Desired Too (24 page)

A huge smile hounded Eddie’s face as he pushed the end button on his cell phone. Everything was coming together. Pops was listening to more of what Eddie wanted to do with the family and less to anything Angel wanted to do. Eddie had already made moves that would better serve his interests, instead of Angel’s.

Angel’s need for legitimizing more of the family business was bullshit. He and Drake could believe that shit if they wanted to. No, what Eddie believed in was the strengthening of his family’s interests in the states and abroad. He wanted to get into more of the drug trade that was running rapid in Asia and Mexico. He knew that there would be resistance, but they were the Leonetti Family for fuck sake. The Leonetti Family was synonymous with power, ruthlessness, and strength. It was built to run shit and destroy anyone that got in their way. It’s the way of his father and his father’s father, etc. The sooner everyone understood that, the better off everyone would be.

Eddie dialed another number, going through the motions of shielding his own number from the person he was calling.

The call was picked up on the second ring.

“Are you ready?” Eddie said into his phone, knowing what the answer would be. He knew this person was thorough. His reputation preceded him ten times over.

“Don’t ask questions you already know the answer to.”

Eddie nodded and tried his best to keep his composure. “Just make sure you make it messy.”

“Don’t tell me how to do my job. You just be ready to deal with the fucking aftermath. I’ve met your brother. This shit is going to get ugly quick.”

Eddie snickered to himself.
God, I hope so.

“Don’t you worry about anything. My brother is going to react the way he should, as long as you do what you need to. Everything needs to happen according to plan, understand?”

The man on the other end remained quiet for a second before he laughed. He actually laughed, which only confirmed that Eddie needed to kill the son of a bitch the moment he got the chance.             

“You’re in over your head!” He laughed again, then hung up.

Eddie, feeling the anger start to take over his mind, banged his hands on his steering wheel.
That son of a bitch will know what it feels like to fuck with a Leonetti.

If it’s the last thing Eddie did, that motherfucker would pay.

Eddie called the last person he needed to set his plan into motion.

“What?”

Eddie frowned and said tersely, “You’re up!”

He ended the call and tossed his phone on the seat next to him.

Just calm down,
he coached himself as he closed his eyes and tried to do just that. He just needed to hold on and be patient. Soon he would have exactly what he wanted, what belonged to him.             

As I sipped my third cup of coffee, I pensively watched as the one person, who had the power to end my cousin, break bread with another man. She clearly had no idea how volatile Angel could be or she wouldn’t have been there. The man across from her touched her arm and went to squeeze her hand and that move alone was a death sentence. I wasn’t saying that Raquel was cheating. I could clearly see that she had some disdain for the man before her, but that didn’t mean shit. If Angel had walked in there right then, all hell would break loose.

For the past three hours, I’d been on Raquel’s ass. Not literally, of course. I’d followed her just as she left Angel’s that morning to a hotel close to Thirtieth Street, then to this restaurant.

This wasn’t the first time that I had Raquel duty. Ever since I’d gone with Angel to Cali a few years back, Raquel had become sort of a hobby.

We had gone to the west coast to take care of some business. Some wannabe cartel family was trying to test the waters,
our east coast waters
, and needed to be reminded who ran shit on the east coast. We were set to meet with this family a few hours after we landed, which gave us time to relax. I personally wanted to get to the hotel, smoke a cigar, get a drink, and maybe get into some shit, but Angel had other plans. He said he wanted to see a friend.

I figured he was going to see some chick, maybe get in some ass, or whatever. I really didn’t think anything of it. I just hoped she had a friend.

When we got to this apartment, close to Chinatown, he walked inside as if he owned the building. We walked up a couple of flights of stairs, then down a hall, until he found the door he wanted and knocked. When a man answered, I could see that Angel was shocked as shit. I was wondering what this was all about as I reached behind my back for my gun.

Angel looked into the apartment, then at this dude and said simply. “Where’s Raquel?”

The man stood rigidly and closed the door slightly so we couldn’t look inside the apartment. He stood about six feet and three inches with a little bulk to him. He tried his best to look mean, but that shit wasn’t working.

It also seemed he had a death wish when he replied, looking at the both of us, “What the fuck do you want?”

See what I mean?

“What I want is for you to either go and get Raquel or tell me where she is,” Angel said calmly, which was surprising.

I, myself, was heating up though.

The dead man started laughing, and I inwardly shook my head and tightened my grip on my piece. I began to pull the gun anyway and smack the shit of him with it, but Angel gave me a slight shake of his head.

The dead man, however, didn’t take this as Angel saving his life. He decided to poke the hornet’s nest, saying, “I ain’t got to tell you shit. You don’t own me like you do that son of a bitch.” His eyes glanced my way signifying that I was “that son of a bitch,” as he added, “The both of you can go fuck-”

I didn’t let him finish. My hand snapped a colossal right to the dead man’s face, and he stumbled back. Angel and I then barged into the apartment, and I shut the door. Angel moved through the small apartment while I put this piece of shit in his place.

He threw a couple of punches that, if they connected, could have done some damage. But I wasn’t an amateur at this, and he needed to learn some respect. By the time I was done teaching this fucker some manners, he was kneeling in front of me with his right arm raised in a very awkward position. At any point, I could break his arm, and he knew it.

Angel came back to where we were and looked around at the damage I caused.

He smirked at me. “Making a mess, I see. Was he too much for you?”

I frowned. “Fuck you.”

Angel laughed, grabbed this fucker by his hair and yanked back. “Are you ready to cooperate and tell me what I want to know, or do we have to get creative?”

We didn’t get an answer so… Yeah, we got creative. I didn’t do too much damage, though. After all, we were in an apartment with neighbors that could call the cops. Instead, I just hit a few pressure points on his body that caused him a large amount of excruciating pain. He saw the error of his ways and spilled the beans.

We left and went to our hotel, checked in, ate, then came back. When we pulled up to Raquel’s apartment, I saw a beautiful black woman walk out, with the very forthcoming dead man holding the door. I had never really been attracted to a black woman before, so I never looked at one. I mean, truly looked at one. I’d seen a few that were drop dead gorgeous on television, but I rarely saw one on the street or at a club that had me a little worked up. That was, of course, before I saw Georgia. However, I had to say this woman was fucking fine as shit.

I tapped Angel. “Can we get this shit over with?” I pointed to the woman that was now talking to the dead man walking. “I just found the woman I’m making mine for the next few days.”

Now I’d seen my cousin get pissed; hell, even murderous. But this look on his face was something I’d never seen in my life. No, wait, I take that back. I had seen that look, but it was usually looking back at me through a mirror.

I studied Angel and watched him tense up, his jaw grew tight, and his gray eyes darkened. It was then that that I realized that the sexy as shit black woman was Raquel. I had never seen a picture of her. All Angel would say was that she was beautiful and sexy as shit. She was the one that Angel told me had gotten away.

I never expected her to be black. I wasn’t a racist, and I knew Angel didn’t care about the race of a woman. Shit, neither did I. But that didn’t stop me from expecting Raquel to have long, blonde colored hair, and a creamy, bronze complexion, along with a huge set of tits and a nice size ass.

The woman across the street had raven colored hair that reached her shoulders. She definitely had a creamy, almost silk-like complexion, but it was darker than bronze. And, as I said before, she was dick-hard fantastic to look at. What stumped me though was the lack of tits. Angel was an ass and tits man. But I’d seen him sacrifice a chick not having an ass, but had the big breasts, for a good blowjob because his biggest turn on was the double trouble. He always managed to find the one woman with the biggest tits. The woman before me; well, let’s just say that if she didn’t wear a bra, it wouldn’t be a travesty. He clearly didn’t care, and I knew, at that point, that she meant more to him than he admitted.

We sat in the car quietly as rage manifested itself in my cousin while he watched “his woman” walk away from her apartment hand-in-hand with “dead man walking.”

Right before Raquel disappeared from view, I noticed Angel reaching for the car door.

“Oh, fuck no,” I said and turned quickly into traffic.

“What the fuck are you doing?” he said to me, but I didn’t answer him until we were far away from the couple.

I looked over at him. “Whatever you’re contemplating in your head is not a good idea.”

He frowned. “Oh, so you’re a psychic now? You know what I’m thinking?”

I nodded. “Yeah, and all I can see in your future is blood running down the streets of San Fran. That’s not happening.”

“I wasn’t going to spill any blood.”

I shook my head. “No, I wasn’t speaking about you. That woman right there has some fire in her. Damn, I could feel that shit from across the street. She’s feisty and could probably give you a run for your money. Don’t forget you told me all about her. Now that I’ve seen her with my own two eyes… Yeah, bro, I just saved you from getting annihilated on the streets of San Francisco.”

Angel didn’t reply. He just stared out of the window at the passing scenery, but I knew that this business with Raquel wasn’t over. We were going to be in that city for four days, so I knew he wouldn’t be able to stay away while we were there.

During our stay, we made a few visits to the apartment. We even followed her around a bit, but I never let Angel out of my sight. Why you ask? Well, let’s just say he wasn’t in the right frame of mind. Watching the woman, which he had deemed to be his, parade around the city with another man, made my cousin worse than me. He went crazy!

He was mean, evil and didn’t give a shit about anyone around him. The meetings that I dreaded and thought were going to be meaningless banter back and forth was anything but. No, they were quick and to the point. Angel didn’t waste time being civil. He was threatening and hell, I loved it. I hated trying to be politically correct while telling someone if they crossed us, they’d be sorry. “Just be blunt” was always my motto, and Angel was so much more than that. He told them, “Fuck with me and I’ll kill you.” Just like that. There were no pleasantries, no sitting down and negotiating, nothing but the blunt threat of death. Some didn’t like it. Some actually wanted to test whether Angel was true to his word.

We didn’t have a problem leaving the city of San Francisco with bodies under our belts. That was the course of doing business. What I wouldn’t allow to happen was Angel getting to the one person that he actually couldn’t kill. She had moved on. She had found someone and hell, if Angel wasn’t going to change his life of crime to being wholesomely legal and legit, then he needed to let her go.

I think by the end of our trip, he understood that walking away was the right thing to do for her. It took a long ass time for me to convince him, but he knew he had to let her go. I did take it upon myself to keep tabs on Raquel throughout the years. I did my best to keep her out of trouble. Through my involvement with her safety, along with the threat of a brutal death from Angel to the prominent families within San Francisco and surrounding areas, she stayed safe. She did of course manage to get herself into some shit from time to time, despite my unknown help, but all in all, no one messed with her.

I hired some muscle to keep an eye on her, or I would do it personally. Some people tried to test our reach and disobey the order, but they were dealt with swiftly. Angel gave Raquel the family’s protection. If anyone messed with her or harmed her in any way, they would pay severely, and trust me they did.

When Angel had business in California, I would take him to watch her from a distance. I was sure he knew I was looking out for her. It was a given because I knew how much he cared for her.

Since the moment I’d entered this family, I knew the one person that would have my back in anything was Angel. In turn, I made sure he understood that I would always have his. It was the reason why I kept my eyes on Raquel then, and it was the reason why, for two weeks now, I had been watching her.

When Georgia met Raquel, I had the displeasure of listening to my wife tell me all about Angel’s new woman. She went on and on from the moment I picked her up from Sunday dinner, at my Uncle’s house, until we got home. I only lived about twenty minutes from my uncle, but I swear the ride felt like a lifetime.

Georgia went on and on, telling me how Angel was a closet chocolate lover. I wanted to throw up. Apparently, according to Georgia, this woman was Angel’s match in every way. She said this woman was smart, bossy, sassy, classy not trashy, which was Angel’s typical, and hot. Now, if my wife says a woman was hot that meant she was smoking hot. She also told me how everyone’s mouth was on the floor, and it wasn’t because she was black. They were shocked as shit that Angel couldn’t keep his hands off of her. He kept touching her, kissing her, and catering to her, not caring at all who was around. Angel never behaved that way with any woman he brought around the family. He also never brought a woman to dinner at his parent’s house. He didn’t care about bringing a date to dinner at a restaurant, but a woman had to mean something to him in order for him to take her to his parent’s home.

As soon as she told me how Angel was acting, before she even told me her name, I knew it had to be Raquel. My cousin was gone over this woman. I knew if he ever got a second chance to have her, he wouldn’t waste time claiming her.

I understood why he didn’t pursue her a few years ago, before she moved to California. She was young, naïve and Angel was just getting into his role in the family. Plus, his mentality back then was something she wouldn’t have been able to deal with. When I encouraged him to let her be and he listened, I knew then that he still wasn’t ready and neither was she.

Now things had changed. Angel was still off his rocker, but he’d learned to control his destructive urges. As far as Raquel was concerned, I had learned a lot about her over the years by watching her. She had definitely grown up in the time she was away, which was a good thing. She didn’t know it at the time, and I bet she didn’t know it now, but the direction she’d taken in her life had prepared her for this moment, it prepared her for Angel.

Raquel wasn’t squeaky clean. As I mentioned before, she did get herself into some trouble that I secretly had to make go away. I had hoped she had learned from her mistakes, but as her biggest mistake presently sat in front of her, I guessed that wasn’t the case. She’d learned the hard way that she wasn’t able to do everything on her own. She fucked herself though when she decided to put her trust in the wrong person. And, even though I did what I could to help her, as it seemed, she’d fucked herself again.

Once I found out Raquel was in town, I picked up my role as her watcher, despite the shit that went down between Angel and me. I was pissed as shit with him, but I would not knowingly let anyone or anything hurt him. Once I found out her past had resurrected itself, I knew I needed to step in. If I didn’t, this fuck up could potentially be an issue for my cousin and a possible bloodbath would ensue. So, I decided to do what was expected of me, and that was to make sure Raquel was safe. What bothered me was the fact that I was alone.