Twisted Loyalties (The Camorra Chronicles 1)

“Best nose candy, I tell ya,” Pruitt said as he leaned down to sniff his own stuff.

I slid in. Adamo was the first to see me, and he opened his mouth for a warning. I gripped the back of Pruitt’s head and shoved it down hard, smashing his face into the hood. “Enjoy your nose candy,” I growled, then ripped his head back. Blood was shooting out of his nose and his face was covered in it and cocaine. His widened, dazed eyes settled on my face. I gave him a cold smile, but released him when Rodriguez leaped toward me with an iron bar. Pruitt crumbled to my feet and Rodriguez swept the bar at my head. I dropped to my knees. The bar crashed down on the hood. I pulled my knife and slashed it upwards, cutting him open. He dropped the iron bar, then sank to his knees across from me, clutching his stomach. I rose to my feet, then turned to Adamo. His shock was replaced by defiance when he met my eyes. He lifted his chin in challenge.

Oh, Kiddo.

He took a step back from the hood and lifted his balled hands, one of them was clutching a knife the way I’d taught him. “You think you are tough, don’t you? That’s what I thought when I was your age.”

I approached, and pointed toward the cocaine on the hood. “So that’s how you want to end your life?”

“It doesn’t matter. Remo sent you to kill me anyway!” he shouted. He glared, but there were tears in his eyes. “I crashed his favorite car. And I know Cane told him about the snuff.”

“If you plan on using that knife any time soon, do it.”

He ran toward me and slashed the knife sideways as if he intended to cut my throat, but the attempt was half-hearted and his aim way too low. He wasn’t into it. I grabbed his shoulder, thrust him down on the hood, then brought my elbow down on his wrist. He dropped the knife with a cry of pain. I released him and stepped back. He cradled his wrist, tears finally falling as he sank to the dirty floor. Still only a boy. Remo liked to forget. Since Remo had become Capo, Adamo had been alone too often. “Don’t raise a knife against me again unless it’s for training or you really mean to kill,” I told him.

“Just do it,” he muttered, but there was fear in his voice.

I crouched in front of him. “Do what?”

“Kill me.”

“Remo doesn’t want you dead, Adamo. And I think you know that. And you know I won’t kill you. If all this shit is your way to get his attention, it’s not working the way you want it to. You’re only pissing him off.”

“He’s always pissed off since he’s become Capo,” Adamo said quietly. “Perhaps he needs to get laid more often.”

I laughed because he was too young to pull it off. “The one who needs to get laid is you. But if you keep this shit up, you’ll die a virgin.”

He flushed and looked away.

“I’m sure Remo can ask a few pretty girls to take care of it for you.”

“No,” he said fiercely. “I don’t like those girls.”

I straightened and held out my hand for him to take. “Easy tiger.” He took my hand after a moment of hesitation and I pulled him to his feet. He moaned in pain and cradled his wrist again. “I’ll take you to Nino. He’ll set it for you.” Nino, being the fucking genius that he was, knew more about medicine than most doctors.

“Come on,” I told Adamo. He swayed slightly. From the wound on his head from the car crash or because of the pain in his wrist, I couldn’t say. I gripped his arm and steadied him. He only reached my shoulders, so it was no trouble keeping him upright. Pruitt was crawling away, off to another door. I pulled my gun out of my holster, and put a bullet through his head.

Adamo winced beside me. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“You are right. I could have taken him to Remo.” We both knew how that would have ended.

Adamo didn’t say anymore as I led him toward my car and helped him into the passenger seat. “They were my friends,” he muttered when I started the car.

“Friends wouldn’t have given you cocaine.”

“We are selling the stuff. Every junkie in Vegas is a customer of the Camorra.”

“Yes. And because we know what it does to people, we don’t take the shit.”

Adamo rolled his eyes before he leaned his head against the window, smearing it with blood. “What’s with you and that girl?”

I jerked. “What are you talking about?”

“The one with the freckles.”

I narrowed my eyes in warning.

Adamo gave me a triumphant smile. “You like her.”