by J. L. Drake
“You promised—”
“And you promised me, too.” He looked back to the car as it disappeared down the hillside. “I think it’s safe to say a lot has happened, and a lot didn’t go as planned.”
“He’s reckless,” I snapped. “Let’s not forget what he got into when he was younger.”
“He needed an outlet. There was nothing wrong with what he was doing.”
“It was illegal.”
Francesco chuckled darkly as he rubbed his face. “Right, because what we both do isn’t?” He shook his head. “Besides, having allies in different countries is smart.”
“Right,” I scoffed, wondering how a gang could possibly be an asset to an Italian mafia syndicate.
I turned away, feeling a wave of emotion wash over me. I was used to dismissing the pain of leaving my child to fend for herself all these years, because it was the only choice I had. However, the strain of the day and how it had unfolded had left me exhausted. Francesco’s hand fell on my shoulder, and I flinched at his touch.
I closed my eyes, hating what I’d become, cold and unattached. “I wanted this day to go differently, but when I saw a younger version of Piero look at my daughter the way he did, I let my own issues cloud my judgement.”
“Elio is a good man, in spite of what you believe.” He leaned against the railing and folded his arms. “You don’t get to judge someone you don’t know, Elenora.”
My armor shot straight back up. Slowly, I leaned back to use the chair for support as the words leapt from my lips. “How long has my daughter known Elio Capri?”
“Here’s how this will work, Elenora.” He pushed off the railing, and as he towered over me, my men immediately tensed. I had to hold up a hand to stop them. “When I feel you’re ready for the answers, I will give them to you.”
“How is that fair?”
“Nothing about this has been fair.” A moment later, he was gone, leaving me to gnaw on his words.
The pipe above me dripped steadily, forming a muddy puddle by my feet. Rainwater rushed through the grooves of the cobblestone street where I huddled in the protective covering of the alcove. My fingers were still stained with blood from a necessary morning kill, and I noticed little drops of bleach had left their marks on my leather shoes. I grimaced at that, but it reminded me of my small victory. We had a long road to take down the Coppola syndicate, and every death meant we were that much closer to ruling Italy all on our own.
I waited impatiently for Samuele, my informant, to meet me. Both Vinni and Niccola were watching from a safe distance in case he decided to bring company. I checked the time. He was fifteen minutes late, and my anger grew with each passing minute.
We couldn’t afford to lose much more time chasing down where Val was being held. My head still hurt at the thought that Antonio, her uncle, had once been loyal. He was a part of the syndicate. The day he admitted to me that he had flipped on our family because Stefano had taken his niece, I knew the chances of getting her back were slim to none.
Heavy footsteps drew my attention across the street to a window, and I spotted him coming toward me. We had arranged to meet one street over, but because I didn’t trust him, I choose to intercept.
“Whoa!” he shouted as I grabbed him by the jacket and pushed him up against the wall with my arm to his throat. Samuele’s eyes were just as fearful as they were on that day in the maze when I had given him two options. Continue to live as a Coppola soldier and be my informant inside Stefano’s organization…or die.
“You’re late!”
“Our meeting ran late.” He tried to shove me off, but I outweighed him by fifty pounds.
“What did you find out?” I stepped closer, daring him to lie to me, then stepped back and brought my phone to my ear. “Vin,” I said quickly and hung up. A little red laser beam appeared on Samuele’s chest, and he jumped and tried to tuck himself farther into the alcove. “Samuele,” I held my hand up to tell Vinni to back off, “I don’t have much more time or patience for you. Tell me what I want to know or…” I let my words trail off.
“Shit.” He rubbed his head madly, knowing there was no way out. “Fine! She hasn’t been sent out of Tuscany yet—”
“Why is she still being held here?” I had assumed she would be shipped off fairly quickly.
“Stefano knows you’ll come looking for her, so he’s using her as bait to lure you out.”
“Where are they holding her?”
“At the Grand Hotel, where we’re all staying.”
“How many men?”
He hesitated, but when I went to make a move, he sputtered. “Stefano is like you. He appears to be alone, but there are always several watching.”
I loathed that he compared Stefano to me, but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing it bothered me.
“When is the next shipment of girls going out?”
“There isn’t one yet.” He held up a hand when I started to attack him for lying. “Stefano’s changed. Like a shift in his mood, almost like something is preoccupying him.”
“What is so big that would stop him from doing his shipments?”
“Probably it’s from above.”
“Meaning?”
“Stefano isn’t the one pulling all the strings.”
My phone rang. “Yeah?”
“You’ve got company, two guys.” Niccola spoke fast. “Head south. We’ll meet you at the food vendor at the end of the street.”
I tossed my hood over my head and said, “Wait for my call.”
“We’re done here. I won’t do this again!”
I pointed my gun at his temple then wrapped a hand around his neck, squeezing his vocal cords.
“I wonder how your wife will feel when your oldest son doesn’t come home from his next soccer practice. Or when your youngest mysteriously vanishes on her way to school. Or, God forbid, something goes tragically wrong when your sister undergoes her surgery next month.”
“Don’t you—”
I held a pamphlet to his daughter’s private school and watched his pupils contract.
“If you want your family to live, you’ll come when you’re called and do as I say.” I removed his gun from his belt and shoved it in his hand, pushing the barrel toward his mouth.
“I’m not part of any trafficking.” He shook. “I never even knew about it, until they took Val!” He paused and blinked a few times. “They’re going to kill her.” His hands wrapped around the cold steel of his gun. “If not Stefano, someone above him will.”
Don’t react. Another reference to someone above Stefano? Who could be above Stefano?
My phone rang again, and I knew my time was up. I stepped out into the pouring rain, and just as I rounded the corner, I heard a gunshot.
Without breaking stride, I wove my way through the dinner rush on the street, through the kitchen of a family friend and out the back door where I slipped into the waiting car. Niccola checked his mirror to ensure no one was following us.
“Well?” Niccola asked as he studied my face. I closed my eyes for a moment as I digested what I had heard.
“Something either spooked Stefano or he’s preoccupied with something else, because he isn’t sending out a shipment of girls right now. Val is being held at the Grand Hotel, so, Vinni, get your people on that.”
“Sure thing.” He nodded as he turned up the street, beeping at some cattle that had moved onto the road.
“He did say someone else might be pulling the strings.”
Niccola glanced at me, confused. Stefano was the head of the Coppola syndicate, so no one else should be calling the shots. “Could it be his consigliere?”
“I don’t think so, and I can’t beat it out of our informant because he just killed himself.”
“No, he didn’t.” He handed me his phone to show a video he had taken. The two men I was warned were coming my way could be seen. One shot him in the head, then they tossed his body in the back of an unmarked truck.
; “What are the chances he was fed true information before he came to you?”
“Only one way to find out.” I nodded at Vinni to get eyes on Stefano’s hotel.
I removed my jacket and spent the twenty-minute car ride home mulling any and all possibilities on how to get Val back and wondering just what the hell Stefano was up to.
Vinni handed me an umbrella, and I raced up the steps of my parents’ house and hurried inside. Mama was the first to greet me with a worried expression.
Immediately, I knew something was up. “What’s wrong?”
She pointed over her shoulder and whispered, “There’s only so much a person can take in one day, and I think she might be maxed out.”
I hung my coat up and followed the voices then peered around the corner and spotted Mariano and his mother with Sienna, who looked more than finished. As I moved farther down the hallway, I spotted Wyatt hunched over the bar in the back, looking fit to kill. When he spotted me, his face dropped in relief as I joined him at the bar.
“Everything okay?” I asked quietly as I loosened my tie with one hand and poured a stiff drink with the other. They still hadn’t spotted me, so I took the opportunity to eavesdrop.
“Mariano is trying to convince her to spend the night out with him.” His gaze moved to my bloodstained hands.
“That won’t be happening,” I muttered as I sipped my drink and held the bottle up to him, but he shook his head. I took that opportunity to wash my hands clean in the bar sink.
“Yeah, well, they’ve had her pinned here for over an hour and haven’t once listened to her protest about being busy with work. Even your mother came to her rescue, but…” He shook his head, exhausted. “Not to mention that he dragged her all over town while he did errands because he said he wanted to spend time with her. She might actually kill the guy, Elio.”
“I wouldn’t be opposed to it.” I smirked. I stood and casually began to walk toward them with a hand in my pocket. It wasn’t the first time I’d been in a room with a bunch of snakes, and it surely wouldn’t be the last.
“Good evening, Elio,” Bria greeted me in the fake way she always did. We never spoke much. Not since I peeled her from my bed, years back, after she came into my room looking to cheat on her husband. I thought she was a gold-digging tramp, and she thought I was too much like my father, loyal.
“Bria.” I nodded then glanced at Mariano, who now had his hand wrapped around Sienna’s wrist as he tugged her up from the chair.
“Sienna, a package arrived from your boss. Mama has it in the kitchen for you.” I offered the escape.
“Thank you.” She started to pull away from Mariano, but he moved with her.
“Mariano,” I called after him, “a word.”
He cut his eyes at me with a heavy sigh, and I barely contained my patience. It was wearing dangerously thin with his disrespect toward me. Not to mention he wanted what was mine.
Once Bria disappeared out back and I knew my mother had Sienna elsewhere, I relaxed.
“I want you to spend the next few days at the docks.” He started to speak, but I lifted my hand in a warning and made a further effort to throw him off. “I need a person I know I can trust to watch over our men.”
“Why can’t Vinni or Niccola do it?”
I leaned into him and lowered my voice. “I got word that Stefano’s been spending a lot of time downtown, so I sent them there. We need to watch to see what he’s up to.” I caught his eyebrows crease for a quick moment before he subconsciously snapped the rubber band on his wrist. My teeth ground together as murderous thoughts clouded my judgement. I still couldn’t believe this man I once thought was my best friend was involved with Stefano and trafficking girls through my dockyard. “It’s only a few nights until I can figure out what happened to the cameras, why they keep flickering on and off.” My hands in my pocket fisted tightly, and the urge to slam him into the wall and watch the blood trickle from his nose from the impact was consuming.
“All right.” He dropped his hand heavily and disappeared out back, no doubt to complain to his mother.
Something caught my eye. It was my father in the doorway. He nodded for me to follow him. We entered his office where we would be out of the DeSimones’ hearing range. Francesco was there ahead of us. Papa sat and waved at me to join them. Then he turned to Francesco.
“I’ve known you since we were in college, and up until today I’ve always thought we knew everything about one another, but it seems I was wrong about that. I understand that we’re grown men and are entitled to our own lives, but when it directly affects my family, I have the right to know what’s happening.”
“Of course, you’re right.” Francesco nodded and settled back in the chair, his eyes closed as if collecting his thoughts.
“I’ve known Elenora since I was nineteen.” He stopped speaking.
“Is that it?” I hated all the vague answers we seemed to be getting. “You’ve known her for years. So, she and her, what, mini syndicate,” I tossed my hands in the air, “are heading this way tomorrow morning, crossing into our homeland, to this very house, and we know nothing about her. What if they are working with the DeSimones?” I had no idea why she surrounded herself with a group of men. She wasn’t part of any syndicate, nor was she some famous person. Maybe she came from money or imagined herself in danger, but still her little entourage was eye-roll worthy.
“She’s not.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I do.”
“Oh, well, there you go,” I shook my head at my father, “she’s been vetted.”
“I get this is unexpected and confusing.” Francesco tried to reason. “Trust me, I had no clue this was coming now, but it is, so let’s navigate this correctly.”
“How do we navigate? We are blind here. Unlike you, we know nothing,” I threw back at him.
“But I know enough, so please, you have always trusted me, as I have you. We are family. If the two of you would take my word that they are fine to come here, it would be better for all of us. This must stay within our protection.”
“How is Sienna doing?” my father asked me. I knew he trusted Francesco with his life, as did I, so the argument was over, and we needed to let things play out.
“I don’t know.” I sank onto the couch, hating the timing of this new catastrophe. “Confused and hurt, I guess. Mariano sure isn’t making things easy. I’m sending him to the dockyard, so we can keep him in a contained area. I don’t want him here when they arrive tomorrow.”
“Smart.” My father nodded as he thought, then glanced at Francesco. “Elio, could you please give us a few minutes?”
“Yeah,” I huffed, feeling all mixed up inside. As I closed the door, I heard my father’s chair creak as it did when he leaned, then Francesco’s voice.
“All right, so, here’s what’s going on.”
It didn’t bother me that I wasn’t in the room. I knew my father would steer the family correctly with whatever Francesco shared.
Andrea handed me two aspirins and a tall glass of lemon water before joining me on the porch chairs. We both sat and looked out over the gorgeous winery. The rain had cleared up, and the sun was quickly taking its place. “Mariano can be—”
“Intense, selfish, pushy,” I cut in.
“Don’t forget arrogant and self-centered.” She chuckled as she rolled her bracelet around her wrist. “He wasn’t always this bad, which really leads me to believe he’s changing.”
“It must be daunting to know he’s been burrowing his way into your lives for so many years. Wondering how much he knows and what he could use against you.”
“We’ve been very careful not to share too much, but Mariano is not my only concern.”
“Then what is?” I loved that the Capris trusted me enough to let me in. I missed it terribly, and now that I had moved past my own trust issues, it meant the world to me.
“That there’s a storm coming.” She looked over at me, and I could se
e there was a lot more going on than I knew. “We’ve been able to come out in front of them in the past, but this time…” She let out a controlled breath. “I’m not sure if we’ll be able to see it coming, especially if we are only now spotting the lion in the mist.”
I moved my gaze back to the sunflowers. It really hit home that if we were going to come out on top, I should start to listen more around Mariano. Maybe I could catch something helpful, instead of always focusing on all the annoying things he did that pissed me off.
If someone had said to me months ago that I’d be involved in a syndicate who were chasing down leads on a human trafficking ring and flushing out a mole’s plan to destroy the people I loved, I would have laughed out loud, then run like hell. Yet here I was, right in the middle of it all. Maybe one day I’d write about all of this and get the big break I’d always wanted.
“We’ll figure this out, I promise.” I covered her hand, giving it a squeeze, and meant every word of what I said.
Leaning back against the bright orange cushions, I closed my eyes and hoped the aspirin would kick in soon. The breeze was light and provided just enough relief from the damp heat that I could relax. As much as my mind wanted to dwell on what was to come with Elenora, I forced it to focus on the chirps from the chubby birds that were playing in the puddles.
I didn’t hear footsteps, but when Andrea whispered to someone, I instantly felt my state of wishful bliss evaporate.
“She just needs a few minutes.”
“Thanks, Mama.” I heard him let out a long sigh.
The wood on the railing squeaked as he leaned against it, and I forced my eyes to flutter open, finding his back to me and his hands in his hair. “Mama, if anything happens to her because she’s back here…” He trailed off, unable to finish the sentence.
Andrea’s eyes met mine, and she threw me a kiss then left us alone. With a quick glance around to see if we were truly alone, I pushed to my feet and ran my hand up his back. At my touch, he turned and caught my lips with his. His hands ran through my hair and massaged the back of my head.