Twisted Loyalties (The Camorra Chronicles 1)

“You can tell me where Greg Hall is,” I said.

He didn’t ask why. He pointed to the far right.

Leona’s father was sitting at a black jack machine. He’d only just forced his daughter to pay his debts and he was already gambling away money he’d probably loaned from one of our credit sharks. If I killed him now, I’d do Leona a favor. She probably wouldn’t see it that way.

I tilted my head in acknowledgement, then let him standing there and made my way toward the despicable coward.

I was still a few steps away when Leona’s father spotted me. He dropped the plastic cup with chips and leaped off the stool, then made a beeline for the exit. I gave a sign to the security guard at the door, who body checked Hall. I wouldn’t be running after that fucker. He wasn’t even worth that much effort. Hall tried to get back to his feet but the guard shoved him back down and kept him in place until I arrived at their side.

“I’ll take it from here,” I told him, then grabbed Hall by the collar of his shirt and dragged him outside toward the parking lot, then around the corner to the dumpsters. He was making choked sounds, which I enjoyed very fucking much.

I let go of him and he scrambled back. “I paid!”

“Do you think I’m making my way over to this stink hole because of a few fucking hundred dollars?”

That silenced him. His dull blue eyes were nothing like Leona’s. That someone like him could have fathered someone like her, it didn’t seem possible.

“And your debt isn’t settled. Soto may have accepted your daughter’s money, but I won’t. That money, you’re owing it to me now, and I won’t be very patient with you.”

“But,” he sputtered.

“But?” I snarled, and punched him hard in the stomach. “And how dare you try to sell off something that’s mine?”

Hall’s eyes were saucer-like.

“Your daughter. She belongs to me. So you think you can offer her to other men, yes?”

He shook his head. “It was a misunderstanding. I didn’t know she was yours.”

My lip curled in disgust at his fucking cowardice. I grabbed him and rolled him over, so he was sprawled out on his stomach. Then I lifted his sweaty shirt and pulled my knife from the holder at my leg. He began fighting my hold but I didn’t ease up. I dug the tip of the knife into his skin. Blood welled up. A fucking marvelous sight. He screamed like a little girl as I cut a ‘C’ into his skin. “C stands for coward. Next time I’ll finish the word. Got it?”

He nodded weakly against the asphalt, panting.

I pushed to my feet. He’d peed his fucking pants. Fucking waste of air and space. With a last glance at the disgusting man on the ground, I got into my car. I needed to see Leona.

Chapter Eleven

Despite my lack of sleep due to my father’s rude wake up, I was full of energy all day. My pulse was still thumping with anger and disappointment over what had happened. I wasn’t sure why it still threw me off balance when one of my parents messed up. They had a habit of doing so, but offering me to his debtor like a whore? That was low even for my father. Despair wasn’t an explanation for everything.

“You’ve been cleaning the same glass for fifteen minutes. I think it’s as clean as it can get,” Fabiano drawled.

I jumped, my eyes zooming in on him. He leaned against the bar, elbows propped up on the smooth wood and a piercing look on his face. It was only eight o’clock. I still had almost six hours of work ahead of me, so what was he doing here?

I put the glass aside and Fabiano snatched up my forearm to pull me closer. He scanned the new fingerprint-shaped marks on my wrist. I had forgotten about them.

His eyes narrowed, his mouth set in a hard line. He stroked his thumb lightly over the bruise before he let go. “Tomorrow I’ll pick you up at home around ten o’clock. I’ll teach you how to defend yourself.”

It surprised me that he didn’t ask who had hurt me. Unless of course he’d found out what had happened somehow. He confirmed my suspicions when he slid two hundred dollars over to me. I quickly glanced around to make sure no one was watching. I didn’t need speculations about the reason for the money exchange. “Here’s your money back.”

“My father—” I swallowed. “Is he okay?” I couldn’t believe I even had to ask.

“He’s fine.”

I nodded, and glanced at the money. “But I paid his debt. If you give me the money back, he’ll be in trouble.”

“That’s not your fight, Leona,” Fabiano muttered. “Your father will keep loosing money and eventually he’ll die because of it. Don’t let him drag you down with him. I won’t allow it.”