Code of Silence: A Mafia Romance (The Dark Kingdom Book 1)

A SILENCE FALLS over the large room. Both men stare at me with murderous eyes and fisted hands. I feel I may get sick. Again. I managed to hold my stomach while I stood in Rossi’s … my father’s office at the wedding chapel/funeral home, but the moment I left and took a breath of fresh air, I lost everything I had eaten yesterday in the parking lot.

“He’s lying.” Bones shakes his head.

“He said there was a DNA test. That my mother has it.” I didn’t want to believe him, but the way he spoke about me. About my mother. As much as I wanted to deny it, I couldn’t.

“That doesn’t mean shit,” Bones argues.

“Why in the fuck would you go and see him without telling me?” Luca finally finds his voice, yelling at me. “Do you have any idea what he could have done to you?”

“He doesn’t want to hurt me.”

“Bullshit!” he shouts.

I flinch but shake my head. “He wants to hurt you. He thinks I can help with that.”

“How so?” Bones inquires.

“He thinks you’re forcing me to marry you.”

Like a rubber band, something snaps in Luca, and he comes for me. But Bones jumps between us and places his hands up to stop him. “It’s believable. Have you seen the pictures circulating in the media of your engagement party? Haven looks every bit pissed off at you. As if she even loathes you. He could be buying it because it did come out of nowhere. For two years, the media has been talking about your absence, then you show up, and poof, you’re engaged.”

I don’t state the obvious—that I did hate him at that point. That this is a contract. Luca may love me, but I’m still just a pawn in a game.

“What else did he say?” Bones goes on, keeping his back to me. He’s so tall that I can’t even see over him. So I stare at the bloody skull that covers up the entire back of his Kingdom T-shirt.

“He made a deal with my father. And he informed me that all I had to do was show up at the wedding, and he would take care of everyone there. It was going to be like shooting fish in a barrel. And I wouldn’t be married off to a Bianchi.”

I can’t let him kill Luca. I love him. But the Kings? They have nothing to do with this feud the Bianchi family has with the Rossi family. Not that I know of. Yes, they’re hated by most because of how powerful they are in this city, but that doesn’t mean they should die. I grew up with them. I don’t want their dead bodies on my conscience.

“And what did you tell him?” Bones goes on.

“What do you mean?” My voice shakes.

He turns around, and his blue eyes glare down at me. “I mean what did you tell him?”

“I told him what he wanted to hear,” I admit, and my shoulders fall. “That I would do as he said. I thought if I lied, I could buy you all time. A plan.”

He nods and then steps away from me. My eyes now staring at Luca standing before me.

“Anything else he said that we can use?” Bones asks.

I look at him instead of Luca. “Yeah, he said he has eyes and ears everywhere. Even at Kingdom.”

Bones doesn’t waste a second; he pulls out his cell, dials up a number, and puts it to his ear. “Flush the system.” Then he hangs up after giving whoever it was an order. Without another word, he exits, shutting me and Luca in the large room that seems to shrink by the second.

“I’m sorry,” I say, hating the silence.

I take a step toward him, but when he steps back, tears fill my eyes. “I can’t help who I am,” I croak out.

His brows pull together. “You think I’m mad at you because he’s filled your head with lies?” He shakes his head. “I’m pissed at you because you went behind my back. To a man who hates me and my family. My fucking name alone could get you killed! I’m a dead man to most in this city.” He runs his hand through his hair aggressively. “Fuck! I thought you were smarter than this.”

“I needed to know,” I cry.

“Know what?” he screams. “About your biological mother? Since when do you fucking care about that?”

“About you!” I shout back, fisting my hands. “He started our conversation about you. How you owned Glass. How you were keeping secrets from me. He promised me answers. They just weren’t what I wanted.”

Giving me his back, he lets out a long breath, trying to calm his anger. He begins to pace back and forth. “He said he and your father have a deal?”

I don’t miss how he avoids talking about him and this club. “Yes.”

Pulling out his cell, he types out a quick message and then places it back in his pocket. “Did he say he would see you again?” he asks through clenched teeth.

“Not until the wedding.”

He nods once. “Is he planning on keeping in contact?”

I shake my head. “He didn’t say.”

He comes over to me and taking my upper arm, he ushers me out of the room and locks the office door behind us.

LUCA

She stays silent while I drive her back to our house. As soon as the car comes to a stop, I pull out my cell and send a text.

Me: Get your ass home. Now!

Nite reads it immediately and responds.

Nite: Yes, sir.

“Go straight to our room and do not leave,” I tell her.

She stops and turns to face me. “Luca—”

“For the love of God, Haven, do as you’re told. Just this once!” I shout.

She lifts her chin, crosses her arms over her chest, and storms up the stairs to our bedroom. I go straight to my office and open my gun safe. Pulling out my silencer, I tighten it on the end of my barrel and sit down behind my desk just as my door opens. My two newest bodyguards enter, both laughing like hyenas as they sit down across from me.

“Hey, Boss, what do you think about …?”

I shoot him in the head, then the other next to him. They both sit there dead. Their necks bent back at an odd angel from the force of my bullets at such a close range and blood dripping from their wounds onto my carpet. I’ll have it ripped up tonight and replaced by tomorrow morning. Their arms hang down off the sides of the chairs.

They were rats.

They worked for Rossi. They had to be the ones. He told Haven he would create a diversion, and I never got a call that she was leaving the house. I never got a notification that my driver took her anywhere. They had set it all up. She never mentioned that she saw them, so they weren’t personally involved. He just made sure to put them in the right position to give him what he wanted. Her. And they knew that she went to see her mother yesterday. I had them follow her and bring her back. Maybe they informed him they overheard her talking to her mother, and he got spooked, needed to make a play. Add that to the fact I raided his chapel, and it’s all making sense.

I pull out my cell. It rings three times before the man answers. “Luca …”

“I flushed the system,” I tell Titan.

“Take their phones. I’m sure they have to check in. We don’t want to alert Rossi that they are no longer with us.” He hangs up.

Two men he thought he trusted had been moles set in place months ago to give Rossi intel. He always hated that the Kings had loyalty to the Bianchi family. Who knows how long ago he set his plan in motion? Maybe he was using them to fuck over the Kings and just so happened to catch a break when Titan loaned them to me. Well, whatever plan he was, we’re about to fuck it all up.

_______________

I bring my car to a stop outside her parents’ residence. Bones and I exit the car, and I grab the black bag from the back seat. I had messaged him before Haven and I ever left Glass and told him to be at my house at midnight tonight. I needed his help, and I knew he wouldn’t let me down. He has just as much right to be here as I do. We’re all on high alert.

We walk in like we own the place and climb the stairs. I know the bastard is here. And I also know he doesn’t have much security. He never was smart. He and his wife are always carrying, but he’s too cheap to hire men.

I open his office door without even knocking.

He looks up at me and Bones and smiles like the fucking fool he is. “Well hello, boys. It’s a little late for you all to be making house calls, isn’t it?” He chuckles. “What can I do for you?”

“You could sign these for me.” I toss a stack of papers onto the surface of his desk. I had my dear old friend Titan type me up some papers earlier while we figured out our plan.

He reaches for his glasses that sit on his desk and places them on, squinting down at the papers. “What is this?”

“This … is you signing over your shares to me.”

“What?” He removes his glasses confused, looking up at me.

I plop down in the seat across from him. “Bones.”

He walks behind the desk to stand behind him. I throw him the duffel bag.

“I don’t understand …”

Bones pulls the plastic bag out of the duffel and places it over his head, yanking it back.

I lean over the desk and grip his wrists, pulling them across the surface to keep him from puncturing a hole in the bag. That would defeat the purpose. “Did you know that a brain can survive six minutes after the heart stops?”

Jimmy fights Bones, but he’s not strong enough, not in this position. It would be a shitty way to die, actually, given how easy it would be to survive. All you need to do is poke your finger through the plastic. It’s not like it’s Kevlar.

His head shakes back and forth, but it doesn’t do him any good. His fight is useless. “Sign the papers,” I order, letting go of his right hand to place a pen in his left. “And he’ll let you go.”

He aimlessly begins to write on his desk. I look up at Bones. “Let the man sign his name.”

He removes the bag from his head, and Jimmy sucks in a deep breath, coughing.

“Sign it.” I point at the yellow tab.

He scribbles his name down quickly, and I turn the page for him.

“Again.”

He doesn’t even question my reasons. I knew he wouldn’t. After he places his last signature on the final page, he shoves it across the desk to me.

I look from the stack of papers and then back up at him. “Don’t you even want to know why you signed your life away to me?” I ask.

He runs his hand down his face but doesn’t answer. His blue eyes have turned black, and his jaw is tight. Now that he’s not suffocating, he’s quite angry that I just forced his hand. What is a life worth to you, sort of thing?

I look up at Bones. “Wouldn’t you want to know why someone wanted you dead?”

“Absolutely,” he answers.

“The only reason you wouldn’t ask questions is if … you already knew.”

Still he says nothing.

“Rossi has called you.” I fish.

He flinches at the name. I smile. Yep. He’s very well aware of why I’m here and what I want.

“Well, too bad for you, I’m not as forgiving as he is.”

He goes to open his mouth, but I remove the knife from my pocket, flip it open, and stand, bringing it down on to the center of his hand, stabbing it to the desk.

He howls like a wolf as the blood instantly pools underneath it.

I toss the papers to the floor to keep them clean. “You made a deal with him. Before or after you made one with me?” I demand.

“Af … ter,” he cries out. His free hand grips the wrist of the hand pinned to his desk. “I didn’t have a choice,” he adds quickly.

“How much?” I demand, holding the pocketknife in place.

He’s out of his seat, bent over the desk. Spit falls out of the corner of his lips and onto the surface. “One … million.”

“That had to have been a hard offer to pass up,” I muse. “That’s six million dollars in your pocket, and you didn’t have to do anything for it.”

“Please … I …”

Removing the knife from my other pocket, I flip it open and stab it through his other hand, pinning it to the desk as well.

He screams so loud, the shrill hurts my ears. “Please …” he pleads, closing his eyes tightly, trying to hide his tears.

I look up at Bones and nod. He places the plastic bag back over his head. This time he pulls out a roll of duct tape from the duffel. He then proceeds to wrap the tape around his neck, securing the bag to his head.

I sit back in my seat and watch the fat bastard lean over his desk, fighting to breathe. To move.

“Listen to me,” I order, but he’s in panic mode, his body thrashing uncontrollably. I shoved the knives so far through his hands and into the desk that he won’t be able to get free unless he wants to rip them in half.

Bones leans over his back and grabs his face on either side, forcing him to look up at me. “Pay attention,” he orders.

“Did you know that it can take thirty seconds or thirty minutes to suffocate?” I ask. “It all depends on how much you fight it.”

He struggles, and his voice muffled. His mouth gaping as the bag sticks to his face while he tries to breathe. It’s wet from saliva and tears.

“Suffocation doesn’t hurt. So I thought I’d add the pain.” I wiggle the knives, and he bangs his hips into the desk, making the wooden legs scrape across the floor and objects fall off the sides to the floor. “And just to make sure you don’t survive; I’m going to cut your head off before we bury you in the desert.”

Blood covers his desk as Bones and I watch the man lose his life second by second. Within a few minutes, his face grows white. His lips purple. His fight turns to nothing. He face-plants into the blood, and all movement stops. I stand, buttoning up my suit jacket. “Take care of him. I want his head at least three miles from his rotting corpse,” I order and then pick up the papers off the floor and exit his office. Bones doesn’t usually take care of dead bodies. We pay people for that, but I know he has my back on this. I’ll owe him, and when he calls, I’ll pay up. No matter the price.

I go to walk down the hall when I see her mother exit a door at the end on the left. I make my way toward her.

“Luca? What are you doing here so late? I thought I heard …”

I slap a hand over her mouth and shove her back into the wall with so much force it knocks a picture off, sending it crashing to the floor and shattering at our feet. Her green eyes go wide with horror.

“I’m going to give you one chance. One chance to explain what you know. Do you understand me?”

She nods quickly.

I step away, and she sucks in a long breath. Tears streak her cheeks as her eyes go from mine to the office door.

“Rossi,” I say just in case we’re not on the same page. “Did you know he went to your husband?”

“No.” She gasps out. “Well, I did but not until after.”

“Make sense,” I grind out through gritted teeth.

“I overheard him talking in his study. He thought I was out shopping. He had Rossi on speakerphone. He told him the banks were in debt, and that he needed a loan. Rossi laughed. Then there was silence.” She sucks in a deep breath. “I guessed he had hung up. That’s when I reached out to you. I knew you’d do the right thing for her. She missed you so much, and I knew you could protect her. Then just a week ago, I overheard another conversation between them. Rossi had seen the pictures from the engagement party and wanted to know how much you paid him for Haven. That’d he’d double it. One million up front and the rest after it was done.”

“After what was done?” I demand, but I already know the answer.

“Said all he had to do was give him time and location of the wedding. That he didn’t care if she was caught in the crossfire. That it would make him look good. Dead. Adopted daughter killed in a mass shooting at her own wedding. The press would eat it up.”

Motherfucker! My jaw clenches. “Why didn’t you come to me? Or her?” Anything would have been nice. I knew the risk the Mafia put my life in by the time I was eight. But Haven? I have to protect her no matter the cost.

“I tried to tell her at the spa, but your men interrupted us and took her away. She’s avoided me. That was the first chance I had. I was afraid that he would find out that I knew his and Rossi’s plan. I couldn’t chance putting Haven’s life in danger. Even now …” She sniffs. “If he found out that you knew he betrayed you? I don’t know what he would do to Haven.” Her wide eyes dart around the empty hallway.

I grab her hand and pull her toward the office.

“Luca. What are you …?”

I shove her into the office, and she gasps when she sees her husband bent over dead on the desk. He’s facedown, hands still pinned to the surface with the two knives. Bones stands behind him with his cell to his ear. “Make it fifteen minutes,” he orders and ends the call once he sees us.

“Oh my God.” Her shaky hands come to her face to cover her mouth. “Is he …?”

“Yes,” I say simply. “He was willing to put her life in danger. I couldn’t take that chance.”

She spins around and buries her head into my chest. “Thank you.” She begins to sob. “Thank you for saving her. I knew you would.”

Awkwardly, I rub her back. “I’ll give you five minutes.”

She looks up at me, her green eyes swimming in tears. Her cheeks red and lips swollen. She looks nothing like Haven. No one would ever guess she is her biological mother. And as much as I hate this woman for lying to Haven all her life, I have to protect her. I can’t let Rossi come after her too. “For what?”

“To pack a bag. You’re coming with me.”