Heartless Prince by Brook Wilder
Chapter 46
Lucas
I didn’t sleep after my nightmare.
Quietly I dressed and called Rocco to come get me as soon as the sun started to lighten the sky. “Where to, Don?” he asked the moment I climbed in the waiting car.
“We need to make more rounds,” I told him, gripping my phone tightly. “Make sure that Leda is watched today.”
Rocco arched a brow but said nothing, typing out my message on his cell phone. “Yes, Don.”
We ended up on the other side of the city, in the outer boroughs where I had spent far too much of my time. When people said that the city never slept, they were talking about Manhattan. In the outer boroughs, people were just starting to wake for the day. Halal cart vendors were firing up their grills, and New Yorkers rushed to catch whatever train or bus that was already fifteen minutes late.
I didn’t have to tell Rocco where to start. He knew exactly where to send the driver, and my expression grew hard as I stepped out of the car, buttoning my suit coat.
“He’s not here,” Rocco said as he joined me. “He sends his regrets.”
Fucking Adrian.
I had demanded a face to face with him days ago, but he kept eluding me with one excuse after another.
He knew I was in the city and was with Leda, hence the need to have tight security around her. I couldn’t take the chance of him doing something stupid when it came to her.
“Well who the fuck is?” I asked.
“A few of the Battery boys who weren’t there in the last meet and greet,” Rocco replied. “They should be soon. You’re up early this morning, Don.”
“No rest for the weary,” I told him. There was no trace of humor in my words. I wasn’t going to tell him the real reason I had been unable to go back to bed.
And as much as it would have been nice to burrow next to Leda’s warm body and forget the shit inside my head for a while, there were truly pressing matters at hand that I needed to take care of.
“You mean you like to torture me instead,” Rocco groaned. “We are in the city, boss. There are temptations, and a man has needs.”
Rocco’s words brought a mirthless smile to my lips. “You knew the hazards of the job when you took it.”
“Yeah,” he grumbled. “Sometimes those aren’t worth it. I don’t get shot at nearly as much as you claimed I would be.”
I cleared my throat before he could see my smile. “I’ll be sure to change that.”
Despite my early morning, the rest of the day went smoothly. If the capos had their opinions about me, they wisely kept them to themselves as I visited one site after another, keeping my questions about status reports and the like, and reading the expressions of the men who answered me.
I wasn’t blind to Adrian’s influence though. The capos in charge of the Battery were definitely restive. And despite the fact that I was their fucking Don, there was more than just unease when I showed up in person before them.
There was resentment.
Too fucking bad. I make the decisions, not Adrian, nor any other prick. Cosimo gave the Mafia to me. Nobody else.
The final capo I met with paled when I reminded him of that. “I mean no disrespect, Don,” he stammered, swallowing hard. “I’m just trying to follow orders.”
I leaned in and gave him a grim smile. “You’re following the wrong fucking orders. Next time that Adrian gives you an order, you check with me or Rocco before you do it.”
“Yes, Don,” he stated, his eyes darting to Rocco, who just grinned at him.
I stood and straightened my coat, showing him that he hadn’t ruffled me on the outside. Inside, I was seething that Adrian was trying to ruin me at every turn.
When we walked out, Rocco swore. “Still don’t understand why you didn’t let me kill him when you had the chance.”
“Can’t cry over spilt milk now,” I grunted as we climbed into the car. “I thought I’d show him the olive branch, tell him no hard feelings.”
That had been a fucking mistake. And right at that moment, the hard truth stared me in the face.
If I kept Leda around, I would be making another one.
