Captivated by the deadly mafia boss

Jakub

“We have to be careful about this.” Dominik stalks behind his desk. “We don’t want an all-out war.”

“They took my wife and our father, and you want to tread lightly?” I demand.

“Dominik’s right.” Joseph, who sits beside me, places a shaky hand on my arm. He’s still not fully healed from his ordeal. Crutches weren’t an option for his broken leg, so he’s wheelchair bound for the time being. But it’s the oxygen tube tucked into his nostrils that worries me the most.

Worries all of us.

“We have to give them a chance,” Dominik insists, pressing his fist into his desk and leaning over. He has his head of the family expression on; he’s not acting as my big brother right now. “Christian assures me he had no idea Piotr was acting against us. He’s as infuriated with his cousin as we are. The fact Piotr is hiding gives me confidence Christian is telling the truth.”

“Those two have fought since they were boys. Having to split the family as they did was a bad idea.” Joseph continues with the excuses for not hunting down every last Kaczmarek and dealing a fatal blow to their organization.

Killing Henry didn’t satisfy my hunger for retribution. It went too quickly. Seeing him make his way from the fire, seeing his gun in his hand while I was holding my wife bleeding and coughing herself unconscious-I didn’t have time to enjoy it when he fell dead to the ground. But Piotr-I’ll take my time with him.

If we ever find him. After making the call to Dominik about Henry’s actions, he fell off the face of the earth.

“So, we do nothing?” How can we do nothing after their attack? “We’ll be seen as weak! Do you want other families to think they can do this to us? Try to move into our territory, hurt our families and there’s no retribution?”

Joseph squeezes my arm and takes a deep breath.

The only good thing to have come out of this entire debacle is my father was forced in front of a doctor. After they sorted out his broken leg, they did tests to check for smoke inhalation damage. It’s then they found the cause for all his coughing and shortness of breath recently. He’ll be using oxygen for a long time. Being a smoker for three decades before he finally quit five years ago damaged his lungs. Thankfully they didn’t find a tumor, but COPD is bad enough.

With his new diagnosis, he’s giving more control over to Dominik.

“There will be retaliation, Jakub,” he assures me with a wobbly smile. “There will be.”

“When? I want to be involved. They hurt my wife!”

Dominik shares a look with my father.

“Dominik. Leave us a minute.” Joseph waves my older brother from his own office. “Go see if Kasia has my sandwich ready.”

After he was discharged from the hospital, Kasia refused to let him go home by himself. He’ll be staying here at Dominik’s for a while.

Dominik closes the door behind him softly, leaving me and my father alone.

“What is it?” I ask, turning to him. He looks so much older now; maybe it’s the oxygen tube in his nose. Or the heaviness around his eyes. He’s not sleeping well with the breathing machine at night.

“You think because I put Dominik in control of the family, because we’ve keep you more on the outside of things, I don’t respect you. That we don’t see you as an equal.”

My jaw tightens. “I’ve never complained.”

“No. No, you haven’t, but you’re my son. And you have your mother in you. She was no good at hiding her thoughts from me either. I know you, Jakub.” He wags a finger at me. “Your mother died when you were young. Dominik has had to grow up much faster because of it. You took the responsibility of watching out for your sister and he took the responsibility of learning the business.”

“I know all of this already.” I feel more like a petulant child at this moment than ever in my life.

“But you don’t know why.” He coughs a bit, pointing his finger at me when I lean toward him. The stubborn goat will take no support from us at all.

“Dominik is older,” I answer for him while he catches his breath.

“No.” He shakes his hand. “I mean yes, he is, and he was always going to be my next in charge. But we keep you as far from the dirty business as possible because you have a head for business. Legitimate business, Jakub. Look at the clubs.”

“They’re bars and dance clubs. So what?”

“So, your brother and I couldn’t run them like you do. You keep the legitimate businesses running so smooth it makes us profits that keep us mostly ignored by the feds.”

“You’re protecting the businesses?”

“I’m protecting you.” He leans back in his chair. “I spent months exiled in Poland with your sister because the feds went digging. It could have cost me a lot of years behind bars.” He takes another breath. “I’d be missing everything.”

“I figured you just didn’t think I could be as good as Dominik at this.”

“Of course not. You’re smart. My boys can handle anything given to them.”

“So, you want me not to get my retribution for what the Kaczmareks did to Nicole?”

“I want you to trust your brother will handle it. When the time comes, you’ll be there.”

Dominik will deal with it in his own way, I have no doubt about that. But Nicole is mine.

“It will make me look weak if they get away with this. Nicole is my wife. My responsibility.”

“She is, yes.” Joseph nods. “You’ll get your retribution. I agree with Dominik, Christian is telling us the truth about Piotr. More than likely, he will be dealt with from within their family. And then they’ll blame us.”

“But since it helps us both, no war.”

“Exactly.” Joseph pats my arm. “You focus on your wife. She deserves a good life, Jakub.”

Staying out of the Staszek dirty business keeps Nicole safe. Not only from fallout, but also from having to watch me carted off to jail if the feds ever get something real to pin on us.

“Let your brother get his hands dirty.” Joseph smiles. “You both have your strengths. Use yours to make me the richest bastard in the world before I finally keel over.”

I roll my eyes. “Now you get dramatic.”

“Not dramatic. Look at me, for Christ’s sake.” He lifts the oxygen tube running from his nose to the tank behind his chair.

“The Kaczmareks will pay?” I want a promise. Leaving the details in their hands is fine, so long as every bit of retribution is received.

“This will not go unanswered,” he promises.

Odds are good Piotr will be hunted down by his cousin first. More agreements, movement of territory lines, and it will all be over. It should enrage me, but then I think of Nicole.

She deserves not to have to look over her shoulder every time she leaves the apartment. She shouldn’t have to have ‘babysitters’ everywhere she goes. With an agreement for peace, she can have all of that. And even though she could be a target if we piss off enough families, she has more safety with my name than danger.

“Now.” Joseph plays with the joystick of his chair and maneuvers to turn around. I don’t even try to help him; I’ve been cursed at too many times to not have learned by now. “All of my children are settled in their marriages. I expect grandchildren now, Jakub.” He points at me then wheels toward the door.

“I’m sure something can be arranged.” I open the office door for him, and he wheels out.

“Grandchildren! A whole house full!” he yells while slowly rolling down the hall, probably in search of his lunch. Kasia will have her hands full with him living here for the time being, but she’s dealt with Dominik well enough. She can handle Joseph.Property of Nô)(velDr(a)ma.Org.

My phone buzzes. It’s Nicole.

She wants me to pick up coffee for her on the way home. It’ll take me an hour to get home with traffic at this time of day. Why Dominik insists on living way out in the burbs when the city is so much more alive, I’ll never understand.

But Nicole wants coffee.

And I want Nicole to have everything.