“So,” Nixon scooted a mug toward me and filled it high with pure black goodness. “You ready for today?”
I shrugged. “Not really sure what I’m ready for… since you guys won’t tell me shit.”
Chase sat down on my other side. “Think of it like this, those guys run the school, but it’s more than that. If it was just some pricks with power trips we’d be okay with it — we, being the Abandonatos, since we own the school.”
“But they’re clearly killing students for shits and giggles,” I said over the steam billowing out of my cup. “And clearly they’re related to Petrov.”
“Andrei is his last remaining son — twenty-one, enrolled the minute he found out that we killed his informant, Xavier.”
El’s ex-husband.
Tyrant.
Idiot.
I balled my hands into tight fists as my blood roared for justice.
“It’s not just that,” Nixon re-filled his coffee cup. “They’re trying to make a show that the Italians are out — they’re trying to build up their own sad pathetic little Chicago gang, just like the one in New York.”
“Shit.” I suddenly wasn’t so hungry. “That’s… great news.”
“Most of Petrov’s money was seized during the FBI raid last year. Nikolai helped us rain hell and they’ve sworn retribution ever since. Up until now they’ve lacked the money to do it,” Chase chimed in. “And yet somehow, operations started again on the East Coast, they’re selling anything and everything, getting in large shipments from Mexico and Canada and here’s the really fun part, they’re distributing to the student body.”
A headache pulse behind my ears. “So they’ve continued operations even though there technically is no leader except for a twenty-one-year-old shit that thinks he can build his own army by giving people free drugs and putting students who aren’t tough enough in body bags? Did I miss anything?”
Nixon shrugged like it was a normal Tuesday. “It’s all the intel we have.”
Chase stood. “It’s our city.”
“Damn right it is.” Nixon swore. “I want them wiped out.”
My eyebrows shot up. “And when you say wiped out—”
“Let me be very clear.” Nixon’s nostrils flared. “I would like you to infiltrate their pathetic little gang, gain their trust, do whatever you have to do like you did last night and pick them off one by fucking one. Got it?”
I shrugged and took a long sip of coffee. “Consider it done.”
Nixon hung his head then sat back into his chair like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders, then again as boss, he probably did.
It was why I never wanted the job.
Why I was pissed that I was even up for it.
Because the only reason I was back in Chicago was to be groomed to take over the family that my father should have taken over — but didn’t.
The Alferos.
My name said Nicolasi.
Just like my father’s name said Nicolasi.
But before he was ever part of that crime family.
He and his brother Frank, led the Alferos.
They were in love with the same woman.
And because Frank messed up in the biggest way possible — he gave his wife up — to his brother, the woman he loved.
And when you love someone, kids soon follow, right?
Disgusted I shoved my plate of food away. “What about El?”
Nixon frowned. “What about her?”
“She’s at school, she’s going to know something’s going on.”
“She’s smart.” Nixon nodded slowly. “So your best bet, is to make sure that when it comes to picking sides — she’s on ours.”
“How long until someone…” I couldn’t even get it out. “Until Phoenix finds someone—”
“This week,” Chase interrupted. “We’re getting a little visit from our favorite cousins, yay,” his words dripped with sarcasm. “Look, it blows that we have to do it this way, but that’s the mafia, she either goes back to the Russians and dies, or stays under our protection and marries someone who will at least let her live her life.”
“That’s not life.” I clenched my teeth.
“No,” Nixon said after a pause. “But it’s the best we can do.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
El
DANTE WANTED TO drive us to school.
I didn’t have the strength to argue, I was still exhausted even though I’d somehow had the best sleep I’d ever had in my entire life. I had dreams of Dante putting a blanket over me when I got cold, and the dream shifted into something more heated that had me tangled in my sheets and sweaty. And most of all confused about what it meant.
“I have somewhere to be this morning,” Dante said in his usual indifferent yet always chilly tone. “I’ll meet you after class.”
I gulped and looked out the window. “Are you meeting them? The guys from last night?”
Silence.
I tried again. “What if it’s four against one? What if they want to hurt you?”
“Then I’ll hurt them right back.” He oozed confidence as he maneuvered the car through the open iron gates.
I should have expected that sort of answer.
“Okay,” I said once we parked.
I reached for my messenger bag just as Dante cursed under his breath.
The guys were waiting for us.
I kept my expression blank.
“They touch you, you let me handle it. Everything I’m about to say is going to be a lie, understand?”
“How will I know when you’re telling the truth,” I fired back before grabbing the handle to the door.
He shoved the keys in his pocket and grabbed my arm, twisting me back in my seat until I was pressed against the soft leather, his face inches from mine.
“I will never lie to your face.” He blinked slowly, his cool blue eyes assessing. “My only tell, is that if I lie to you, I look below your eyes, above your eyes, near your eyes,” he touched one side of my face. “And I might even look through your eyes, but I will never look at the soul behind them. You’ll know I’m lying because I won’t be speaking to your soul, El.”
He jerked away and opened the car door.
I let out a rough exhale and followed.
All four guys stood with an equal distance of space between them. The Eagle Elite uniforms looked foreign on them.
Black pants.
White button-down shirts with an eagle insignia on the pocket, with sleeves rolled up past their elbows and no jackets.
I wondered if the reason they made us wear white was so the staff could see blood easier.
I kept my head high as Andrei, gave me a once over and winked.
“Do that again,” Dante said in a low voice. “And you won’t like the results.”
One of the guys to Andrei’s right snickered only to get smacked in the chest by Andrei.
“We didn’t get a chance to speak last night,” Andrei said, his eyes roamed over me as if he had every right to look. He was attractive, some may even way hot, but his eyes were cold, and I knew what it was like to share a bed with someone who had no soul.
They screwed you in order to steal yours.
They were men who liked to have woman beneath them.
Men who found their power in making others feel weak.
They weren’t men at all. They were monsters.