Page 65 of Princess's Revenge
“Yeah?”
“I take his head anyway, as is my right to do so for the murder of my family…and then I take yours…and then I draw the linesmyway.”
An eternity passes with him staring me down, but I don’t flinch. I hold his gaze and he’s the one who blinks first. He raises his hand to signal everyone behind me and says, “This meeting is over.”
CHAPTER 19
It’s been a week since thesit-downand we’ve had nothing but radio silence from the other side. It’s to be expected. Andrea rattled them hard.
She told Don Cassaduchi in no uncertain terms that we’re coming for both him and de Soto. What do you say to that? No boss has ever gone to another boss and said anything like that.
People do shit that’s sneaky and underhanded. They strike from the shadows. No one ever looks you in the eyes and says—I’m going to end you.
What they’ve got to be wondering right now is whether she was serious or not. They’re wondering if they should ignore her, hit us first, stop the drugs from coming in, combinations thereof and probably a thousand other scenarios which will allow them to keep their lives and their money.
It's not a great place to be—mentally.Heck, old man Cassaduchi might just keel over from the stress of it all.
The other thing that’s happening right now is the gossip. You put a bunch of mafiosos in a room and they’re worse than a sewing-circle.
Half of them are talking about the set of balls on Andrea. The other half are talking about how de Soto fucked up sixteen years ago.
And they’realltalking about what’s going to happen to them and who they ought to be backing.
Are they going to fight for the guy who’s got one minute till midnight in a wheelchair and an oxygen mask?
Or are they going to fight for the screwup who missed a five-year-old girl, sixteen years ago.
Both those guys are scared of Donna Andrea Lupertazzi.
Dollars to doughnuts, most of their captains and soldiers are going to want to sit this out and see who’s left standing when the dust settles.
We’re outside in the garden, practicing a hybrid of martial arts that I’m teaching Andrea. It’s a little bit of Taekwondo mixed with Karate, Kungfu and Jiujutsu.
Andrea has taken to all this stuff like a duck to water. She has an amazingly strong core and she’s very, very limber. She said she got that way by cleaning so much!
She can throw kicks and punches like she’s had years of training instead of only weeks. It’s like she was born a warrior.I suppose she was.She was a princess, now she’s a queen.
She has the blood in her.
The last Lupertazzi.
When we first started training weeks ago, I didn’t have to use any protective gear because I was faster than her and she could barely touch me. Now, I’ve got to wear pads because she’s stronger, faster and her strikes land with precision and weight.
She’s built for battle.
“Oof!” I go down hard on the grass from the kick she lands to my midsection.
She’s surprised when she looks down at me, “I telegraphed that a mile away, what’s wrong with you? Where’s your head at today?”
“Day dreaming, I suppose,” I flash her a smile and wink.
She puts out her hand to help me up. I take it and pull her down to me instead. She laughs when she lands on my padded chest, then gives me a kiss. “Let’s show some professionalism please. There are probably fifteen guys watching us right now.”
“You’re right.” I give her a quick kiss before she gets off me.
She bounces away on the balls of her feet and comes to a fighting stance. Once I’m standing, she says, “Ready?”
I nod.