Breathless & Bloodstained (The Chicago War #4) (35 page)

“But … why?”

“Because this is how it needs to be,” Joel
said frankly.

Abriella was so confused that it wasn’t
even funny. “How what needs to be, Joel?”

“The Outfit, of course. And let me be very
clear on something, Ella. If you can’t manage to do those four very simple
things for me, then I have no problem with finishing this feud out in an
entirely different way. You see, if Tommas has been stupid enough to be messing
around with you, then you have also been dumb enough to play around with him.
He’s not the only one who cares between the two of you. So, you’ll do as I ask,
and you’ll do it well, or I will finish it.”

Nothing about what her brother just said
made sense. Tommas was right, Abriella realized. Joel was planning something.
The bigger problem was that no one knew what exactly his plans were. That made
things all the more dangerous.

“Why?” Abriella asked again.

“I already told you.”

This is how it needs to be
…

Tommas wouldn’t give up the boss’s seat.
Abriella knew it. Joel had to know it, too. Her brother wouldn’t give up what
he wanted, either. For Abriella, that could only mean one thing.

Joel was going to make his final move.

But what was it?

“Oh, and Ella?”

Abriella slammed back into reality with a
bang. Her brother smiled coldly at her from the other end of the table.

“Yes?” she asked.

“To make sure you follow my rules, since
you’re so damned good at breaking them, and to guarantee this conversation of
ours doesn’t get out before the sit-down happens, you won’t be leaving the
house.”

Abriella stiffened in the chair. “At all?”

“No actually, you won’t be leaving the
upstairs wing. You have all you need up there, after all. The cook can bring
you food. As we speak, Darryl is removing all the phones, computers, and
whatever else might let you contact someone. Think of it as a timeout. A moment
to get your priorities straight and think about what you really want, Ella.”

He was locking her in.

Like a fucking
animal
.

“I’ll give you another thing to consider
as well that goes along with the first offer,” Joel added, still smiling in
that sickening way of his. “Something else for you to think about while you
walk the halls for a week or two.”

“Don’t bother,” Abriella spat.

The heat in her tone couldn’t be hidden.
She didn’t care anymore. She wanted her brother to know how much she despised
him and what he was doing. He was going to put her into a proverbial corner and
force her hand into somehow hurting Tommas. Joel was making goddamn sure his
plans, whatever they were, wouldn’t be spoiled.

What more could he fucking do?

“Oh, you might like this one,” Joel
replied. “Freedom, Ella. I’ll give it to you.”

Abriella’s brow crumpled. “Freedom.”

“I’ll give you tickets to wherever you
want to go, I’ll sign over every red cent of your inheritance for you to use
whatever way you wish, and you can leave. Go out of Chicago, start somewhere
new, or whatever you want to do.”

“In exchange for what?”

Joel shrugged. “In exchange for giving me
what I want.”

Abriella knew exactly what her brother
wanted. It was the same thing he had always wanted.

To be the boss.

“Think about it,” Joel said quietly.

“What if I won’t go along with your …
whatever this is?”

“It’s like this, Ella, either one person
can go, or a bunch of them can. I want to make this as easy as possible, but
that doesn’t mean it’s going to be painless. It isn’t my fault that you’ve
gotten yourself tangled up with a man that you had no business being with. If
your feelings got involved, it was by your choice, not mine.”

Her chest ached from her heart beating so
fast.

This wasn’t fair.

“Those aren’t options at all, Joel,”
Abriella hissed. “You’re going to trick Tommas with me. You’re an asshole.”

“I think the options are perfectly fine.
Simple, even. You only have to make a choice. Lose one person, hurt for a
while, but have the freedom to eventually move on. Or, try to save that one
person in some way, and this nonsense will continue until everyone is dead in
the ground.”

Abriella clenched her teeth. “Why are you
doing this?”

“Because as someone once told me, this
life isn’t about getting what you want, Ella. You can’t have what you want just
because you said so.”

More confused than ever, Abriella met her
brother’s cold gaze from across the table. She knew he must be angry, but he
hid it far too well. This wasn’t the Joel she thought she knew. The Joel she
knew was a vile man in his own right. This man was even worse. This was someone
else entirely.

“The last time you caught me with a man,
you barely held back from beating me black and blue,” Abriella said, sneering.
“What’s changed?”

Joel glanced down at his plate. “You made
me feel like a fool. There’s no question that I would like to show you exactly
how whores like you should be treated, but I can’t. There’s something I need
from you, Ella. All you have to do is give me what I have asked for, and the
rest will go away. This is mine—the Outfit, the families. They’re mine.”

Her heart for his.

The truth burned as she swallowed it down.

“Think about it all,” Joel said quietly. “You
have time. Starting now.”

Abriella didn’t get the chance to ask her
brother another thing. Darryl came out of nowhere from behind her, grabbed her
by the arm, and pulled her up from the chair. The last thing she saw in the
dining room before she was dragged from it cursing and kicking was a
two-fingered wave from Joel.

She smacked Darryl hard in the side of the
face. The man’s eyes flashed with anger and his grip turned painful.

“Let me go!”

“Stop it, or you’ll get a taste of your
own medicine, you little bitch,” the enforcer snarled.

Abriella chose to stop fighting. Not
because she was weak or had given up, but because she needed a plan. Joel was
right. She needed time to think.

More than anything, Abriella felt like she
was out of options that she could control.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“T
en minutes,”
Damian said, looking down at his watch.

Tommas still checked the time on the
dashboard even knowing that his cousin was right. “It’s been a rough year,
man.”

Damian’s gaze drifted from Tommas in the
driver’s seat, to the windy, quiet Chicago street outside of the car. “It has
been, you’re right.”

“I’ll be happy to put an end to it all.”

“Have you seen or talked to Abriella at
all?” Damian asked.

“No,” Tommas answered, offering little
else.

The nagging anxiety in his chest refused
to relent whenever he thought about his girl, however. It bothered him more
than he could explain that Abriella hadn’t contacted him since the last time
they spoke.

Sure, he’d told her that they needed to
keep a safe distance for obvious reasons, but the thing about Abriella was that
she didn’t follow the rules very well.

Still, no calls.

Concerned about his lover, but knowing
there wasn’t much he could do but wait, Tommas decided to let it all work out
on its own. He didn’t have a choice either way.

“Tommy?”

“What?”

Damian sighed, shooting his cousin a look
from the side. “You know it doesn’t have to go down like this, right? You don’t
have to do it this way, man.”

“Conceding isn’t always losing,” Tommas
murmured. “Sometimes, smart men have to play a game in such a way that
conceding is the only possible option in the end. It’s what Joel wants, anyway.
For me to concede to this arrangement. He’s looking for that, and he must have
a reason for it. It’s a safer way to win right now, D. Nothing more.”

“And what about in a few months?”

“What about it?”

“When Joel decides he’s tired of having
the city split into two organizations, or when he tries another bomb episode on
you again. What if he wins then, huh?”

Tommas smiled, and waved his cousin’s
concerns off. “You should learn to trust me more.”

“I’m trying really hard, but you make it
difficult when you go on to do something like this with Joel Trentini, Tommas.”

Damian had not been happy at all to hear
about the offer Joel laid on the table for Tommas to consider a week and a half
ago. In fact, Damian might as well have called Tommas a fool for even agreeing
to a sit-down with Joel to discuss separating the Outfit into two new
organizations with separate bosses on both sides.

“Trust,” Tommas repeated. “It will take
you everywhere with me.”

“Easy for you to say, Tommy.”

“I’m not an idiot. I know what I’m doing.”

“That’s the whole problem. I have no idea
what you’re doing.”

“You don’t need to,” Tommas replied
quietly.

Damian rubbed at his forehead, obviously
tired and over the conversation. “What have you been doing these last couple of
weeks, anyway?”

Planning.

Considering.

Deciding.

“Making the right choice,” Tommas settled
on saying. “Even if that choice isn’t what everyone else might choose or want to
see happen. Sometimes the right decision is often the hardest and most
difficult.”

And bloody
, he added
silently.

“I hope, for everyone’s sake, that you’re
right in doing this with Joel,” Damian said.

“But you don’t think I am.”

“No, I think you’re giving up, and you’re
so much fucking better than that, Tommas.”

With that statement, Damian got out of the
Jaguar and slammed the passenger door hard enough to rock the car. Tommas
watched his cousin stroll down the street in the direction of where the
sit-down would take place in just a few short minutes.

Tommas didn’t blame Damian.

No one really knew much about what would
happen today other than what Tommas offered to tell. It wasn’t a lot. He’d
invited Capos to sit in and watch. He’d asked for the Capos to bring whoever
they felt comfortable with having along for the ride, as this day would be a
valuable lesson to everyone involved.

Tommas decided to have it go down this
way, because he wanted a point to be made. He wanted the Outfit people to see
how things should be handled in
la famiglia
when wars happened.

Scores had to be settled. Sometimes it was
bloody, but not every time.

“How was the last
couple of weeks?” Joel asked.

Tommas spread his
arms wide, allowing Joel’s man to pat him down and check all through his coat,
his pants pockets, and wherever else the man felt necessary. “Quiet, actually.”

“Nice, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Tommas
agreed. “It’s been too long since the streets were peaceful.”

“It has been a
while,” Joel said, smiling falsely.

The man checking
him moved down to a crouch so he could check Tommas’ legs. His hands slid a
little too high for Tommas’ liking.

“Do you want a
handful of my cock?” Tommas asked the guy.

The enforcer
cleared his throat. “No.”

“Then let me help
you out.” Tommas brushed his pant legs with his hands, clearly showing he had
no weapon at his groin. Then, he grabbed his dick through his slacks and said,
“Just this in here, sorry.”

Joel chuckled.
“Always good for a show, old friend.”

Tommas looked to
Damian. “And?”

“He’s clean,”
Damian said. “Checked him myself. Checked all the guys he brought. They’re good
as well. The street is clean of people. No one will be outside waiting. It’s …
good, boss.”

Joel’s nostrils
flared at Damian’s casual offer of the boss title to Tommas. It didn’t escape
Tommas’ notice how Joel quickly tampered down his reaction to hide it.

“And her?” Tommas
asked, tilting his head toward Abriella.

Tommas had done
all he could to ignore his lover since he’d walked down the street to see her
and Joel getting out of a black town car together. It didn’t surprise him that
Joel had brought Abriella along.

Even when Joel was
attempting something worthy of peace, he still liked to play mind games. How
Abriella factored into those games, Tommas wasn’t sure.

Abriella, on the
other hand, had kept her head down and she stayed quiet. She wouldn’t even meet
Tommas’ stare when he blatantly asked about her. His fingers itched and ached
to reach out and grab Abriella to bring her close.

Why was she
looking at the fucking ground?

She wasn’t
smiling—that was never good.

Tommas forced his
hands to stay at his sides, and dragged his attention from his lover so that
his worries weren’t so goddamn obvious.

“She’s good,”
Damian said, shrugging. “Nothing on her, Tommy.”

“Good,” Tommas
said. “Everyone is inside?”

“The Capos and a
few of their middle men, yes.”

Joel passed a
glance at the restaurant that was in desperate need of an overhaul on the outside.
Chips of paint fell on the pavement, one window could use a replacement, and
the old door spoke of years past.

“Who does this
place belong to?” Joel asked.

“Me,” Tommas
answered. “I bought it this week. Someone I know has a taste for seafood. I
wanted to be able to enjoy it with them when it was up and running again. For
now, it’ll serve its purpose of getting us through this meeting without drawing
attention from the police or anyone else. Your men checked it out earlier,
didn’t they?”

Joel nodded.
“Sure.”

“And?”

“And you already
know,” Joel said. “There was nothing to find.”

“I’m being
amicable, Joel. This is what you wanted.”

“Then let’s do it,
old friend.”

Tommas really
wished Joel would lay off the ‘old friend’ nonsense. It was tiring. It was
untrue and ridiculous. A certain understanding between men did not make for a
friendship, and they certainly didn’t have much to be friendly about now.

“Yes, let’s do
that,” Tommas said, waving toward the quiet restaurant.

Damian grabbed the
door and pulled it open, allowing others to walk in ahead of him. During the
entire conversation and check outside, Tommas had felt the eyes of more than a
dozen people inside the restaurant watching him and Joel.

No doubt, he
probably knew exactly what they were thinking.

How was this going
to end?

Are the rumors
true?

Is it over?

Tommas hoped he
could answer all three of those questions before the meeting was out.

Joel stepped in
ahead of Tommas, and Abriella followed quietly behind her brother. Moving behind
Joel, Tommas joined in.

“Wait a sec,” came
an older voice from behind them. 

Finally, Abriella
lifted her head. A familiar fire colored up her blue eyes, instantly making
Tommas feel at home, even if they were anywhere but safe, quiet, and together.
His girl was there, but she was doing what she had to do—whatever it was.

“Dad?” Abriella
asked, seeing her father standing outside of the restaurant.

“I thought you
weren’t coming inside with us?” Joel asked, moving his sister aside so he could
talk to his step-father.

Peter Trentini
gave Tommas a passing glance as he said, “I haven’t changed my mind, Joel. I
have no reason to go inside with you today. I drove here, showed my face, and
that’s more than enough. I buried my wife for this, and that was too much.”

“Well, what are
you doing?” Joel barked.

The older man
waved a handbag, decked out with the faces of Abriella’s favorite Sugar Skulls.
It was just a clutch, nothing big.

“Abriella forgot
this in the car. I just happened to notice it.”

Peter passed the
bag into Abriella’s hand. Tommas took note of the way her brow crumpled in
question, but she stayed quiet when Joel glared down at her. Tommas beat back
the urge to slap Joel just at the sight alone. 

“Thank you,”
Abriella said softly.

“Never go anywhere
without your purse,” Peter said, chuckling. “That’s what your mother always
said.”

“We’re wasting
time,” Joel muttered.

Joel and Abriella
disappeared inside the restaurant without a goodbye to their father. Tommas
offered Peter a nod that was subtly returned.

A thank you of
sorts.