Devious Little Lies (22 page)

“I want you to repeat after me. Tonight I pledge my loyalty to the Rosetti Crime Family. I will be there whenever I am called upon and if I betray my Family my soul will be damned to hell.”

Grabbing the man’s hand, Anton took the knife and dragged it down the center of the man’s palm. The man didn’t even flinch as red blood oozed from the long cut. The man raised his hand and swore the oath with blood dripping down his hand. When he was done, there was clapping before Anton instructed the man, Giuseppi, to pay homage to his boss.

Giuseppi came over to where she sat and with his non-bloodied hand he took hers and bowed over it. “To you I pledge my loyalty.”

“The family welcomes you,” she told him.

With a bright smile of thanks he walked off, and that was how it went until ten men had been inducted into the organization as made men. Rena was intrigued to see them take the ceremony so serious in a nod to the old ways. Catholics knew the consequences behind breaking an oath.

“Alright, everybody, come upstairs. Good food and good wine is waiting for you,” Antonio yelled from the top of the staircase.

The newly made men wasted no time going up the stairs like a herd of elephants.

“Well, what did you think?” Victor asked her.

“I thought it was a fitting tribute to the old ways.”

“Perhaps some old ways are good to keep,” Giorgio added.

She nodded. “On this we can agree.”

“Enough chit-chat. Let’s eat,” Carmine said as he pulled her towards the stairs.

Rena laughed. Never get between an Italian man and his food. When she made it back upstairs the men had already taken their seats. Antonio directed her towards a table in the back of the room. With Carmine beside her, she took her seat. Cesare, Giorgio, Victor, and Mario soon joined her. Waiters started to bring out the food and her mouth watered. The scent of garlic was in the air. A waitress appeared at their table and started to pour each of them a glass of red wine.

“Now this is what life should be about, loyalty, family, and good food,” Anton said raising his glass.

“I’ll drink to that.
Salud
.” Rena raised her glass and they toasted.

When a fresh plate of garlic knots was set before them, they dug into the buttery rich treats. Rena felt good, like she was one of the guys and finally accepted. Her cell phone vibrated in her skirt pocket startling her. Taking it out she saw that she had a text message. She didn’t recognize the number. Opening the message she was puzzled at the words staring back at her.

Run now. You’re in danger.

What in the world?
She showed the message to Cesare and instantly he was on his feet, pulling her from the table and hustling her towards the back door of the restaurant. Then all hell broke loose. The front door was kicked open and shattered to pieces as figures wearing black swarmed the restaurant.

“FBI! Put down your weapons and get your hands up now.”

The last thing Rena saw before Cesare was dragging her outside was her men pulling out their weapons and firing. Gunshots and breaking glass filled the air and she ran as fast as she could. Two armed men appeared in her path for a split second before they hit the ground. Daring to glance behind her, Rena saw Carmine, Rico, Joseph, and Anthony coming up behind them with weapons drawn. Circling around to the front of the building they snuck behind the line of men that had surrounded the restaurant.

Cesare hustled her into the back seat of an SUV before taking the wheel and backing away as fast as possible. The last thing she saw was Carmine and the members of her personal guard opening fire on the men surrounding the restaurant. What in the holy hell had just happened? And who had dared to warn her?

Chapter Thirty-Six

The city was in an uproar. What should have been an evening of fine dining and a celebration of family had turned into a nightmare. Of the ten newly made men, five were dead and the others were arrested on old charges. As if that weren’t bad enough, Anton and Victor were both taken into custody and no one had seen or heard from Giorgio. Mario was working around the clock to get the men out of custody. Her empire was crumbling around her.

All she’d wanted was to prove herself and now everything had blown up in her face. She’d sat home for the past two days expecting the Feds to bust in the door any minute with a warrant for her arrest, but it hadn’t happened yet. Her name hadn’t even been mentioned in any of the newscasts either. It was strange.

They were on high alert now and she’d ordered everyone to lay low until things blew over but part of her was afraid that wouldn’t happen. This could be the beginning of the end for her. She’d failed at this like she had at her marriage and being a mother. Rena hadn’t heard from Tony or Tricia. Her husband she didn’t care about, but her daughter was everything to her. She wanted to go to Tricia, but the last thing she wanted was to bring her daughter down with her.

One thing was for certain, if the powers that be wanted her then they had better come with everything they had. She’d had enough of hiding out at home waiting for the shoe to drop. Today she was going out. Rena had put her lunch date with Simone off long enough. Cesare thought it was a bad idea but she didn’t care. She’d made a promise to a friend and she intended to keep it.

* * * * *

To say his superior was upset was a gross understatement. Pissed and angry as a rattlesnake was more like it. By forcing them to go in with guns raised, they were drawn into an unnecessary gun battle and they lost three of their own in the process. All for nothing. Their big quarry had still gotten away. When his boss had reamed him out, he took the abuse with a grain of salt before he reminded him that as bad as he wanted to bring in Rena Rosetti, he didn’t yet have enough on her for serious charges to stick anyway. Her hotshot lawyer had already had some of her cohorts released.

Once his words sank in, his boss had calmed down a bit but not much. With three members of their team lost, he wanted vengeance and wouldn’t be satisfied until every last member of the Rosetti Family was behind bars…permanently. He’d do what he had to do to make that happen. Right now he was on the next part of his mission, following Rena’s car. He hated how things had gotten so twisted; how destroying lives had become the thing he did best. But there was nothing he could do but follow the orders he’d been given.

She was a murderer.

A liar.

A cold, heartless bitch drunk on power. That was what he told himself to justify why he kept going and didn’t recuse himself and request another assignment. But that was only partly the truth. She was all of those things and so much more. An angel and a devil. He wished this was over, but they couldn’t elude Fate. They were trapped on opposite sides with no choice but to take whatever came at them next.

* * * * *

Though she’d ignored Cesare’s advice to stay home that didn’t mean she was being completely reckless when it came to going out. She was meeting Simone at a place not associated as a mob hang out, The Purple Palace. The outside was built like a palace and illuminated by purple fluorescent lights. It screamed of wild and crazy teenagers and tourists. It was hardly her scene, but she needed to lay low and blend in.

Cesare helped her from the car and gave the keys to the valet and ushered her inside the building. His eyes darted from place to place, watching. It was evident he was on high alert and twitchy as hell and she could understand how he felt but she was tired of hiding. She’d always lived her life in the open and no one was going to make her feel like a dog trapped in a cage. As they walked down the corridor, though it was midday the place was already packed with people and loud music. No one even glanced at them as she and Cesare moved through the throng of people looking for Simone.

They went deeper and deeper inside the Palace and then they spotted Simone sitting on a silver balcony. She waved and two guards stood on either side of her. Rena waved back and hunted the stairs that would lead her to where her friend sat. Two minutes later they were embracing.

“Rena, it’s so good to see you. I’ve been worried about you.”

“You’ve been worried about me? I’m the one who’s been worried. I’m just so glad you and the little one are okay.”

“Me too,” she said rubbing her still flat belly.

They sat down at a small round booth that left the dance floor below them open and gave them a bird’s eye view of everything on either side of them. For now it seemed that they had some privacy since everyone else was either on the dance floor or at a bar.

“How did Hector react?”

Simone shook her brown curls. “He went ballistic. He threatened to kill everyone unless they let him out.”

“I’m sure that did not go over well.”

“It didn’t. They still refused him bail and now they’re trying to hit him with new charges of threats against law enforcement. It’s crazy, Rena. I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.”

“I haven’t either. The Feds these days are playing a whole ’nother game when it comes to taking our guys down. They say we think the law doesn’t apply to us, hell, they’ve never thought the law applies to them either.”

“You’re right, but what can we do? I heard they’re even coming after you,” Simone squeaked.

“So you heard about that went down at Manzelli’s I presume?”

“Everybody’s talking about it. What happened?”

Shrugging she said, “I’m still trying to figure that out my damn self. One minute I’m eating garlic knots with some of the guys and the next thing I know S.W.A.T. is busting down the damn door and trying to take us all in.”

“How did you escape?”

“I got an anonymous text message that warned me to run. Cesare had me on my feet and going out the back just as all hell was breaking loose.”

Simone’s eyes grew round as saucers. “You must’ve felt like déjà vu all over again.”

“For a moment it did, but then I was too busy trying to get the hell out of there in one piece to think about much else.”

“What the hell is going on, Rena? First Sage’s party and now this?”

“I wish I knew. I still had the guys poking around for information before this went down. But with the city in such an uproar, I’ve had to tell them to lay low and hope this blows over.”

“Do you really think it will? It seems to be open season on the Mob now. There has never been anything like this.”

“I don’t know what to think, Simone. The only thing I know is who is the government to tell us how we can and cannot do business when they’re doing the exact same things we are and calling it capitalism. Italians have worked too hard for the piece of the pie they have to let anyone take that away from them.”

“You said it, sister.”

They both sat in silence, contemplating what their respective futures held. Simone had more to worry about though. She had three small children, another on the way, and a husband behind bars. Simone wasn’t like her. If the IRS seized Hector’s assets or locked him away she would be virtually penniless. It was sad, but with the glitz and glam of the lifestyle there was also a dark reality. One day you could have the world in your hands and the next day it was crushing you to death.

“How are the kids?” Rena asked.

“Still missing their daddy. My mother and sister are staying with me now to help out and Bobby’s been coming by a lot more lately.”

“That’s good. You need family around you right now.”

“What about you, Rena?”

“Tony’s still locked up and my daughter is busy with nursing school. I’ve never been particularly close to Tony’s daughters so it’s just me.”

“You need somebody.”

Rena looked past Simone, trying to ignore the pity she saw in her friend’s eyes.

“Unfortunately there’s not someone for everybody.”

Rena had barely gotten the words out before her teeth clenched together hard and she blinked to make sure that she wasn’t hallucinating. Sitting across from her and Simone was a woman with dark hair like hers. She couldn’t see her face because the woman’s back was facing Rena, but from the way she was throwing her head back and reaching across the table it was easy to see the woman was enjoying herself. When the woman’s companion squeezed her hand back and smiled, Rena saw red. Her ex-lover was sitting across from the girl and looking as if he was oblivious to everything else around him.

She was at a loss for words. Yes, she’d pushed him away after what had happened with Tricia but who could blame her? He hadn’t contacted her since but she didn’t expect he’d be out with another woman so soon after the way he’d claimed to feel about her. But obviously she’d been stupid. Shane was a young, handsome male and no doubt his social calendar had been filled since he stopped focusing his attention on her.

“Rena, is everything alright? You seemed lost for a minute.”

Rena looked back at Simone and smiled. “I’m fine. I just thought I saw someone here that I knew. That’s all. Do you know where the restroom is in this place?”

Simone nodded and pointed past Shane and his companion. “It should be down the hallway and to your right.”

“Thanks. I’ll be right back.”

She mouthed the word bathroom to Cesare and started walking in Shane’s direction. Her head was held high and she walked as fast as she could trying not to stumble or make a fool of herself. She wanted to stop and make a snarky remark but she didn’t have the right. She’d let him go, losing her only chance at happiness and she had no one to blame but herself. Still, as she walked by, Rena sized up the woman he was with and nearly did a double take. The girl could be her twin and looked more like her than her own daughter. The realization made her burn up all over again.

As she kept walking, Shane looked up and their eyes met. His mouth opened as if to say something, but she didn’t wait around. With her gaze straight ahead as if he was just a random stranger she kept walking down the hallway. She had to get her emotions under control. He didn’t belong to her. She’d made her bed and she had to lie in it even if what was left of her heart was breaking in the process.

There was hell in her eyes as she walked past him. He’d seen her angry, but this was a different kind. This was the anger of being hurt and holding it in with all your might. He was surprised she hadn’t smacked the hell out of Brielle, who was currently staring at him with a smirk on her face. Though she and Rena shared similar features, she was nothing like the woman who haunted his dreams. Just a pale imitation. Sitting back in her chair, she folded her arms and silently challenged him with her eyes. He stared back.

“Why are you looking so pissy?” she finally asked.

Ignoring her, he got up from his seat and headed down the hallway after the only woman that mattered…Rena.