Love and War 2 (14 page)

“You’ve got a pretty piece of land up in Atlantic City, don’t ya?”

“Sure do,” Caprice said. “It’s going to be the best when I’m finished with it.”

“Did your father tell you he scooped that casino right from under my nose while I was in Vegas?”

“No, he didn’t,” Caprice sighed. She was getting frustrated by the pervert sitting across from her. “Is that what you want? My casino?”

The idea was so ridiculous that Caprice had a hard time holding back a laugh. There was no way in hell she’d hand over a two hundred million dollar casino to anyone, especially Luca Lucchetti. Domani would kill her himself.

“That’s a start,” Luca replied. “And we’d prefer if Paolo was the only one calling the shots in your organization, the way it’s supposed to be. No offense, Nico.”

Caprice didn’t need to hear anything else. She nudged her brother out of the booth so she could get up.

“Well…good talk, Mr. Lucchetti,” she said politely. “We’re going to politely decline your offer. You know how to reach us if you can think of something a little more reasonable.”

She and Nico walked out of the deli, but not before hearing Luca laughing behind them.

“Can you believe that son of a bitch?” Caprice said when they got outside. “Do you think he was serious?”

“He was serious,” Nico told her. “But he only speaks for himself. If the rest of them wanted the casino, we would have been heard about that. Let’s just get out of here.”

Caprice was more aggravated than anything when she got back to her car. She couldn’t believe that he had the balls to ask for her casino. She knew that her father would be pleased that she didn’t cave. When it came to her baby, she wasn’t giving it up without a fight…maybe even to the death. As far as getting the contract on her life cancelled…

There was more than one way to skin a cat
.

Caprice lazily flipped through every channel the satellite picked up and could not find anything to watch. She leaned the movie theater style chair back as far as it would go and switched to her father’s digital movie library. She looked at the large screen and read row after row of movie titles out loud.

“Oh my God, Dad,” she said after passing the fifth Jack Nicholson movie. “Mancrush.com”

She tossed the remote control onto another chair and stood up. The theater room was doing nothing for her. She’d been all over the house, trying to find something to do and it just wasn’t happening. She was bored and there was nothing to do.

Even being on Facebook and Twitter was boring. All her friends were getting ready to go home for the Thanksgiving holiday. They were all excited and she was stuck in her father’s mansion because someone was trying to kill her. God, what she wouldn’t give for life to be as simple as it was before she left Miami.

It was too late to change anything now.

Caprice listened to her stomach begging for food and decided to eat something. Lately, she was always hungry…either out of boredom or utter frustration. She couldn’t decide which one it was.

In the kitchen, Caprice pulled a dish of frozen eggplant parmigiana out of the freezer and slid the glass baking dish into the oven. Maria’s frozen casseroles were certainly coming in handy.

She missed her sister in law. She wished she’d gone to Oregon with Nico to visit for a couple of days, but it was their anniversary. They need the time alone so they could focus on making her an aunt.

Plus, the situation in New York was getting messy and someone needed to be in town to rally the troops if necessary.

Apparently, Luca Lucchetti wasn’t too happy that she’d blatantly refused his offer. With his demand that Paolo be placed back into the role of Boss, Caprice suspected the worse.

Paolo Mancusi had asked for the contract. Her question, besides where’d he get the balls to do it, was how he came up with the money to even approach them with the idea. She hadn’t done anything to make the Four Horsemen angry with her so it had to be about the money...or else they really hated her father.

The casserole took about thirty minutes to heat up. Caprice entertained herself by sending pictures of herself to Diesel’s phone. She had a ton of work she could be doing, but she wasn’t in the mood. Work wasn’t fun when she wasn’t allowed to leave the house.

After taking the casserole out of the oven, Caprice sat on a barstool at the counter and ate eggplant parmigiana straight out of the pan while watching The Vampire Diaries on Netflix. She looked at the clock. It was only four o’clock. Diesel wouldn’t even be leaving the site until after six. He probably wouldn’t get to the house until well after midnight, if he decided to come down.

Diesel was turning into a workaholic. He didn’t really have a title yet considering C & N Enterprises was a corporation that existed on paper only. He was the new Director of Sales & Marketing for Island Silk Cosmetics though and worked his ass off every day. Despite his masculinity and the fact that he had no interest in make-up, he was determined to make Caprice’s flagship business a household name.

Then there was his family. He always made time for them, no matter how busy he was, especially with his mother. Gloria and Diesel were supposed to have dinner tonight. Of course, he had invited Caprice, but she wasn’t touching that with a ten foot pole.

She had hoped that Gloria would eventually get over her initial impression of Caprice. She’d hoped that over time, she and Gloria would be able to get along, simply because they both loved Diesel. Gloria didn’t share the same hopeful outlook. The woman hated everything about Caprice. She hated that Caprice was bi-racial. She hated that Caprice hired a chef for her condo. She hated that Caprice even had a condo…it didn’t matter what it was, Gloria hated it.

Caprice had made a genuine effort, but she was tired of being called stuck up and prissy. She was tired of her efforts going unappreciated. She was dying to tell Gloria that her son hadn’t bought the house that she was living in; that Caprice had put up the cash for her home, but she didn’t. Diesel would kill her. Plus, getting even with his mother wasn’t that important. She had better things to do.

But she was still bored. Her twenty-fifth birthday was right around the corner. She wanted to celebrate in the city with all her friends. Janelle was coming back from Paris the day before her birthday and a couple other girls wanted to stop in New York before they went home for Thanksgiving. Her birthday was a big deal and her friends always made it special.

But the Fun Police aka Diesel and Nico vetoed a big celebration in the city.

“What’s the point of having a house in the Hamptons if you can’t throw a party here?” Diesel had asked.

Frustrated, Caprice had tried to explain that all her friends’ parents had property in the Hamptons and a party there wasn’t that big of a deal. He didn’t get it. He just thought of it as a bunch of rich kids getting together.

Nico finally relented and compromised. He said that she could go to dinner in Manhattan with her friends and they’d throw her a family and friends only party at Maria’s restaurant. It wasn’t the wild night out she wanted, but at she wouldn’t be stuck in East Hampton and her friends would be in the same place for one day only. They’d celebrate properly on New Year’s Eve.

Surely, the situation would be handled by then.

****

“No,” Nico barked when Caprice asked him to pick two of her friends up from La Guardia.

He’d gotten back from Oregon - with Maria, thank God - two days ago and it was three days before Caprice’s birthday. Her friends were flying in the day after tomorrow. Of course Caprice thought that they should be properly escorted from the airport.

“I’m only letting you have this party because, apparently, you need to blow off some steam. I draw the line at playing chauffeur to your sorority sisters.”

“I’ve never been in a sorority.” Caprice pouted. “I’m putting this party together myself. You won’t let me hire a party planner for security reasons. I can’t even go into the city. And now I can’t even pick up my best friend from the airport. What kind of birthday is this?”

“You’re doing it again,” Diesel said with a slow shake of his head. “We’ve talked about this.”

Nico laughed, but Caprice continued to pout.

“You two are making me feel like I’m a teenager that can’t take care of myself.”

“You’re acting like a teenager,” Nico commented.

Diesel just stared at his bratty girlfriend and waited for her to stop pouting before he asked,

“Where is your Lexus?”

Caprice stopped pouting. “I don’t need to be reminded of that.”

“I think you do,” Diesel said. “Wasn’t your Lexus crushed at a salvage yard owned by Luca Lucchetti?”

“He wants The Capri and I’m not giving it to him. He’s just trying to scare me.”

“No,” Nico yelled. “He’s trying to kill you! I let you go into Manhattan one time and look what happened! You were in Starbucks for ten minutes and they’d stolen your car! You are not going into the city at all!”

“Fine. Well, will you at least take me to La Galleria? I have a shitload of decorations and cleaning to do.”

It was a quiet drive to Staten Island. Caprice knew that her man and her brother were just trying to keep her safe, but she felt like they were playing scared. They weren’t fighting back; they were hiding.

Whoever had stolen her car could have taken her out in front of the Starbucks. They didn’t because Luca didn’t want her dead at that moment. He was trying to intimidate her and that wasn’t happening. She wished to God that Nico and Diesel would back off and stop treating her like a baby bird with a broken wing.

When the Tahoe pulled into the restaurant parking lot, Caprice felt weird. Something was off, but she couldn’t tell what it was. Nico and Diesel carried a couple of the boxes towards the restaurant. Nico looked back at Caprice who was lagging behind.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I’m fine.”

She followed them around the build to the restaurant. Nico had the key and had turned the lock when Caprice rounded the corner. Without warning the building exploded around them. Windows shattered as wood, glass, black smoke, and fire engulfed them. Caprice watched in bewildered horror as Nico’s body flew back at least four feet. She dropped the box she was carrying and ran towards her brother.

Suddenly the streets were filled with people rushing towards the small restaurant. Someone pushed her out of the way and dragged Nico away from the flames. It took two men to drag Diesel away from the entrance. Sirens wailed in the distance as the entire neighborhood watched La Galleria 45 burn.

Someone was giving Nico mouth to mouth. Caprice lowered her head onto her brother’s chest and listened for a heartbeat. When she raised her head, her hand was bright red, covered in Nico’s blood.

“Oh God, don’t die.” The words were barely as whisper but Caprice kept saying them over and over.

The paramedics loaded Nico into an ambulance while Caprice watched two more work on Diesel.

“Is he dead?” she asked the lady in tears next to her who kept repeating how horrible everything was. Caprice couldn’t bring herself to get any closer.

She watched the paramedics work with the same urgency they had with Nico before loading Diesel into a separate ambulance. Caprice’s heart was pounding. She was having trouble breathing, and she didn’t know what to do.

A lady who was a waitress the restaurant recognized Caprice and ran over to her. She placed her hand on Caprice’s shoulder and asked if she was okay. Tearfully, Caprice looked up at the sound of the woman’s voice.

“Angela?”

“It’s me. Are you hurt?”

For the first time, Caprice checked her own body for injuries. She had cuts up and down her arms and legs that were bleeding pretty badly, but she was conscious.

“I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine, Baby B,” Angela said softly. She affectionately used the nickname that all the employees at La Galleria had started calling her shortly after she moved to New York.

“Let’s get you in the ambulance with your brother.”

Angela helped Caprice to her feet and told one of the paramedics who she was. He helped Caprice into the ambulance. She couldn’t take her eyes off the others who were hooking her brother up to various machines. She wanted to ask if Nico was going to make it, but she kept her mouth shut as tears poured from her eyes.

She didn’t know what she would do if the answer was no.

It seemed like everyone Nico ever met was sitting in the hospital as Caprice paced the Emergency Room waiting area. She wasn’t nervous. She was scared and angry. She’d been walking up and down the room and halls for the last three hours. Every time she tried sitting, she felt like she was going to pull every strand of her hair out.

Mahogany, upon hearing her daughter’s tearful screams on the phone, had flown to New York immediately. She sat in the waiting room silently watching her daughter; waiting for the pacing to stop and the inevitable breakdown to begin.

Maria sat next to her father with her head on his shoulders. Unlike Caprice, she’d been crying nonstop the entire time. Her mother, a devout Catholic, had been deep in prayer for three of the four hours they’d been waiting.