A Bad Man: Joey Read online

  Niklo started chuckling and faced forward again. Joey had gone back to his apartment in the city to be with Marra, Little Johnny had gotten patched up and headed home with some scantily clad stripper in tow, and Alex was sitting across from Niklo smoking a joint and staring at the bandage that was turning red on his bicep.

  After the shootout where all of Carlo’s men in the house had been taken down, including that little fucker, the cleaners had come and taken care of the bodies. Luciano had been in attendance, and Niklo could only imagine the twisted things the man would come up with to get rid of all of that flesh and bone. But the cops had been called, as they figured it, by someone in the rundown neighborhood. That was surprising, too, because for as shitty as Chawston had been it had to be one of the strippers that had escaped because no fucking way a junkie would have called.

  But despite the death that the police would have to muck around in, nothing would come back to them. They always made sure that if something couldn’t be cleaned up afterwards, they were still safe from prosecution. Black-market weapons, people on the police force paid to steer things away from the Bacellis, and other tactics were always used to protect the family.

  “I want to get so fucking trashed that I can’t even walk straight,” Alex said and stared at Niklo. He brought the bottle of alcohol he was drinking up to his mouth and took a long sip.

  Yeah, Niklo was feeling that way right about now, too.

  “Hey, what ever happened to Saneyea?”

  Just hearing that name had everything inside of Niklo moving to the past. He may have wanted Angie at one time, but when he had met Saneyea ten years ago, a lot of shit had shifted inside of him. “Man, that’s in the past. I guess you weren’t updated on all that.”

  Alex shook his head. “You going to tell me?”

  “Keep it clean and covered for the next couple of days,” the doctor said, handed Niklo a bottle of narcotics, and headed out of the room.

  Once the doc left Alex stood and walked over to Niklo, handed him the joint, and then leaned against the wall. Niklo took a long inhale, not really into smoking pot, but right now he was amped up about the Gondalo shit going down, and then about Alex bringing up Saneyea.

  “I have a feeling there is bad blood there?” Alex said and took back the joint. “I mean last I heard, which was ages ago and right before I went in, was that you and Saneyea were getting hot and heavy.” Alex took a hit, kept the smoke in for a few seconds, and then exhaled. The smoke billowed around his face for a second before dispersing.

  “No bad blood. She just wanted different things from me, and when I wouldn’t comply with what she wanted she left.” Niklo shrugged, reached for the joint, and took a long hit. Honestly, that had been years ago, but he still loved Saneyea, still thought of her and wished he had made different choices. But that was life. He couldn’t change it, and all he could focus on was the family. Harboring things that he should have done would only hold him back, and he had shit that he needed to focus on now.

  With that he got off the table, put a shirt on, and he and Alex headed out to get obliterated.

  ****

  Marra grabbed another square of gauze, dipped it in the water and peroxide solution, and cleaned the cut on Joey’s throat.

  “You are so lucky he missed your jugular,” she said, and although she knew he was aware of that, the feeling of standing on a ledge came back to her. Thinking that he could have died, and that the last year had been wasted because she had let her mind control her heart, made her feel slightly sick. He hadn’t told her what had happened, or how he had gotten the blood on his clothes or the slice in his neck, but she could guess. And when he had said things were safe for her now, that she didn’t have to be worried about anything because he would always watch over her, she knew he had killed people tonight. She knew she should have been horrified, disgusted, and run from him, but the thing was he had done these things to ensure she was safe, and that the ones he cared for were as well. How could she hate a man that went to great lengths, even if they were morally wrong and illegal, to ensure the ones he loved were protected?

  He held his hand on hers, stilling her, and looked into her eyes. The emotions that passed across his face were hard and cold, but there was also sadness and regret. “Angie is dead, my men are hurt, and the image and thought that kept passing through my mind was that I wanted to be here with you so nothing could touch you.”

  She swallowed, feeling empathy for the woman that had lost her life today. Even though she hadn’t known Angie, and had only experienced her crazy, erratic screaming, that was still a life lost. Marra felt the water drip down her arm from the new square of wet gauze she held, and didn’t know what to say. All of this was new when it came to allowing herself to feel for Joey, but she wasn’t enough of a fool to think there wouldn’t be bumps along the way.

  “This life that I lead is gritty and hardcore, and I can’t expect you to be okay with it.” He cupped the side of her face. “But I want you, Marra, and I don’t think I can just let you walk away.” He leaned in and kissed her. “I can’t let you walk away.”

  Maybe she was dumb or desperate, or maybe she just wanted him so badly that she was blind, but either way she knew she wouldn’t go anywhere, because being with him, in his arms, seemed so right, and nothing else in her damn life had ever felt like this.

  Epilogue

  Six months later

  Marra closed up Vincenzo’s for the evening, went into the back bathroom, and looked at herself in the mirror. She had some flour on her cheek, coffee grounds on her apron, and her hair was a wild mess around her head. Joey was supposed to meet her here in about twenty minutes, so that didn’t give her much time to get cleaned up.

  In the last six months after she had awoken in his apartment, and he had come back to her with blood on his clothes, things had changed with them. She had made it clear from the beginning, well, after everything had happened, that if he was serious about being with her, then she had some rules of her own. She was not to be a goomah. If he wanted her, then it was only her. And then he had laughed at her, and when she had been about to bitch him out, he had cupped her face, leaned in close, and said there wasn’t anyone else for him, and hadn’t been for the last year. Her heart had dropped, her belly had flipped, and she had gotten this stupid smile on her face. For all the rough and tough attitude and for the lifestyle that Joey was in, he was sweet and gentle with her, and showed her a totally different side.

  She fixed her hair, cleaned her face, and took her apron off. And when she headed out of the bathroom she saw Joey standing by his car by the curb, his outfit looking sharp, his sunglasses on, and his black jacket moving around his knees. He looked so devilishly dangerous, and he was all hers.

  After stepping outside, she moved toward him. Even after six months she still felt these little butterflies in her belly when she was around him. He never talked about what he did, but he also didn’t glorify it. He was a crime boss, and although she didn’t know if she would ever be okay with that, she accepted it because she had fallen in love with the man he showed her.

  “Hey, baby.” He embraced her right away, ran the tip of his nose up her neck, and inhaled deeply. She loved when he did that, because she felt like his prey and he was memorizing her. “Ready for dinner?” he asked against her head, and she nodded. Truth was she could stay like this all day. They were a couple, but he was so much more than that to her, and it was evident by the touches from him, the words of possessive dominance that he whispered to her, that she was more to him, too.

  He pulled away from her only long enough to open the passenger side door of his SUV, and then he was closing it behind her. She watched him walk around the front, stop before he made it to the driver’s side door, and glance up at her. He winked, gave her a lopsided grin that totally changed the hard exterior he exuded, and then finally climbed in the vehicle. They sat there for a moment, and when he reached over and grabbed her hand, her heart picked up beat.
/>   “You get to pick what movie we watch and where we eat,” he said on a grumble, and she knew he hated when she got to choose because she always went for the low-key places to eat, and the chick flicks.

  After she told him the restaurant to eat at and movie she wanted to see, he pulled out onto traffic and headed out of town. She may still have her own life, live by herself, and take care of herself, but Marra realized that her life had certainly taken a turn for the better when it concerned Joey.

  Maybe one day they would move into the next level: marriage and babies, and a life where she couldn’t ignore the business he ran, and that she would be even more ingrained in it. But right now she was liking the way they were moving forward, slow and steady, and that he was allowing her to set the pace as well. He might be dominating and controlled in every aspect of his life, but with her he was giving her the space she needed to fully realize that if this was what she wanted she had to jump fully in. He certainly wasn’t the man she had envisioned herself being with, but whether it was fate, destiny, or just her finally opening her eyes, she was at a good place in her life right now. Who would have thought being with a boss for one of the most feared Italian crime families in the state would feel so … right?

  The End

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  Other Books by Jenika Snow:

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  Evernight Publishing

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