Imperatrix

chapter 10

They had arrived Paris only two hours ago. Lucas, Dimitri, Angela, and Jose accompanied her. They were at the house in Stalingrad, an area people avoided because they thought it harbored criminal activities. And it did, but of course they did not need to know that.

Jack had been told that the gang in Paris wanted to meet her, so there she was, in a room full of men staring at her. She saw their reactions when she entered, disbelief, disgust, anger, some idiots had lust. She could understand how they were feeling. Not every man liked having to answer to a woman. It made them feel less. Milo introduced her, and they all stared in shock. No one said anything for a minute until someone decided to break the silence.

“No way!” someone spat, and all eyes turned to the owner of the voice.

“Amine!” Milo warned. Milo was the underboss in France. He headed all operations in the country. He had accepted Jacks position quietly, and she appreciated it, even though she did not show it. She did not wish to fight with her own people, she wanted her focus to be on getting Andrea.

“No way!” Amine repeated, “I can’t have a woman as boss. That’s bullshit!” he said getting up and shoving his chair so hard it fell. That was a blatant disrespect to the boss. He had already disrespected Jack by refusing to listen to Milo. Everyone looked at her, waiting for her to react. What she did now determined if they would respect her or betray her. She decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.

“Sit down,” the older man warned.

“No, I’m out,” he said walking to the door.

A gun clicked, and he froze, “One more step and I’ll blow your brains out,” Jack said speaking for the first time. Amine slowly turned to face her, fear, and a little bit of anger evident in his eyes. “You know the rules Amine,” Jack said, her voice deathly still. She rose from her seat slowly, the gun still pointed at him, “You are either in, or you are out. Choose your pick.”

Amine swallowed; his eyes were hard. Out meant to die. He knew the rules, you could never leave the mafia. Once you were in, you were in for life. All he had to was swallow his pride and sit back down, but he could not even do that. He looked her in the eye as he spoke, “I would never ser...”

He never got to finish the sentence as the shot rang out and his body fell to the floor with a thump.

“Someone clean that mess,” Dimitri commanded.

Jack lowered her hand and looked each man in the eye. She did not care, if they did not have respect for her, then fear will have to do. She had not done anything wrong by killing him. It was their law, and he chose to die. It was his choice.

“Its such a pity that our dearly departed brother couldn’t stay with us. But I would like to know, I am giving you a choice. Will you stay here and serve me faithfully as you served my father, or do you want to join him?” she asked gesturing to Amine’s body.

“My father has just died, my family is still in mourning. I do not wish to fight any fool who thinks he cannot take orders. Our focus should be on getting the man that killed our boss, and I would like to do that without any further interruptions. So please, if you have anything to say then by all means, say it now.”

She waited for some minutes, and when no one spoke or stood, she continued, “Very well then. My name is Jacqueline Cabrera, but please call me Jack. I am the new boss and Dimitri remains second in command. Now as you all know, we are here for the annual meeting which takes place tomorrow. I expect that the other lords will not be pleased, which means we should be ready for anything.

We have found out that Andrea Regio, the Italian, is responsible for the death of my father. I know I should not take laws into my hands, but I do not care. Tomorrow, we will take Andrea and avenge Dominic.” There were murmurs of approval among the men.

“The Italians will retaliate, and I am fully prepared for that. Any questions?”

There were none. By the end of her speech, the looks of disgust she had received had changed to respect. She turned to Dimitri and Milo who had stood behind her the whole time, “I want every inch of the building swept clean of every device.”

“Done boss,” Milo said and left.

************

Jack spent minutes searching for something suitable to wear. All she found were short dresses, leather, jeans. Nothing formal.

“Who the hell organised my closet!” she yelled frustratedly flinging cloth after cloth onto her bed. Angy popped her head in.

“Uh, I did, sorry. I was asked to fill your closets weeks before you came home. I didn’t know what you liked, so I just put a little bit of everything,” Angy explained.

“Who asked you to?”

“Dom…” Angy trailed off and looked away. It was a sour topic for them all, they did not talk about it.

“Just find me something,” Jack said massaging her temple.

Angy left and came back holding a dark blue pants suit still wrapped in its cover. Jack snatched it out of her hand and wore the pants, but when she reached for the shirt, there was none.

“Where’s the shirt?” she asked extremely annoyed.

Angy pulled out a dark brown shirt and handed it over to Jack.

Jack stared, “You have got to be kidding me. How does this match!” Jack half yelled. How did blue and brown match?!

“Oh! It doesn’t, sorry,” Angy whispered.

Jack rubbed her brows, “I swear to God if you weren’t my friend, I would have slapped you,” Jack said as she took out a white tank top to wear. “This will have to do.”

“We are friends?” Angy asked, her eyes shining like those anime things she watched.

Jack ignored her as she applied her makeup and wore her wig and blue contacts. She brushed the blond hair and left it in its lob style and wore her jacket, she did not button it. She pulled on white stiletto heels and slipped her ring onto her finger, flexing her hand. Then she grabbed her phone on her way out, she did not need the file anymore, she had studied everything.

Lucas sat beside her in the Chevrolet jeep, Dimitri sat in the passenger seat, and Jose drove. Anna followed in the car behind them. Jack kept twisting the ring on her right hand as they drove.

“Nervous?” Lucas asked noticing her gesture. She shook her head and looked out the window.

“I just want to get this over with,” she whispered softly. She did not know how she was going to react when she saw Andreas.

Was she going to fly across the table and choke him? Or was she going to act cool and collected?

They arrived at the five-star hotel, and Jack alighted. Her eyes scanned the tops of the nearby buildings and she saw her men in position. Good. She stared up at the tall building, her head having to go all the way back to see the top.

“Today could either go well or terribly,” Lucas said, and she nodded. Bravely, she walked into the building prepared to face anything the mafia lords threw at her.

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So, tell me guys, do you want her to launch herself at Andrea and squeeze the life out of him? I know I would like that.

Comment your thoughts.

And if you are reading this, can you pls drop a freaking hi so I know it's people and not ghosts reading? C'mon guys, it's heartbreaking.

And if you don't want Jack to shoot you, vote!