When Angels Seek Chaos (The DePalma Family Book 1) Read online

  Addison Jane

  When Angels Seek Chaos

  A DePalma Family Series Book One

  Addison Jane

  Copyright 2017 Addison Jane

  All Rights Reserved

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to real events, real people, and real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, organizations or places is entirely coincidental.

  All rights are reserved. This book is intended for the purchaser of this e-book ONLY. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the express written permission of the author. All songs, song titles, and lyrics contained in this book are the property of the respective songwriters and copyright holders.

  The Recoil reference (in particular “Nate”) is from the series of books “The Recoil Rock Series” and is used with permission and copyright to K E Osborn 2017.

  Name Change – Hadley – The Club Girl Diaries Book Four – Antonio will now be known as Nicholas.

  Disclaimer: The material in this book contains graphic language and sexual content and is intended for mature audiences, ages 18 and older.

  Trigger Warning: there is content within this book that may set off triggers.

  Editing by Swish Design & Editing

  Formatting by Swish Design & Editing

  Proofing by Fiona Dreaming – Proofreading & Formatting

  Cover Design by Mary Ruth

  Cover Model by Shutterstock

  Cover Image Copyright 2017

  All rights reserved

  To Kay, for always pushing me when I feel like throwing it all out.

  Here’s where I thank all the people who have supported me during this crazy journey and where I will probably forget someone.

  A huge thanks first of to my extended family, Kay and Kim, for listening to me cry and complain and throw tantrums when I just couldn’t get things right, and then telling me to sort my shit out and suck up it.

  Thank you Andrea for allowing me to borrow her family name. I hope I made you proud beautiful!

  Thank you to Barbi, an amazing friend who translated the Italian language for me so that it was authentic.

  Once again a huge thank you to my baby girl, my mini, who put up with me when I was tired and grumpy and fended for herself when I was glued to the computer trying to get this done.

  To my family, I love you all, thank you for always supporting me and reminding me that I can do it, I just sometimes need a little push!

  My betas, you girls are amazing, I don’t have words for all the ways you help me shape my story into something great.

  Fiona, my proof reader, the fabulous woman who has eyes like an eagle and is always there for me when I need her.

  My PA Nicole, words can’t even say how much I appreciate everything you do to keep things running when I can’t.

  Abbastanza – Enough.

  Ai quattro formaggi - Four cheese

  Allontanarli da qui - Get them out of here.

  Bella - Beautiful.

  Capo - A rank used in the mafia for a made member of the family who heads a "crew" of soldiers and has major social status and influence within the organization.

  Ciao, signora - Hello madam.

  La Cosa Nostra - Meaning either "this thing of ours" or "our thing" depending upon translation. Used as an euphemism for the Italian mafia.

  Ti ucciderà - He will kill you.

  Mi dispiace - I'm sorry.

  Se la feriti, ti ucciderò - If you hurt her, I'll kill you.

  Sì, ben fatto - Yes, well done.

  Vai a farti fottere – Go get yourself fucked.

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  Italian Dictionary

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Epilogue

  Connect With Me Online

  About The Author – Addison Jane

  “Kill him,” Anthony ordered in my ear as I studied the man standing before me.

  “Yes, sir.”

  With that, the phone went dead. My orders were given, and I would follow them without guilt or regret. I reached over to the table and gripped the gun in my hand. The cold metal slipped into my palm with ease and familiarity, fitting snug within my grasp. It held power, power that flowed through it and into my body.

  My heart began to beat a little faster with anticipation.

  “Let’s go over this one last time,” I said as my finger gently stroked the small trigger. All it would take was one squeeze, one small movement, and that would result in a man’s life ending. It seemed almost ridiculous to think that something so small as a bullet could have such an impact on the world around us. “You came into DePalma territory—”

  “I didn’t know! They gave me the package. They told me where to take it. I swear, man,” he objected, cutting me off with his fucking blabbering and only spiking my anger.

  If there was one thing I didn’t stand for, it was disrespect.

  Without hesitation, I lowered the gun and fired. The kid’s scream filled the small one bedroom apartment as he dropped to the ground, cradling his knee and crying out for forgiveness.

  “Please, man! I… I just started here. I didn’t know.” He was sobbing now, choking on his words and pleading for mercy. He was young, if I had to guess maybe around eighteen to twenty years old.

  “Who gave you the package?” I snapped.

  Panic and desperation poured off him, his eyes still searching the room frantically as if by some miracle someone was going to appear and save him from a fate that had already been signed and sealed and was about to be delivered. “I don’t… I don’t know. He… he told me that if I did it, th-that it would be my way in.”

  While shaking my head, I took a step forward. I knew this was where I should feel some kind of mercy, watching tears stream down his cheeks like a young child, begging me to spare his life, adamant that he didn’t know what he was doing. But mercy was not something I held for people who disrespected my family and me. We were stronger and more powerful than any
other around for that damn reason because when it came to business, no one was allowed a free pass.

  Maybe a better man would have seen the pain in his eyes, the honesty behind his words, and allowed him to walk free. He was young, stupid, and easily manipulated. He, like so many other young boys in our world, would do anything to feel what it was like to hold power over so many others and to be feared by thousands.

  They fed off this dream like vultures, desperate to have the world fall to their knees in front of them, greedy for the money and the women that would be drawn to them. They saw these things and jumped at the chance to work for a made-man and prove their worth, eager to show what they were made of.

  It made them feel important, self-assured, but around here soldiers were easy to come by. There was another kid like him waiting in the shadows for an opportunity just like this, to show someone bigger and stronger than them that they had the fucking balls to do it. But there was a huge difference between balls and brains. There was no excuse for being a gullible and reckless idiot because all that led to was mistakes, and he was about to learn that mistakes came with lessons and consequences.

  The lessons we learned came in many forms. Some were there to test us, shape us into stronger people and allowed us to build resilience. Others were put in place in order for us to prove our worth, and our capabilities.

  This was not one of those lessons.

  Unfortunately, for the young boy crumbled at my feet, this was a lesson that was not for him, but instead, one for whoever it was that had sent him here.

  You don’t fuck with the DePalma family and get away with it.

  “Please…” he whispered, his face paling as he stared in horror at the blood that seeped through the cracks in his fingers and dripped down onto the worn dull carpet. He was shaking, probably feeling dizzy, like the darkness was settling over him, but he needed to fight it in order to make it out of here alive.

  “You want this all to stop? For it to go away?” I asked calmly, my finger twitching impatiently. I was done, bored of this already. I didn’t want to deal with his sniveling any longer. His pathetic cry baby tone was simply irritating me.

  “Yes! Please,” he cried.

  I raised my gun, holding it only inches from his forehead. His tears dried instantly, and I saw the moment he realized that this was where the line ended and it was his stop.

  “Done.”

  The loud bang resonated in my ears, sending shock waves through my body. He dropped in dead weight to the floor as I slowly released the trigger on the gun. My men didn’t move.

  “Take him and drop him over the line. Somewhere they will find him,” I ordered, my voice completely neutral as I turned away without even a second glance.

  Witnessing someone’s life being drained from the body—it was nothing new. Some people allowed it to eat at them like a disease.

  But me. I was immune.

  My men worked on gathering him up as I moved out of the small living room and into the kitchen, where the owner of the house was standing at the counter with a coffee mug in his hand.

  “This gonna come back on me?” he asked casually, tugging nervously at his scruffy gray beard.

  I shook my head. “No. The family appreciates your call.” I pulled a wad of cash from my pocket and placed it on the counter next to where he stood. “You have any neighbors asking questions about us or the noise… you give them my name.”

  He nodded, grasping the money in his frail hand like it was his lifeline.

  “I’ll send someone to clean this up.”

  He nodded. “Thank you, sir.”

  With a short nod of my head, I headed out the back of the house to where my men were loading the offending body into a car. They would dump him at the edge of DePalma territory. Whether the family found him or the police, either way, they would know he paid the ultimate price for their stupidity. At this stage, I was unsure about whether he was ordered to cross the border into DePalma territory or whether the guy really was that stupid, but we would find out soon enough.

  If he were ordered to come out here, they would know instantly who took him out, and retaliation would come. I wasn’t afraid or scared, but I rarely ever was. Threats of violence were things we dealt with on a daily basis, we lived and breathed them, and when someone came at us, we destroyed them.

  This was just the way it was.

  I looked down at my test paper, the bright red letter was circled with a scribbled ‘Well done!’ next to it.

  Another A.

  No doubt my father would be proud.

  I screwed up my nose as I packed the paper into my backpack with my folder and stood from my seat. I tossed it over my shoulder as I made my way down the stairs. Most of the class had already left, a range of different expressions on their faces with regards to their test results.

  I headed for the door, trying unsuccessfully to avoid eye contact with Professor Evan as he held the door allowing the students to exit.

  “Very well done, Emerson. As always,” he complimented as I stepped through the doorway. I plastered on a fake smile, one that I’d perfected for times like these where I needed to portray that perfect girl image that my family expected me to be.

  “Thank you,” I replied graciously before making my escape.

  I allowed myself ten steps before my shoulders slumped. My family’s expectations of me were high. With my father being one of the wealthiest property developers known, and my mother a popular actress and model, there were certain things I needed to do in order to not bring shame or attention on them. I’d been taught since a young age that our public persona must be perfect and clean at all times. Completely untouched by scandal. So far, I’d managed to live up to what was expected, but frankly, it was exhausting.

  Since I’d been away at college, the pressure had only loosened slightly. I had to work hard and make perfect grades, in order to make it into law school next year.

  I’d already passed the LSATs.

  Yale Law, here I come.

  But it wasn’t what I wanted. It was a future that I despised.

  “Why so glum?” a perky voice asked, as they skipped up beside me.

  I smiled at Leah, one of my best friends. This time, the smile was real. She was one of the only people I trusted and who knew the real me, the girl that hid inside a perfectly crafted mask.

  “Got another A in Humanities,” I answered, rolling my eyes as she fell into step with me.

  She gasped dramatically. “Oh God, not an A. That’s terrible.”

  I nudged her with my elbow, unable to keep from laughing at her sarcastic tone.

  Leah had a full scholarship to Jacksonville University where we attend. She worked part time in a coffee shop in town and studied harder than anyone I knew in order to make the grades she needed to get her teaching degree. Leah was the first person in her family to go to college. She understood the pressure to succeed, but for entirely different reasons. Her family would always support her, no matter what she did. But deep down she craved to make them proud.

  “You know, Emmy,” Leah said as we walked.

  “You need to start putting yourself first.” We both say at the same time, with matching smirks. I’d heard this sentence from her more times than I wished to ever count.

  “Don’t mock me, woman,” she scolded. “With that brain of yours, you could be anything…” she paused for a second, looking at me pointedly, “… even a dancer.”

  I couldn’t help but release a heavy sigh. Dancing was all I’d ever wanted to do. Music called to me, it flowed through my body like blood through my veins, and I couldn’t help but move.

  But a dancer was of no value to my father’s business.

  “Yeah, maybe I could ask Daddy to buy Broadway for me,” I answered sarcastically.

  Leah laughed and shook her head. “I’d start off small. Maybe a strip club. ‘Cause girl, you know you’ve got the moves and the body to work that pole.” She began to grind her hips suggestively, a sly
smile broadened on her lips. Laughter burst from mine.

  It gave me a sense of relief to know that no matter what, I had friends like Leah who could make me smile.

  The smell of coffee wafted our way, and it only took one look between us before we were veering off the path and heading for the campus coffee shop. We ordered at the counter before taking a table against the wall.

  Leah leaned back, propping her feet on the spare chair as I dropped my bag onto the ground. “I saw Sophie on the E! Channel last night.”

  I nodded. “Yeah, she’s got a small part in that new sitcom, Greener Grass.”

  Sophie was my older sister. She was also my hero and everything I wanted to be—bright, confident, free. I loved her to pieces.

  Sophie didn’t do well in school, but when my mother involved her in an acting project she was doing when Soph was just fourteen, the producer apparently saw huge talent. Knowing that she would never excel academically, they threw her into acting lessons and voice coaching in typical ‘go big or go home’ Rossi family fashion.

  I should be angry, jealous, and a small part of my heart did resent the fact that she was off doing something she loved, while I was here taking all the pressure from my father. But Sophie was also the only one in my family who supported me and my love for dance, she was on my team, and she reminded me of that every time we spoke.

  We talked every second day on the phone. Sophie loved to listen to me tell her about different movements and play her the songs I was currently dancing to. It was almost like she wanted to get lost in my story, just as much as I wanted to get lost in hers.

  She was my best friend.

  “Never really saw her as the comedy type,” Leah mused.

  I smirked. “I think she plays the bitchy new girlfriend to one of the main characters.”

  Leah giggled. “Oh, so she just has to be herself?”

  Unlike me, my sister took the rich family lifestyle and ran with it. She was a great actress, was always surrounded by friends and attending the biggest events, and flourished in the spotlight. My parents had made sure she wasn’t shy to fame, my mother herself getting more than her fair share of attention when we were growing up. As children, I’d always been one to hide my face and walk away, but not Sophie. She would always turn, smile and wave, like she was in some kind of beauty pageant. Having that kind of personality where nothing fazed her, and nothing got under her skin.