Reckless & Ruined (30 page)

“You’re awfully fond of him,” Dean grumbled.

“Oh, stop it,” Walter replied sharply.

Alessa’s cell phone rang in her clutch. She cringed, realizing she had forgotten to turn it off before entering the church. It was rude of her. Alessa felt her cheeks heat up.  She pulled the phone out and silenced it, but not before noticing it was her sister.

“Excuse me,” Alessa said, waving her phone for Dean to see. “Abriella might need something.”

Dean nodded, satisfied with the excuse.

Even though she didn’t want to go further away from Adriano than was necessary, especially after not seeing him for over a week, Alessa made her way out of the main hall. She stepped into one of the private rooms that was usually used for meetings or families and called her sister back.

Abriella picked up on the second ring. “You were still in church, weren’t you?”

Alessa laughed. “Yes.”

“Sorry, but I have good news. I’m getting released early tomorrow instead of the weekend. I wanted to tell you right away and Tommas, too. I know Tommy is there at the funeral, so I was hoping you could somehow pass the info along.”

Alessa growled playfully. “Getting me to do your dirty work, now?”

Abriella whined. “Lissa, I’m sick and I almost died, so you have to—”

The cell phone was snatched from Alessa’s hand before her sister could finish whatever she was going to say. Turning fast on her heel, Alessa came face to face with a smirking Adriano. Somehow, he’d managed to get inside the private room and close the door without her hearing a thing.

Adriano put the cell to his ear. “Ella?”

Alessa’s mouth went dry as Adriano’s lips curved wickedly, and he looked her over. She could hear her sister in the background of the call, but she couldn’t discern what was being said.

“Yes, I know,” Adriano said quietly. “I’m glad to hear your voice. Get well. She’ll call you right back.”

Adriano handed the phone to Alessa. She put it back in her clutch, unsure of what to say.

“One of my guys mentioned which direction you took. I had to use the bathroom and took a wrong door. Imagine my luck,” Adriano said slyly.

His guys
.

Alessa didn’t miss those choice in words. “Reckless—that’s what you are.”

“Us,” he retorted.

Before she could say another thing, Alessa found herself pushed back into the closest wall. Her spine ached from the force as Adriano’s lips found hers and his hands fisted into her curled hair.

Alessa gasped when his teeth bit hard enough on her bottom lip to leave a mark. Adriano kissed her harder, deeper. Like he was starved and thirsty and she was the buffet spread out for him to take what he wanted. His tongue claimed her mouth, his teeth smearing her lipstick.

“Christ,” Alessa breathed when he drove his hands down her sides.

“That’s bad. We’re in church.”

“That’s what is bad about this?”

Adriano chuckled darkly. “Well …”

Alessa found her hands pinned above her head. Adriano’s fingers ghosted over her wrist and palms, promising and sweet.

“I’m going to be busy for a while,” he told her. “Another week, maybe.”

“I noticed that already.”

“But I’ll be around.”

Alessa nodded. “I’ll be waiting.”

Adriano gave her another sinful smile, kissed the tip of her nose, and let her hands go. “Don’t wait, just be ready.”

She didn’t have the first clue what he meant.

Adriano kissed her hard once more, fixed a wayward curl, and left Alessa confused and turned on like nothing else alone in the private room. With shaking hands, Alessa pulled out her phone to call her sister back.

The lack of something sparkly caught her eye instantly. Her engagement ring was gone.

Alessa’s breath caught in her throat. “Oh.”

Sneaky
. So
jealous
.

Adriano must have took notice of the piece and acted.

Oh, she loved him and hated him for it.

Selfish man.

Alessa wouldn’t try to deny it made her even hotter. Except now she had to explain where it had went to Dean. She hoped her acting skills were up to the job.

Somehow, Alessa felt lighter with the ring gone. Adriano probably knew that, too.

Dammit.

She loved that man.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

A
driano opened up the trunk of his Camaro and eyed the wrapped up form. Duct Tape covered the oblong shape in a spiral, insuring it would stay tucked in and not come apart once dumped. Six feet long and rolled in blankets and garbage bags, the shape of a body was unmistakeable. Thankfully, there was no smell to the corpse. Not yet, anyway.

“Ready, Skip?” Rickie asked.

It took Adriano longer than he was willing to admit before he realized Rickie was talking to him. Maybe because the whole Skip thing put Adriano on edge and he wasn’t accustomed to being graced with such a title.

Adriano nodded. “Yeah, let’s get this done and over with.”

Stones had already been added inside the blankets and clothing of the person within. When they dumped the body into the water, it would sink to the bottom and stay there until it decayed into nothing but bones. Wrapped up and sealed like it was, the weights couldn’t get out. Two holes at the top and bottom section of the form would let the gasses disperse without forcing the wrapping apart or sending the body floating to the top.

Adriano had done this more than once. In fact, the man inside the blankets and garbage bags had taught him all the tricks to keep a body hidden under water without it being noticed.

Kolin Bastoni.

Nothing about this was easy.

Kolin hadn’t even made it to the damn clinic after being shot in the back repeatedly when he tried to get Riley into the car. Adriano found it hard to believe that two weeks had passed since the incident. It still felt like yesterday to him.

Adriano thought the Capo deserved a proper funeral. The right kind of goodbye for a wise-guy of an older generation—one who had taught Adriano how to be a wise-guy in the new generation.

Riley disagreed.

Keeping Kolin’s unfortunate end a secret from everyone but the people who had been inside the car would mean speculation and assumptions could run wild. Riley wanted that sort of mess, just to see how Joel might react. Or rather, not react.

“Feet or head?” Rickie asked.

Adriano beat back his frown. “I’ll take the head.”

Just another job
, Adriano reminded himself.

Heaving Kolin’s deadweight out of the car wasn’t much of an issue. As long as he didn’t think about what he was doing, Adriano was fine.

“Throw it out as far as you can on three,” Adriano said.

Rickie nodded. “All right. You count, Skip.”

“One, two …” Adriano swung the body outward with Rickie’s motion and said, “Three.”

The mass hit the water fifteen feet below with a loud splash. Adriano wasn’t worried about anyone hearing or noticing. This particular water had been on the Conti payroll for as long as he could remember.

“Did you hand over the cash when you came in?” Adriano asked, still staring down to make sure the figure was sinking.

It did. Slowly.

“Yeah,” Rickie confirmed.

“Good. Then I’ll see you later when I get to the warehouse.”

“Sure, Skip.”

Adriano swallowed hard and shoved his hands into his pockets, watching the murky water disguise and hide another death. Long after Rickie was gone, Adriano could still hear the guy’s words in the back of his mind.

Skip.

Skip, Skip,
Skip
.

Adriano had waited a long time to be called that.

He wasn’t sure if he was ready for it. He wasn’t sure if others were ready for it.

“I suppose you’re going to get your spot quicker than you thought,” Riley said.

Adriano stared at the body wrapped in black garbage bags inside the six foot long freezer. “What?”

Riley slammed the freezer lid down, hiding Kolin’s dead corpse. “The title to go along with the button, son.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I’m going to give you a pass on the distraction since it’s been a long day and all,” Riley murmured, turning to face his son. His father still wore the bullet proof vest that had saved his life during the shooting. Two bullets were lodged in the chest of the Kevlar. “But correct whatever issue you have and quickly, Adriano. There’s a whole crew of people you need to manage alone now that Kolin’s culled. We have to keep moving forward, don’t bother with what is behind. You get that?”

Adriano nodded. “Sure.”

“I think it sounds good. Youngest one in the family that I can remember.”

“Huh?” Adriano mumbled, still not able to shake off the fact that Riley had hid a family member’s body inside his freezer. “What, Dad?”

Riley sighed harshly. “Seriously, correct that shit, Adriano.”

“I will.”

“Good, because Capos don’t have time to sit around and sulk when someone gets whacked, son.”

Capo.

Well, damn.

Adriano blinked out of the memory, feeling much older than his twenty years. Inside his left pocket, he felt for an object that he’d been holding onto for a while. Pulling the diamond ring out that he’d slipped off Alessa’s finger when she’d been too distracted by him at the church, he eyed the piece.

Disgust.

That’s how he felt looking at it.

Entirely, completely disgusted.

Dean didn’t get to put a ring on Adriano’s woman. He sincerely hoped the fool didn’t give her any issues about
losing
it. Adriano would probably take the replacement, too.

With one more look at the piece of jewelry, Adriano tossed it into the water. It hit the water with a plop.

“Good fucking riddance.”

“Anyone talking?” Adriano asked.

Rickie scowled around the cigarette in his mouth. “A little.”

“About what?”

“You know what, the same shit. Kolin hasn’t been around and all that. I mean, I know why he isn’t around. Some of them suspect why he hasn’t been around. It makes for a bad crew, Skip.”

Adriano nodded and shoved his hands in his pockets. The best way to ward off someone’s concern was nonchalance. He wasn’t Kolin’s right-hand anymore. He was the crew—the head of the Conti show. A lot of the guys probably wondered about it all, but now it was just time to confirm it for real.

He had to put his game face on.

The mask.

Twenty-years-old …

A fucking kid to some people. That’s all he was.

People gave Theo DeLuca shit all the time for his age and the fact he was a second Capo to the DeLuca crew. So, how would people react to Adriano with his age?

Don’t give them a chance to.

Adriano could practically hear Kolin in the back of his mind.

It helped.

“There’s a little issue between Con’s guys and Steve’s,” Rickie informed. “Same shit, different week.”

Con was a man, a year older than Adriano, who had also been close to Kolin in his own way. Not as close or with as much control as Adriano had over the crew, but there had been a friendship between them nonetheless.

Problems could come from that.

“Thanks for the info,” Adriano said. “Go in, I’ll be there in a minute.”

Without a word, Rickie disappeared into the warehouse with a cigarette still in his mouth. Adriano reminded himself that this was just another step. One more thing to do. Three quarters of the men on the Conti crew were young like him and Rickie. Street guys, smart guys. Young guys. The other quarter were people of Kolin’s generation that mostly worked out of businesses and in other trades. They weren’t the ones Adriano had to concern himself with as far as making his position as the Conti Capo clear.

They would pay their dues no matter who showed up to collect.

Stepping inside the warehouse, Adriano gazed over the men who had shown up. It wasn’t a required meeting for the crew, but he’d put word out and a great deal of the guys showed up. Thirty or more, anyway. Whoever hadn’t come would find out the suspicions about Kolin’s end and Adriano’s new position the next day.