Authors: Jackie Chanel
“I did what I had to do. At the time, it was the right thing to do. If I could’ve been with your mother, I would have. If I could have raised you and Nico together, I would have. But I couldn’t, so I didn’t. End of story.”
“Don’t complain about it now,” Domani continued. “You had a great life. Private schools, cars, diamonds. You had the life most girls dream of. I made sure of that. Do you have anything else to ask?”
“What do you do?”
“A bit of everything, my dear. I have my hands in a lot of cookie jars.”
“What does Nico do?”
“Whatever I tell him to do.”
“You’re his boss?”
This time, Domani’s smile stretched across his entire face. “
Babygirl
…I’m everyone’s Boss. Go clean up for dinner.”
Domani watched his daughter turn on her Chanel heels and walk away without uttering a word.
Caprice Mahogany Bonatelli was definitely his daughter, and this conversation was not over.
At eighteen, she was already 5’9” and statuesque like her mother was at that same age. Wavy hair so dark it looked black like her grandmother’s and great-grandmother’s in the Old Country. Her peanut butter skin was only a few shades darker than Nico’s. The Bonatelli family were dark Italians.
It was her eyes that gave away her paternity.
Caprice had the same dark mysterious eyes that all the Bonatelli men had and usually passed down to their sons. Nico’s eyes were steel gray like his mother’s. Caprice was blessed with her father’s eyes.
Eyes that held many secrets. The eyes of a killer.
Domani closed his eyes and crossed his chest. He prayed to the Virgin Mary that Caprice would never travel down that road. It was too late for Nico, but perhaps he could save his daughter.
Domani stared from behind the dark tinted windows as Nico checked in his little sister at the departure gate.
In the seventy-two hours they’d known each other, brother and sister had become inseparable.
Domani felt a small twinge of guilt pass through him.
They should have met years ago, but the past couldn’t be changed.
They knew each other now, which was all that mattered.
When Caprice entered the door at La Guardia to go home, Nico watched her until she was out of sight. Even though his little sister would be back in New York in three months to go to college, the fact that she was out of reach in Miami made him uncomfortable.
Nico opened the door of the midnight blue Tahoe and climbed into the driver’s side.
“She’s something else, isn’t she?” Domani commented as Nico steered the SUV into traffic.
“She’s one of us, that’s for sure.
Where are we going?
The deli for breakfast?”
Domani nodded. It was Monday and he was a man of routine, a trait that wasn’t popular in his line of work. His father and grandfather before him had warned him to always switch up his routine and fly far under the radar. His father had been gunned down in Little Italy by the Campanili Family. His grandfather was in prison. No one had died over coffee and brioche in the morning.
“That girl, your sister...she’s smart as hell. She’s eighteen and on her way to being a millionaire. Legit money, Nico.”
Nico nodded.
e was also impressed by Caprice’s entrepreneurial spirit.
ranching out from her mother’s supermodel image had been really important to Caprice. However, being the daughter of a supermodel came in handy when she wanted to start a cosmetics company for teen girls. Her company was successful and she had been modeling since before she could talk. She was the reigning Miss Teen Florida. Her popularity was a concern for Nico, even if Domani dismissed it.
“Pops, we need to talk,” Nico stated.
“BDM...or whatever Aries is calling that bunch of gangbangers, is up to something. I’ve been
hearin
’ things.”
Domani sat back in his seat and laughed. He employed over a hundred people and dominated the drug trade in the tri-state area. He had no use for any of the gangs. He only allowed them to sell dope in certain neighborhoods to maintain a semblance of peace. The gangs were always
up to something
. They were always trying to figure out ways of cutting the Family out of their twenty percent.
“What is it this time?”
“I’m not sure,” Nico answered. “No one is giving up any details. But
somethin’s
brewin
’.”
“Then it’s time for you and Aries to have another sit down.”
“I’m thinking we need a better strategy. We need someone on the inside. Find out who he’s been dealing with and what he plans to do about us.”
“Who are you talking about using?” Domani asked, despite knowing the answer.
“Caprice.”
“No,” the Boss replied sharply. “She’s just a kid. She doesn’t need to be involved in our affairs. We don’t employ women. What the hell is wrong with you?”
Nico stared straight ahead, concentrating on not letting his face expose his anger and frustration.
“She’s older than I was when you brought me in.”
“You’re my son. When I’m gone, everything is yours. Caprice is my daughter. Her job is to go to college, marry, and give me grandkids. You, Rocco, and Luccio will handle the gangbangers your way, without her.
Capiche
?”
“There’s more of them than there is of us,” Nico argued. “It would be easier to deal with the situation if we knew what the fuckin’ situation was, Pops”
“Then find out what they’re planning and put a bullet through the eye of that black bastard if you need to. The rest of them will scatter like cockroaches once he’s gone.”
Domani sighed. “Protect the family, protect the business, and protect your sister. That’s all I want you to do.”
****
“How was it? How did it go in New York?”
Mahogany stood in the doorway of her daughter’s bedroom and watched Caprice unpack.
“Why’d you never tell me about them?” Caprice asked without turning around.
“Them?”
“Yes, Mother...them. I met everyone. Nico, some guy I’m supposed to call Uncle Paolo, Joey, Rocco, and some guy named Luccio. I’m thinking of changing my name to Meadow Soprano.”
“That’s not funny, Caprice.”
Caprice whipped around and glared at her mother. “Do you see me laughing? That was the true definition of culture shock. You could have warned me.”
“He wanted to meet you,” Mahogany sighed wearily. “I didn’t know everybody wanted to meet you.”
Caprice sat on her queen-sized bed and stared at her mother. Still beautiful and only thirty-eight years old, Mahogany Burke still stopped men in their tracks when they looked at her. She could still work a runway better than any twenty year old. Up until now, Caprice worshipped the ground her mother’s stilettos walked on. It was only forty-eight hours ago that she had found out her mother could have retired eighteen years ago. Mahogany Burke was a kept woman.
Mahogany joined her daughter on the bed and wiped a few stray hairs out of her face.
“Are you angry that I didn’t tell you about your father and his line of work, or that I let you go to New York?”
“I’m mad that I’m eighteen and just now meeting my family.”
“You shouldn’t be upset over that, Caprice. You never asked for your father. Not a single time. I promised Domani that the first time you asked for him or about him, the two of us would be on the first plane to New York whether he liked it or not.”
“But you let him run you out of town. I have a brother that I wasn’t allowed to know, Mother. Don’t you think that’s a little
f’d
up?”
“I didn’t let anyone run me out of anywhere!” Mahogany’s dark skin flushed with anger. “I left on my own terms. I was twenty years old. Pregnant. And in love with a man that I could not have. I had no reason to stay there.”
“But you took his money,” Caprice argued. “This house, our cars...all that we have is because of him. You were his mistress.”
Caprice felt the sharp sting of her mother’s hand against her cheek and yelped. She was more surprised than hurt. Mahogany hadn’t put her hands on Caprice since she was seven.
“I have never been anybody’s mistress, young lady,” Mahogany said evenly, but Caprice detected the anger and disappointment in her mother’s voice. “If you think our home, your BMW, and that closet full of designer clothes over there are the result of your father’s money, you have a lot to learn.”
“You may be infatuated with who Domani is or what he does, but remember this. I have never spent a dime of the money he sent. I never asked him for shit. All that money is yours when you turn twenty-one.”
Mahogany tightened the sash of her silk robe and stood up, towering over her child. “I loved your father and because of that, I will not speak badly about him. But you are my child. The life you have is because of me. You’d be wise not to believe everything he tells you. Understood?”
Caprice was speechless and could only nod her head before Mahogany glided out of the bedroom like a gust of burgundy silk. Any misconceptions she had of her mother flew out the door with her.
Mahogany wasn’t weak. In fact, she was stronger than anyone realized. She had never been the quiet and demure girl that Domani thought she was. She held onto her fire and used it when necessary.
Caprice’s father was the Boss, but Mahogany held a higher rank. She was the Mother.
She’d do anything to protect her child from the violent life that her father lived.
That was why she kept Caprice sheltered in Miami. Now, with only one visit to New York, all of Mahogany’s hard work was crashing down.
Her new mission was to stop it before Caprice became caught up.
Caprice tapped her red
Zanotti
sandal on the tiled floor of her Foundations of Finance class. Professor Reynolds had a bad habit of making the last ten minutes of class feel excruciatingly long.
“Am I boring you, Miss Burke?” Professor Reynolds raised her eyebrows and glared at her least favorite student.
Caprice’s facial expression remained bored. None of her college professors intimidated her.
She hadn’t been intimidated by anyone for a long time.
“Yes,” Caprice answered honestly. “Can you wrap this up a little quicker? I have somewhere to be.”
“You are free to go whenever you choose. You’re paying for this class, not me.”
“Waste of money, if you ask me,” Caprice grumbled as she gathered her Gucci bag and walked past the other thirty bored students. She only had two hours before her weekly dinner with her father and she needed to get to the boxing gym before her trainer threw a bitch fit. Plus, it wasn’t like Nico’s house was close by. Staten Island was nowhere near as close to campus as she wanted to be, but after moving to New York, Caprice learned that arguing with her father was useless. She was living with Nico and his wife until she graduated whether she liked it or not.
Caprice glanced down at her brand new Rolex; a birthday gift from her mother. She hoped Nico was on time today because she didn’t have a minute to spare.
It was Nico’s responsibility to pick her up from campus five days a week. Domani and Paolo dropped her off every morning. Despite the constant reminder that she would never be accepted into the Family, Caprice was still Domani’s child...his only daughter and she had to be protected at all costs. Considering how the situation with the Black Diamond Mafia had escalated, it was probably best that she stayed surrounded by men with guns.
Thanks to Nico, she could handle any gun handed to her. Nico had even arranged the boxing lessons. He was trying to “get the girl” out of her in case shit took a bad turn and he needed her.
Hanging with Nico and his buddies helped toughen her up. When she moved to New York, she was Miss Teen Florida and it showed. She probably would have been more comfortable living in an apartment in Manhattan instead of Nico’s house.
Rocco and Luccio were straight up hoods. They came from a long line of wise guys and were proud of it. They drank and cussed like sailors. Caprice loved every second that she spent with them. When she was around, she was just one of the guys. They treated her with the same respect they gave Nico because she was the Boss’s daughter, but they didn’t hold back either. Dirty jokes, trash talk, there was little she wasn’t exposed to. Being around the three wise guys had thickened her skin real fast.
So did the stunt they pulled the other night.
Despite her father’s demands that she only focus on finishing her undergrad program, Caprice insisted that Nico teach her everything he could about the Family business, and what she learned wasn’t like
The Sopranos
at all. The life Nico and her father led was more like a twenty-first century version of
The Godfather
and
The Wire
combined to make up the real life Bonatelli family.
Her life in New York was vastly different than her life in Miami. People knew who she was all over the state of Florida, but being the half-sister of Nico Bonatelli afforded her a bit of street cred that she didn’t have back home. When she lived with her mother, there was very little that she could get away with. Mahogany watched her like a hawk, but when she was with Nico, she could actually commit crimes and get away with it.