Dealer and his Bestowed Bride (The Rossi Family Mafia Book 2) (11 page)

“I can’t do this,” I said, putting the gun down. I heard the click of a safety level behind me and then the cold metal of a pistol against my skull.

“You have no choice.” Rob said as Tony held his firearm to my head. I tried not to scream or cry out, but I couldn’t stop the tears.
 

“Pick up the gun,” Tony said.
 

My hands were shaking as I clutched the handle of the rifle. It would be difficult to see my target, but I would have to try anyway.
 

The journalist didn’t move that much, only once in a couple of minutes to grab a sip from his coffee cup. I tried to take a few breaths to calm myself down. The man behind me was starting to get impatient.

“Do it already!” he growled, forcing the gun against my head once more.
 

“If you keep yelling at me, I won’t make the shot,” I told him in as calm of a voice as possible. “Give me room to do this correctly.”

Tony hesitated, but then lowered the pistol. “Fine.” he said. “But hurry up.”

I turned back and had to adjust the shot again. I couldn’t get a clear headshot, but the window was open enough that there was a clear line to his chest.
 

Good enough, I thought. It took a few minutes before the shot was ready, but once it was I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Tears streamed down my face. I had shot at a million life-sized dummies, but this was different. This was murder.

Bang.
 

A bullet whizzed past my head and into the frame of the window. The wood splintered and hit me. As the shot fired, I watched on the scope as the journalist turned toward our building. His face turned white as he noticed the rifle hanging out the window.

Fear made me pull the trigger.

I watched in the scope as he fell onto his desk, spilling his coffee onto his expensive laptop. After a few struggled breaths, he was still. My shoulders rose and fell with silent sobs and the room was silent.
 

“She did it,” Rob said behind me, walking up to Tony. “She did the job, like I said.”

“Thanks for that,” he replied, then once again I felt the barrel of the pistol, this time on my back. It was still hot from the recent shot.

Now that I had done their dirty work, I was expendable.
 

“Hey!” Rob pushed him, and the gun fired again, luckily missing me since he had been knocked off balance.
 

It was my chance. Time slowed down as I rose from my seat, then swung around toward where Tony and Rob were struggling for the weapon.
 

Tony didn’t notice me until it was too late.
 

The silencer muffled the sound of the bullet leaving the weapon. It went through the man’s leg, sending him to the ground. He screamed, the bullet from the high powered rifle sending a spray of red across the wooden planks of the apartment, and blasting a hole into the wall behind.
 

As he fell to the ground, Rob was able to wrestle the pistol from his hands and finished the job. I turned away.

The world felt like it was vibrating around me. I stepped over from my chair, watching as the pool of blood grew larger on the floor.
 

“What the FUCK?” Alfy’s voice rang from the entrance of the room. My instincts kicked in as we all reached for our fire arms. Whoever drew first would be the one to survive.
 

Alfy lost. Rob had shot him, once, twice, then three times.

I watched in horror, not pulling my trigger.

When all was said and done, we stood over the two bodies of Rob’s supposed friends.
 

My eyes were wide as I turned to Rob, mouth open. There was nothing to say. He had taken something from me, because of his own stupidity and shortsightedness.
 

“Hey!” The voice sounded from below. “Your ride’s here!”

Footsteps from the stairs reached my ears and I readied my gun. Rob held out his arm and shook his head. He wouldn’t let me kill his friends, but was fine with some Mafia goons coming up to see we killed their men?
 

I scoffed at him and kept the gun ready. As they neared the door, Rob threw the gun on the ground toward Tony and raised his hands up.
 

One man stepped into the door and Rob got in the way as I was ready to shoot, facing me as though I was going to murder him like he murdered the men below us.
 

“Piper, please-” he said, his voice an octave higher than usual.
 

The man who walked in was middle-aged, with horn-rimmed glasses. He had a gun in hand, but it was by his side. It was a small handgun that looked like it belonged in a purse more than a Mafioso's hand.

“Mr. Armento, thank God you’re here!” Rob said. “Please help, s-she snapped-”

I stiffened. Yes, I had shot Tony in the leg, but only because he was going to kill me first. Rob had been the one to end their lives. It was like the man across the room was driving a knife into my heart and I didn’t know what to do.
 

The man who entered the apartment glanced me up and down. I kept my rifle trained on him, just in case he made the wrong move.
 

Suddenly, the older man threw his weapon on the ground and then kicked it toward me.

“Piper, I’ve heard much about you.” His voice had an Italian accent, but he was still well-spoken and eloquent. “The fifth woman to graduate as an air force sniper, top in your class, 22 years old, deathly allergic to cucumber.”

My gun slowly lowered as the man listed off things about me. I blinked slowly.

“Who are you?”

“My name is Mr. Armento. I WAS here to pick you up after your job, but it looks like things got a bit messy in the process.” He motioned to the dead men.
 

“She j-just turned on them, killed them both.” Rob said. If a twist of a knife could be words, those were them.
 

Finally, I found my voice. “I’m sorry your men are dead Mr. Armento, but it couldn’t be helped. You and I both know I’d already be dead if you wanted me to. Those guns don’t have silencers, you must have heard them.”

He smiled at me. “Very perceptive.” He clasped his hands together. “The only reason you’re alive right now, Miss Piper, is that I think you are worth more than those two. But you took two lives that were not yours, and that comes with a price.”

I stiffened, that did not bode well for me.

“You,” Mr. Armento said, pointing to Rob, “Leave. The car’s downstairs.”

Rob looked like he was about to argue with the man, but he ended up closing his mouth. He left the room without looking at me and as soon as he exited, my heart left with him. All that remained was a black hole that felt like it was eating me alive.
 

“Now, let’s talk business. There are quite a few jobs that will help you pay off your debts.”

The gala.
 

It was an event put on by designer fashion companies. Executives, celebrities and government officials all were invited to it … and so were we.

It had been two days since we had met with Mr. Franco and two days since Piper and I had fucked. Since then, Piper gave me the cold shoulder.
 

“We’re strictly professional,” she repeated once more after I had accidentally gotten too close for comfort. She was obsessed with keeping her space and I couldn’t understand her logic for the life of me.
 

I knew we had something, that we physically “clicked.” Maybe we weren’t perfect while interacting on a day to day basis, but what couple was? But, even though she had to have felt what was between us, she still made me sleep on top of the damned blankets at night, lest our legs touch while we sleep.

Oh the humanity.
 

We had spent the two days exploring. Sometimes together but most of the time separately. I tried my hardest to learn more about my bride, but she had the bad habit of pushing me away both physically and emotionally.
 

It was night and I was wearing a new suit I had been given by the Mafia. I was tying my tie and looking at myself in the mirror. Piper sat on the bed next to me, reading a book. She had already finished her makeup and was ready to go out.

“You look stunning,” I told her, glancing at her from the mirror. She rolled her eyes in reply.

“What?” I asked.

“Is that all men can talk about to a woman? How she looks?” Piper huffed and closed her book on her lap.

“I have been asking questions about you all day long. When I asked you what your favorite animal was it looked like you were going to stab me in the eye with a fork.”

“It’s not my fault you ask annoying questions,” she shot back.
 

“Well then, it’s not MY fault you look sexy either.”

She let out a long, frustrated sigh and grabbed her purse.
 

“Are we leaving, or do I have to wait all night for you to powder your nose?”

“Coming, Your Highness,” I snickered and adjusted my tie in the mirror one last time.

To be completely honest, I was starting to get nervous about the event. I had heard of all the names that would be there, plus I had been worrying about what we had to do.
 

What could we do?

All I knew was that I had to make contact with the man who owned Tekfire, Robert Georgeson. I had looked him up on the internet and found pictures of him gallivanting at his clubs, and a few places listed on his Linkedin. However, he was rather young and only had two years of experience on his resume.

I glanced at Piper as I followed her. There was a reason she had been easily put-off for the last few days, and Mr. Georgeson had something to do with it.
 

However, the only time I had brought him up, instead of trying to elbow me in the stomach and say something sarcastic, she became quiet and withdrawn. Her face had turned completely white and she didn’t want to answer any of my questions.
 

“Where is the place we’re going to?” Piper asked after we made it to the lobby of our hotel. Outside, it was night.
 

“Second star to the right and straight on till morning,” I replied as we stepped outside.
 

“God, I wish I was single so much right now,” she said, shivering in the cold outside.
 

“Our marriage is in a rough spot, I know, but I have faith we’ll make it through this.” My biting sarcasm wasn’t lost on her and she couldn’t help but smile. Whenever she would grin, or bits of happiness would show through her usually stony facade, it was like rays of sun poking out of storm clouds. I waited for those moments and my feelings for her took flight whenever they came. But her smiles were fleeting and the one she had was quickly replaced by the wall she put up.
 

“No really,” she said, “Where the hell are we going?”

I pointed to a car down the road. There was a chauffeur standing, holding the door open to the dark vehicle. We were riding in style. If I was going to be the CEO of the most up-and-coming clubs, I would have to look like I was a high roller.

“Ah,” she said, giving a nod. As we got into the car, the doors closed behind us. We sat in silence for a while, until the car started to move.

“We need to talk about our plan,” I told her. “How we’re going to get rid of Robert without causing a gang war.”

“Not now,” she replied.

“Now,” I said forcefully. She turned her head and glared at me with her beautiful face.
 

“I have an idea, kill him, grind him up into sausage and feed him to Mr. Armento.”

“We’ll add that to the list, but maybe we should come up with solutions that are less … I don’t know … bloody?”

She crossed her arms across her chest and shook her head, her short hair waving in front of her face.
 

“Hey” I told her, leaning in to softly touch her forearm. She didn’t stop me, which was surprising. “This is the job we came here for. I don’t know what’s going on, but you need to get over it fast.”

Despair flashed over her face and for a second I thought she was going to burst into tears. Instead, she turned her body away from me and watched the buildings pass from the passenger side window.
 

I guess I was going to have to figure it out myself.
 

The car rolled up to the event and I realized there was a red carpet. There was a small amount of glamour in the life of a club owner, but not this much. When the door opened, the lights started to flash, taking of pictures of us even though we were nobodies. I got out first, then helped Piper from the car with a hand.

She took it with a gleaming smile. It was plastered on her face, looking as out of place as a bad wig. Her eyes told me something else, get me out of here. I leaned in to her ear.

“It’ll be fine,” I whispered.
 

She didn’t respond, but instead focused on the photographers. Once they realized we weren’t celebrities or anyone important, they moved on to focusing on the next car.
 

I placed my hand on the small of her back, feeling the curve of her waist to her hips under the fabric of her dress.
 

Keep it together, I told myself. There was no time for me to become distracted over how sexy Piper looked next to me. The task at hand was much more important.
 

The building that the event was being held at was old and finely constructed. There were large, white pillars that framed a fine wooden door. Guards stood at the front as women in tight dresses checked guests off the list. We started walking toward the entrance. In my heart of hearts, I hoped that we didn’t both look like fish out of water. I knew I felt like one.
 

When we got to the entrance I introduced myself to the woman at the door and she waved us on into the party.
 

It was lovely. People from all over the world had flown here just for this event. Models moved from person to person, offering food and drinks from Michelin star chefs.