Chapter 117

Nico

“Get in the vehicle,” I tell Dario as we step outside of the club, my hand still gripping his arm tightly. I have no intention of letting him go. Thankfully we have been able to keep a track of him at all times. How on earth he managed to get to Vegas is beyond me. Head will fucking roll that is for sure. People are too wasted to even take notice of us. Not a bad thing.

“No, let go of me, Nico. I’m old enough to make my own decisions. I do not want to go back with you. I like it here in Vegas. I can do big things here.” My guards stand either side of Dario and I. This way my younger, mouthy brother cannot run off anywhere. He’s cornered and he knows it.

“Listen to me you asshole, you might be my brother, you might be an adult but you are not doing business in Vegas with these assholes. They are into pimping, prostitution, drugs and human trafficking. Is this what you want, Dario? To be part of a scum operation?”

He lowers his eyes from mine and shakes his head. “No, not really. I want something of my own, Nico. I’m sick and tired of being you kid brother, dad’s youngest son.”

I loosen the grip on his arm and walk towards the vehicle. The driver is already out and holding the rear door open for us. “Come on, get in. We can talk in the vehicle. I have to get back to Lucky.”

He glowers at me. Dammit. The guy is insolent. He used to pull this all the time when he couldn’t get his own way as children. And because he was the youngest, he got away with it. Personally, I blame my parents on spoiling the holy crap out of him. Nobody minded what Dario did so long as he wasn’t involved in the business.

It probably had a helluva lot to do with him going off the deep end, drinking and partying too much. Doing drugs. We all could have given him more love and attention, only it wouldn’t have mattered how much Tony and I showed him, it was always the attention of my parents he wanted. My mother babied him way too much. This insolence clearly the result.

“That ain’t gonna work, Kid.”

“Fine, whatever.”

We get in the vehicle, my guard follow whilst the driver closes the door, and the other guard sits up front.

“You gotta prove yourself, Dario. You know nothing about the business but I’m going to teach you. Monletto is a cunt, you cannot and I forbid for you to have contact with him or to do business with him,” I tell him in a harsh voice.

“His name associated with ours will bring our business down. It will tarnish the Santangelo name and reputation. All the hard work I have put in to making it a good name, respected by the other stakeholders and syndicate members, would be wasted if we do anything with those bastards. Capiche?”

He turns and looks out of the window as we pull away from the seedy looking strip club. “And a strip club, honestly Dario, what were you thinking? You can have any woman you want. Our hotel provides for the best that money can buy. Clean women, Dario.”

“Fuck’s sake,” he turns angrily at me, his eyes blazing. “What do you take me for? I wasn’t there to fuck a stripper or a hooker. I can manage to get a woman myself if I want thanks, Brother. I was there to make an arrangement with Lucien. Satisfied now?”

Jeez-us, it’s a good job I got to him first. There is no saying what kind of trouble Dario would end up being in. Men like Monletto don’t care for Santangelo blood, he is using Dario and my brother can’t see it. I will toughen him up if it’s the last thing I do.

He has lived under a cloud of drugs and alcohol for too long. Now he is clean and on the road to long-term recovery, it’s time to bring him into the fold.

“No, Dario, it doesn’t make me happy. It makes me fucking sad and...” I refrain from saying disappointed. You don’t say that to your brother nor a recovering addict. We are still treading on eggshells here. I have to choose my words wisely.

“Go on say it, Nico. You know you fucking want to!” he spits out at me.

I take a deep breath. “I love you, Dario. You’re my brother. I want what is best for you. Not to see you going downhill with Lucien and his family. They have some heavy shit coming their way and we need to stay out of it, Dario.”

“Whatever, Nico. Take me home wherever that is these days.”

“Atlanta,” I tell him and put my arm around his shoulder to give him a man-hug. He shirks me off.

It’s going to take time to win him over again. It hurts; I’m not going to lie. Dario and I were always close, until we weren’t. I am determined to make the bond again. Blood is thicker than water, except for where Lucky is concerned.

My phone vibrates in my pocket. “Take it,” Dario says as he stares straight ahead.  I swear to God, I will make Dario see his worth in our organization. He has a good head for numbers; he has his degree – thankfully. I’ll place him in one of my casinos. Just not in Vegas.

“Hello, Tony what’s up?” My voice perhaps a bit too harsh.

“We got problems, Brother,” he tells me directly.

Fuck now what?

“Tell me straight.”

“The Petrov gang are trying to muscle in on our turf back in New York!”