You Are Mine

The meet

Adrian

I thought of following her back upstairs, but that seemed like a very bad idea given how upset she was. It was tearing me apart to know that I had been the one to make her so upset. If only she would give me a chance to explain, though I did not know what explanation to give. Everything I had told her was the truth, but it was also true that I cared about her. Maybe my urge to fulfill my duty as my father's first and favorite son outweighed my care for her, but I did care for her. A feeling I did not usually express.

I drained the third glass scotch, my arm still bleeding from the glass I had thrown on the wall. But that pain and even the one on my knuckles were nothing compared to the pain she was feeling now, and I had done that to her. Despite the hate she was supposed to feel for me, she still made sure to tend to my wounds even with my protest, yet I had said such hurtful things to her.

I clutched the glass so tightly, it cracked. Guilt was never a feeling I had towards anyone. Everything I did, I did unapologetically, so why did I have this strong urge to go upstairs and tell her how sorry I felt for being a d**k to her? She had made me say sorry once to her, and I had decided that I would never grovel to her or anyone else again.

My phone rang, a call I had been expecting to come all night. I knew our little clash at the mall today would not go unnoticed. I picked only a few seconds after it rang, "Be there in an hour," Mauricio sounded furious but I was just as furious.

"Do you wanna rephrase that?" I said in a clipped tone.

He huffed out a sigh that vibrated through the phone. "There will be a meeting in an hour, we expect to have you there," he said and ended the call.

At least there would be something to keep my mind off my hurt wife, and how I was going to pacify her. Even though I would have to face a board of angry men. I poured myself another glass and drained it in two swigs. Four glasses of scotch were not remotely enough to make me even drowsy but it would help to get through this meeting.

I picked my guns off the table and shoved them behind, then walked over to the punching bag, and took my shirt from the bench. I thought of taking off the bandage knowing how the guys would react to me wearing a bandage for just a few bruises, but I did not need more reason to get Nicole more upset so I just left it on.

Anderson was leaning on the wall of the dark hallway as I walked past outside. It was already almost midnight and I knew I might not be coming home anytime soon. "Man," I said as I approached him, "what the hell are you doing in the dark."

"Says the man that sits in the dark all day," he scoffed, but I did not miss how breathless he was, that was weird.

"I don't have the time for you to be an ass now. I'm going to the Red X."

He looked at his watch in the moonlight filtering from the windows above, "It's almost midnight, are they really that mad."

"I have to go to find out, I pinched the bridge of my nose, "keep an eye on Nicole. She might be in a mood when she wakes up so know how to go about that,"

"What did you do to her?"

"That is none of your business." I shot back angrily.

"Yeah yeah, whatever."

"I'll try to be back before morning,"

The Red X was one of the most bustling underground clubs in Chicago. With its busy nightlife that always lasted till morning, and then its overly quiet daytime routine. With all the illegal activities that happened there, one would wonder how it was still a legal club, but there was nothing that the ring could not make possible.

Mauricio, the oldest and longest-standing member of the club sat in his usual seat. Arms resting on his walking stick which in my pinion served no purpose seeing as he could walk properly without it. My father was the second in this club until he was arrested and now Godson who was third before had to replace his spot on his seat.

I looked around to find all the crime leaders that ran the town seated in their rightful places, with only two seats empty, mine and Ricco's. They were situated very far from each other on the eight-person table seeing how easily we were clawing at each other recently. I looked at the time on my watch, I was a few minutes early—good. s**t was already f****d and the last thing I needed was to piss the 60-year-old patron even more by coming late after his direct invitation.

I was not afraid of him per se, I had been raised to fear no one but to give respect to whom it was due. Besides I already had enough on my plate to deal with, pissing him off would be a bad move now. Ricco, on the other hand, was playing with fire since he was already running late.

Mauricio rested his chin on his arm that laid on the walking stick, his legs were moving up and down almost hypnotically, and I knew tonight was not going to be good. I squared my shoulders and walked to my seat. "Good evening gentlemen," I said to the other men there, and they did their normal nod in response. Mauricio did not do so much as blink at me.

We waited in awkward silence for about 30 minutes for the asshole called Ricco, but he did not show.

"To say that I am utterly disappointed is an understatement," Mauricio finally said and leaned back in his chair, assuming his untouchable position.

Everyone remained silent for him to speak. "You Adrian should be wiser," he said in a calm tone, before erupting into a roar, "You should f*****g know better than to start a brawl at a mall, of all f*****g places at a goddamn mall."

"I did not start it," I said defensively.

"You do not want to bring that excuse up right now Davonte," he said in a clipped tone, "you do not."

"'He called to meet and talk, I thought he would do so much as show some respect given our large audience, but he decided to pick up a fight there," I explained.

"And you fell for his bait once more,"

"He was talking about selling my wife on his f*****g market," I roared, "what the f**k should I have done, stand there and listen to his s**t?"

"Who's talking s**t now?" Ricco strolled in, hands in his pocket with enough ego to fill the room.

"You're late," Mauricio barked and slammed his fist on the table.

"And not fashionably late," Martin one of the men that had been quiet but were visibly pissed said.

"Well you see," he took out his seat nonchalant to how pissed everyone else was at him.

Good, keep pissing them off, I need your foolishness to kill you.

"Some of us have better things to do than to crawl and whimper when every old hag calls for a meeting," he continued.

"Ricco!" Michael yelled and slammed his fist on the table, I had just wished that fist had landed on his face that was still mashed up by our little encounter at the mall.

"Calm down bulldog," Ricco scoffed, I could only wonder where he got those guts from, he had to have a strong backing to be spewing such nonsense tonight. "I'm not done yet. I am not even going to pretend that I was doing something very important. Truth is when I received your invite, I was drilling my girl," he grinned.

"You are treading on dangerous waters tonight son," Mauricio said after a very evil and humorless chuckle.

"What are you going to do about it?" he shot back, and I could not hold back the surprise that crawled up my face.

"You know your father walked in the same steps before his death," Mauricio said carefully.

"And that is why you all had him assassinated?" he roared.

"You killed a man," Mauricio shouted and got to his feet.

"I kill men every day since I was 9, big deal?" he shrugged.

"In broad f*****g daylight, with more than a thousand witnesses and video evidence, can you be a bigger i***t?" Mauricio pinched the bridge of his nose that was now reddening. "Do you know how much jeopardy you put us into if we cannot fix this before this time tomorrow, you piece of s**t, spoilt brat?" He was fuming now, but the bastard had a smug grin plastered on his face.

"I know, and I also know you will fix it, so again big deal," he said without the slightest hint of remorse.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked.

"I mean it's your job to fix the s**t I make Mauricio," he said glibly, "so fix it."

Mauricio did not say a word, instead, he took his seat back, giving him a long look. I could not tell which was even more surprising, his audacity, or Mauricio's tolerance. Something was definitely up for Ricco to disrespect him so much with doing so much as blink. And I could tell I was not the only one in shock, as every pair of eyes on the table darted between Ricco and Mauricio expecting something to happen.

After a beat of silence, Ricco got to his feet and pushed his chair back. "If we have nothing else to talk about, I have a lot of s**t to get done. I would have loved to get my uncle in New York to fix this but I'm having way too much fun seeing you all stress over my shit."

"What uncle are you talking about?" I blurted, looking at Mauricio as my confusion only grew deeper.

"I'm sure Mauricio here, will give you every detail you need to know. Please do not call me here if it's not important." Without waiting for anyone to speak or stop him, he walked out and left us in our utter shock.

"What just happened?" I blurted, and turned to Mauricio, "what was he yapping about?"

Mauricio let out a tired sigh, "Ricco found out he has ties with the gang in New York, actually, he's set to inherit his uncle's business, the man has no children."

"What does the New York gang have to do with us?" Michael asked.

"Nothing, if we do not stir them up by touching the favorite nephew and only heir to the leader's empire." he covered his face with his palm.

I knew Ricco's family had such deep ties in organized crime, but I never imagined they ran so deep. Now I could understand why Mauricio was so quiet. The New York gang was a feared gang even in our city. They were longer in the game and had more protection with the law. They were the ones that no one could ever touch, even with the law's longest arms. With them as his protection, Ricco would easily piss everyone off, and get away with it. But even his tie to the president was not going to save him from my reach, my family was also one of the most influential in the country so there was nothing so special about him after all.

"So what do we do?" I finally asked since everyone else was too stunned to speak.

"Nothing, we do nothing," Mauricio said.

"What do you mean by that?" Godson roared in his deep voice that was enough to scare anyone, maybe that was why he hardly ever spoke.

"I mean, we can not do anything to Ricco even if we wanted, it's bad enough that he's related to them, now he's an heir. He has a lot more backing than he had even when his father was alive, and that means much more power."

"So we just sit back and watch while he creates more issues for us? His hot head is going to get us all f****d up, you understand that right?" Michael chipped in furiously.

"I understand that and I would do everything in my power to keep him on a leash, but you all have to go on with your businesses like he does not exist." he released an exasperated sigh, "Now I have to find a way to sort out the death of this gaurd. It might take a few million but if I talk to the right sources it would be swept under the carpet quietly."

"I cannot believe this is f*****g happening," someone bagged their fist on the table followed by a rush of angry murmurs from the other men at the table.

"Silence," Mauricio struck his stick on the table with a loud thud that made them all go quiet, "I am still the head here and I decide how we go about issues here," he said in his usual authoritative tone. "and if I say we do nothing, I mean we do not touch a hair on the asshole's head. I assure you none of you are ready for the war that will come if you go against them."

"I am," I blurted. "I am willing and able to weigh whatever comes if I kill him."

"And what are you? I know you already have enough s**t to deal with in your father's absence so stick with that, you have not really done anything to prove that we can trust you with such a weight task." Mauricio said.

"You underestimate me," I growled with a scowl.

"If you go about starting up fights that would lead to me having to clean up such a big mess, you do not expect me to trust you do you?"

I slammed my fists into the table, kicking the chair back as I rose from my seat. "I said I did not f*****g start it, and if it means so much, I will handle this before noon tomorrow."

"What will you do?"

"I have my sources, by noon tomorrow, no one would even know if that gaurd ever existed on the face of the earth."

"Well, then you have till noon to get that task done. Do a clean job and I might consider letting you handle the overgrown bastard Ricco." from his tone I knew he did not sound remotely convinced that I could handle it. They had all been underestimating me since my father left, and this was my chance to prove to them that being young did not mean I could not take care of my father's empire.

And I knew just the person to get this done for me. I might not have trusted detective Kenan, but I knew with a few million in her hand this job would be done nicely, I could only hope a few million would be all she would ask to get it done.

Without waiting for his dismissal, I turned toward the door and headed out too, the same way Ricco had gone.