Claimed by the Enforcer: A Venturi Mafia Spin-off novel, page 8
“Luca?” I mumbled but I wasn’t sure if my lips actually made the sound.
“Come on, bella. It’s time we go somewhere more comfortable,” the lascivious voice was hot against my ear as I stumbled to my feet.
I staggered into a dimly lit room and the pounding music was muffled with the shutting of a heavy door. I stumbled, nearly falling as one man passed me to another and suddenly I was freefalling only to be stopped by a plush pillowtop mattress.
Alarm bells sounded in my head as hands began to grope my breasts and thighs, tugging on my dress. I tried to swing my fists and kick my legs, but it was as if they were made of lead.
I opened my mouth to speak but words wouldn’t come out as a hot tear ran down from the corner of my eye. I shook my head and forced a quiet “no” from my lips, but the men just chuckled.
My body sagged with exhaustion as I used the last bit of energy. Darkness threatened to overtake me but just before the abyss sucked me in there was a loud, slamming sound in the distance followed by yelling that I couldn’t understand.
Again, I was lifted. Strong arms held me against a rock-hard chest in a bridal carry. A familiar woodsy smell comforted me, and I allowed myself to relax into the warm embrace as I was carried out of the club and into the cool night air.
Chapter 11
Luca
I pulled into the nightclub's nearly empty parking lot, shutting my car door a little harder than intended.
In the harsh midday light, all glamor was gone. All that remained were empty alcohol bottles, and the remnants of parties from hours before. There were no lines of eager patrons or bouncers guarding the door.
I entered the club and headed straight for the back office which would be the only occupied area prior to the club opening that night.
The club owner’s voice came from behind the closed office door, but I didn't bother knocking. I barged in, wanting to make an entrance. He sat behind a large glass desk, talking to someone on his office phone, but jumped in his seat, his wide eyes meeting mine the moment I entered. "I—Let me call you back."
He hung up the phone without giving the person on the other end time to respond.
“Ciao, Luigi.” My voice came out dark and eerily calm.
"Luca, how can I help you?"
"Help me?" My voice pitched. "You can help me by telling me how the hell my Don's little sister ended up roofied and almost assaulted in your club last night?" My voice rose with each word as did the tension in his posture.
"I—I didn't know she was here."
"Bullshit.” In a few quick strides I was to him, my fist bunching up the collar of his shirt and lifting him out of his chair while he scrambled to his feet. “You know everything that happens in your club. We give you certain perks and assurances with the understanding that when someone in our family comes to your club, they are treated like family. That includes watching out for our girls and making sure that they don't get harassed. Perhaps we weren't clear but that also includes not being drugged or assaulted."
The image of Mira lying limp on the bed surrounded by those bastards flashed in my mind and my anger flared. I slammed Luigi against the wall closest to his desk, and his eyes nearly bulged from their sockets.
"I didn't know who she was. She wasn't with her usual group. Those girls she was with—they're wild. They get messed up on all kinds of shit. They hook up with random guys in the VIP rooms all the time. I didn't know she was the don's sister. I swear."
“Okay. You know what? I believe you.” I released my grip on his collar and straightened out his shirt before stepping back.
He slumped against the wall, letting out a heavy sigh of relief. “Thank you. I want you to know that I am loyal to you and the Venturi family. I’d never do anything to jeopardize that.”
“Good.” I nodded my head in thought. “That’s good to know, Luigi. And I have the perfect way for you to show me your loyalty and prove how sorry you are.”
“Anything. You name it.”
“I want all the video surveillance from last night, everything and every copy. If you’ve got names of these girls or the dead men walking who tried to lay hands on the don’s sister, I want those too. Anything you have that might help me with tracking them down, I want.”
“Of course, I’ll send it all over to you as soon as I can get it all together.”
“No need to send anything. I’ll wait.” I plopped down in the chair across from Luigi, draping my arms over the back, and making myself comfortable.
***
An hour later, I strode into Teo’s office without a word and dropped a file on his desk along with a flash drive.
“What’s all this?” He raised an eyebrow curiously as he lifted his eyes from the file to me.
“Information on the guys who nearly assaulted Mira last night, info on the girls she was partying with along with every bit of video footage the club had.”
Teo flipped through the detailed intel with an impressed look on his face. “That was fast.”
“Luigi was very cooperative.”
“I assume that you helped motivate him in that regard.”
“I just gave a little nudge.”
“There’s a lot here. You want to give me the cliff notes version?” Teo closed the file and looked at me.
“The guys didn’t drug Mira’s drink. The girls did. They set her up and dropped her off with those assholes.”
“What?” Teo gasped.
“Stupid bitches. They are lucky they aren’t men because...”
Teo held up a hand. “We’ll figure out how to deal with them. I’m sure they have male relatives.”
“I have a better idea. These girls are spoiled rich brats. I don’t think they would even shed a tear if we roughed up every guy in their families.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“It’s probably better if you have deniability with this. I’ll just need a few men and a lot of leeway.”
“Make it happen. You know I trust you, Luca.”
I gave a nod. “What do you want to do about the men?”
“They knew that she’d been drugged?”
“There’s no way they couldn’t have. Even still, she was trying to push them away. They knew what they were about to do.”
“Then take care of them.”
“Gladly.” My blood still boiled from reliving the video footage of what Mira had gone through the night before. I would have been lying if I had said I wasn’t looking forward to ridding the world of those vermin.
In my daily life, I wasn’t a very violent man. Hell, if anything, I was the class clown of our group, but I was fiercely protective of my family and that was what had earned me the place of head enforcer.
As I left Teo’s office, my first thought was to go to check in on Mira and make sure that she was okay after her ordeal the night before, but I needed to keep my distance. I was furious and the last thing I wanted was to let her see the rage inside. I needed to focus on taking care of all the guilty parties. Then, and only then, would my mind be clear, and my temper be calmed.
Sienna was looking after Mira, and I couldn’t think of anyone better equipped to watch out for her than our new family doctor. Sienna and I had a special friendship ever since she patched me up on a job several months back. It might have been under duress at the time since Alessandro had kidnapped her and forced her to treat me, but Sienna had never even hesitated to save my life or to check on me afterward to make sure I healed up well.
It was funny how in just a few months, I’d be attending her wedding to Alessandro. She’d asked me to keep a good eye on her father for the day of the wedding since the old man suffered from dementia and big events could get pretty confusing for him. I was honored to do that for her after everything she’d done for me.
I caught myself smiling, lost in better memories as I drove down the road toward Enzo’s private card club, but those thoughts were interrupted by my phone ringing.
“Ciao?”
“Luca, it’s Enzo. Sorry I missed your call earlier, I was in a meeting and couldn’t get away.”
“No problem. I need a favor.”
“What kind of favor?”
“The kind that requires the use of your club for a few hours.”
“Are you throwing a private party?”
“You could say that.”
“Oh no. I know that tone. I’m going to need a clean-up crew once you’re done, aren’t I?”
“Probably but it’s for a good cause.”
“No problem. Do you need my help?”
“Nah, I got some guys meeting me at the club now.”
“Okay. Looks like I’m going home early tonight.”
“Aurora will be happy about that, I’m sure.”
“I’m sure she will be. Just text me when you’re done, and I’ll send the cleaners on over.”
“Thanks, man.”
“Just promise you’ll try not to break anything?”
“I’ll do my best.”
I ended the call and at the next traffic light, I sent texts to all the guys from the VIP room, spoofing one of their numbers for each so they all thought one of the others had invited them to the club.
Got some great news today. I rented out Il Casino’s private card club for tonight. Got girls ready to help celebrate too. Meet me in an hour and get ready for a killer party.
I chuckled as each of the pathetic bastards sent me enthusiastic texts back. It was on.
Chapter 12
Luca
I pulled up to the club five minutes later. Enzo stood talking with a couple of the guys I’d called in to help lend a hand with the night’s festivities and after a quick greeting, Enzo left to go home to his girl while I escorted the men into the club.
I stood in the middle of the club surrounded by eight of the best enforcers in the Venturi family, after me, of course, and I smiled at them.
“Thank you all for coming to this get together on such short notice. Rest assured that you will be well compensated for this one. You all know your part in this, but I promised Enzo that we would try not to break anything, so let's move these tables out of here before our guests arrive.”
A short time later, the casino floor was clear except for one single chair in the middle of the room, where I sat, patiently waiting.
“Cars pulling in out front, boss.” One of the men spoke quietly from his look out position.
“Good. Is our hostess ready?”
“Yeah.”
A pretty, young bombshell walked out in her hostess uniform, looking nervous but she forced a smile at me, and I stood to greet her, placing a comforting hand on her back.
“You can do this, Daniela. Just like any other private party. You’ll be long gone before anything starts.”
She nodded and I could feel her physically relaxing under my hand.
“Just lead them each to the main floor and we will take it from there.”
“I got it.” She smiled a little more confidently that time.
I led her to the hostess stand before disappearing back inside the main room.
A few minutes later, I heard the men’s voices coming from behind the door. They sounded jubilant and none of them were even talking to each other about what they were celebrating or who had texted who. They were too busy checking out Daniela and making rude comments about all the things they’d like to do to her if she wanted to stay for the party.
She opened the door, casting me a quick glance before holding it open for the men to enter. Each one looked at me curiously, clearly not recognizing me from the night before. Granted, I was better put together than I had been when I’d rushed into the club, and all of them had been pretty drunk as well.
They looked around curiously at the missing tables, the lack of girls and booze. Daniela slipped back out into the lobby, closing and locking the door behind her.
“Cassio, what’s the deal?”
The man who’d appeared to be the ringleader from the videos the night before turned to look at the other. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“You said this was a celebration.”
“Yeah,” another one started. “Where are the girls? This is one lame-ass party, man.”
His was the number I’d used to text the other three, only changing the number for his text.
“What are you talking about? You texted me.”
I cleared my throat loudly, bringing my attention to myself as I rose from my chair. “Actually, I’m the one who invited you all.”
“Who the fuck are you?” Cassio asked.
“You’re host for tonight’s festivities.” I kept my voice relaxed, almost cheerful but there was a sinister undertone that I couldn’t hide as I stared at the men, remembering their hands on Mira.
“This is shit. I’m out of here.” He took a step back toward the door when my eight guys all emerged from around the room, finally making themselves known.
“What the fuck kind of game are you playing at here, man?” Cassio was trying to act tough, but his voice wavered, and his eyes were just slightly too large.
“You really don’t recognize me, do you?”
“You’re the guy from last night. The one who came and got that girl at the club.” One of the other men said as the look of recognition spread across their faces.
Each of them turned toward the door but my men had their orders. They ran toward the door but were quickly apprehended. Two of my men held each of the men in place in a half circle around the main floor and I stood in the center.
“I watched the video from the club last night. Luigi keeps really good video evidence of everything that happens in his club, even in the VIP rooms, did you know that?”
The men struggled against my guys’ hold and they kicked out the back of their knees, making each of the four drop as I walked around slowly to each one of them.
“What kind of pathetic, low life, desperate vermin take advantage of a drugged woman like that?”
Some of them started stammering for some reason or another but I didn’t bother listening to their pitiful excuses.
I stopped at one, seemingly random man and pulled my pistol from my waistband. He’d been the one to shove Mira down on the bed in the VIP room. “You.” I pointed at him with my pistol, and he flinched.
“You seemed awfully eager to go first last night. Maybe I should let you go first tonight.”
“Go first, at what?” His voice trembled.
I stalked closer, placing the muzzle of my gun under his chin and forced him to meet my eye. He fought against my guys’ grip and their hands squeezed on his biceps until he winced in pain.
“How many drugged and helpless girls have you taken liberties with?”
“What?” He looked up at me with wide eyes.
“How many?” I barked and he jumped.
“I didn’t. I swear. I thought she was into it.”
“You thought that a girl who could barely move, who gathered all her strength to shake her head no, was into it?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t—”
Bang!
The sound of my gun going off echoed through the room and the man on his knees cried out as blood exploded from his upper thigh.
I leaned in closer to him, grabbing him by the hair and forcing him to face me as I raised my voice to a vicious growl. “I said how many?”
“Eight, maybe nine. I don’t know. I’m sorry.”
I released his hair harshly, causing his head to snap back before moving to the next.
“And what about you? How many—”
“Seven. Maybe eight or nine. I didn’t keep count, honestly.” The man was so desperate to answer he didn’t even let me finish so I didn’t shoot him and just moved on to the next.
“And you?” I waved my gun in front of the next man’s face.
“None, that was my first time...”
“Don’t lie to me.” I pressed my gun under his chin.
“I’m not. I swear.” He visibly shook.
I recognized him from the video. Of all the guys, he was the only one there that hadn’t actually laid a hand on Mira. He was with them, and he wasn’t acting to stop them so in my eyes he was still guilty, but he hadn’t touched her and that made me believe him.
