Their Sweet Desire (Power Surge: The Billionaire Club 3)

Vince walked into his cousin Sammy’s bar in Brooklyn. He immediately saw all the familiar faces, and then his uncle Marty.

“Hey, Vince, what’s going on? We haven’t seen you in weeks,” Uncle Marty said, and then pulled him into a bear hug, despite his much smaller height. Uncle Marty was five feet seven, fat in the belly, and a hairy man to boot.

“I’ve been busy,” Vince replied, hugging him back. Vince could feel his uncle’s multiple rings on his fingers rub along his spine. The man looked like the stereotypical gangster. Slicked-back hair, hairy chest showing with the gold chain and crucifix, as well as the over-the-top use of cologne. The man smelled like a fucking whorehouse.

“Hey, Vince.” His cousin Sammy shook his hand next and then three of his uncle’s main guys gave nods hello.

Vince took a seat at the bar.

“What would you like?” Sammy asked.

“A shot of bourbon.”

“Whoa, what’s up?” his uncle asked, turning around in his seat at the bar to talk with Vince. Vince just waited for him to ask about Bliss and Toni. Fucking Toni is driving me crazy. I can’t take it. I’m going to have to apply more pressure. I need this. If I don’t land her and that place, my father and uncles are going to disown me.

“I’m good. Just have a lot on my mind that’s all,” he replied.

“Sounds like you need to get laid,” one of his uncle’s men stated then chuckled as he gave his buddy an elbow. That guy, Twist, was one sick son of a bitch. He had gotten his name from killing people with his bare hands, simply by twisting their necks. Vince avoided him and the other guy, Venom, as much as he could. Vince gave the guy a small smile, acknowledging him, and Twist gave him a look, as if he could see through Vince’s bullshit.

Did he think that Vince wasn’t capable of killing someone? Lately, he’d been feeling as if anything was possible. He would do just about anything, too, to prove to his father that he was legit.

He felt the smack to his shoulder.

“There’s my boy. He don’t need a whore when he’s got a sweet, sexy young woman in SoHo,” his father Butch Saggaretti stated as he joined his son.

Vince swallowed.

“That woman is fucking fine,” Twist remarked.

“But with baking those goodies she does, she may wind up as big as a fucking house in ten years. That won’t be so pretty,” Venom said, and he and Twist laughed.

“You two take a walk,” Uncle Marty Mollicone ordered, as he saw Vince’s eyes squint toward Twist and Venom. Vince wasn’t sure if his uncle could tell he might react to their teasing or if he was trying to keep the peace around the bar.

“How is Antoinette doing?” Butch asked. “You haven’t brought her by the house in months. I know she’s busy running the business and all, but you need to teach your woman to relax a little. Your mamma’s been wondering about her.” Sammy placed a glass of vodka and club soda down on the bar next to Butch.

“Well, things have been a bit rough,” Vince said. Maybe if he just shared a little bit of the truth, his father would understand.

But one look at Marty and then Butch, and he instantly knew they were pissed

“What the fuck do you mean things have been rough? What did you fucking do? Did you cheat on her? It was an easy fucking plan. How did you fuck this up?” Butch asked his son.

“I didn’t fuck things up. She started making all these demands and she wasn’t serious about me.”

“She fucking dumped you?” Marty asked, sounding completely annoyed.

Vince released a sigh. “We’ve been apart for six months.”

“Fuck. How the hell did you screw this up?” Marty asked Vince.

“I don’t know. As soon as I started talking to her about getting serious, getting married, and working the business together, she started to close up on me. Next thing I know she’s accusing me of using her.”

“And?” Butch asked.

“We had a fight. I drank too much and she was screaming at me, telling me what to do and to get out, so I hit her.”

As his uncle and father started carrying on about hitting Antoinette, and then about keeping women in their place, Vince thought about that night.

It was over and he knew it. Antoinette hadn’t been intimate with him in weeks. He stopped at a bar with friends, drank too much then waited for her to close up shop. He walked with her and tried to ease things over, but she just ignored him and told him things were over. By the time he walked her to her apartment upstairs, he shoved her inside and shook her, screaming at her to take him back and to not end the relationship. She was crying. She started accusing his family of killing her grandfather, something they never discussed before. Sure it was true, but he had worked really hard on convincing her that he wasn’t involved with that and their situation was like Romeo and Juliet. The families battled, but they were meant to be lovers forever. She called him a loser and a liar, and he hit her.