Omerta

Chapter 35 (Nico's POV)

         "Nick...how did you know where I was tonight?" Gia's small and slightly raspy voice broke the silence. We laid side by side in her bed just staring at the ceiling. I shifted my head on the pillow so I could look at her when I spoke. From her side profile Giada has the perfect slope in her nose. I don't know where she got her lips from, maybe her mother, but they're full in perfect proportion to the rest of her features. Her big eyes are overly lashed, and colored in like an icy translucent shade of blue. 

She wanted to know how I found her tonight. I knew she deserved to know just as much as I deserved to know what she was doing out there in the first place. She came so close to dying. I need to know why. The pit in my stomach has yet to soften even though we're here in bed with no immediate threat in front of us. Or is there? 

"Nick?" her voice sounded closer like she'd turned to face me now too. My eyes snapped up from where they were once fixated down, and I sighed.

-

        'I was stewing in my room after Gia and I got into that little argument about Nadia. Could I even call it an argument? She barely said a thing about it. She just kicked me out of her room which pissed me off. I don't like being dismissed that way. She was being hypocritical if she was mad I'd fucked someone else, because she was the one betrothed to another. She was fucking Mikhail this whole time, so why shouldn't I have fun when it's dangled in front of me? It's not like we're dating. I would never. We would never.

My first priority in life isn't love and it isn't some girl. My main priority is this organization my grandfather helped build from the ground up. He taught my father the ropes from a very young age and when Nono (grandpa) was too old and out of touch my father took over the business.

 Now he was doing the same to me. He groomed Vincent and I from a young age to learn the business from the ground up. As teenagers we were 'street kids' to learn from the lowest tier of this organization straight to the top as the underbosses we are now.

Vincent is older than me by two years but I've always had a knack for this business. Good instincts that have left me in the position to overstep Vin and take Dad's place. 

Not that Vin wouldn't still be a part of all this. I just have more responsibilities lately. My brother is the good time guy and I think it works in both our favor that I have the majority of the power where he can still have status, but not have to do as much. I like the title, and the power behind that title. I want to be the boss. The top guy.

        Things have been crazy this past month with the sudden attacks on our guys. We've never had a stable relationship with the Colombian's, but these little attacks and now the oddities with our cargo shipments tell me this is a bigger issue than just the cartel pulling their usual tough guy act. They don't have distribution rights in a lot of the places they want to have territory of. Fuck them. 

Having Dominic and Gia in the house lately has only added to the chaos. Dom is eager to please my father and has been running all the errands that have kept me less occupied with work and more free to do other things...like Gia.

        I knew Mickey had a daughter. I wasn't surprised to hear about it when my father told me she'd be staying with us in favor of Mick. I didn't know she was drop dead gorgeous, but if I'm being honest I get a lot of gorgeous women without trying. Chicks love tattoos and bad attitudes. Maybe it was because my father drilled it so far into my head that she was off limits. Do I sound like a man who likes to be told what to do or what he can't have. 

That was the appeal. Even more so when I found out why she was forbidden. She belonged to the Russian's because the poor girl was a pussy wrapped peace treaty to keep both the Bratva and Luciano and associates in line as partners.