Mafia Queen

Chapter Two

Luca

"Fuck." I hissed, tossing the file onto my desk and rubbing my temples. The file detailed a gruesome kidnapping that happened over the weekend in our territory.

A girl was found beaten and mangled in a back alley, crumpled behind a dumpster. Her body was burned so badly that they had to identify her with dental records. The even more sickening part was that no one had reported her missing, and no one had come forward to claim her body.

This had Nikolas Almieda written all over it. His calling card was abducting nameless prostitutes he thought no one would miss, and more often than not, they ended up torched. It made my stomach turn, and I turned the file over so I didn't have to look at it anymore.

"We have to get a handle on this. He's a loose cannon, Luca." Angelo seethed. I could tell this was hitting him hard. Any case we saw like this was magnified now that Layla was around.

Niko had been encroaching on us for months, and in the last few weeks he had gotten a little too close for comfort. He ran a gang out that used to be based in Miami, but he'd been slowly been creeping up the coast. They ran by their own set of rules, which made them impossible to work with and impossible to try to contain. This had been the bane of my existence the last few weeks, and I was dropping the ball in all other areas of my life trying to figure this shit out.

Charlotte was on my ass about not being at home more, and I knew my mind wasn't always there when I was home. I narrowly avoided her murdering me last week by sneaking into Layla's recital at the last second, which was a minor miracle. I needed to figure something out soon because I was struggling to keep it all straight and something was bound to slip.

"Marco, do we have any locations yet?" I scratched my forehead.

Marco let out a long sigh. "Nothing yet. As far as I can tell, they haven't come farther north than DC, but that doesn't explain why we found this girl."

"Unless it's someone else." I pursed my lips. "A copycat?"

"It's Almieda." Angelo said, stone faced.

"Okay. Send Hawk and Gigs to DC. I want eyes on him. And lets..." I was interrupted by my office door flying open, and when I saw who was behind it, I nearly had a heart attack.

Axel.

I hadn't seen Axel in six years and here he was, standing in my doorway, with that same evil grin.

"You motherfuckers better get some better security in here. They just let anyone walk right on up." He chuckled, sauntering in with his hands in his pockets.

"Well, I'll be damned." Angelo shook his head, echoing my sentiments

"What the fuck are you doing here?" I chuckled, slapping him on the back and pulling him for a hug.

Axel smirked. "I heard my little cousin got married and forgot to tell me. What is that bullshit?"

"Well, if I had known how to get ahold of you..." I shrugged. When he disappeared six years ago, he hadn't let so much as a mailing address, and this was the first time I had seen him since then.

"I know, I know." He held his hands up in defense. "I'm sorry. I've been knee deep in MS-13 shit out in LA, and just ended the case a month or so ago. Man, am I glad to be out of that shit show." He shook his head, making himself comfortable in the chair behind my desk.

Axel was an ex gang banger turned undercover cop. At twenty-two, he was stupid, trying to prove himself to a shot caller on the West coast. The guy had Axel running a route from San Diego to the Baja twice a month, delivering guns and ammo to another gang in Mexico. They found him with enough product to put him away for twenty-five years. He was lucky, though and caught a detective with a bigger vendetta than guns and ammo. Axel was exactly what he was looking for. A crazy mother fucker who gangs wouldn't bat an eye at. Within weeks, he had Axel infiltrating come of the biggest, baddest gangs on the West coast, starting with the very one he had been working for. That was thirteen years ago now, and some of the biggest gang arrests in the nation could be attributed to Axel.