The gun went off.
Nicholas fell in a heap to the ground.
Men around him began pulling out their firearms as Frank lifted his hands in surrender. “Don’t do him the honor of even defending his miserable life, all of you Nicolasi men are the same. Now, who stands to take over? You better find out and find out soon because we will come for you.”
Another shot rang out as the person closest to me fell to the ground, blood seeping from his skull onto the cement.
“And we will destroy you.” Another gunshot.
Another body.
I closed my eyes willing the nightmare to go away.
“You need a boss, lest you turn on one another and lose what precious money and respect you have left.” Another gunshot.
A man screamed.
Frank laughed. The bastard laughed. “We are the second most powerful family in the Cosa Nostra, you either stay and suffer my wrath or nominate your next boss by midnight and leave the country.”
Men murmured in Sicilian. Then one clipped. “It is a tedious situation, the man to replace is young, he is… injured.”
“Then you better hope he wakes up, you better pray to God that he survives whatever has been done to him, because if you don’t elect a new leader, one you trust, one the rest of the Families approve of…” Another gunshot.
More cursing.
“I’ll destroy you all.”
I opened my eyes to see dead bodies all around me, blood caked to the floor, running like a river towards the door.
And then Frank was in front of me, unlocking the chains and lifting me into his arms.
“Shhh.” He whispered in my ear. “I’ve got you… I’ll never let you go. I swear it.”
“H-he’s dead.”
“I know.” His eyes flashed, “And we’ll get our revenge.”
I nodded. Next to Luca, Frank was the only other man I could trust.
“I’ll protect you, Joyce.”
“I know you will.”
“Until the very end.”
Had I known what he was referring to… had I been able to comprehend the betrayal of that man’s words… well I don’t know what I would have done. Perhaps instead of clinging to him like my lifeline, I would have been the one with a gun, and I would have been pointing it at his forehead.
For within forty eight hours he’d given me both a reason to live and a reason to die.
And sometimes, I still hate him for it.
Hate him for what he forced his brother to become.
And hate him for what he forced me to endure.
Then again, hate only breeds more hate, more anger, and in the end, I was gifted with a beautiful family, a beautiful life, would I take it all back?
Some days yes.
Some days no.
CHAPTER EIGHT
When someone dies, a part of you is buried along with them. I never got to say goodbye, I wasn’t even done saying hello. That’s the thing about introductions, you never know if it will be your first or your last, better make it good is what I always say. I live by my greetings. I live by my words. Because I never know if I’m to be silenced. I never know when my time will come. – Joyce Alfero
Indescribable pain hit me square in the chest. I tried to breathe but it hurt. With a moan I turned on my side and puked, my chest constricting as if I had an elephant sitting on it.
Memories of Joyce flashed.
Opening the door.
Seeing some of the Nicolasi men.
And then the gunshot.
“Joyce!” I yelled, “Joyce!”
“She’s safe.” A familiar voice said to my right. I blinked my eyes open, the room blurred.
“Frank?” I whispered. “What the hell happened?”
“Life.” He licked his lips. “And some death.”
I reached for my chest, it was bandaged, meaning at least I wasn’t hallucinating. “I want to see Joyce.”
“I’m afraid…” Frank leaned forward and folded his hands on the bed. “That I can’t let you see her, not yet.”
“But—“
“—you damn near died.” He said with a curse. “You were found just in time and those Nicolasi bastards—“
“—they were our allies.”
Frank nodded, “They still can be.”
“What?”
“Your number’s been called.”
“I don’t understand.” The pain was messing with my logic, with my emotions. All I could think about was getting back to Joyce, making sure she was untouched, making sure she knew I loved her with every fiber of my being.
“As boss.” Frank tapped his chin. “They’ve put your name in, they want you.”
I shook my head and clenched my teeth. “Impossible. I’m not blood.”
“For once, the family doesn’t care. Men are talking… they see the Nicolasi Family as weak, the other families want to pounce.”
“Which ones?”
“The Abandantos are readying their foot soldiers right this moment.” Frank swallowed slowly. “The Nicolasi family has agreed to leave as long as you lead them... In Sicily.”
“No.” I shook my head. “Absolutely not…. Joyce is here, I can’t just—“
“—I didn’t want to have to do this.” Frank ran his hands over his face and winced. “Damn but I didn’t want to have to do this.”
He motioned behind him.
A door opened.
Equipment was rolled in.
“What the hell?” I gasped.
And then the recording started.
Of Joyce and Frank.
“Why are you here Frank? I won the wager, remember?”
“Ah yes…” I leaned back, “The Wager, tell me, how was my brother in bed? Did he cry afterwards?”
“You’re an ass!” She hissed.
“I’m the ass?” I leaned forward, “I’m the ass? I didn’t lure a man to my bed under false pretenses.”
“They weren’t false.”
“I also didn’t seduce a twenty one year old kid for money.”
“Leave me.” Her color was high. “Now.”
“Is that how it’s gonna be Joyce? You’re going to play with your new toy until you get bored?”
“Enough!” I yelled, “Enough!”
My entire body shook with rage. So it was all a game to her? A way to win money?
God, she must have laughed when I told her I loved her. When I showed her my shit apartment and promised her forever. I held the tears in, allowing the rage to take over as I clenched the blankets in my hands.
“I’m sorry, Luca.” Frank hung his head, “Had I any idea your true feelings I would have---“
“—I’ll do it.”
“What?”
I had nothing more to live for.
I’d gambled and lost.
She’d used me.
And taken my heart in the process leaving me with nothing but darkness, rage, and the insane need for revenge.
“Luca, take some time to think—“
“—No.” I roared, “No!” I pounded my fists against the mattress of the bed. “I leave as soon as I’m able. I’ll take over. It’s my right. My destiny.”
Franks eyes flashed. “Good. That’s good.”
CHAPTER NINE
They said the body was too mangled for a funeral, they said that after he was shot, the men beat him until he was unrecognizable. So even in his death, I was never given closure. Most people get a funeral, a viewing, pretty music, lovely speeches. I was taken to a hole in the ground and allowed to mourn on my hands and knees in the dirt while Frank held an umbrella over my head. And when I was done crying – I cried some more. – Joyce Alfero
“HE’S REALLY DEAD.” I said for the hundredth time while sitting in the limo beside Frank. He merely nodded his head and said nothing, allowing me to lean against him, allowing me to use his body as comfort as I’d done for the past week.
“And the Nicolasi family is in Sicily, never to return.” Frank
nodded, “We made sure of it.”
“Good.” I sniffled, “That’s good, right?”
“The Abandonatos helped us rid the states of their filth. It is very good. You’re safe Joyce.”
“I miss him.” I sobbed against his chest. “So much.”
“I know.” Frank swore and pulled me into his lap, “But know this,” his thumb tilted my chin up. “I’ll protect you. I swear it. You won’t follow his death with your own, we’ll treat the cancer, we’ll get you better.”
How he’d known about the breast cancer I had no idea, Frank knew everything.
I was a medical marvel. To get cancer so young? But since I was healthy, all I needed was money for treatment and the doctors imagined I would survive.
I was willing to take my chances with no money as long as I had minutes, seconds, with Luca.
And now, I was facing a forever without him.
“Marry me, Joyce.” Frank kissed my cheek, “I know you loved him, but marry me. Let’s try to be happy. We’ll always mourn him, but with us married, I can protect you, provide for you, I can never replace him, I know this, but let me at least take away some of the pain.”
I nodded, unable to speak.
I had no love for Frank.
Not like that.
But I also wasn’t stupid. He was offering me a life raft and I’d be dead if I didn’t take it.
Either from a broken heart.
Or from cancer eating me from the inside out.
Frank’s eyes blurred. “Promise me one thing.”
“What?”
“That you’ll find it in your heart, one day, to forgive me.”
Confused, I stared into his eyes, trying to find an answer. “I don’t understand.”
“I know you don’t… just promise me.”
“Alright, Frank. I promise… that one day, one day soon, I’ll forgive you.”
His shoulders sagged.
Words, Tracey, remember what I said about words? They hold so much power, they introduce you to new things, they curse, they uplift, they say goodbye. My words in that limo, they were the beginning of the end for me and your grandfather.
Five years later, after the birth of our first son, I was at a gathering, one of the famed commissions, though a small one.
I thought I saw a man who was familiar to me.
I felt a pull in my soul, because Trace the thing about soul mates? They recognize each other, even when they’ve been separated.
My breath hitched as that glorious man, now packed with more muscle, turned and glanced in my direction.
“Luca!” I’d screamed and ran for him.
And you know what he did?
He turned back around.
As if I didn’t exist.
When I pounded his back with my fists, he ignored me.
When Frank finally pried me free, I slapped him as hard as I could, confused, angry, so, so angry.
And your grandfather told me a story… about how his father had made him take a vow on his death bed. Take care of your brother, he won’t be boss, people will compare you, he will suffer if he is under your thumb… he needs to lead. Make sure he leads, one way or another, swear it to me under oath you find a way for him to lead.
That’s exactly what Frank did.
You see, our story was written before I was even fifteen years of age.
Frank made a blood oath to his dying father.
He was going to protect his younger brother, provide for him, give him everything their father never had.
And he did it in the only way he knew possible.
After all, it’s the mafia, there is no room for love it the mafia, Tracey.
Years went by, and I found it in my heart to forgive your grandfather. What choice did I have? Either die with bitterness or pour what love I had left for Luca into my children, into my lovely granddaughter.
I write this as I’m on my death bed… the cancer finally returned, then again, I felt it in the wind, just like I felt it when I noticed that blinking sign. The times are changing, war is upon us. And it will be up to you to define your own future. Will you choose love? Or will you choose war?
Do not hold this against your grandfather. I know I don’t, not anymore.
After all… my dying wish was for you to go to that school.
My other wish?
That before I breathed my last breath… Frank would play me the song… the one playing in the casino that night when time stood still, when Luca looked at me the way I’d always imagined.
I loved him with a fierce love that I cannot describe.
I loved him with a part of my heart that I didn’t even know existed.
I wrote him a letter, one I hope he one day reads.
Luca Nicolasi is your uncle, yes. But he’s also your friend, your ally. He’s ruthless, he’s cold, and your grandfather helped turn him into a monster.
But in the end. He is your salvation.
He will go to the ends of the earth for those he loves.
And his weakness?
True love.
Always.
True love.
NIXON
I PLACED THE DIARY on the table and rubbed my face. So full of secrets, so full of lies. Those pages, those are the ones Luca would want. Those are the ones he would die to protect. To him, they were more than memories on a page, but things he lived and breathed, things he would die for.
“I finally found leverage.” I sighed, wishing it wasn’t true. Wishing that I didn’t have to follow in the same footsteps. Betraying them all, to save one I loved more than the world.
History, I learned, in that day, has a way of repeating itself.
I leaned over and kissed her forehead. “I’ll love you forever.”
I left a note.
Possibly my last.
And marched towards my death.
With a smile.
Yeah, history repeats itself, but I was going to fight like hell before I let it turn out the way theirs did.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
RACHEL VAN DYKEN is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author of over thirty books. She is obsessed with all things Starbucks and makes her home in Idaho with her husband and two snoring boxers.
Table of Contents
TITLE PAGE
DEDICATION
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Table of Contents
TITLE PAGE
DEDICATION
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Enchant Page 3