Roses & Ruin

Chapter 2 (Anthony)

        I won't lie and say I didn't really like Mia because I did. Like a fucking bitch boy I had this wild crush on the girl. She told me nothing was going on with her and Dom, but there was always tension there and everyone saw it. Still, she'd given me the time of day so I took it. 

I started hooking up with her and hanging out with her. I would've probably dated her hadn't she dumped me for the same asshole she said she wasn't trying to be with.

Dom is a possessive mother fucker and a crazy one at that, so he threatened me often to stay away from her. Even after her and I parted, he couldn't stand the fact that I fucked her. He's made my life hell since then, but fuck him I don't care.

        I won't make the same mistake of crushing on some girl. As much as I've been a player and troublemaker I've also had that bullshit happen to me twice in my lifetime. The first time when I was a love struck idiot straight out of high school, and again with Mia. I'm not interested in adding a third to the mix of women telling me to fuck off without actually telling me to fuck off.

Both without me having actually done anything wrong. Both women left me for other men, so I think I'm about done with that botched experiment.

        "Rizzo" someone called out. Most of us in this room are Rizzo's, but people have taken an extra strong liking to calling me Rizzo specifically. When I looked up my cousin Eddie was leaning over his drink to see me beyond the few bodies between us. 

"Do you know who I've always wanted to see you fight? The most epic fight of all fights" he got dramatic about it. A few of them were grinning so clearly I missed something.

"Domani" he told me without me having to ask who. "Oh fuck off" I sucked my teeth. 

"Scared? You're calling us pussies" he mocked me further. 

"A) he's our fucking boss so even if I win I don't win, and B) that would end up becoming a fight to the death. That bastard's wanted to get his hands on me for a while now."

        They all chuckled again because they knew exactly why. "I'd love to see it. Not gonna lie" Enzo clasped my shoulder. I glared at him. "To the death?" I asked for clarification. "Alright, not to the death, but just a good bloody fight with actual rivalry behind it" my lovely cousin, practically brother, told me.

Since my mom is a...whatever, and my dad is in prison I'd grown up with Enzo a lot. Dad went to prison when I was in high school, but still I spent the last 9 almost ten years with Enzo building up the crime family under his father, the head of our household.

        "Nah, you know who's in the middle of a rivalry...shit, we should set up this fight. It's Bianchi's cousin the one who graduated last year, what the fucks his name?" Romano looked around to see if we knew who he was talking about.

"Oh yeah, that kid. Whose he got beef with?" They asked him. "He knocked up some girl. No, wait, other way around, he was fucking around with some girl who was actually dating this other guy, and she got knocked up. She didn't know whose kid it was for like the whole pregnancy" he started gossiping here.

Fuck...reminds me of a story pretty damn close to home. Another disaster in the making.

"How'd they figure it out?" Somebody asked. I heard another slap upside the head, which made me chuckle. "They have paternity tests."

"Nah, it wasn't even that. The baby came out Asian" Romano deadpanned. The table erupted with laughter.

        "If you wanna set up a fight by all means" I gave him permission. "Yeah? And do I get a commission for it?" the smartass asked me. I swiped my hand down my jaw. "If it's a good fight...maybe." I checked the time and cursed. 

"Alright fuckers, I gotta go, so whoever's coming let's go" I started shoving the body's off the curved bench style seating this section of the restaurant has.

When we got up I nodded to the De Luca uncle at the bar before heading out. Enzo, Lombardi, Romano, and my other cousin who's a bit older than us all decided to join me tonight. Everyone's gone to a fight at one point at least, but not everyone participates. Most watch.

        "Are you fighting tonight then? Is that why you'd been asking?" My buddy brought it back around while we walked to the car. Enzo and I drove in together, but the others all had their own vehicles. "We'll see. If the mood strikes" I shrugged. 

Am I in the mood for bloody knuckles and bruises?

When I'm pissed off I usually am very much in the mood. I wasn't exactly pissed off today. Stressed with the aftermath of the mob war that'd gone down? Maybe.

        When the Irish mob started trying to take over the gun business on the east coast, where the Italian's run their operations, they became enemy targets. Well, there were personal matters attached to that, and of course Domani De Luca had something to do with escalating them. 

They teamed up with a street gang to try and come after us.

War is nothing but bad news, trying to strike before the other does, dead bodies, and madness. Dom had killed Conry O 'Riley, son of the O 'Riley crime family, and for a while things got quiet. The old man O 'Riley forfeited. The Dominicans still gave us trouble until we damn near wiped them all out.

But now the Irish are back. Specifically Liam O 'Riley, younger brother to Conry who's mutilated body was sent back to Philly in an icebox with a warning.

        He's probably 26 now and he's the one running things with his old man. With the older brother gone all the responsibilities fall onto him, but he'd rather waste time trying to avenge his brother. I find that to be a mistake, but I know it's what he's trying to do. 

Little incidents here and there tell me that's exactly what's to come.

Dom is a crazy son of a bitch, like I've already mentioned, so he gutted Conry...literally. Actually, he fucked Conry's ex fiance...my cousin Giana... right in front of the chained and beaten man and then he gutted him.

One of my guys came home to a carving knife stuck into his mailbox, wrapped in a chain with blood on it. If that was a warning about being gutted then something's coming. It's just a matter of when.

        That's why things like my underground fight club are a bit more strict about entry lately. Aside from our regulars who are non affiliates you have to be someone we know, or know someone who will absolutely vouch for you. No Irish would ever be allowed, but some might try to sneak in as a regular person with no affiliations, which again we do have here.

Like I said, we have cops down here. We have street guys, businessmen, a grocery store clerk, old men or whatever the hell else. People from all walks of life. But if we suspect you as someone coming in here for our enemies, you won't leave the garage alive.

        "Come on, Anthony, give us a good fight" my cousin clasped my shoulder on the way into the staff entrance that'll take us down and down some more. Like a step in the right direction to hell.

"Yeah, alright, fuck it. Find me somebody to fight. Maybe I am in the mood for some blood."