Chapter 6

Nico

I am left irritated and angry. My jaw ticks. Some people are glancing in my direction, I glare at them my eyes narrowing. They look away, knowing it is disrespectful to keep watching me. I am the fucking Don, how dare they?

“Nico.” I feel a hand to my shoulder. “We’ve got trouble. One of the casinos has been robbed.” I stare at my middle brother, Tony and clench my mouth so tightly closed that I can feel my molars grating. I run my hands through my hair. His dark eyes that he gets from our father are concerned, his eyebrows are furrowed and anger is also etched across his face.

“How much? Which casino”

“Three mill. Aldo’s”

“Holy fuck. Who did this? I want them found now and I want consequences. No fucker steals from the Santangelo family.”

“We’re looking into it.” I push him aside and stride to the other set of double doors, clicking my fingers are my protection detail to follow. Two burly guys with shoulders broader than a football player in kit, open the door and go ahead of me. One talks into his wrist wire-mic. No doubt to let my driver know I’m on my way out.

My father looks up from the table he is seated at with my poor suffering mother. Not that he harms her but the shit she has had to put up with. A poor girl who happened to fall for him when she was in high school. I wonder sometimes if she’d have known that her husband would be head of a Cartel someday, if she’d have ever married him. She glances at me, her eyes flooded with concern. She can tell something is going on, call it mother’s intuition. I stop in my tracks; I mustn’t forget my manners.

I may be a lot of things, I may have done a lot of things, some so bad that they will be in the history books of organized crime but leaving without saying goodbye to my parents especially my mother, that will never happen. The woman carried me for nine months, she fed me from her tit, she gave me all the nutrition and strength to grow up strong and make it in this world. She is my rock, my saviour the only woman I will ever love. I know my mother will never leave me; she won’t desert me.

“Mother, Father. I must go. There has been an issue.” Her white gloved hand comes to her mouth.

“Be safe, Nico.” She tells me. I can see the angst in her almond-colored eyes, framed with dark lashes. At nearly sixty my mother is still a very beautiful woman, she has pose and elegance and carries herself well. Her frame is slight from all the healthy eating she does, the Pilates she practices every day and the running three times a week. She has a lifelong dedication to caring for herself and her three children and of course her husband.

“Do you need me?” My father, Giovanni asks. It is time he started to think about retiring. He should be taking long cruises with my mother, not worrying about what is going on with the business.

“No, we have it covered. Thank you, Father.” He nods.

“Very well then, be safe and Nico, be smart.” That last remark causes me to grate on my molars again. When am I ever not smart? I am not a Don of this family by not being smart. Give me some fucking credit. But he is my father and he always says these words.

I flee, leaving them and my engagement party. That makes me huff, engagement party indeed. What a farce. Lucky Gianluca wants me as much as she wants a hot poker up her pert, tight ass. And it is high and tight, I wonder if her cunt is as tight or if she has been with a lot of men? Why am I even thinking this about her now? She is a distraction and one I can do without right now. I have more pressing things on my mind like now, for example this fucking casino business.

Someone has stolen my money, and whoever it is will wish they hadn’t been born. Their life will not be spared, I will show no mercy. You cross my family; you lose your life. It’s a simple rule, everyone knows my rule. I don’t flex or bend for anybody.

My limo waits for me outside, Lincoln my driver opens the door. I get in with my brother, Tony behind me. “Who do you think it was? I want names, details, times. Give me the full information.” My phone rings, I ignore it. Nothing must distract me right now. I am seething inside; my stomach is in knots. Three million that is a huge amount of money. Nobody can just walk into my casino not any of them and steal money. I have the best security around, not just manpower but the tech kind. Every corner, every angle is fitted with cameras.

“Is this an inside job?” I ask my brother. Tony nods before answering. His dark floppy hair hangs over his face. It irritates me. Why can’t he just have the fucking hair cut off?

“It looks like it, yes, Nico. How else would someone be able to take it? The cameras must have been tampered with.”

“When did it happen?”

“An hour ago.”

“A fucking hour ago and you are only telling me now.” Fuck, I could punch my own brother in the jaw right now. I exhale and adjust my tuxedo jacket and square my shoulders back.

“You were on the floor and also talking with Lucky. We did not want to interrupt.” Fuck me. Now they think some woman with a cunt between her legs, a woman I can’t even stand, should take precedent over my casino being robbed. Have they lost their tiny minds?

“Never think twice about interrupting me. Do you understand?” Tony nods. “And where the hell is Dario?” He is my youngest brother; I am the eldest. Dario is just a tender twenty-nine and unfortunately, we always have to keep an eye on him. The money and the power of being in our family has gone to his head. He started taking drugs in school at around fifteen and has been in and out of rehab more times than I can count. We have tried everything but he is a lose cannon. He parties to hard; he sleeps around, and God only knows if he wraps it up. I half expect some woman to knock on our door telling us she is pregnant with his kid. I shake my head.

“Nobody has seen him. He left your engagement party early.”

“Fuck’s sake. I told you, Tony to keep an eye on him. Can’t you even get that right?”

Tony glares back at me. He’s thirty-three years old to my thirty-five, only a couple of years between us. I shouldn’t speak to him like that. He isn’t my kid brother’s babysitter, but Dario does need one.

“We’ll find him.” He pulls out his mobile and starts moving his fingers across the keys deftly.

The car pulls up to a stop outside my casino, Aldo’s. Named after my grandfather who came from Italy. He began his life as a shoreman and allied with a mafia family to earn money and be able to get married to his sweetheart, Lucia and bring her over to America. It wasn’t the right start to have in life, but the Moretti family took my grandfather under their wing and one thing led to another.

The casino is a large property with mirrored security glass on the outside. I step out of the vehicle and make my way up the red carpeted steps. Two security guards stand outside and nod at me. One holds the door open as I make my way into the entrance. Slot machines and tables are empty, the place has been cleared out.

“How much have we lost in business tonight on top of the three mill?” I dread to know the answer, anger is boiling inside me like a volcano about to erupt.

“I’d estimate at two and a half mill.”

I hiss and stride to the back where my office is. “I want everyone here pronto. Get me Ivan.” He is the best cyber security person I have, if anyone can find out how the money was stolen, how someone got in and to our locked and sealed vaults he will know.

Tony gets on it as I take a seat in my black wing-backed leather chair at my sturdy mahogany desk. My office is black there are no windows. I have another one upstairs that is like a goldfish bowl, purely so I can look down at the casino floor and keep an eye on things. Here though, I like the darkness it reminds me of something like a Vampires den. From the expensive whiskey bottle I pour myself a shot then another. I hate to lose money; I hate to be crossed but someone from inside my firm has done this to me and I will make it my job to find out who the bastard is.