Chapter 15
Leda
Forty-five minutes later, I found myself standing in an abandoned warehouse near Two Bridges with about thirty or so men. Some were capos, and others were the sons and grandsons of dead Dons. Twenty others would join by phone, not willing to risk a personal appearance or simply located too far to get here in time. I felt my heart pounding as each man who entered gave me a look over, knowing that they were undressing me with their eyes.
In that moment, I was glad Lucas wasn’t here.
He would’ve never allowed this.
“Anyone else coming?” I asked Emil.
“This is all I can drag together. But they’ll spread the word.” He replied.
“I’d like to spread something else, if you know what I mean.” One of them smirked and dangled his tongue as he looked at me.
I kept my face still, refusing to let him get a rise out of me. Half of the men came here because they wanted to see the curiosity of a woman pretending to be a Don. The other half came in the hopes that if things went south, they’d get a piece of Carmine’s daughter as a consolation prize.
I knew that I was in the wolf’s den. But I had to do this.
“Thank you all for coming,” I started.
“Oh I ain’t come yet, sweetheart.” One of them said. The others started laughing.
“Who said that?” I asked.
A man with slicked back hair and a scar running down his right eye stepped forward. He looked down at me, past my eyes and straight at my breasts. “Eager today, aren’t we?”
I glared back at his eyes as a smile slowly rose on my face. Without warning, I brought my knee up into his crotch and he collapsed in front of me.
“Emil,” I said sweetly. “Your gun, please.”
Almost at once, Emil handed it to me. For a moment, I’d been afraid that he would refuse. While Slick-hair was still groaning in pain, I cocked the gun expertly and leveled it at his head.
“You wouldn’t dare, you bitch.”
I squeezed the trigger without blinking. The capos cried out in surprise, including Slick-hair. When the ringing stopped in my ears, I looked down at him and the bullet hole that was half an inch away from his head.
“Call me a bitch again,” I reached for my father’s voice and found it. “And the next one will be between your eyes.”
Slick-hair’s mouth worked, but no words came out.
“Now then, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted.” I lowered the gun. “Thank you all for coming.
“Most of you know me only as Carmine’s daughter. And I know that most of you here probably think that I’m nothing but a pair of tits on legs.”
A murmur of chuckles rose up, but I noticed that it was significantly less raucous than before. Good. They were starting to take me seriously.
“I also know that most of you have lost something far more important to you in the last few days. Your Dons, your livelihood, and the very purpose of your existence. Right now, you feel lost. You feel scared. Even if you don’t want to admit it.
“But above all else, you feel angry.”
A murmur of agreement rose up. My heart pounded.
I swept my hand across the room. “You feel angry that someone took your Dons in as guests, and murdered them at dinner. You feel angry that you’re forced to hide like rats while everything you’ve built was stolen from you. But above all else, you feel angry because for the first time in your life, you are powerless.”
Another murmur of agreement rose up, a bit louder this time. I looked around the room, meeting the eyes of each man standing there, and searched them for the glimmer of change. Some had them, others still looked skeptical, but they were willing to listen.
Good.