Trapped in his End Game (Series)

I drive past the restaurant before looping around to find parking.

Fuck it. If they want to kill us, they wouldn’t make it so obvious.

I stop the car, and Jack and I share a look before we exit. Whatever happens, happens. Put everything behind you.

Several street lamps are busted, shrouding the sidewalk in darkness. The low visibility makes me nervous. If I can’t see anything, I can’t protect Jack. I already almost failed him once at the restaurant. Jack and I don’t say anything as we approach the darkened windows. Gambini’s. I can barely make it out.

I reach out and open the door, expecting a rain of bullets, screams, something, not a fat asshole patting me down for weapons. He takes my glock and finds the piece strapped to my leg.

“Vince-Jack,” the guard nods at both of us.

I’m too full of energy to say anything. I nod at him and step inside.

It’s a small restaurant. Looks homey-very traditional, old school Italian. The cliched red and white-checkered tablecloths cover the small tables. Wooden chairs surround the quaint tables. They look like they were made for smaller people, because Tony looks so large in the chair.

“Hey guys, take a seat.”

Tony, the fat fuck, sits behind one of the round tables. He doesn’t even get out of his chair as we approach.

Disrespectful fuck.

His captains, who are seated around him, glower at me. George, the consigliere, sits at Tony’s right. There’s a bottle of wine on the table with no label, a couple of glasses and white plates. Big heaps of ziti sit on the plate in front of Tony. He digs into it with his fork, his hand almost swallowing the silverware. It’s so quiet, that the only sounds I hear are the clatter of Tony’s fork against the plate and his chewing.

To my relief, I spot John seated at the table with his protection flanking him. Johnny French, they call him, or “Frenchie” to his back. He isn’t really French, but like most Italians who grow up in Montreal, he speaks it fluently.

My feathers settle down somewhat. Good. I feel a little less naked.

Johnny stands up and embraces Jack. “How are you?”

“Not bad, not bad. This is Vince.”

“Ah, the hothead. I’ve heard about you.”

John winks at me, trying to get me to relax, but I can’t.

“Relax, Vince.”

I can’t relax, not when I’m staring at the man who almost had me and Adriana killed. Not to mention my mother, for fuck’s sake. I’m regretting the suggestion for this sit-down already.

Jack grunts as he sits down in the chair. He’s still in pain from the surgery, but he keeps his back straight. From the outside looking in, he looks just fine. It wouldn’t do to show any of these assholes weakness. I take my place behind him. One of the captains, a guy my age, sneers at me from across the room.

Fuck you, too.

“Let’s get down to business, shall we?” Johnny suggests.

“Thanks for coming down, John.”

The two bosses stare at each other from across the table.

“Okay,” Jack relents. “I’ll start. You came into our restaurant while we were surrounded by family members and you tried to end us. Well, we’re still fucking here and we want an end to all of this violence. It’s bad for business and it makes us look like savages to those in the old country.”

Tony barely looks up from his plate as Jack talks. He shrugs. “And?”

I’m already bristling from his fucking attitude.

“And what?”

“What, you’re going to act like nothing’s wrong while that piece of shit stands behind you? First, he beats the shit out of my made guy. Now his brother and another one of my guys are missing. I hear you, Jack, but we have a fucking problem as far as he’s concerned.”

I tense behind Jack as Tony’s small eyes flash malevolently towards me.

“He disrespected our family at one of our games. He was violent towards one of the dealers. I was there and saw all of it. Vincent’s response may have been a little overboard, but he tried to make it right.”

Tony sneers at me. “Look at you, hiding behind your fuckin’ boss like a coward.”

I move around Jack and lunge towards Tony, but Jack grabs my arm.

“I can fucking speak for myself, Jack!” I turn back towards Tony as hatred boils through my veins. “Yeah, I beat the piece of shit to a pulp, and I’d do it again. He was way out of line. Then when I try to make it right, you assholes threaten to rape my fiancee.”

He has an irritating little smirk. I’d like to reach across the table and rip his fat fucking head off.

“I had to retaliate. I could have killed him. I didn’t.”

I did him a fucking favor.

Tony blinks. “You broke half the teeth in his mouth. How am I supposed to respond when you keep attacking my guys? Two of them are missing.” He gives me a pointed glare.Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.

“Well, I don’t know anything about that!” I snarl into Tony’s face.

Like fuck, I don’t. I put several rounds in his chest and head. I’d do it again, and again, and again. As for the asshole who threatened Adriana, he had it fucking coming. Fuck them all.

One of the captains leaning against the wall, the one who eye-fucked me earlier, straightens. “Watch your fucking tone, asshole.”

Jack gives me a quelling look before he turns his attention back to Tony. “Tony, we’re not here to argue with you. We’re here to put everything behind us and work towards a solution.”

“Yeah, ’cause you’re dying left and right.”

“Hey,” he snaps, looking angry for the first time tonight. “I could have gone to friends of ours in the old country, but I didn’t. I’m trying to make things work between our families before we kill each other. This conflict is destructive to both of our businesses, whether or not you’d like to admit it.”

The New Jersey boss sets down his fork and shoves aside his plate. One of his soldiers takes it away immediately as he takes a small sip of wine, stirring the glass and sniffing as if tasting Jack’s proposal. “I’m willing to discuss terms with you, but I have two missing men, Jack.”

“Yeah, and you killed several of mine, not to mention two of Vince’s cousins.”

That fat asshole looks up from the table, looking at me. A smile stretches over his grotesque face like a jack-o-lantern.

My hands shake at my side.

“Adriana Baldino,” he says suddenly.

“What’s she got to do with anything?” I ask defensively.

Jack gives me another enraged look.

“Her family owes us a lot of debts, not to mention her father almost fucked us over when he agreed to testify.”

The captain who told me to settle down shifts suddenly, I see his arms cross out of the corner of my eye.

I don’t like where this is going.

“I’ll pay whatever debts she owes.”

That can’t be all.

His eyes roll towards me. “No.”

The breath catches in my throat and my heart plummets. “No? What do you mean, no?”

“She’s going to earn it herself, by working in one of my casinos. I hear that she’s a good dealer, and I want her.”

“NO!”

Jack stands up, his face furious as he grabs my arms and yanks me down into a chair. “Sit the fuck down,” he growls in my ear.

“She has nothing to do with this!”

The boss is unaffected by my rage. He calmly grabs a cigar from inside his jacket and lights it laboriously. Sparks fly and smoke surrounds him, making him look like a cartoon villain. He waves the cloud of smoke away.

“I don’t give a fuck. This is payback for your fuckin’ attitude. In addition, you’re going to give me twenty percent of your action.”

Desperation crushes my lungs and I lean over the table, staring at him. “Tony, since when do we bring women in this?”

Ignoring me, he turns to Jack. “She’ll be working closely with one of my captains.”

“Who?”

He gestures towards the man in the back, who told me off for yelling at his boss. He steps forward, wearing a fitted suit. Dark blue. Light brown hair and deep blue eyes. He looks a few years older than me. I haven’t really heard anything about him.

“Carmine Lucchesi.”

The look he gives me is one I recognize. That dead-eyed, vacant look I see in so many of my soldiers. He hides his brutality well under his charming smile, which he gives to Jack.

With the faintest note of a sneer, he talks to me, “Your girl is quite popular. Stories about her reached all the way to Jersey. I’m excited to meet her.”

Something snaps. I lunge across the table, intent on punching every part of his body. The chair knocks to the floor and Carmine laughs as I grab his jacket. Someone slams me in the solar plexus and all the air is knocked out of my lungs. They wrap an arm around my throat and yank me back. Stars burst in my vision as my air is cut off. The arm disappears and I gulp down air.

“Go fuck yourself!”

Carmine sneers at my rage, adjusting his suit as his soldiers pull my arms back so far that I feel like they’re going to pop out of my sockets.

“Get him the fuck out of here!”

Tony looks bored as he waves off the men. “Leave him be. Carmine, don’t provoke him.”

They let me go and I’m overcome with an urge to reach into my jacket and blow that piece of shit to pieces, but they already frisked me. What the fuck is his problem?

Jack tries to cover for me, apologizing for me as if I’m a fucking five year old.

“I’m sorry, Tony. He’s a bit of a hothead.”

“Yeah. Aren’t we all?”

“I think that’s it then.”

They shake hands and I swallow my disgust. I stalk towards the exit, my shoulders shaking as I take the weapons back from the guard. I’m hoping that the asshole will follow me outside, but he doesn’t. Instead, Jack joins me, gripping my arm painfully.

“What the fuck happened to keeping a cool head, eh?”

I rip my arm out of his grasp impatiently, keeping my voice low because we’re still in earshot of the restaurant. “In case you didn’t fucking notice, that asshole talked about making a pass to my fiancee.”

“I don’t give a fuck what he said. Tony has a hard on for you, why are you making it so easy for him?”

The pressure builds up in my chest until I can’t take it anymore. “We look like a bunch of fucking assholes! What the fuck is this deal? Bringing my fiancee into this?”

Jack takes my arm again, forcing me to stop. I look around into his eyes, which look glazed over with pain. I remind myself that he just got discharged and that he’s probably still in a lot of pain. It took a lot out of him to meet the Rizzos, but it needed to be done. He couldn’t look weak.

“I realized something when I got shot in that restaurant. I don’t give a fuck about pride or ego-I just want to live. You want her to live, don’t you?”

The brief image of her lifeless body is enough to build pressure behind my eyes. “Of course, I do.”

When I look in Jack’s haunted eyes, I know that I’ll do whatever it takes to keep her safe, even if she hates me for it.

“We came very, very close to dying, Vinny. All of us-the whole family could be wiped out if we go to war with Tony. We need to make sacrifices to survive, or we’ll all die.”

I love her too much to take risks. It doesn’t matter how many times she goes to work for Carmine, as long as she comes home to me.

I’m still not okay with it.

Finally, I nod at him. “All right. I’ll tell her.”

But she’ll never forgive me.