Tempted By The Mafia Boss

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Salvatore

Mimi starts crying, but I don’t spare a moment to absorb what’s happening. I take her hand and we go.

We leave and go to Vincent’s house which … God. There are bullet holes in the door.

There are bullet holes in the wall.

There are dead men on the floor-guards.

Vincent’s security guards lie on the floor dead. Bullet holes in their bodies. Ten of them. I knew them.

Mimi cries harder and presses into me. I slip my arm around her and hold her. Hold her tight, so tight it’s probably too tight.

I don’t like her seeing this. Right now though… I can’t protect her from the gruesome sight. We’re in it. In the heart of it.

What the fuck happened here? How?

How did it happen? Vincent’s house is like a heavily guarded fortress. This looks like the enemy just walked in and eliminated everyone. These men are skilled. Aside from the men that guard my parents’ home these guys were the real deal.

This couldn’t have just happened.

The rat…

Had to be them.

Where is Vincent?

The sound of the baby crying gives me something. It’s not comfort though. Not in the least, and I know comfort will never come as I follow the sound to the kitchen and find Vincent on the kitchen floor holding Sorcha’s lifeless body.

There’s blood everywhere.

All over the floor and all over her and him. A hole in her head. A bullet hole.

Mimi screams and starts crying.

Vincent’s leaning against the metal door that leads into a safe room, built in the house so his wife and child can get away safely. It looks to me that only one of them got away. Sorcha must have put the baby inside the room and locked the door just in time, it opens from the inside. Upstairs in the attic is a code panel to unlock it from outside.

I crouch down next to Vincent and he shakes his head at me.

“I can’t fix her Salvatore. She’s not moving. She’s so… cold. I don’t know why she won’t move,” Vincent says, lips trembling.

I can’t be the hard man I’m supposed to be. I can’t break my brother’s heart and tell him why his wife will never move again.

I can’t do it.

A tear slides down my cheek and I shake my head.

“Vincent, we have to get Timothy out of the room,” I tell him.

“No… he should stay there. Safe. My baby should stay inside where I can keep him safe. They will kill him just like…” he stutters and then it’s like he realizes what’s actually happened when he looks down at his wife. He breaks down and starts crying harder.

I’ve never seen him cry like this before. Like a man who’s lost everything. Absolutely, everything.

The same love I saw in his eyes the other night is still there.

I can’t believe that was just days ago. It was just days ago that I was here playing uncle. I came here and she hugged me. I thought how good she looked after having a baby not that long ago. I thought how good she looked with my brother and how happy they were. The three of them as a family.

Now this.

I can’t even look at her properly. I can’t because this can’t be fucking real.

“Vin… Vincent…. Come on, I’ll make sure nothing happens to the baby. He needs you. Sorcha always cuddles him and comforts him. He needs you to do that for him now,” I tell him hoping he’ll listen.

“Salvatore, I couldn’t save her, my girl…. My babygirl.”

Another nerve strikes inside me.

Babygirl… yes. Of course she is. Just like mine is to me. The same way I’ve known mine forever, he’s known his girl forever too.

I don’t think of mine now though. I dare not. I won’t.

“Come brother, come,” I try.

It’s Mimi’s presence that makes him move. He looks to her.

“Vincent, let me hold her,” Mimi says to him. “I’ll take care of her. She’s my friend. I’ll take care of her while you get the baby out.”

“Will you take care … of her?” he asks.

“Yes. I will. Give her to me.”

I swallow hard as I watch Mimi hold Sorcha. My heart swelling with all the love I feel for her.

All the love I’ve ever felt.

It tells me something though I don’t want to accept.

It highlights the danger.

All I have to do is look before me. Look at Sorcha.

The same thing could happen to my babygirl.

If a man can be bold enough to do this to Vincent, an underboss in a family like ours, what the fuck is going to stop him coming after me too?

The day moves slow.

It feels like being stuck in a nightmare where everything is gray and cloudy.

Slow. Tortuous even.

Once again we’re gathered at the family home.

Vincent isn’t here. Ma is with him and the baby.

Pa, me, Gabe and Nick sit at the table.

Silence is pregnant in the air.

We all had messages today.

The three of us got heads in boxes. I got Cora, Gabe got Roberto, one of the main investors in our business in the Caribbean, and Nick got Denis, his street guy he’s known for more than ten years. Denis was the guy who gave us the intel on Cole.NôvelDrama.Org owns this.

Pa’s four closest bodyguards were all poisoned.

Vincent though got the biggest message of all.

Stephanou came for him through his weakness. His wife. They would have killed Timothy too if Sorcha hadn’t saved him. I saw the bullet dents in the metal door.

Stephanou would have killed him too.

This is the second time that animal has come for my family and both times he’s left us with loss so great it crippled us.

Anyone who knows Vincent knows how much he loved Sorcha. Take her out of the equation and you take the man away too.

You paralyze him and weaken a man who’s supposed to be fearless.

Vincent looked as soulless as Sorcha when we last saw him.

Our women are all here. Mimi is upstairs with Mia and Charlotte.

Our best bodyguards are all around. It’s a fortress heavily guarded but then so was Vincent’s house.

It wasn’t enough.

Pa straightens and looks at each of us.

His gaze lands on me and I know what he’s going to say to me, even before he says it.

The other day I was so quick to want responsibility. I was so eager to want to take charge and help protect my family. I wanted in and didn’t want to sit around feeling useless.

“My boys…” Pa begins. “When I look at you, you all look like my kids still. My three boys I knew would have to step up one day. I tried so hard to keep this from happening but the day is here. Salvatore…”

“Yes Pa,” I answer.

“You… it’s time. You will assume your role as capo. For now you will take charge. If and when Vincent assumes his duty, you will follow his lead as underboss.”

The words work into me bringing truth home, truth as truth, pure and raw.

It’s who and what I am.

“I accept Pa.” I bow my head in reverence, vowing to be all that capo means.

“Thank you. I give permission to choose what capacity you’d like your brothers to act in. To have your back as additional capos in which you will take charge, or do you wish them to stay out of trouble.”

I look from Nick to Gabe and know there’s no way they’ll want out to safety. Not now. I wouldn’t insult them like that but I will ask the question.

I’m in charge so I’ll do this and bear in mind all that happened today. They’ve got to be shit scared for their families. The same as I am for Mimi.

“My brothers always have my back, sir, I need them now in whatever capacity they choose to be with me. If they choose it. I am mindful that they both have wives and kids.” I thought I should say that first. Pa nods. I look to Nick first. “Nickoli… do you accept?” I ask.

“You know I do, brother,” he answers with a nod.

“Thank you brother,” I tell him with deep appreciation. “I would like you to be second in rank down from me.”

Nick bows his head in reverence.

I look to Gabe next and he’s already nodding before I can ask.

“Don’t even ask me brother, you don’t need to. I always have your back. Always and forever. I’m not going to stop now,” he tells me.

“Your wife…” I point out because I don’t think it’s right that he should take time away from Charlotte when she’s pregnant.

“She will understand. There’s no way she would allow me not helping. Definitely not.”

I worry because this is the exact thing Charlotte wanted to stay away from. Our life, our world. Life in the mob.

Fuck. It’s shit. All of it.

“Thank you, brother. I would like you to be first in rank down from me.”

That’s how the structure works for us.

It’s like an army with different degrees of authority depending on rank. That’s how we’ll work this too and end this disaster before it gets worse.

We need to.

We can’t let what happened today happen to anyone else.

I can’t…

I keep seeing Vincent sitting on the kitchen floor with Sorcha. So much blood everywhere, their baby crying in the safe room.

It can’t happen again.

I look to Pa as his phone starts ringing. I’m on edge from the sound. I think that sometimes you can just tell when it’s going to be more shit. Since we’re already in the mouth of hell I’m sure that’s more bad news.

Pa answers it and tenses up as the person starts speaking. The vein on his neck bulges and the one on his forehead pops like it really will pop.

Pa stands, balls his fists and rams one into the wooden table.

“How fucking dare you call me, fucking cunt. You fucking bastard,” Pa snarls.

I’m on my feet at the sight. Gabe and Nick get up too.

I move closer to Pa and I’m fairly certain I hear laughter.

Then words.

Pa stills and places the phone on speaker, setting it down on the table.

There’s only been a handful of times in my life when I have witnessed Pa look helpless like this. The first time ever was when Charlotte was taken and the next, when Frankie was killed.

Now he looks like a man who’s been pushed to the edge.

“Salut on behalf of Syracuse as my people would say,” comes a voice from the phone.

I’ve never spoken to him before but I match the face and think of Stephanou. It has to be him.

The Fontaines are from Genoa and they don’t talk like that. They aren’t Sicilian like we are. This fucker is though.

“Stephanou Portaleu here. I trust you all received my messages,” he laughs like a psycho. “Years ago when your capo killed my wife, the love of my life, I spared you all. I only came for the guy who was at fault. The guy who took her from me. I showed compassion. This time is different. This time is way different and you’re all going to get it. You Giordanos. You the leaders who stand in the way of others. Your line Julian Giordano. You and your four sons. I will destroy you first and make you crazy with grief. Then kill you. I’m coming for you all. Plan all you want but I am death. You will not stop me.”

The line cuts giving us a chance to answer.

I don’t know what I would say though.

It was serious before but him calling Pa just took it to the next level.

You don’t just call up a mob boss and threaten to kill him and his family just like that, and not one like my father.

Stephanou did it because he can, so I take his threats very seriously.

We plan and speak with our alliances.

Mainly Claudius and his crew

Having him is like having all of Chicago on our side. They’re strong. I just hope they’re strong enough.

We start our hunt for Stephanou. We hunt, out for blood and revenge. Vengeance.

We hunt and we come up with nothing.

It’s hours before I see my girl. It’s early the next morning before I see her.

My parents’ house is set in the style of Italy, with the balcony on the inside and out. Long hallways and corridors with art on the walls.

I stop when I see Mimi talking with her father at the end of the corridor. She was in the guest room. It looks like he was just leaving.

Both are crying.

I recall days of the past when she was a child and I’d see her with her father just like that. That golden hair was always in ringlets cascading down her back with ribbons. She’d start out with ribbons then the minute her parents’ backs were turned she’d ditch them, tie her hair back and go hanging out with the boys. Hanging out with me.

Me…

Her father plants a kiss on her forehead then looks to me and stills.

She looks to me now too and I stare on at the two of them.

But… I’m focusing on her father and I’m remembering the rude awakening he gave me yesterday.

He asked me to do the right thing.

He told me if I loved her he hoped I would do the right thing.

I do love her, so doing the right thing is all I have on my mind as I take my next step and he leaves.