Mateo Caputo: Unseen Underground Read online

  “Goes without saying,” Christian replied, his voice rough. He’d been quiet lately, and I couldn’t help but wonder what was going on with him. He was usually more opinionated, telling it how it was, especially to Lorenzo. Maybe it was because of all of the changes happening lately. He’d been made the underboss, but we all knew it was only a matter of time until Dante came home and claimed his rightful place next to Lorenzo.

  I frowned at Christian as he sauntered around the table and toward the door, staring at his cell as he went. He paused in front of the door, cursing quietly then shoved his cell into his pocket. He fisted his hands at his sides, his body strung tight. Maybe there was something else going on with him? We’d never been close, and it wasn’t my place to ask if he was good. I didn’t go poking my nose in other people’s business because I didn’t want anyone paying extra attention to mine. But if it was going to affect the organization then maybe I should say something?

  I shook my head. No. I needed to stay out of it. I had enough going on in my own damn life, I didn’t need the stress of other people’s problems.

  He jammed his finger on the buttons on the device next to the door and once he’d input the code, the door opened with a whoosh. Christian left without another word.

  Lorenzo cleared his throat and I turned to face him, but his attention was on the door too, watching as it closed. His narrowed eyes turned around on me. He’d noticed the way Christian was acting. Not that it surprised me. Lorenzo read people like a book. “Anything to update me on your end?”

  “I—” The vibrating of the satellite phone echoed on the table again, and I didn’t hesitate to end the call. “Nothing that needs to be worried about,” I told him, mentally going through a checklist of what had happened over the last couple of weeks. I’d moved into a house nearer the mansion and the kids had gotten their own bedrooms. That had gone without a hitch apart from leaving a certain blue-eyed woman behind. I told myself over and over again that she was a small bump in the road, one that I would forget about soon enough. My brain just hadn’t caught up with my demands yet.

  If that wasn’t enough, I also had three soldiers beneath me, all looking at me to direct them in the business. I’d never thought about moving up in the ranks, and maybe that was why Lorenzo had made me a captain. I was trying to teach them the way Lorenzo had taught me, but I was learning that I had to find my own way. I had to make the connections with these men and create a loyalty that ran both ways. It was easier said than done.

  Lorenzo made a noise in the back of his throat. “How are Romeo and Rafael doing?”

  I scrubbed my hand down my face as I thought about Romeo. Since the meeting with The Enterprise things had been…strained. I’d put him in his place and it was clear as day that he didn’t like it.

  “They’re—” A three tone beep blasting through the command center cut me off, and I spun around on my seat, searching for the screen that showed the main gate. It was a warning button that one of the soldiers had hit to let us know someone was here.

  Two soldiers stood on either side of that gate, guarding it, but sitting in front of the metal work separating the outside world from the mansion was Romeo’s car. What the hell was he doing here? He knew better than to turn up unannounced. And while we were in a meeting to boot. He was pushing his luck and my patience was wearing real damn thin.

  My satellite phone rang again, and I didn’t hesitate in answering it this time. “Romeo,” I snapped, feeling Lorenzo moving closer to me. I stood, glaring at the screen as I watched the car idle in front of the mansion. “What the hell are you doing here?”

  “Are you with Lorenzo?” he barked out, completely ignoring what I asked him. My teeth ground together. I snapped my mouth open to put him in his place, but he beat me to it. “Let us in. We have a problem.” He paused. “A real big fuckin’ problem.”

  I glanced at Lorenzo who could hear the conversation even though it wasn’t on speaker. He tilted his head in acknowledgment so I ended the call and clicked on the button to let the two soldiers at the gate know to let them in.

  I didn’t look away from the screens as the gate opened and they drove through. There were cameras on every inch of the house, so I tracked his movements. They pulled up right outside the front ornate doors. Romeo flung himself out of the car and speed walked inside. A minute later, there was a knock on the command center door, and I let him in.

  He barged into the room, his face turning red with anger. “I just caught someone stealing out of my car.” He paced the room, his hand pushing into his hair and grabbing it. Neither me nor Lorenzo said anything as he continued, “I was doing my usual rounds—”

  “Fuck.” I slammed the command center door closed, realizing what he was saying. “Explain,” I demanded, barely getting the word out with how tight my jaw was locked.

  “I went into the restaurant over on ninth to give them their usual order, and when I came out, I saw someone take a bag out of my trunk and hand it to someone else.” He halted a few feet away from us. Dammit. They’d stolen one of the bags he delivered each week. Each one had at least a hundred thousand dollars worth of product in them. “I don’t know how the fuck they got into my trunk. It was locked. And I—”

  “Where was your backup?” Lorenzo asked, his voice calm. Calm was good to any other person, but with him, I knew it wasn’t. He was getting ready to deal out a punishment, one that would send a message to anyone else who thought they could steal from us and get away with it.

  “Rafael was inside with me—”

  “So you left the delivery items unattended?” Lorenzo boomed, jerking forward. He grabbed Romeo by his collar and slammed him against the wall. “Is that what you did?”

  “I…” Romeo’s gaze darted to mine, but I wasn’t going to help him. I’d told him he needed to take Rafael and Mario with him. They were both new soldiers, but Romeo wasn’t. He knew the score, he knew we had to take precautions.

  “Where was Mario?” I asked, leaning against the back wall, my body turned to face the door, but my attention was solely on Romeo. I was an expert in giving off a vibe that nothing was wrong, but inside I was a raging fiery ball.

  “He…” His throat bobbed as he swallowed. Romeo never showed emotion. He was a brick wall, unreadable, never giving a single thing away. But right then, he looked like he was about to shit himself. Lorenzo may have been his cousin, but that didn’t matter when it came to Mafia hierarchy. He was a soldier, and he hadn’t listened to orders. “I didn’t call him.”

  “So, you ignored my orders?” I raised a brow, not moving a single inch.

  “Is that right?” Lorenzo tacked on. Romeo opened his mouth, but Lorenzo didn’t let him get a word out. “There are ranks for a reason.” He slowly let go of him. “You learn the business.” He took a step back, his rage coming back over him in lightning speed. “You do as you are goddamn told!” he shouted, his emotions flipflopping. “Mistakes mean death.” His voice was low. “Mistakes mean people we care about get hurt.”

  I swallowed, knowing exactly what he was talking about. He’d made a mistake and Aida had paid the ultimate price.

  The silence stretched on in the room, not one of us moving or speaking a single syllable.

  Finally, I asked, “Did you get the thief?”

  “Yeah.” Romeo nodded. “In the car with Rafael.”

  Lorenzo turned to face me, his dark eyes lighting with fire. There would be no holding him back, not when he was this angry. Whoever the thief was would get the full wrath of his temper.

  “Get the thief,” he barked. “Bring them to the basement.”

  Romeo darted to the door, inputting the code that I’d made him memorize, and for a second, I doubted him having it. He hadn’t been able to listen to a single order that I’d given him, so could I really trust him to have the code to this room? He may have been Lorenzo’s blood, but that didn’t mean anything. People harped on about blood being thicker than water, but it wasn’t. I had more loyalty fro
m people who didn’t have the same blood as me running through their veins.

  I made a mental note to have a conversation with Romeo once this was over. One that would put him in his place once and for all.

  We followed Romeo out of the room then headed into Lorenzo’s office. A secret door at the back led us to a set of stairs and down to the basement.

  A single light was on overhead, but it lit the majority of the room. It wasn’t the small, dark space that you saw on the movies. Lorenzo liked to be able to see everything clearly when he was about to do some damage.

  He stood in the middle of the room, his feet hip width apart, and I took a spot against the back wall. The light was darker back here, allowing me to slip into the shadows and reappear if I was needed. I doubted I would be though. Lorenzo liked to handle these things himself. It was a sure fire way to get an audience with the boss.

  My ears pricked as I heard the footsteps above us, then a squeak of a door. They were on the stairs, and within seconds we’d see the thief. Lorenzo would show him exactly what happened when you stole from the Beretta Mafia. He’d never be able to forget.

  It was silent, so silent you could hear a pin drop as they entered the basement. Rafael was up front, his usual grin nowhere to be seen. There was no doubt you could tell that he was Romeo’s brother. They were two years apart, but they were vastly different. Where Romeo was hard edges and brutal—just like his father Antonio—Rafael was more like his mother—gentle, happy. Antonio had said he thought Rafael wouldn’t make it, but Lorenzo hadn’t cared. He wanted Rafael in the organization, no matter what.

  They halted a few feet away from Lorenzo, and it was only then that I turned to the thief who had caused us to be down here.

  My body jerked and I bit down on my bottom lip to keep my words trapped inside.

  No.

  It couldn’t be.

  What the fuck?

  CHAPTER 10

  LUNA

  I groaned, the banging in my head reminiscent of being drilled from the inside out. Crap. What happened? My muscles ached and as I stretched my arm out, I grunted. Pins and needles pricked at me. I must have slept awkwardly or—

  “She’s waking up,” a deep voice said from beside me.

  I snapped my eyes open, trying to take everything in all at once.

  We were moving. A car.

  A man was sitting beside me and one in the front.

  Where was I? Where were they taking me? And who the hell were they?

  “We’re nearly there,” the voice from the front of the car said.

  I swallowed, looking anywhere but at their faces as I tried to remember what had happened.

  Stan

  Fuck. Stan.

  Everything came flooding back, making my stomach churn as I realized I was in the Mercedes that I’d stolen a bag from.

  “I—”

  “Shut up!” the man from the front shouted, his tone so deep and scary it effectively glued my lips together.

  I slowly sat up, shaking my arm out, and stared out of the window. I had no idea where I was, but I knew the neighborhood we were driving through was nothing like the one we’d come from. The houses were bigger here, gates closing each of them off.

  “He’s not answering,” the guy up front said as the tires squealed when he took a corner. My head smacked against the window and I winced, reaching up, and feeling fresh blood as well as dried blood.

  He’d hit me. What had he hit me with? Whatever it was, it had knocked me out. I closed my eyes, pressing my hand to my stomach. I should have known that something like this would happen. It was only a matter of time. This fresh start absolutely sucked.

  I shunted forward as the brakes were slammed on. The guy beside me stretched his arm out and my chest smacked into it. He’d acted on instinct, and if the expression on his face when I turned to look at him was anything to go by, he hadn’t meant to. Either way, it had stopped me from face planting into the back of the driver’s seat.

  Looking up, I saw a man walk to the car. Where had he come from? The guy in the front said something to him then the man walked back to a huge set of gates. Gigantic B’s were bent into the metal, painted gold. Where the hell were we?

  The guy up front huffed and held something to his ear. “Are you with Lorenzo?” Lorenzo? Who was that? “Let us in. We have a problem.” He looked in the rearview mirror, meeting my gaze for the first time. “A real big fuckin’ problem.”

  I wasn’t sure what to do, how to act, but I knew I had to get away. I couldn’t stay in this car with these two men. For all I knew they were taking me to my death. Fuck. I had to get away.

  My eyes soaked in every little thing as the gates opened and he drove us through them. He pulled to a stop outside two big doors that were the entrance to the biggest mansion I’d ever seen. A tall water feature took up space in the middle of a circular driveway, surrounded by rose bushes and trees blocking anyone from seeing onto the land.

  I swallowed as the guy got out of the car, leaving me with just the one sitting next to me. I turned, staring at the side of his face. He didn’t look much older than me, but his privilege was clear to see. His clothes may have looked like street wear but they were designer. His hair was styled perfectly in short waves, the dark-brown gleaming.

  I wasn’t sure how long it took for him to turn his head, but when his gray eyes met mine, I raised a brow. I wasn’t sure gray did them justice, they were almost see through. I didn’t know why, but I was sure he wouldn’t hurt me. He had a softness to him.

  He opened his mouth but snapped it shut as the guy from the front darted back out of the huge doors. He stormed around to my door, opened it, then grabbed me by the arm.

  “Ow.” I tried to pull back from him, but he didn’t let up, hauling me out of the car and dragging me toward the doors. “Where are you taking me?” I asked, trying to sound confident, but even I could hear the tremor in my voice.

  “Shut up,” he barked.

  “Romeo,” the other guy said, and I realized that he was following us. I turned my head, trying to meet his stare again, but he wasn’t focused on me. “You’re hurting her.”

  So his name was Romeo.

  Romeo laughed. “You think this is hurting her?” He stopped outside a door inside the mansion. I darted my gaze around, hoping that someone would see what he was doing to me and intervene, but it was empty. “You’ve got no idea what Lorenzo is gonna do to her.” He pushed the door open but didn’t move to go inside. “You first, Rafael. We’re going to the basement.”

  Gray eyes—Rafael—stepped forward, his shoulders drooping as he walked through the room. We followed him, but I wasn’t quick enough to take everything in, only the big black desk sitting loud and proud in the middle of the room.

  Rafael opened another door. My heart sped up as Romeo pulled me through it and down some stairs. Maybe they really were taking me to my death. My breaths sawed in and out of me as the situation became clearer.

  I’d stolen from these men. I’d taken something that wasn’t mine. And they’d caught me.

  I tripped down the last step, but Romeo’s hold on me kept me upright. My vision blurred, and it took me several seconds to realize they were tears. My body was shutting down, sensing the danger surrounding me.

  Rafael moved to the side, revealing a foreboding man in the middle of the room. He stared at me, his eyes taking everything in, but he didn’t say a word. He was analyzing me, and if I would have been clever, I would have done the same, but I was too occupied with the thought that he could be the last person I saw before I took my final breath.

  You weren’t taken down to a basement only for a little chat. This was serious.

  “Do you know who I am?” the man asked, his deep voice ricocheting off the bare brick walls.

  “I…no.” It was a whisper, but I knew he heard me.

  He took one step forward, still leaving a few feet of distance between us. He towered over me, his height making me feel even smaller
than I was. I stared directly in my eye line, noting the three top buttons of his shirt that were undone.

  “My name is Lorenzo.” He paused, and I looked up into his eyes. “Lorenzo Beretta.”

  Beretta. The B’s on the gate.

  I felt the color drain from my face as everything clicked into place. It didn’t matter where you lived in the country, you were aware of the Mafia families. They were celebrities to some, but those who knew the streets knew they were anything but that. The stories of their brutalities were both legends and warnings.

  And now here I was, standing in front of the boss of the family.

  Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

  I really wasn’t going to make it out of this basement.

  “I didn’t mean to take it,” I rushed out, holding my hands up in front of me. Romeo was quick to react, grabbing my biceps, and snapping my arms behind my back. My shoulders screamed in pain, but I didn’t vocalize it.

  “You didn’t mean to steal from me?” Lorenzo asked, reaching down to his ankle and swiping something from underneath his pants. My heart raced as he flipped it open and the metal glinted off the single light.

  “No. I…” I trailed off. I couldn’t tell him why I’d taken it. If I told him about Stan, he’d go back to my parents and then…no, I couldn’t think about what he would do to them. I’d done this to keep them safe. I couldn’t fall at the last hurdle.

  My shoulders drooped as acceptance washed through me. I was going to have to take whatever this Mafia boss would dish out. I didn’t have a choice, not if I wanted to keep my mom and dad safe.

  This was the only way.

  “Hold her hands out,” Lorenzo ordered. I blinked, tears streaming down my face as I remembered the myth that had been told in my old neighborhood. The Beretta Mafia believed in capital punishment. If you took something of theirs, they’d take something of yours.