Queen Of Killers

Chapter 2-1

Chapter 2

Aliyana

12 years ago

Blank spaces in a tale are sometimes

Necessary when someone is lying

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“Mero, Micky!” Gabriel yells as Ren, and we stand by the door of their tech-class with our backpacks, waiting. Bunking last period wasn’t the best decision we were making today, with finals approaching soon. We were all accepted into UW about a week ago. Since receiving our acceptance letters, Gabriel had not lifted a book to study.

I informed my friend finals were still a big part of getting in. To say he didn't care was the understatement of the year. Neither of them has cared, well apart from Ren. He was always in the books. I knew he got accepted to Harvard. Why he turned it down to come here was beyond my understanding. He swore to me that he will do two years here, then f**k off to Harvard.

He was the better one, smart and funny. I wanted more for him.

“I am done with Matteo f*****g Di Salvo, why couldn’t he stay in England like a good f**k boy?” Gabriel states as he walks out with Mero and Michel joining us. His face is flushed, his eyes are small and promising death. This is the thing about having only male friends. There was too much testosterone, and though I knew for a fact that Matteo pushed his buttons, Matteo wasn’t as bad as Gabriel made him out to be.

I wonder what the others would do if they knew Ren and Matteo were friends. It was a secret I was keeping since I found out 6 months ago. I stumbled into the music room one day after 2nd break and I saw the two of them sitting and chatting about Quantum Physics. It shocked me. Obviously, they both decided that their broody friendship needed to be kept a secret, and I agreed. Sometimes secrets were necessary for all our sakes.

“Because p*****s don’t know how to stay in one place,” Michel responds, sliding his hand through his gelled brown hair. He is the shorter of the four boys and the most muscular now. He filled out these last 8 months.

“That p***y better be careful,” Mero says as we all laugh. But my gaze goes to Ren, who didn’t find it funny. And although he laughs, I know, like me, he is just laughing for no reason at all but to appease his friends.

“So where to? We should sneak Yana into the gentlemen’s bar again. That was funny,” Ren suggests, earning him a smack on his arm in response. The sneaking part wasn’t much fun when I had to creep in through the men’s bathroom window. It also wasn’t fun when I walked in on my history teacher half-n***d. I try to think of the name I said when he asked me who I was.

Gabriel puts his arm over my shoulders, reminding me of how short I am and how tall he is. A reminder that I was also a girl, a Made-Man’s daughter, who was breaking a million rules by just allowing him to put his arm over my shoulders. Skipping school and the rest was a lot of frosting on a flat cake, even for me. I tried to hide it, but in the end, my sanity won and I slipped my Papa a text when I went to the bathroom. I was after all my father’s daughter.

He responded with a thumbs up. Which was his way of saying, we will talk about it later and telling him was good. Yes, a thumbs-up said a lot when it came from my father.

“I was thinking of somewhere a bit further,” Gabriel says as his usually straight face mutates into a smiling one. I love these guys. They were far from perfect and overflowing with trouble, but these boys made me feel alive.

“Where?” I ask him as my stomach twists with an anxious thrill of what we were going to do.

“My Uncle is around attending some business. He’s given us free rein of his Jet until 7 this evening. I took the liberty to have Constantine clear a flight plan for us to Seattle.”

“What are we going to do there?” Mero queries as he furrows in an almost hesitant wonder.

Vincent Vasati, Deno, and Marco Catelli run Washington State. It was also home for Ren and me.

Well, for the most part. I didn't have a home since I was thrown into Chicago. But I still liked to consider the possibility of Seattle one day becoming my home. My mother and father bought their home in Seattle and for years before I even existed they lived there. It was the same house I kept returning to during the holidays. I refrained from going to New York for the sole reason of my father’s wife Illaria who lived there. The woman hated me before she even knew my name.

She was the reason I came to Chicago. The reason I was not embroiled in a brewing I wasn’t necessarily thrilled about. I love these boys, but sometimes loving them wasn’t easy because their love for me came with a condition and that was loyalty.

“Deno has the new exclusive club opening this weekend. The bottom floor is a restaurant, thought, we’ll christen the place and enjoy a meal.” Ren’s glee is unmasked as Gabriel lets us in on his little plan. Ren loves Deno, his older brother. Brotherly love was always good to have, especially when that brother was our Underboss.

I wasn’t so sure about his relationship with Leonardo and Marco. While I swooned over Leonardo, and from afar professed my undying love for him for all eternity, I never set eyes on Marco. Marco was the first-born son of Capo Marcello, then Deno, Anya, Leonardo and lastly, Ren.

While Deno kept close tabs on us and knew most of everything that happened in Chicago, Marco was always MIA. Leonardo dropped by every odd occasion to ‘check how are things’ but we all knew it was Deno’s doing that sent Leonardo here.

Anya however didn’t need to be asked to visit, she always showed up at the most random of times.

His sister, Anya, I liked the least out of his big family. She was false and always had an agenda. I didn’t like people who could do something cruel to those they claimed to love.

I didn’t like to think about what she did to Ren, but sometimes it got my blood boiling. Ren had secrets, we all did, but when people like Anya knew them, sometimes the price of keeping them just became too high.

“Don’t we get an invitation?” I hear that voice, and we all freeze at the sound of Alec Russo.

Straight ahead of me and down the hall are the Russo boys and their new BFF, Matteo Di Salvo. Alec and Matteo stand side by side, while the twins, Cassio and Camelid, take them back.

“No,” Gabriel responds, his fingers tensing on my arm as he stiffens next to me, all casualty gone.

“Too bad, I was hoping to see my cousin,” Alec says as his evil smile implies otherwise. Yes, that was the thing about Alec, he was a creep and after a year of just sitting by and doing nothing, I was ready to solve the problem named Alec permanently.

“Yeah, too bad. We're full up, try the airport,” Ren recommends.

Mero nudges his head to say let’s go, and I think his timing is impeccable. Sometimes walking away is better than the alternative.

“We will do just that. I should probably call your brother too, wouldn't want to start a war now,” Alec yells as the others laugh at his stupid joke. I see Matteo’s gaze scatter from Ren to me and back again.

“I am not sure which one I hate more, Matteo or Alec,” Michel mumbles.

"I thought Di Salvo’s are supposed to be our closest allies," Mero states as his brows draw down into a scowl I know too well.

"Allies? What the f**k is that?" Ren's sarcasm makes us burst out laughing.

We ignore the irritant foursome as we turn our backs and walk toward the exit.

I should’ve known it wasn’t over. Far from it.

We get on the plane in the next 40 minutes. I wait till the red light turns green and unfasten my safety belt. The beige leather interior and red marble skirting scream ‘notice me.’ I never admitted this to anyone, but I didn’t like Gabriel’s uncle. There was just something about him that rubbed me the wrong way. Papa always told me my intuition can never be wrong.

Ren follows me when I walk to the back of the plane where the bathroom is.

He places his arm around my shoulder and practically shoves his phone in my face. I have to hold his wrist to prevent him from hurting me. I read the message he wrote.

Don’t hate me, but Deno let me know Gabriel was planning the trip, so I asked Matteo to charter another plane 20 minutes after us. Alec has done some really bad things, we need to stand together. The others won’t agree with Matteo rocking up. Do you think you can stand with me on this?

That was a question I didn’t see coming. What was the right thing to say? And how good of ‘friends’ were Ren and Matteo. Was this going to cause a problem with the plan? There was a lot about the plan I didn’t like. Mostly the part where Mero marries Elisa.

If I did this now, were we drawing an invisible line between the others and us? Is that what I wanted?

I shrug my shoulders and push him aside as I head to the bathroom. I can’t give him an answer. I don’t know.

When I get out, Gabriel is sitting in the front seat staring at me. He’s always been quiet, never saying too much. I admired that about him. But the quality I admired was also what made me wary. My papa told me a quiet man is a waiting man, and that makes him patient, and those who are patient are the most lethal. Would Gabriel prove to be a problem, eventually? I hoped not. I liked to think of him as our secret weapon.

I sometimes secretly wished he would be that weapon when it came to Alec. The guy made me mad in ways that were not sane on any level of the word. He knew how to push my buttons and he pushed them mercilessly.

He chose to pick on Gabriel and me. Gabriel was the tallest and the son of a DeMarco. The same DeMarco’s who killed his mother’s brothers. Yes, revenge in the Mafia was a real pain. And the sins of the father fell heavily on their sons and, in my case, daughter.

Which was the reason a made-man was taught to kill the children too because kids grew up and a made-man's son would want his flesh of meat when his time came.

"I can’t believe he actually asked to join us,” My temper is still boiling after our flight, mostly because all I managed to do was think about Alec Russo and all the vile things he chose to do.

We jump out of the black Mercedes as the six soldiers Deno sent for us surround the vehicle.

The building known as Azure is a tall face brick architectural dream. Dark-tinted glass going right up to a 5-floor height serves as a front wall. I am sure it's bulletproof.

"He's a Russo. What do you expect? There is a reason they are our enemies," Gabriel replies as he slips on a black blazer over his white school shirt.

To passersby, we resemble a group of wealthy kids. We are, but the four boys are all Made-Men.

They have killed, and the ring on their index fingers shows that they would do it again.

"It looks like there is a drop zone on the roof. Why couldn't we land there?" Mero asks as he straightens his tie.

"It isn't ready. Deno is making a greenhouse," Ren answers.

"What green are we talking? In house? Purple heads?" Michel goes from mildly interested to very interested. Big hazel eyes widening with glee. His hair is cut short and his once baby face has now sharpened over the last year. His jaw still not quite as sharp as the other boys, but Michel’s hardened exterior in certain places gives off a ‘don’t f**k with me’ vibe that closely matches Gabriel’s broody self.

"I should have stayed in a girl’s only school," I mumble as I push my hair back from my face.

"And miss the time of your life? I doubt you would. Your father almost castrated my father when he asked him. He almost castrated me for even talking that day. f**k, my nuts still twitch from that." Ren shakes his head in mock horror as the 5 of us walk toward the doors of the massive club laughing.

“But he still agreed,” I point out as Gabriel opens the door when the soldiers line up next to the entrance.