Mafia Obsession

Leo

The heaviness of what I’m doing makes me feel sick, as I wait for Kane. The engine of the SUV is running and my mind is in chaos.

How is Kane going to take the truth?

My eldest brother hates going against Rick’s orders or going behind his back. Believe me, I don’t like it either, but I’ve got no choice.

Movement at the front door catches my attention, and Kane is heading toward the car. He has a small carryall over his shoulder.

I rev the engine as he jumps into the passenger’s seat, huffing as he does. He doesn’t waste a second, before he asks the dreaded question. “Where are we off to then?”

I slip the car into drive and pull down our driveway toward the gates. “Texas.”

Kane sighs heavily. “Fuck, that’s a long drive.” He runs a hand over his shaved head. “What town?”

“El Paso,” I say, wondering how to bring up the fact Rick thinks we’re heading north.

He shakes his head, pulling his phone out of his pocket and typing a text. I can’t help but smirk at how attached he is to Jasmine. Kane never struck me as the kind of guy to fall like he has for Jasmine. “We’ll be gone for a few days then…” he mutters.

“Yeah…” I pause a moment, indecision plaguing me. Kane hasn’t heard about the moves the Juliano Mafia has made against us. He doesn’t know they’ve been selling guns into our territory. It means I could keep him blind about the whole thing. I shake my head, knowing I couldn’t keep it up the entire time. The guilt would eat me alive. “Also, Rick thinks we’re heading north.” I glance over at him.

He visibly tenses beside me. “Why the fuck does he think that?”

I indicate left at the end of our drive and pull onto the main road. Initially, I’m silent, working out the best way to approach this. “He just found out that the Juliano Mafia crossed us, selling guns into our territory.” I pause for a moment, dreading his reaction. “He’s got a team going to snatch his Nick Juliano’s daughter as we speak.”

“Fuck.” Kane’s voice turns up a notch. “We can’t drive into enemy territory, once those guys have stolen his daughter. We’ll be fucking bait ready for picking.”

I grit my teeth together, knowing how dangerous this is. “I will go alone.”

“No way am I letting you go alone.” He shakes his head. “No one should be going.”

My heart pounds faster at the prospect of Kane derailing this totally. “What would you do if it was Jasmine down there?” I know it’s a low blow, but he has to see this from my perspective. Ellie is as important to me as Jasmine is to him. He can’t understand how it has been for the past two months without her-pure fucking torture.

He growls lowly. “I’d drive in there and kill anyone who stood in between me and her,” he says.

“Exactly, you’ve got to know that I’ve got no choice in this,” I say, rubbing the back of my neck. “Ellie is everything to me and I’ll do anything to get her back. Fucking anything.”

Kane’s hand lands on my arm, drawing my attention to him. “I’m with you, little brother.” He sighs. “Even if Rick will kill us for this.”

I breathe a sigh of relief. The last thing I wanted to do was fight with him over this. “Thanks, Kane.”

We fall into a tense silence, as I turn onto the highway. We leave our home and our brother leaving behind, knowing for the first time we’re betraying him.

A long journey ahead of us, which I know will feel longer because I’m itching to see her. It doesn’t sit well with me and definitely won’t with Kane. The danger is real and more acute than anything we’ve experienced before, but Ellie is worth it. I know without a doubt as I speed down the highway I’d die trying to save her.

THE ROAR of the engine purrs as Kane takes his turn to drive the last leg of the long journey. I’ve been in and out of sleep, but the sun is setting and staining the sky a deep red. As I stare out of the window, it feels like a warning of what is coming this evening. There will be blood running like a river tonight-I can feel it in my veins. We’re speeding toward a danger we’ve never encountered before.

One unspoken but unbreakable rule is to keep mob business out of other mafia family’s territories, but this is different. For one, it sounds like the Juliano Mafia have already fucking broke that rule, and for two, Ellie has been taken out of our territory-I have to get her back.

It’s been a long fucking drive. Each of us taking turns for a few hours. We’ve only had a few hours’ sleep in over thirty hours. Rick will kill both of us when he realizes what we’ve done, but he doesn’t understand. He couldn’t. Only Kane can understand what I’m going through right now. He went through the same shit with Jasmine, but lucky for him he got her back far quicker.

His hands are tight on the steering wheel and his jaw clenched. I know he hates going behind Rick’s back like this, but what other choice do we have? Not to mention, he had to leave Jasmine. Ever since she was kidnapped, he doesn’t like leaving her for long periods of time.

Ellie might not even be alive when we get there. Her ex-boyfriend might have killed her for leaving him and that thought makes the pain grow in my chest. She has to be alive. It’s the only thing that is keeping me going. Either way, her ex will die a painful and brutal death.

The music on the stereo is all that falls between the two of us. We’ve both had little to say the entire trip, and even less the closer we got to our destination.

“I’m taking the next turning,” Kane says, breaking the silence. I clock the sign for El Paso. “We’re getting close, aren’t we?”

“Yeah, we’re almost there. Rick will have our asses for this.” Kane sighs heavily. “But, we didn’t have a choice.”

I nod my head. “I really appreciate this, Kane,” I say, making sure he knows how serious I am. “Thank you.”

“Don’t worry about it, little bro.” He shoves me in the shoulder playfully.

This journey would have been tough to make alone, not to mention, boring as fuck. Sure, we have barely spoken, but having company makes all the difference. I couldn’t have kept driving straight through last night without resting, like we have.

“Are you expecting to find her at this location?” Kane asks, nodding at the GPS.

I shrug. “Austin said he’d pinpointed the guys I beat up to this location. Apparently, they’ve been holding a girl captive since they arrived in El Paso.”

Kane gives me one nod, focusing his attention on the road.

The GPS directs us to the outskirts of El Paso in a rundown area that seems rather uninhabited. It tells us to pull into an abandoned looking industrial site-the kind of place that is run by criminals.This material belongs to NôvelDrama.Org.

“I hope this isn’t Juliano owned,” he says, as we enter the shady industrial estate. Places like this are so often mob owned, far from civilization and perfect for illegal operations.

The Juliano Mafia have their hands in many pies, as far as I’ve heard. They dabble in guns, drugs, prostitution and human trafficking to name a few. They’re nasty guys to come across, but they don’t have the same power as us. It’s crazy they’d try to take us on, especially since I’d heard Nick Juliano has his head screwed on.

I’ve never met him myself, but I know Rick has dealt with him before in the past. He often meets with leaders of other mob families to agree peace and territory. In the past, Nick Juliano has always been respectful of the Romano name. God knows what changed, but he’s went down a slippery fucking slope.

“This is the unit according to the GPS,” Kane says, pulling into a space outside a run-down old warehouse. It doesn’t look like it has been in use for years, but we both know better. Our family owns similar looking places all around the damn country.

“This smells of the Juliano mob,” I say, narrowing my eyes at the place. Kane grunts his agreement, nodding his head. “We need to be careful.”

He runs a hand over the back of his neck. “Do you think she’s in there?”

I shrug, keeping my eyes on the unit in search of any movement. There’s no sign of anyone in there or any vehicles parked outside. “There’s only one way to find out.” I open the door, sliding out of the passenger’s seat.

The adrenaline pulsing through my veins heightens as I march for the door. Kane speeds up and sets a hand on the door to stop me, forcing me to look at him. His eyes hold warning, grounding me. “Keep your head screwed on little brother.” He shakes his head. “Think before you act.”

It’s ironic to hear Kane saying that to me. Normally, it’s the other way around. Kane’s the hot head who can’t control himself. I’ve always been level headed one and a planner-until I met Ellie. She set me off course and derailed all my plans. She’s changed me in a way I never believed possible.

I swallow hard and the nod slowly. “I will, I promise,” I say, knowing my actions in there could put both of us in danger.

He lets go of the door and I pull it open, a screech echoing through the air. The darkness of the building calls to me, ready to swallow me whole. This is it. My time of reckoning. Will it be my undoing?