Untouchable (MATURE CONTENT)

CHAPTER 38

The roar of the crowd died down when Gia accepted the microphone from Kenrick. He kissed her cheek and walked off to the side. She looked out and recognized so many old faces and new ones and her heart constricted with such pain that no human being should ever be so misfortunate to have to endure. She took a moment to gather her thoughts. Her original plan had been to stand up there and announce that she was stepping down as the Benedetti Boss, but she had changed her mind. There was no way that she would hand her Family, the men and women that had taken her in and shown her loyalty and respect and some of them love, over to Gio and the likes of him.

The man that she had loved was gone. He had betrayed her, and she was not going to stand there and let him take what she had trained for her entire life. She was a fighter and always had been and she was not done fighting. Kade might be gone but his Family depended on her now and she had to step up and be the woman her father had wanted her to be.

Bringing the microphone to her mouth Gia took a deep breath and began speaking. "As you all know Giovanni Drago is the Boss of the Drago organization and Family. In less than two years, he will take over the Benedetti Family..." Gia went into the long tale of what had been done to her, how her own father had betrayed her and how Gio had betrayed her.

Gasps and curses were heard all around, some even went as far as to curse the Drago Family.

"I will not allow anyone to walk over me!" Gia said, raising her voice holding the microphone further from her mouth. "We still have time! I want the ranks in the warehouse, now!" Gia felt newfound strength coursing through her body. Kade would not want her to give up and walk away broken. He never thought of her as broken.

The crowd began to disperse and the ranks from both Families, the Benedetti and the McBane made their way inside the warehouse.

Kenrick led the way while Gino, Marco and Trent stayed by their Boss and escorted her inside and to the front of the building.

Around twenty men stood there whispering and trying to read each other's faces not knowing what was going on. No one knew what was about to happen. Gia was playing it by ear and she was nervous, but no one knew just how nervous she was. She had set out that morning, when she had woken up to hand everything over to Gio and step away from the life that had taken so much from her and not given enough in return.

Yes, she had power and more money than she knew what to do with but that wasn't everything that life was about. Her life had been nothing but a web of lies that she was now ready to set fire to and watch it burn.

"Boss, with all due respect, what the fuck is going on? There's talk all around that Gio is taking over and that you're stepping down, is that true?" Luka was the first one to speak up.

Gia leaned against the desk that sat towards the back of the building. She looked at all the men standing there and Clarise, her only woman ranked. She couldn't tell them all what her plans were, but she could put their troubled minds at ease. "I am not stepping down, not now anyway. I am however going to do what I have to do to protect this Family. There is no reason to be worried. I got this, like I always do." Gia forced a smile on her face.

"But why are Gio's ranks running their mouth that soon we will be under his law?" Ricco asked, inching forward.

"I don't know why they are running their mouths, but I will handle it. Just go on about business as usual. I'm still Boss and that is all there is to it."

Gia was done, she was tired, and she needed to get to her office. Roger would be waiting for her as per her request. There were a lot of loose ends that she had to deal with and a lot of questions that she wanted Giovanni to answer for her.