Chapter One Hundred and Nine

Chapter One Hundred and Nine
The elevator dinged at the top floor and Gloria rushed out to unlock the door to the apartment. Conor and Leo grunted as they carried Frankie into their home.

“Where you want him, Miss Rubanov?” Leo asked.

“You can call me Gloria, Leo,” Gloria said. “Take him to his ‘fun room.’ That’s where all the medical equipment is.”

“‘Fun room,’” Conor repeated. “I like it.”

Gloria entered the code and ushered them inside. 

“You know, for such a little guy,” Conor said as he and Leo heaved him up onto the metal table. “He sure does weigh a lot.”

“He may be shorter than you, Conor,” Gloria said, eyeing the blond as he swiped his hair from his forehead. “But I guarantee he’s got more muscle.”

Leo snickered and Conor cast him a look of annoyance. 

“Where’d Dimitry go?” Gloria asked, cutting Frankie’s shirt off him, ready to get to work.

“Ah, last week when you all moved out, I came in and disposed of him,” Leo told her, helping her strip Frankie’s shirt away.

She raised a curious brow in his direction. “Disposed of him?” she asked, shaking her head. Then under her breath, “This place is full of hypocrites.”

“He knew where you and Frankie lived,” Leo cut in, his eyes sharp. “You blackmailed his father which ended up getting him killed. That’s a revenge plot waiting to happen, Miss Rubanov.”

A pounding started at the front door. Accardi and the others must have arrived.

“I’ll get it,” Leo said, wiping his hands on his pants as he left the room. 

Gloria sighed and gathered what she would need.

“If it helps at all, I get it,” Conor chimed in, pulling a granola bar from his pocket.

“You do?”

“Sure,” Conor said. “I mean, I’m not picking sides or anything but, the Accardi family has always had peaceful transfers of power: Accardi to Accardi to Accardi to Accardi. It’s easy to be all self-righteous when no one in this organization has been in our position.”

“Our position?” she asked, widening the wound in Frankie’s arm to get better access to the bullet lodged there. 

Conor cupped his hand around his mouth as he whispered, “Psychopathic fathers with world-conquering ideals.” He shrugged and went back to his granola bar. “The three families go through a training period before we take over, did you know that? We go back to the ‘homeland’ and work with the original family to learn how best to run our organizations. We learn the ins and outs of ways to make money in the dirtiest means possible, keep soldiers in line, make tactical decisions. You didn’t get that.”

“No,” Gloria said, staring at him in wonder, in gratitude. 

“My father was crazy,” Conor continued. “Stole an Irish bride. Got her killed. Knocked up her cousin. Betrayed hundreds of years of peace. Created destabilization in his ranks.”

“Sounds oddly familiar,” Gloria said, sticking an instrument into Frankie’s flesh to dig out the bullet. “I feel like I have to make a statement. To show I’m strong. To take over with a heavy fist, you know?”

“Eh,” Conor said with another shrug. “Chaos breeds chaos. Do you want to be like your father?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. 

“Well, then don’t,” Conor said simply.

“What did you do?” Gloria asked, genuinely curious. 

“People think kids in our situation have two choices: come in and set a tone for violence by wiping out the loyalists, or come in softly and slowly weed out the traitors as they come. Really though, the two choices are far simpler: stay or get out.”

“And you… got out? How?”

“Accardi,” Conor explained. “He made a deal with another family to absorb mine. Gotta tell you,” he said, raising the granola wrapper to his mouth and emptying the crumbs. He smiled wide and lifted his arms in the air. “Life’s pretty sweet. I sure as fuck don’t want to be as uptight as Dickwad. Always looking over his shoulder. Always on the phone. Planning his day around killing people.”

“Day’s not done,” Accardi said, strolling in and sending a look of warning to Conor.

“Ah, look who made it to the tippy-top floor. All seventy-eight levels,” Conor said with a knowing smile.

“I’ll fucking end you,” Accardi warned as he stuck a stick of nicotine gum in his mouth.

“No, you won’t.”

Gen came in then and gasped at the sight of Frankie on the table. “Oh my God, Frankie.” Then her ice-blue eyes settled on Gloria and widened. “Gloria, I heard what happened. Are you okay?” she asked, stepping forward and grasping Gloria in a tight hug. 

“Fine, just busy,” Gloria said, pointing down at the canvas that was her fiance.

“Let me help. What can I do?” Gen asked as she found some gloves and put them on.

“Um, can you suture the grazes?” Gloria asked, pointing to the ones she hadn’t gotten to.

“Yes, normally my forte is bloody knuckles,” she said, sending a playful look to her husband. “But I have been known to stitch a bullet wound or two.”

As the women got to work, the men sat idly by.

“So…” Conor drawled after a few minutes. “What’s next boss man and lady?”

“Sergei,” both Accardi and Gloria said at the same time.

“You’ve been looking for him, right?” Gloria asked as she moved onto the second lodged bullet.

Accardi sighed. “Yeah, he’s holed up somewhere. I have men searching the old underground city but nothing yet. I’ve got some looking into old maps of the system, and researching permits, talking to city officials. If he’s been working on a hideaway, there should be some evidence of it. At least in the pockets of one or two politicians. I’m shifting my focus to Thompson.”

“That’s smart,” Gloria agreed.

Accardi nodded as he thought. “He can’t stay underground. It’s not in his nature. He’s been visiting a lot of clubs, but never the same one twice and is well versed in losing tails. I’ve had two of my men killed and four arrested by cops he’s got on the payroll,” Accardi said.

“Have you spoken with Frankie’s old friend, Johnny?”

“Johnny Valencia? Accardi asked, his brows pinched. “No, but that’s a good idea. Do you have his number?”

“I don’t but…” Gloria shifted Frankie over and pulled his phone from his back pocket. “It’s probably in there.”

Accardi took the phone, lifted Frankie’s hand and used his thumbprint to unlock the screen. He didn’t say anything as he started to scroll through the phone and walked out of the room. Gen cleared her throat and Gloria glanced up in time to see her giving a subtle nod toward the door at Conor. Conor raised his hands in surrender and sauntered out, probably in search of food.  

“So, today didn’t quite go as planned, did it?” Gen asked once they were alone with a pointed look at Gloria’s blood-stained dress. 

Gloria scoffed. “That is a massive understatement.”

Gen nodded as she clipped the suture she’d been working on and moved to the next. “I’m sorry to hear about what you were forced to do. That couldn’t have been easy.”

Gloria sighed. “It was easier than I thought it would be, honestly.”
Gen hummed in understanding. “You know, our situations are nothing alike,” she started. “Before this year, I didn’t know anything about this life. It turned out my step-sister had been involved, but she did a fantastic job hiding it from me. It was a lot to take in. The violence, the uncertainty, the nonstop anxiety. But a couple months ago, I was thrown into a position sorta along the same lines as you.”

Gloria looked up. “You were?”

Gen shrugged and gave a dismissive wave. “I’m not trying to compare but after Matteo and I got married, I had to step up. Not take over, mind you, just step up while he was in prison. Before then I thought being a woman in a male dominated field was hard. This life…” Gen whistled. “It’s even more so. I had to stand before a group of men who had been loyal to the same family for generations. They didn’t know me. Didn’t trust me. And suddenly here I am saying, ‘I’m the new Donna, follow me.’”

Gen laughed and shook her head. 

“And they did,” Gloria said.

Gen shrugged. “Our situations are different, Gloria. I don’t want to pretend they aren’t. I had Matteo, Conor, Alessio, Leo… Frankie. They all had my back and could guide me but there was still that pressure in my head that I needed to stand up, prove myself to the family, to Matteo. Show that I could handle this life,” she explained. Gloria nodded, so happy to have another woman who could understand. 

“What happened?”

“I…” Gen looked off as if into a distant memory. “I did some things I never thought I’d be capable of doing in pursuit of that goal. It made me feel… disgusted with myself. So... I listened. I learned. I took counsel while also listening to my own heart.” Her eyes reconnected with Gloria’s. “Through it all, though, those men were at my back. You have a lot to go up against right now.” Gen shook her head. “Don’t go against them. Don’t darken your soul for the point of proving you can stand amongst them. Cause they already know you can. Don’t lose yourself in this Gloria,” Gen warned, placing her hand on her stomach. “Go after what you want, not what you think is expected of you. Life is far too short to live that way. As you well know.”