Page 21 of Playing for the Dark
That’s too bad… *sad emoji*
We’ll have to revisit that later.
1. smoke & a light - Ole 60
Chapter 15
Marcello
Ihear rustling and look up locking eyes with an extremely pissed off Marfa.
I try to lighten the mood.1“Well, well, well, look who’s finally decided to wake up.” She still looks like a bull about to charge. “I was going to hack into Blair’s phone and act like it was her texting you, but it seemed easier to grab you once I knew you lived in her building.”
“How the fuck do you know Blair?” That’s all she comes out with? I do like that she’s protective over my dear niece. I decide to be a dick.
“Oh, your BFF didn’t tell you?” Squeezing both of her fists, I can see her jaw clenching from here. Oh, this is going to be fun. “That’s my niece. We don’t share the same last name, so that’s always been easy to hide.” Witha sadistic chuckle, I stand to my full height. I’m so used to having to scare people when I’m here. I need to chill.
“Why the fuck am I here, Marcello?” Straight to the point, this is why I want her to be an ally. She’ll still be running the Russians and their territory, but it makes my job a lot easier when we’re batting for the same side.
“Your slimy father is messing with someone very special to me.” And my business, but I don’t add that in just yet. I need to know if she’s in or out. Let’s gauge where her heads at. “Igor has been a pain in my ass from the beginning of me taking over Vegas. I should’ve killed him then.”
“And what the hell am I supposed to do about that?” Not too bad… Not the exact unhinged answer I wanted, but she’s getting there. With a wicked smile, she says, “You honestly should have killed him. It would have saved me from a lot of pain and suffering at that man’s hands. He’s a vile human being.”Yep. There it is.
“That’s my plan, and I want you to take over and run the Russians.”
“What the fuck did you just say?”
“You heard me. Don’t play the dumb bitch with me, Marfa. I know that your father trained you as soon as you could walk, and knowing him, he probably beat you for any and every mistake. It’s not normal, and you know that.” She’s not your typical mafia princess; that would have never happened in most other mafia families. The daughters are usually married off to make alliances. ButMarfa probably would’ve killed that sorry bastard before they made it out of the damn church.
I can see the shock slowly starting to fade to contemplation as she processes what I’ve just said to her. A few minutes pass as we stare at each other, waiting for the other to break first. “Okay… what do you need me to do?” She’s in. Time to scheme.
“I’m going to kill your father within the next week. I really don’t want you anywhere near it, but you need to be ready to go in after, be ready to run it and take stake so none of the others gets any ideas. I need you on my side. You’ll be given more territory and can work alongside me.” She’s been out of this life for a while, and he obviously doesn’t do things up to my standards.
“I don’t need any more territory. I need you to take his little army out with him. I can help if you want me to. Kinda miss being in the chaos and being able to bust some heads for old time’s sake. None of those slimy fucks are going to be loyal to me.”
“Works for me. You can have some of my men for the time being, and they can train your new recruits once you find some that you trust. I’ll have Vin send over the information of what we have so far and where we’ll meet up.”
“Can you untie me now?” she says, dry as fuck.
“You’re not going to go ballistic again, are you? I had to dose your ass to get you here.” The crazy bitch had her hands around my throat in seconds, but hey, I don’tblame her. That gives me an idea! I need to get her to train Ellie and maybe even Blair. It’ll be an easy task since they’re neighbors and already have a friendly relationship with each other.
“You broke into my goddamn apartment while I was streaming. Pretty much naked, I might add. What the hell did you expect?” At least I was gentlemanly enough to dress her before carrying her out the door.
“Quit with the dramatics. I was there to get a job done. I only have eyes for one woman.”
I had one of my drivers drop Mar off after she yelled at me for calling her Marfa—apparently that’s her trigger from Igor. We talked for a while, and I got some insight from what her childhood was like. I respect her even more after hearing about the things Igor would do. Her upbringing was sickly similar to my own.
I call Vin to fill him in on the shit that’s about to go down. He hated letting Mar go from Sins, but we had to ensure she wasn’t working with Igor.
He answers with his normal, “Boss.”
“Vin, Mar’s agreed to take over the Russians. We need to get a plan together to take out Igor and his whole army of fucks over there.” I let out a breath, not wanting to addthis part in because I know the weight it carries for most people, but Mar didn’t stutter. “Mar wants Igor.”
He huffs out, “Fuck, are you sure, Cello? Is she capable of that?”
“I don’t know how much you remember from when she was younger; I know we kept our distance, but his crazy ass trained, beat, and treated her like a son.”
“If you think she can, I’ll back it. Meet me at Sins tomorrow, and we can set up a plan with Dino and Rhett.” They are our most trusted men. They lead the guys, making sure everyone knows what they need to be doing at all times. If there’s a fuck-up Vin usually deals with it, and if it makes it to me, they’re better off dead;their organs are mine.
