. I wasn’t going to hurt him if I could help it. But he couldn’t stop this. Nobody could stop this. I was coming after the Barone Crime Family, and I couldn’t slow down.

Friday came, and things were quiet. We had hit a small factory the night before that was a mob front, but nobody got killed on either side. I was sitting at my computer, scrolling through news stories, when my phone rang.

I picked it up on the third ring.

“I was wondering what I’d hear from you,” I said.

“Hello to you too,” Wyatt answered.

“You can’t call?”

“I’ve been busy.”

“I’m sure.”

“You’ve been busy, too.”

“Yes I have been. So far, that idea of yours is working out.”

“So far, you’re right. Word is out that he’s running scared.”

“Not exactly. He’s hitting back, just not as strong as I thought he would.”

“Listen,” he said. “I want to see you.”

“Aren’t you in Carbondale? That’s about as far as you could be.”

“I am, but I’m going to Springfield for this charity thing. I want you to meet me there.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Why would I leave right now? Things are too tense.”

“Kasia can handle it. And it’ll only be a night.”

I bit my lip. He was right. Kasia knew the plans, hell, she had helped write them. Kasia could handle everything.

And I had to admit, I was aching to see him. It had been too long since I had tasted him. Too much had happened, too much violence and death and horror and although we were winning, it was still difficult.

I needed that release. That release only Wyatt could bring me.

“Are you sure we can do this?” I asked him. “We shouldn’t be seen together.”

“Do you know anyone in Springfield?”

“No,” I said.

“Does your father do business here?”

“Not really. He sends men to bribe state officials, but no, he never goes there himself.”

“What about the people here, do they know what you look like?”

”No. Not many people do.”

“Then you’re safe. You can be whoever you want for the night. I’ll know that you’re all mine, and that’s all that matters.”

“Okay,” I said despite myself.

“Good. I’ll send you the hotel information. Meet me there tomorrow night.”

“You’re an ass, you know that, Wyatt?”

“I know.” I could practically hear the grin through the phone. “See you soon.” He hung up.

I leaned back in my chair and sighed. This was stupid. There were just too many things that could go wrong. If someone recognized me and saw me with Wyatt, that could be a huge disaster. There were just so many reasons not to go.

But there was just one big reason that kept pulling at me: I wanted him. That was what really mattered. I wanted him, and nothing else could stop that. I wanted to go before he made me feel alive, made me feel good. I wanted to be seen on his arm, as absurd and dumb as that sounded. I wasn’t that kind of girl.

But maybe I was. At least for Wyatt. Maybe I could be whatever he wanted me to be.

* * *

H
e was standing
in the lobby of the hotel, a drink in his hand, a small smile on his face as I walked across the room toward him. I thought for a second that all conversation around us had stopped, and all eyes were on the two of us, but that wasn’t right. It just felt like we were the center of the world.

“You look incredible,” he said. “Better than I remembered.”

“I don’t know if that’s a compliment.”

He took my hand and kissed my cheek. “It’s a compliment,” he said. “Truth is, all I ever think about is you without clothes. The dress is distracting me.”

I smiled. I was wearing a formal dress, slightly revealing but not too much. I wanted to tease him, but I didn’t want to draw attention. Clearly I made the right decision.

“So where is this benefit?”

“Here, actually,” he said.

“And what’s it for?”

“Does that matter?” He smirked. “I just wanted an excuse to see you.”

“I know.”

He turned toward the bartender and ordered me a gin and tonic. I took my drink, smiling, and sipped it.

“All these people,” he said softly, “they have no idea who you are. Doesn’t that excite you?”

“No,” I said. “Not really.”

“You could destroy them all if you wanted.”

“Does that excite you?” I asked him, smiling slightly.

“It absolutely does.”

“I’m starting to think you like me just for my power.”

“I like you for your body,” he said, whispering into my ear. “The power is jut secondary.”

I blushed slightly then he took my hand. We walked together through the lobby, down a back hall, and found the ballroom.

It was just like every other charity fundraiser that I’d been to. Rich people were milling about, sitting and talking, drinking too much, and generally acting like nothing in the world mattered. Which, to them it probably didn’t. They had no real problems to speak of, and these little charity things were more like social events than anything else. It was an excuse to flaunt their checkbooks.

Wyatt worked the room like a professional. We went from table to table, and he introduced me as his friend and colleague every time, though I was sure nobody was buying that. Still, he was masterful, always flattering people and never making any promises while always seeming to promise the world. He was a true politician, and I instantly understood why he rose to such a prominent position so quickly.

“Michelle,” he said, using my fake name, “this is Roger Waters.”

I took the older gentleman’s hand, shaking firmly. He smiled at me.

“Pleasure,” I said.

“Pleasure is all mine.” He looked back at Wyatt. “Where’d you find this one?”

“We work together.”

“I’m sure you do,” he murmured. “Michelle, what do you do?”

“I’m a lawyer specializing in constitutional law,” I said.

“Impressive.”

“What do you do, Roger?”

“Oh, nothing much,” he said.

“Roger is being modest. He owns the largest construction business in the world.”

“Used to,” he corrected. “These days I’m just one board member among many.”

“I’m sure you’re more important than they are.”

“Of course,” he beamed. Wyatt gave me a smile.

“Excuse us, Roger,” Wyatt said. “We have some pressing business to attend to,”

“Be careful, you two young people,” he said. “There are a lot of important people in here.”

“Of course.” Wyatt smiled and led me off.

We went over to the bar together. “Is this what you do all day?” I asked him. “Shake hands with old men and flatter them?”

“Yes,” he said. “It’s a lot easier with a beautiful woman on my arm.”

“I hate it,” I said. “I really do.”

“I know. I hate it too.”

“These people. They don’t understand anything.”

“Of course not. Would you?”

“Yes,” I said seriously. “I would. I am one of these people, remember.”

“So you are.” He shrugged. “Most people when they get that rich are living in a bubble. They can’t understand the common person’s plight because they’re so far removed from them. They live on a completely different planet.”

“It’s grotesque.”

“It is,” he said, getting us both a glass of wine. “But we’re going to change that.”

I nodded and sipped my drink, but something wasn’t sitting right.

I had hoped that this was going to be fun. I hoped we would shake hands and laugh and joke, and we were. Wyatt was being as attentive as he possibly could, and yet I still felt like I was having an awful time.

I couldn’t quite figure it out. We moved back into the fray, talking to person after person. Dinner was starting soon, and so people were slowly filtering back to their seats, and I had this rock in my stomach.

What the hell were we doing here? Why would I leave the city for this? There was too much at stake back home for me to mess around with Wyatt, and yet I had left everything to Kasia and run off to be with him.

“This is absurd,” I said softly as we headed back to our table for dinner.

“What?” he asked.

“This. It’s absurd. Why are we here?”

“Securing donors.”

I suddenly stopped walking as it hit me. “I can’t be here,” I said.

“Louisa. We talked about this.”

“No, it’s not that. I can’t be around these people, Wyatt. I despise them. I despise myself for shaking their hands and smiling and nodding at their idiotic comments when all I want to do is strangle them, steal their cash, and run off with it.”

He blinked at me, and then nodded. “Okay. Let’s go.”

“Really?”

“Let’s go. Fuck this place. Come on.”

He walked off toward the exit. On our way, he swiped a bottle of wine that a waitress was carrying on a tray. She went to say something but we were already moving off. We got to the doors, pushed them open, and then left.

“This way,” he said. We followed a back hallway and eventually went out a back door. A small wooded area stretched out ahead of us, and I could hear a major road on the other side of that.

Wyatt leaned up against the wall and took a pull from the bottle before handing it to me. I took a long drink.

We stood there in silence for a moment, enjoying the night. I was glad to be out of there.

“I have to go back in,” he said finally.

I frowned at him. “Why?”

“Because as gross as it is, it’s part of my job. We need me back in there. We need me to shake hands and kiss ass, because that’s the role I play in all this. You should go back to the city.”

“Wyatt—“

“It’s okay,” he said, shaking his head. “You run the mafia. I run the politics.”