Maria (The Family Book 4) Read online

  Maria

  (The Family)

  Book 4

  By

  Angelique Jones

  This book is a work of fiction.

  It contains mature content, graphic language and violence.

  Table of Contents

  Title

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  He’s dead. Maria wanted to cry out her joy, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t yet. The bastard whom her father had married her to was dead, and Maria was only sorry that she hadn’t been the one to have done it.

  As soon as her father had found out that she was pregnant, he married her to the first man who would take her, Paulie Barzette. There had been no one to help her get away. She had pushed the one person who would have stood up for her away. Angie would never have allowed the marriage had she known.

  The piece of shit that her father had purchased for her was all kind smiles and friendliness right up until the doors closed and the world was gone. She had thought that she had suffered all forms of humiliation, but she had been wrong. At least before she was married, it hadn’t been at the hands of the person who was supposed to protect her. She had lost the baby a month ago. The last beating that piece of shit had given her had been one too many. She had been so far along that she had almost bled out before getting to the hospital. The bastard had left her bleeding and alone when he was finished. Had she not crawled to the phone and dialed 911, she wouldn’t be standing here.

  The fucker had stood at her hospital bed, playing the concerned husband when she woke up. The cops waiting to take her statement were on his family’s payroll, and he told them that someone must have broken in. A robbery went bad. They never asked her one question, just nodded their heads at his words and left her alone with the monster. With the gentlest of hands, he touched her face and told her that her family was outside, and if she didn’t tell them that story, it would be worse for her. She wanted to laugh. Worse. Nodding her head that she understood, she watched as he let them in. He was a superb actor. If she hadn’t known that, she would have believed him. With dead eyes, she stared at her family as they walked toward the bed. Her father; her brothers, Lucca, Dom, and Nico; and Dom’s wife, Tori. Fucking Tori had the nerve to come to her bedside and take her hand. That piece of shit’s family was the reason that she was lying here now. Every evil act ever done to her could be laid at the feet of her family.

  Raising her eyes, Maria looked past them to the door. Angie stood there. For a long moment, Angie stared at her before turning her back and walking away. Maria knew that the things she had said to her had been horrible, but when Angie turned from her, Maria just wished she could die. Her last hope had just left her.

  The hospital had kept her for a long time. She had refused to eat right up until the day that the police walked in and told her that her husband was dead. No one knew what happened. What had been left of him had been found in his car. A burned cinder. After that, she did whatever the hospital said she had to in order to leave. With the exception of Angie, her family had come to see her, but she ignored them. There was nothing that she had to say to them. The Barzette family couldn’t give two shits what happened to her. Paulie had been one of their cousins. They wanted the relationship with her family, but they weren’t willing to soil their sons with a whore.

  Now, standing at the grave, she just wished the priest would hurry up. Paulie’s mother wept and screamed for her piece-of-shit son. She even had the nerve to blame Maria for his death. Staring across the grave at her family, Maria’s anger only grew. Her father actually expected her to come home with them. Like hell she would. Those people were nothing to her, they who stood with the Genovese family. Her blood had the very nerve to stand with the family that destroyed her.

  A darkness spread through her that she fought to keep at bay. A few more moments and she would be free. Just a few. When the priest said the final words and the people stepped forward to throw flowers on the casket, she moved. Cutting them off, she pulled the rings that had bound her to hell from her finger and threw them on the casket. Shocked gasps sounded, but she could not care less.

  Head high, she walked away toward the waiting cab. Climbing in, she told the driver to take her to the airport and didn’t look back.

  Chapter 1

  Two years later

  Life was bitter and sweet. Most days she was able to block out the horror of the time before her new life, but at night in her dreams, it would haunt her. Screams would echo in her bedroom, remnants of the torture and pain that her subconscious would not let go. When she had left the funeral that day, she had left everything behind, including her name. Needing to start fresh, she became a new person: Mia Jameson. Mia traveled constantly, never staying in any place long enough to be discovered. Mia was strong, fearless. Mia was no one’s victim. Except Mia was only real in the light while Maria still lurked, waiting to come out in the night.

  Standing up, Maria got out of bed and went into the kitchen. She knew that she wouldn’t be getting any more sleep. She couldn’t remember the last time that she’d slept through the night. Taking her coffee, she went to the balcony so that she could see the ocean. It was beautiful here. She just wished that it was hers. The beachfront condo where she was staying belonged to a girl that she’d met a year ago in a hostel. Maria had been so broke, it had been the only place that she could afford to stay. The girl had been following a band with her friends from Europe to America. They were rich kids, but they wanted to see how the other half lived. Vicky had taken one look at Maria and latched on to her. She even had helped Maria get a job as a waitress so that she could earn some money. Vicky had become the closest thing that she had to a friend. They had stayed in touch, and Vicky had told her about a job at a restaurant of a friend of hers. She even offered Maria her condo while she was in Europe.

  It had been a godsend. Most days, Maria stayed at shelters because she couldn’t afford anything better. She had no work experience and no name to open doors for her. She was lucky to get a month at any place she worked before they realized her Social Security number was no good and she had to move on. So when Vicky had said that her friend Jason was short staffed for the tourist season, Maria hadn’t thought twice. Getting a bus ticket, she made her way here. Jonathan, the owner of the restaurant, was amazing. He advanced her money so that she could buy her uniform and food. She had forgotten that there were good people in the world. She had been here three weeks. Three weeks in which she wasn’t hungry or cold. Three weeks where she felt almost normal again. As the sun rose and the sky began to lighten, Maria thought to herself that it was going to be a beautiful day.

  Walking into the restaurant, Maria went straight to work helping the staff prepare to open. Wiping glasses or rolling silverware into napkins, she laughed with the other servers. She couldn’t remember the last time she was this happy. Just having people to talk to and spend time with that didn’t know the truth about her was a joy that others couldn’t even imagine. Giggling with Cindy over one of the customers, Maria watched her boss approach. All of the servers were in love with him. In another life, Maria would have been, too. Jason was everything that Maria had once
wanted in a man. He was tall and good-looking with light-blond hair and a pair of baby-blue eyes that were always laughing. But more important than any of that, he was just a normal guy. A guy that didn’t kill or have others killed. He was as far from her old life as she could get.

  Stopping in front of her, he looked down and gave a devastating smile. “Mia, can I see you in my office when you’re finished?” he said.

  “Sure, I’ll be right there,” Maria told Jason, trying not to laugh when the girls behind him started making kissy faces.

  Nodding his head, he turned and walked past the girls that were now trying to look busy. As soon as his office door closed, they all burst out laughing. Rushing over to Maria, the other girls shooed her away, taking over what she was doing while giving her advice on what they would be doing if they were called to the office. Shaking her head, Maria hurried to the office door. Giving a little knock, she rushed in and closed the door behind her before he could hear some of her rowdier coworkers’ suggestions. From the twinkle in his eyes, she knew she wasn’t fast enough.

  Head bowed in embarrassment, she went to the chair in front of his desk and sat, hoping that her face wasn’t as hot as it felt. “So, what did you want to see me about, boss?” Maria asked.

  “My accountant called me this morning,” he said, causing the smile on Maria’s lips to die slowly. Wearily, she looked at him. As if he had been waiting for that, he continued. “From the look on your face, I can see you’re not surprised.”

  “I’m sorry. I’ll collect my things and go,” she said, woodenly gripping the arms of the chair to rise and walk away from the first good thing to happen to her in years.

  “Mia, please stay seated. I’m not firing you.”

  Freezing at his words, she filled with confusion. “Why?”

  “Why? Because you’re a good employee, and those are hard to come by. So, this is what we are going to do. I’m going to pay you cash, and we are going to go on like before.”

  “I don’t understand. Why are you doing this?”

  “Because you need help. Look, I don’t know what you’re running from, and I’m not going to ask. The only thing that I’m expecting is for you to do what you’ve been doing. Can you do that?”

  “Um, yeah, I can do that.”

  “Good. Now, I have some paperwork to finish up, and you, I believe, have to finish getting set up for today.”

  “Yeah, I have work to do,” Maria said shyly. Smiling, she got up and walked to the door. Opening it, she stopped and looked back. Jason already had his head buried in the papers on his desk. Quietly, she closed the door behind her.

  Chapter 2

  Standing over what was left of the man in front of him, Nero thought dispassionately that this is what he’d become. Death was now his friend, a friend that he courted regularly. Throwing the knife onto the large plastic tarp next to the body that he just carved into pieces, he motioned to his men to dispose of the mess. After so many bodies, they were adapt at what had to be done, so they worked quickly and efficiently. Since the night of Rose’s brutal death, he’d made this choice, and he hadn’t looked back. There was no love or joy left in his world, only duty to his family. The cartel had been swift and brutal in its retaliation after it learned of Nero’s involvement with the traitor within his family, and he had answered in kind. Touching his face that still held the first of the cartel’s attempts to dispose of him, Nero let the anger that was always present just below the surface rise up and briefly take hold.

  He had stupidly gone in good faith to negotiate with Juan, the representative for La Puno familia and Basilio’s right-hand man. It wasn’t a mistake that he would ever repeat again. Luckily, he hadn’t taken Matteo with him. Luckily, Matteo hadn’t trusted the cartel and came in with guns blazing when they hadn’t checked in. The two guards that Nero had taken with him had already been chopped into pieces by the time the rescue had come. Nero had been strapped to a table about to join them. His body bore many scars from the time spent with the cartel’s hitmen, but his face bore only one for the world to see: a long scar that started at his temple and extended to his chin. Juan had been long gone by the time Matteo had come, or he would have joined his men in death. Nero had been bleeding badly, but he wouldn’t leave until he personally cut those fuckers into pieces. Their screams of pain still brought a grim smile to his lips every time he thought of them.

  After that, it had been all-out war. Systematically, Nero had been hitting every avenue of Basilio’s businesses and shutting them down. The fucker was brutal, but he wasn’t strategic. His attacks at Nero were sporadic and uncoordinated while Nero’s were precise, aimed at taking everything. If the fucker tried to bring drugs across the border, DEA agents were waiting. If he tried to smuggle across warm bodies to feed into sex clubs or factories, ICE was there. Any bribe he paid, Nero paid double. Anyone who had been bought with blackmail and couldn’t be turned was either killed or exposed, leaving Basilio and his family with a shrinking ring of protection. Any man who was found on this side of the border died brutally, his body dumped on Basilio’s doorstep as a message, and that message was spreading. Basilio was having trouble recruiting men to take the dead’s place. Even the lure of double pay wasn’t enough incentive to come up against him. These fuckers were used to being the boogeymen that others feared. Their name alone had been once all that was needed to open doors. Now, though, that name closed more doors than it opened, the fear of Genovese wrath not making any amount worth incurring it.

  Nero knew that that fucker Basilio was also concealing his other problem, Caterina. She had disappeared, going so deep underground that no matter how hard he searched, he couldn’t find even a whisper of her. His psychotic sister was the real reason he wasn’t willing to consider a truce with Basilio and his familia. Mercy was a weakness that he would never fall prey to again. La Puno familia had a stronghold deep within Mexico where Nero was sure the cunt was hiding. No amount of money made it worth it to any hitman to go there. The reward he was offering for Caterina’s head made her a prize that most would turn over without hesitation. She was literally worth her weight in gold. That fuck Basilio, though, he wouldn’t turn her over. So, Nero was going to take everything from him. He would weaken that bastard until the lowest of the low no longer feared him. Money was power, especially south of the border, and when that fucker ran out of money, it would be open season.

  The ringing of his phone pulled him from his thoughts. Taking it from his pockets, Nero looked at the name that flashed across the screen and considered not answering it, but he knew he couldn’t keep avoiding her. Gripping the phone tightly, he swiped his finger across the screen and brought the phone to his ear. “Hey, baby sister, what can I do for you?” he asked softly.

  “Now, why do you think that I called you for something? I could have just called to talk,” Tori answered with a laugh. Rolling his eyes, Nero silently waited for her to get to the point of the call. As if sensing his annoyance, she hurried to say, “All right, I was calling because on Saturday, we’re having a party for your niece, and I’d really like for you to come.”

  “Now’s not really the best time, Tori. I’ve got a lot going on with work,” he said automatically, using the same excuse that he used each time she invited him.

  “Come on, Nero, I’ve barely seen you these last few years. You don’t come for holidays. Please, Nero, come,” Tori begged. She stopped suddenly to ask, “Hey, Nero, where are you? There’s a strange buzzing sound coming through the phone.”

  “At one of my construction sites. Hold on,” Nero said, lightly walking away from the carnage behind him. “Is that better?”

  “Yeah, I can hear you better. Now, about you coming to visit. Please, please, please? Think of your niece. She barely knows what you look like,” Tori pleaded shamelessly, using her daughter to get what she wanted.

  Touching the scar on his face, he thought humorously, Yeah, the kid’s lucky. “All right, Tori, I’ll try to get away.”

&n
bsp; “Please, Nero, do more than try. I miss you. You’re the only family I have left,” she said sadly.

  “All right, Tori, I’ll try. Look, I’m in the middle of some things, so I’ll talk to you later,” Nero said, his tone short. He didn’t want to deal with this shit. Hanging up the phone, he slid it in his pocket. It wasn’t that he didn’t care for Tori or his niece, but going there and seeing them brought back things better left buried. She had named the kid Adrianna Rose after their mother and grandmother, two people that in his weakness he hadn’t been able to save. That wasn’t the only reason he couldn’t stand going. Seeing her and her husband with the kid, a perfect little family, tore at Nero’s soul. Looking down at the finger that still bore the scar from where it had been reattached, Nero gritted his teeth tightly as he thought of what that finger had once worn. The symbol of a future that he thought was his. A symbol of the love that in his youth had been so pure and untainted. It was gone now, just like the ring his Jenny had put on his finger. It was gone, and it was never coming back.

  ***

  Staring at the phone for a long moment after Nero hung up on her, Tori fought back the wave of sadness that she always felt after talking to him. Her brother was so lost in his hatred that he couldn’t see any future for himself other than one of duty. Setting the phone aside, Tori walked toward the voices that echoed in the house. Children’s laughter rang out, its innocence a balm to Tori’s soul. Leaning against the doorway, she watched as Dom bounced their daughter around while their cousins, Lucca and Angie’s children, watched, laughing at their antics.

  Nico, Dom’s youngest brother, was home on break from college. He sat off to the side, speaking with his father, Angelo and his brother Lucca. Unlike Lucca and Dom, he would not be joining the family business. Well, at least not like his brothers and father. Nico was going to be a lawyer, and if the family had their way, he would be a criminal lawyer. The whole family couldn’t be prouder of him. There were enough sons with blood on their hands that would never wash off; they didn’t need another one.