"This time next month-" He finished his drink. "You'll be dead."

"Cool, you telling me ahead of time so I can plan my funeral, or do you just like giving people good news?"

His cold grey eyes looked me up and down. "I expected you to be smaller.

Your father, he was a small man."

"Probably why I killed him. I hate small men. How tall are you?"

"Again, clever act. It would work on anyone but me..."

"Because you're stupid or... ?"

He leaned forward, the knife dug into his thigh but he didn't wince.

Instead, he chuckled. "Don't you think your uncle should know these things?"

"Uncle? Wow." I laughed. "That's rich. My family finally claims me after I kill the Cappo. Nice, let me guess I'm next on the hit list."

"Funny that you didn't even know..." The man tilted his head. "Or maybe just sad?"

"Know what?" I kept my smile firmly in place even though I was so curious I itched to torture him so I could find out.

"Your family... the ones you've been protecting? They've ordered a hit on you worth ten million."

At that I laughed.

"You're a loose end." My Uncle smirked. "And we hate loose ends."

"So, I'm a wanted man? Cool, maybe they'll get my picture right this time when they send that text around.

Last time they had my hair so freaking dark, well, I mean, to be fair the lighting was horrible and-"

"Listen to me." He sneered. "And listen very carefully." His breath smelled like rum. "Kill or be killed.

Those are your two options. Be who you were born to be and The Abandonatos, The Alferos? They will kill you. But, if you decide to disappear, then I'll pretend this little conversation didn't exist."

"So." I laughed to cover my intense irritation, also knowing it would p.i.s.s him off, possibly giving me more insight into his character. "Let me get this straight. You want me to be a good little boy, stay put, not talk, and not claim my birthright. If I do all that, not only will my own family hunt me down, but my adopted family will as well, leaving me basically without anything? Am I right?"

"Yes."

"Awesome, so here's the thing." I moved my knife lower and made a slice, cutting through his pants then covering the cut with my right hand. With my left hand I grabbed one of the limes from the bar and crushed it, allowing the drips to fall into the cut.

He winced and tried to move out of my grip but I had at least fifty pounds on him, so it was pointless.

"I have no family. Never have.

Never will. So when you threaten me, come at me with something bigger than that. Come to me when you're ready to kill me, not when you want to threaten me, because next time I see your s.h.i.t- eating face..." I dropped more of the acidic fruit onto his cut. "I won't just slice you here." I chuckled. "I'll slice you everywhere Uncle, but I'll keep you alive when I do it, and it won't be fruit but actual acid I drip into each wound until you beg for death. I have no family.

And by the looks of it, you like it that way, because it gives you adequate time to take over as Cappo, but this is where I want you to listen very carefully."

His entire face was filled with rage.

I leaned forward like I was going to kiss his cheek, give him the respect he deserved, and instead I whispered in his ear, "The next Cappo has to be strong enough not to p.i.s.s his pants when someone a third of his age makes threats.

I don't just own the families here in the U.S., and if you push me, I will step up and I will own the Campisi clan. I'll cheerfully take my place and make you look like the little, pathetic b.i.t.c.h that you are. So if we're done here, why don't you run along, hmm?"

I reared back and slapped him on the face twice, then motioned for his two men to come help him up.

"You're a stupid, stupid boy," my uncle spat.

"Hey, I think there's a song with that t.i.tle in it!" I chuckled loudly, so p.i.s.sed off that I was ready to pull my gun on him. "We're done here. Oh, and next time you step into my bar it better be with a bomb chained to your chest.

Or I'll kill you." I smiled viciously.

"Capiche? "

CHAPTER TWELVE.

How do you miss someone who's turning into a stranger before your very eyes?

Mo ACCORDING TO THE CLOCK next to my night stand, it was nearing two am and Tex still wasn't back. I'd texted him a dozen times and even tried calling. Ridiculous!

Was I really worried about a man that knew about five hundred unique ways to kill a person? I mean seriously. It was Tex. He was the guy that smiled while he pulled the trigger. But still, he was weak. He was weak, and I'd made him that way, and when he left he was in bad shape.

I shivered.

Nixon was p.i.s.sed at me too; actually it seemed everyone was p.i.s.sed at me. We had a dead body, a marriage that wasn't actually legal, and more questions than answers. The horrible part was that when Nixon asked me if I knew anything, I straight up lied to his face.

Sergio had been in there.

He'd watched me lie.

He'd let me, the b.a.s.t.a.r.d. But he was doing his part too, both of us were. I just wish it wasn't so d.a.m.n hard to do the right thing. I'd always believed that if you chose others over yourself, you were rewarded, never once did I understand the extraordinary sacrifice it was, when you were asked to be selfless. My chest ached.

I reached across the bed and grabbed Tex's pillow, holding it close to my chest, inhaling his scent like he was my drug. He'd been the only constant thing in my life, and I didn't want to live in a world where he wasn't annoying the h.e.l.l out of me, where he wasn't trying to crack a joke in order to make me laugh when all I wanted to do was cry.

The sound of a door slamming jolted me from my pity party. Tex! He was home. I just needed to see that he was okay. I just wanted to know he wasn't bleeding or dying.

Quietly, I padded to the bedroom door and reached for the k.n.o.b, only to have it pulled open. I staggered back and gaped.

Tex stood there, shirt off, swaying on his feet.

Drunk as h.e.l.l.

"Mo." He said my name like a curse, like he reserved it for the darkest pits of h.e.l.l. "Why can't I be done with you? Why?" He pushed past me and stumbled on to the bed. "I can't quit..."

He shuddered, his voice m.u.f.fled by the pillow. "I can't quit seeing you when I close my eyes. I hate you so much, but not as much as I love you. I could never hate you as much as I love you. It's impossible... believe me." Tex sighed and rolled over, his fists balling as he hit the pillow. "I try every day."

Stunned, I could only stand and wait for him to say something else.

Instead he fell into a fitful sleep and started snoring.

With a sigh, I shut the door, walked over to the bed, and pulled the blankets over his muscled body. My heart was beating so loudly I was afraid it would wake him up. I wasn't sure if I was upset over what he'd said or hopeful that the hate hadn't taken over just yet, meaning there was room for forgiveness, right?

He stretched his hands above his head and then curled an arm underneath the pillow, making his bicep bulge to epic proportions. I gasped. He was too beautiful for his own good and the crazy part? He didn't even know it. He'd always felt different than Nixon and Chase because his coloring was lighter.

Instead of having dark hair he had light brown hair with pieces of red sewn through, almost like highlights. His eyes were a crazy deep blue, not a light blue but a dark blue, like an ocean storm.

When he was p.i.s.sed, he could seriously give Poseidon a run for his money in the angry G.o.d look.

Sighing, I pushed his hair away from his forehead and leaned down to kiss his cheek. The minute my lips graze his skin, he grabbed my hand and had me flipped on my back, pressing my hips against the mattress. Tex hovered over me, his eyes blazing.

"I don't want to want you," he ground out slowly "I don't want..." His chest heaved.

"Tex..." I cupped his face, warm tears sliding down my cheeks. "You should sleep."

"No time for sleep." He moved off me anyways and laid his head on my shoulder. "No time for sleep when you're about to die."

I froze. "You're dying?"

"Ten million."

He sighed.

"Insulting."

With that he fell asleep.

And I stayed up the rest of the night wondering if every sacrifice I'd made had been in vain, because they were still after him.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

We're only as strong as our boss is to other bosses. Period.

Sergio "SO?" I ASKED throwing my keys onto the table and reaching for a bottle of water.

"Ten million." The voice said in a bored tone.

I stared down at my phone and kept staring. Ten million? It had to be a joke?

How insulting, not only to the rest of the families but to Tex himself. Only ten million? Ten million did not get us results.

Blood.

Maybe.

Death?

Absolutely. But results? Ones we needed in order to move on to the next step of the plan? It wouldn't happen and it needed to happen; otherwise, they would all die.

I would die.

There would be nothing left.

A cleansing was coming.

And I was doing everything I could to keep it from happening, but that's the thing about not existing-about being a ghost. Interfere too much? And people start to talk.

Nixon might as well have been a detective with as many questions as he was firing at me. Why did I really go to the wedding? Why was I at his house?

Why was I helping when I usually stay behind the scenes? What did I have to gain?

I sighed, feeling more ancient then my twenty-eight years and glanced at my phone. "Fine, we wait until it's higher."

"But-"

"That's all." I hit end. My screen immediately turned into the picture I'd kept of Mo. The one and only picture I'd snuck when she wasn't looking which, when I thought about it, wasn't the most romantic thing in the world.

But it was all I had.

One picture.

One night.

The end.

Funny, because she'd told me as much-but I hadn't believed her. I'd never experienced that type of attraction to another person. An attraction that's so strong that you end up doing stupid things.

Like planning for the future.

Mafia rule number one? Don't plan, it's rare to experience a happy ending.