Mafia Boss and His Prey

CHAPTER 3

Dominic POV

I pulled out the gun from my suit pocket and aimed them towards Kevin. He’s one of my loyal associates, but this time he did a shitty job of losing my most precious possession.

He was supposed to retrieve my sapphire stone back, but ten minutes earlier, he came back to our base with an empty briefcase, then feeding me with so much bullshit.

He was damn wrong if he thought I wouldn’t dare pull the trigger and kill him. I am Dominic Barlowe, the mafia boss of the Barlowe clan. I never hesitate to end someone else’s life when it’s needed.

We did all kinds of dirty business, such as drug dealing, gambling, prostitution, you named it. But we mostly made money from selling drugs.

I took charge after my dad Diego Barlowe stepped down from his throne. He passed away five years ago, getting shot when the riot happened in our drug base.

His death had flipped my world upside down. I felt a huge loss.

Dad is my role model. But being born as a mafia’s son, I was prepared to do this since I was a kid.

I ruled differently. I am ruthless, and I don’t accept excuses as I only care about the result. Unlike my dad, I don’t have space in my heart for empathy.

“Where is it?..” I asked him one more time with boiling anger. Sometimes, it annoys me how stupid they were. How could he fail at such an easy task? I didn’t ask him to deliver the drugs as others did. No, it would be a much trickier job. All I ask from him is to get my necklace back. But he failed.

I should’ve listened to my dad when he told me that Kevin could be a little bit clumsy. Maybe it was my fault for assigning him to do this job in the first place.

“Please spare my life, Dominic… I swear I had put it on the briefcase. But somebody must’ve switched them when I was being caught off guard.” Kevin begged, latching onto my feet.

I c****d the gun in my hand as my patience finally ran out. “Please, I might know who behind all this… I had the footage. I can get them back for you.” Kevin looked up at me, his eyes begging for mercy.

My lips curved in a smirk.

I like what I saw. I saw fear in his eyes. Fear is the only emotion that is real for me. It means that I have power over them. At least this piece of scumbag knows his position.

I retracted back my gun, and he let out a relieved breath. “Show them to me!..” I said sternly. The footage better be worth it, or I wouldn’t think twice to blow his head off.

Kevin grabbed a small USB from his pocket and handed it to me. His hands were shaking as he passed the small object to me.

The other man brought me my laptop, and I plugged them in to check the footage. “You come here and show me which part..” I beckoned Kevin over towards me with a gun, and the poor guy quickly dragged his feet to got up.

The footage showed the record of when he was entering the man’s toilet. “Here, I think they switched the bag here when I wasn’t looking,” Kevin said, pointing his finger towards the laptop screen.

I squinted my eyes for a moment, analyzing the man in a black trench coat. He was wearing a hat to cover his face, but then I realized something. “Stop right there!..” I told him to paused the video.

Ricardo Blaine. My suspicion was right. The eagle tattoo on his right hand showed me his identity. Seems like that bastard still won’t admit that the Barlowe clan would always be above them.

Kevin stared back at me, and he immediately knew that I already figured out who the culprit was. “I heard Ricardo had moved to New York last year.” Kevin then informed me. If that scoundrel thinks that he could escape from me after this, then he was highly mistaken. I will make him pay for messing around with Dominic Barlowe.

“Then what are you waiting for? Prepare the jet for a flight to New York tomorrow!?..” I said, rather impatiently at him. Kevin shifted from his original place and quickly excused himself.

New York. That city held painful memories for me. That’s why we decided to move to LA. Back then, when I was little and dad was still a businessman, my family lived in New York. Then someone tricked dad, and he lost all the money that he had.

Our family lived in the street for a few days. I might only be a seven years old boy, but I know that dad nearly crumbled in despair if it wasn’t for mom.

She always does her best to help and support dad at his lowest point. I still remember clearly that night she went out to sell the last piece of jewelry that she owned, which was that blue sapphire diamond necklace.

The one that Ricardo stole from Kevin today. I knew how much she loved that necklace. Dad gave it to mom as their engagement present. Well, a bastard like Ricardo Blaine maybe never valued such a thing. I just hoped he didn’t sell it to the black market or even worse, throw it away.

The necklace had a sentimental value to me. My mom was killed when she was about to buy the necklace back from the pawnshop. She managed to earn some money from her cooking class.

Mom was so happy, she immediately went to get the necklace after taking some cash from the bank. She had no idea that she was being followed.

A man killed her with a knife and left her body in the street after taking all her money.

We got a phone call that night from the police station as they found a dead body on the street. Dad is the one who hurt the most. I still can remember how he locked himself in his room for a week. Doing nothing but drinking and torturing himself.

Then I realize that love is dangerous. I make an oath to not fall in love because I don’t want to be like my dad. Love would only make us weak.

I remember throwing a box of chocolate from Lizzy into the trashcan. She’s the cute girl who was in the same class as me. She claimed that she liked me, but I was too broken inside, even for a seven-year-old kid. Lizzy never talked to me again after that day.

Okay, so back to dad... Lucky for him, he didn’t mourn for that long. One day, when I got back home from school, I saw a few black cars parked outside my house. I wonder who it could be because we rarely had a guest before.

There are at least ten men gathered in my living room, talking to dad. They were all wearing black suits like a regular businessman.

I couldn’t help but overhear their conversation. They mentioned about mom, Daniella Barlowe.

From what I could hear, they found the man who killed mom that night. My heart stopped beating for a while, and I clasped my mouth in shock with both hands. They were planning on killing the man. Dad is not that kind of person. I try to convince myself maybe I just misheard them.    

I didn’t know what happened after that, but dad suddenly woke me up in the middle of the night. “We had to go now, kid,” Dad said to me. I rubbed my eyes, and then I saw him bringing big luggage in his hand that contained all my clothes and stuff.

“Dad, what happened? Where are we going?” I remember asking him after we both got into the same black car that I saw this evening. A creepy man with a mustache drove the car while giving me a cold glare from the rearview mirror in the middle.

“It’s a long story, Dominic. But we’re leaving New York right now. I need you to trust me. We’re going to be fine.” That’s all he said to me in the car.

We flew to LA that night. It took him long enough to explained to me that he just killed a man. The man that dad killed seems to be a son of the mafia, and now their boss is seeking revenge, so now we had to hide in LA.

After we moved, I soon found out that dad was involved in drug selling. I tried to confront him once when I was a teenager, but then he explained to me that it was useless to be a good guy. In this world, only the strongest would win. And being a good person will bring you nowhere.

Dad used to be a good guy, but life seems to make fun of him. He lost all things that were important to him, such as mom and money. No matter how bad he turned out to be, he’s still a good dad to me. He always protected me, and he taught me a few kinds of martial arts so I could defend myself.

He said that he already lose mom… He didn’t want to lose me as well.

Dad was able to buy back the necklace after we moved to LA and started selling drugs. It was quite easy money to make once you know how it’s done.

It’s better than an eight to five office job that he was so proud of a few years ago. He was able to buy many luxury cars, a house that was as big as a castle, and his own private jet. We built our own kingdom.

************

“Dominic, I’m sorry to wake you up. But we’re already landed in New York.” Kevin said.

I straightened up on the sofa and unclasped the seatbelt.

“How long do I fell asleep?” I asked him as we descended the stairs down from my private jet.

“A little more than an hour. You looked exhausted. Maybe we could wait until tomorrow to—“ I quickly cut him.

“We need to do it quickly.” I can’t stand being in this city for too long. Even the smell of the autumn leaves here makes my chest tightened, and it’s suffocating.

Kevin guided me into the car, and then he suddenly got another phone call. “Are you sure about that?” Kevin then stared back at me while he was still talking on the phone.

I could sense that something went wrong here. “What’s the matter? Do we have a problem here?” I asked him as soon as he ended the call.   

“It’s both good and bad news,” Kevin said, making me frowned.

“Start with the bad news first,” I told him. “Bad news is Ricardo already sold the necklace.” My eyes nearly popped out from its socket.

“So you mean all the effort to flew here was for nothing?” I asked him, balling my fist to hold my anger.

“The good news is. I already knew who purchased the necklace, and he lived in New York.” Kevin then quickly added before I exploded.

“His name is Austin Moore.” He then showed me a picture of an ID of a man from his phone.

I looked at the photo of a man that was not much older than me. “Start driving to his place,” I told Kevin.

Okay, Austin. I hope you’re ready for my visit.