Bound to the Crime Lord (Dark Mafia Tales #2)

Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

Manuel’s POV

S he was avoiding me. I could tell from the way she was behaving.

Fuck .

I stared at my phone like a hopeless teenage boy waiting for the girl he wanted to text back. She was picking up extra shifts at the clinic and sleeping at the hospital.

The sex had been good; had it been bad, she would be speaking to me right now. She was scared it was so good that she wanted more, and so did I.

One simple taste of her was not enough for me. I wanted more. I craved her the same way a dehydrated man craved water.

“Dammit, amor .” She had my head in a fucking bind.

There had never been a moment in my life where I had been left by a woman in the morning. They were always the ones clinging onto me to stay longer. How had the innocent doctor managed to play me and make me the desperate one?

I stared at myself on the mirrored wall of the elevator.

I walked down the hallway as I made my way to the office.

I stared at Juliette’s name, willing myself to not call her like a deranged teenager.

“Morning, Boss,” Leo greeted.

“Morning, Leo.”

“Savina and Andres Valdez are here to see you, Boss.” Leo stood at my door, holding guard. “I took them inside.”

Fuck. I forgot about those two meeting me. It had been such a spur-of-the-moment meeting that I didn’t even think of it. My mind was littered with all things… doctor .

“ Gra?ias , Leo.” I stood at the door and pocketed my phone. Juliette would have to wait for now. I had business to attend to.

I walked into my office and found Savina and Andres sitting on the leather loveseat. Andres had a glass of whiskey in hand, while his wife sat beside him rubbing her round belly.

I never thought I would see the day when Savina Baratelli softened, but married life had done wonders to her calloused persona. She had been known in the mafia world as the she-devil. She made even the most heinous of the Brotherhood look like girls scouts.

“Andres, stealing my liquor I see.” I sat on the armchair that was directly opposite them. I then turned my attention to the ever-glowing Savina. “Savina, I see your child has dulled your thorns.”

She scowled at my comment. “I will still slice your balls clean off your dick, Gomez. Watch yourself.”

“I only tease.” I held up my hands. “Now, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?”

“Don’t act like you aren’t swimming in hot water, Manuel. I’ve heard about The Triad.” Andres sipped on the whiskey and looked me dead in the eye. “Pesky little ones, aren’t they?”

I ground my teeth together. “Get to your point, Valdez. Surely, you didn’t travel all the way here for you to simply offer your sympathies to me.”

The side of Andres’ lips tilted upward. “I have information. Some that may be of use to you.”

“What do you want in return, Andres? I know you haven’t come all this way to tell me this in person.”

“Smart man. I knew I always liked you.”

“Out with it.”

“I’m looking for someone. But I need clearance to search the area myself.”

This piqued my interest. “And you have reason to believe that this person is in my territory?”

“It’s likely. I just need to make sure. And if I’m quite frank, I don’t trust your men to search for me. This is a rather sensitive issue.”

“Who is it?” If he had come here to trade important information, this person had to be very important to him, which meant they could be useful to me. “Maybe I know them.”

Savina huffed, rubbing her belly affectionately, but her eyes held the fire of a thousand suns. “I doubt you do, Gomez. Now, enough of this back and forth. Can we strike a deal or not?”

I looked between the golden mafia couple. Their wedding made headlines in our world. No one had ever formed an alliance quite this strong in a very long time. They were a force to be reckoned with, and yet here they were, trying to garner a deal with little old me.

If my head weren’t caving in on itself, I would have enjoyed the moment more.

“Fine, you have passage in my area. I will let my men know.” I leaned back in my chair. “Now tell me this information you have.”

“The Triads originates from Mexico, a small village called Guadalajara, a town I’m sure you’re very familiar with.” Savina spoke this time. “We have reason to believe that they were the ones who killed your mother.”

My heart skipped a beat, but I kept my body composed. “And how do you know this information?”

“We found one of their boys working a corner in the Upper East Side— my territory. I don’t take kindly to intruders. So, I worked him for information.”

Worked him meant that she’d tortured him until he’d finally spoken. I wondered if he was still alive. Savina didn’t like to keep those who crossed her breathing.

“I see.” This information was rather valuable to me. I had been stuck trying to figure out where the fuck they were coming from. They were like freaking hydra. You cut off one head and then two more would grow in its place. They were an infestation that was long overdue for extermination.

“Right,” Savina tapped her husband, “my son is kicking my ribs and I need to get the hell out of this dress. Amore mio , help me, please.”

Andres got to his feet and helped his pregnant wife up. “Just give me a second, cara mia .”

She nodded and looked my way. “I would say it was lovely to see you, but then I would be lying.”

“Always a pleasure, Savina.” I stood to my feet and smiled. “I do hope you have a safe delivery. You’re carrying the mafia prince, after all.”

She rolled her eyes at the title. She had been dubbed the Ice Queen from the moment she took over from her father. And her husband was known as the Prince of Death. They were mafia royalty—our version of Charles and Diana, without the tragic end, of course.

Savina walked out of the study, leaving me with her husband. We stood in silence for a long moment, neither one of us willing to break the thick tension.

“There is more,” he said ominously. “It’s about your mother. She never cheated on your father. In fact, she had been loyal to him from start to finish. She was drugged and raped by links within The Triad. It was all a setup to wound your family.”

The amount of information being thrown my way was a lot to take in in one sitting. I was still trying to process the fact that the biggest thorn in my side originated from my hometown.

I was trying to keep a straight train of thought, but my mind was going at a million miles per minute. Not to mention this headache that just seemed to stick no matter how many drugs I threw at it.

So, instead of speaking, I stepped forward and offered my hand to Andres.

“You look like shit, by the way.” Andres shook my hand. “You should get some sleep.”

I wanted to flip him the bird, but he was right. I felt like my entire body was on fire.

“Still looking better than you, Valdez,” I shot back, but my delivery was not strong enough. “Just so you know, I still think you’re an ass. But thank you for the information on The Triad.”

“Of course. Think of it as payment for your show of mercy to my brother after the incident a few years back.”

Ah yes, there was that one moment when his little brother had nearly started an all-out war between the Spanish and the Mexicans. Had I not stepped in, our families would have been feuding to this very day.

“Debt paid.” I released his hand. “How is your brother?”

“Valerio is… well.” He didn’t sound convincing. “He took my father’s betrayal harder than I did. But it’s to be expected. My brother lives and breathes the Code. It’s in his DNA, and he never strays from its laws. So, when my father did what he did, I knew that he would find it hard. Our papa drilled the Code into us, he told us to honor it and live it. And for him to turn around and spit that very Code back in our faces… It was hard.”

On paper, we were bred to be enemies. We were from two opposing families, and there were times we did indeed look at each other like we were competitors. But there was no one else who better understood what it was like to head a Brotherhood like Andres and Valerio.

From the moment we took our first breath, we inherited enemies, wars, and death. Those were our inheritances, and would be the inheritance of our children to come. It was a dark and twisted circle that would repeat for as long as the Brotherhood stood.

This world was hard, even for devils like ourselves.

Andres left, leaving me in an empty office.

I tried to get through the rest of my workday, but whatever had attacked me in the morning was winning the fight within my body.

I needed to go home.

Between me leaving the office and making my way to the penthouse, I could only remember walking through the door and not making it further than the couch in the living room.

Sweat beaded my forehead and my heart pounded heavily in the middle of my chest. I rarely ever got sick, and of all times for me to be taken down by a microscopic pathogen, it would be the day I learned of my mother’s assassination.

The last thing I remembered before unconsciousness finally pulled me into her cold embrace was that my enemy was far closer to home than I realized.