The Colt & The Cobra - THE SPECTER SERIES [book six]

Chapter NINE

Mikki De'lucca

"You don't wanna do this, Bodyguard.. Little puttana ain't worth whatever you think she is.. She ain't worth shit.." Vinny laughs bitterly, keeping his piercing, dark eyed stare on you, even as he waves a hand at the others, signaling them to lower their weapons.. It doesn't take a genius to work out that Vinny has been ordered to bring you back alive.. "He won't pay.. If ya lookin' for a ransome.. Angelo don't negotiate.."

Vinny is lying, you know for a fact, the Godfather would do anything to keep you under his control.. To keep you quiet.. To keep you in the chains that have held you for as long as you can remember..

But if your father has truly discovered what you did you are in trouble.. Big trouble..

Even at the time you know it was a batshit-mental scheme, to feed information on your father's incoming drug shipments to the DEA, and in return coax Oliver into agreeing to act as a middle man and help you hire a Bratva hitman to take Angelo out..

Yeah.. Angelo would pay whatever price necessary for the satisfaction of killing you himself for your treachery..

It's a betrayal could never forgive..

Retrospectively, you see now it was always a terrible plan and Oliver had warned you as much, even as he eyed you appreciatively and commented on how ballsy you were to attempt it..

But your thirst for revenge far outweighs your common sense.. It has for too long.. A spiteful, insatiable need that lives in your nightmares..

You are the catalyst to the messed up chain of events unfurling all around you..

And you can't stop it..

Colt takes a side step, dragging you along with him inching you back towards the pickup.. "Bullshit.. He'll pay alright.. You tell him I'll be in touch.."

Vinny takes a cautious following pace, his confident facade slipping.. "Mick!? You can't--" He almost pleads with you to do something, though what exactly you are supposed to do, you have no idea..

You're not about to fight against the six foot wall offl muscle who could snap your neck with one twist, currently holding you hostage with a glock to your head.. You aren't that fucking crazy!

Still you understand you cousin's desperate fear..
For Vinny, returning home to the Godfather empty handed will certainly earn him a punishment of some kind.. And in the Mob, mercy doesn't exist and punishment is brutal.. Nothing is off limits.. Including Vinny's wife.. Jacqueline..

See, that is how Angelo works.. He finds the thing that is most important to somebody, the thing they can't live without, the person they would die for.. And he leans on them.. Sometimes he leans so hard, they break.. Jaqui has already been interrogated and tortured by Angelo once for Vinny's failures, and the poor girl had never been the same..

You hate that your decisions will affect her.. You feel more selfish now than you ever have.. Why couldn't you just suck it up?.. Accept your fate and fall in line.. Now more people will be hurt..

It wasn't supposed to be this way..

"I'm sorry, Vin.. You know I didn't want this.." The strangled warble of your own voice sounds so unfamiliar to your ears..

You understand exactly what Vinny is afraid of.. Because you lived it.. The person you loved most is gone.. And now you have nothing.. Less than nothing.. And you wouldn't wish that kind of agony upon your enemies, let alone your own cousin.. Even if he is a power-hungry, smug little prick you'd like to smack in the mouth..