BUSINESS BEFORE PLEASURE

Chapter 1

Gia's POV:

I hate this fucking city.

I haven't been back here since I was 14.

12 years of peace and quiet upstate and then my ass of a father has to reel me back to this place.

I knew I'd have to come back to Brooklyn eventually. Ever since my mom died when I was 20 I knew I'd have to take over the family business. I just thought I'd be much older than 26.

Ol' Giovanni Morretti always wanted a son. He tried and tried with my mother after I was born to no avail. He had 2 more daughters that he shipped upstate to boarding schools with me.

Most Italian men treat their daughters like princesses and he does treat my sisters,  Alesia and Lucia, as if they were.

But me... never.

I am the bane of his existence. He has disliked me since the day he found out his first born had a vagina between her legs. Imagine his disdain the day he found out I also preferred vagina as well.

That same day he shipped me off to a all girls boarding school as a punishment.

God he's stupid.

The only reason I'm back is Gio is dying. I could honestly care less. The man is evil.

The family business isn't really a business at all either. It's a fancy Italian restaurant in Midwood that's actually a front for the real business.

That business includes, but is not limited to; murder, extortion, corruption of public officials, gambling, tax fraud... but the main thing we do is sell drugs.

The Morretti mafia controls all of the drug trading south of Prospect Park. That's the main source of our income.

I can honestly say I never wanted anything to do with the "family business" let alone run the thing.

But father insists that HIS blood needs to be in charge. It honestly makes zero sense.

I've never even gotten a speeding ticket and he wants me to control the entire south side underground.

The good news is he's given me a right hand to help me learn the way things are done. The bad news is that right hand belongs to Joey fuckin' Russo.

I haven't seen him since I left this place at 14. He was a gangly, goofy beanpole that had no business being in the mafia. Somehow that fucker has risen through the ranks these last 12 years and at the ripe age of 31 is the second in command to Gio Morretti. Honestly, pretty impressive.

As I pulled up to the large house I was raised in I couldn't stop the memory of the day I left from flooding into my head.

Flashback

"Coach Matheson! I don't think Gia should be allowed in the girls locker room." Courtney Knight said to the P.E. Coach after gym class.

"Don't you think it's inappropriate to let a dyke in there with the rest of us." She said smirking at me. Her little squad snickered behind her.

Courtney Knight has bullied me since I was in the sixth grade. I've never even come out as a lesbian. But that bitch sniffed it out the moment she met me.

"Courtney that's enough. Get out of my gym." Coach Matheson said grumpily. He said nothing about the bullying.

Her and her posse left the gym giggling to themselves. I waited until everyone changed before going into the locker room. I didn't want to make anyone uncomfortable.

The truth is I am a lesbian. I don't try to hide it. But I've also never told a soul. All I've ever wanted to be was a kid.

I never even thought about my sexual orientation until Courtney started bullying me 3 years ago.