Fallen Angel, Part 1: Fallen Angel Series - A Mafia Romance

by Tracie Podger

  “Hi Sam,” he said. “Ladies, you all look radiant,” he raised his glass to them.

  “You look like the best present, just waiting to be unwrapped,” he whispered into my ear, his fingers tracing his initials on my neck.

  We stood and drank champagne while the last of the guests made their way home. It was late and I was starting to feel a little tipsy. Waitresses had been handing around nibbles but I hadn’t really eaten and the champagne was starting to go to my head. Travis had arranged for Mark to take Sam home and very reluctantly he left, not before giving me a hug and making promises to speak the following day. The boys chatted and I found myself next to Rosa.

  “Are you okay Rosa? You seem a little quiet,” I asked.

  “Sure, Brooke. Thanks for asking. I’m just a little tired I think, that’s all,” she replied, not convincingly.

  She seemed unsettled somehow but I didn’t really know her after all, perhaps she was this way normally. We headed out to the cars, ready to make our way home and standing in our group saying our goodbyes, I finally found out what those people were really all about.

  Chapter Thirteen

  I saw lights approaching, I heard a car driving at speed and I looked up, but everything seemed to be in slow motion. The sound of tyres on the damaged tarmac screeched as the car cornered and then I heard a noise. A large bang, like a firecracker, echoed around the empty car park. I saw Robert run towards me with panic on his face. He grabbed my arm and threw me down on the ground beside the Range Rover. I saw the other women crouch, hold onto each other, and run back into the warehouse as if they knew what to do. The men ducked down behind the row of cars.

  What terrified me more was that I saw them all pull guns, including Robert, from under their jackets and fire back at the retreating car.

  I sat on the ground shielded by the Range Rover, my ears rang from the noise, and my nostrils filled with a strange smell. I sat in a total, stunned silence. I was too scared to utter a word when I was pulled up by my arms. I reached out for Robert but was dragged backwards.

  “Come with me, Brooke,” I heard Travis say, and I was hustled back into the warehouse.

  Inside the women had crowded together towards the back of the room, and Patricia came forward to take me from Travis.

  “Come with me, Brooke,” she said as she ushered me quickly towards the rest of the group.

  Rosa was crying, the others tried to comfort her. “I told you, I can’t live like this again,” I heard her say.

  “Rosa, enough now,” Patricia scolded.

  The women turned and with outstretched arms pulled me towards them.

  I stood in silence, in shock; my whole body was trembling. I looked down at my hands and saw they were grazed, bleeding. My dress was torn and my shoes were scuffed.

  “What the fuck just happened?” I said, finally finding my voice. “What just fucking happened?” I screamed at them.

  I wanted to run, to turn, and run like mad. I fished around in my clutch and with shaking hands found my phone.

  “What are doing, Brooke?” Patricia asked gently.

  “Calling the police, obviously,” I said, and in my panic I couldn’t think of the number, I knew it wasn’t 999.

  She gently took the phone away from me and put it in her pocket.

  “What are you doing? Call the police, someone call the police,” I said, my voice cracked on every word.

  “The boys will sort it,” Taylor said, trying to hug me.

  I pushed her away, “What do you mean, the boys will sort it? Someone just shot at us.”

  Travis came into the room and gestured to Patricia, with heads bent low, they talked. She gathered us together, Rosa cried and Susie supported her. Taylor placed an arm around my shoulders. We were led to the main door and pulled immediately alongside it, was the Range Rover.

  “Get in,” Patricia said.

  I stood looking frantically around for Robert. Where had they gone? Most of the cars were missing and all that was left were the wives, Travis, and another guy, the same guy I’d seen go into the woods.

  “Where’s Robert?” I shouted to Travis, all the time Patricia tried coaxing me into the car.

  “I’m not going anywhere until someone tells me what the fuck is going on and where Robert is,” I said.

  “Brooke, please, get in the car,” I heard, I turned to see Rosa behind me, tears streaming down her face. I climbed in.

  It was a squeeze; we balanced on the edge of the seat as we sped away. The adrenalin had started to ease and the shaking increased, tears fell from my eyes.

  “Please, Patricia. Tell me where Robert is, I want to know he’s safe,” I pleaded.

  “Let’s just get out of here first, I’m sure he’s fine,” she replied.

  We sped through the night in silence, other than the gentle sobs from Rosa. Our driver took a call and without speaking, we made for home. The gates were open in preparation for our arrival. I noticed all the lights on and Evelyn at the front door, two men lurking about the driveway. Climbing out of the car, I finally broke down. I was immediately pulled into Evelyn’s arms and rushed upstairs to the lounge.

  “Evelyn, someone fired a gun at us,” I sobbed.

  “Hush now, everything will be okay,” she said, trying to calm me.

  “No it won’t, Brooke. If you have any sense you’d go home,” I heard Rosa say through her tears.

  “Rosa, that’s enough,” Patricia snapped harshly at her.

  “What are you saying, Rosa?” I asked.

  I watched Patricia look at her, yet another one with silent communication, and I knew she wouldn’t answer my question.

  “Honey, please, let’s all just calm down, we’re all scared. Evelyn can you get Brooke some tea,” Taylor said.

  “Tea! I don’t want tea, I want to know what just happened,” I cried.

  Finally, exhaustion made my legs give way and I flopped down onto the sofa. Patricia was on the phone; I could hear snippets of what was being said but not enough to really understand.

  “They’re on their way,” she said.

  “Who? Who is on their way?” I asked.

  “The boys, Brooke. They’re on their way back here. Why don’t we clean up your hands,” she said gently, crouching in front of me.

  Her kindness and calmness reduced me to a sobbing mess. With her sitting on one side of me, and Taylor on the other, both holding their arms around me, I cried until my stomach ached. It had to be a dream, but every time I closed my eyes I could see that car, I could hear the noise and I could see Robert run for me. I didn’t want my hands cleaned up, they hurt, and it was only the pain that reminded me this was real.

  Evelyn handed me a cup, it warmed me, and the shaking started to lessen.

  “You’re safe here, try to calm down and drink your tea,” she said.

  Hearing cars arrive, I jumped up and ran to the window. Robert and Travis got out of one, Paul, Jonathan and Mack the next, Richard and Mark the third. With their car lights still blazing, I watched them huddle together. Robert was talking and they nodded in agreement to whatever he had instructed.

  Our driver, whose name I learned was Gary, was at the front door. I heard it open, footsteps running up the stairs and Robert came across the lounge. I ran to him. He pulled me into his arms, held me so tightly and I cried against his chest.

  “Shush, it’s over,” he whispered over and over in my ear, letting me cry myself out.

  “What happened back there, Robert?” I asked.

  “I saw a car, there were two people in it, and I heard a gunshot, please, tell me what happened.”

  “Did you say you saw two people?” Mack asked.

  “Yes, I think so,” I replied.

  “Can you picture the car, Brooke? Do you know the make?” he asked again.

  I looked from person to person, the guys watched me, expectantly.

  “No, I don’t know. I think it was a silver colour. What the fuck happened?” I asked again.
r />   “Brooke, someone fired a gun, not necessarily at us, maybe just to scare us,” Robert said quietly.

  I heard Rosa laugh; it was a harsh laugh, and not in humour. Robert, however, did not take his eyes off mine.

  “Tell her, Robert,” I heard her say, and I watched Robert give a look to Paul who, taking Rosa by the arm, roughly ushered her downstairs.

  “Tell me what?” I shouted.

  He sat and looked at me. Mack placed a hand on his shoulder. I held his gaze defiantly.

  “Tell me what?” I repeated, softer this time. The room had fallen into complete silence.

  “It’s time, Rob,” I heard Mack say, gently.

  He stood and nodded to the guys, who in turn beckoned their wives. Taylor and Patricia hugged me tight.

  “Honey, I’ll call you in the morning,” Taylor said and they left, leaving Robert and Travis in the room.

  “Trav, walk back with me,” Evelyn said and I was scared.

  I didn’t want to be left here on my own with Robert. I didn’t want to hear what he had to say but I knew I would have to.

  With the house silent, the cars gone, but shadows walking around the drive, Robert paced the lounge. He ran his hand through his hair.

  “You had a gun,” I said. “Why would you have a gun, and why did someone shoot at us?”

  He came and knelt down in front of me. He took my hands in his and looked at the cuts before he closed his eyes.

  “I’m so sorry, Brooke. I have a gun for protection and I don’t know just yet why someone would shoot at us. They didn’t mean to kill one of us, it was a warning.”

  “How could you possible know that?” I asked.

  “Because if they meant it, one of us would be dead. We were fucking sitting ducks out there.” I detected the slight anger to his voice.

  I looked at him stunned. I stared into his dark eyes and saw pain, but I also had a moment of clarity.

  “The others, the women, they knew what to do. Why would they know that?” I asked.

  I watched the emotion on his face, the internal fight he was having. Did he tell me or not? That time I wanted answers.

  “Why would they know what to do?” I shouted, and he winced at my voice.

  I snatched my hands away, “What do you have to tell me? What does Rosa think I should know?”

  “You tell me, or God help us, Robert, I’ll walk,” I added quietly.

  There was a silence and my heart pounded in my chest. I watched him close his eyes before he spoke.

  “When I was eleven I ended up here, with no money and nowhere to go. I met Travis the first night sleeping under a bridge, down by the river. Travis was the same age but not really streetwise and we became friends. We stole to feed ourselves, from shops mostly and then one day I got caught.

  “I ran straight into a guy who made me put the stuff back. For some reason he liked me, liked that at that age I stood up to him and he gave us a job. We earned money by running errands for him. We delivered things, collected his laundry, anything really to make money. I was angry all the time back then. I got into many fights; sometimes I got paid to fight. After a little while we moved into collecting money he was owed, I had a reputation, people paid up.”

  He moved away slightly from me, resting back on his heels and continued.

  “He was Italian, his name was Giuseppe. Joe we called him and in some ways he became a father to Travis and me. He owned many businesses, none of them legal, but we earned money and that became addictive. With money came the freedom to do what I wanted. We knew exactly who he was and what he did, but we didn’t care.”

  He paused, studying me.

  “We grew up and he grew older. During that time I started to run some of his businesses, I legitimised them. Joe wanted to get out, he wanted to retire and not have to look over his shoulder all the time. He had a group of guys working for him, Mack, Paul, Richard, and Jonathan, and as I got each business legal, I put them in to run it.

  “Eventually, Joe retired and he gave me the companies that I wanted, I sold off the ones I didn’t, and he spent his last days a rich man. Once the companies were legal I started Vassago and brought them all into the fold.”

  He stopped talking and looked at me. The silence stretched on, the only noise was the ticking from the clock on the wall.

  “So, let me get this straight,” I said, finding my voice while my body shook.

  “You’re the Mafia.”

  “No, Brooke, I’m not the Mafia. Yes, I started working for the family but Joe’s was more an offshoot. Gangster, or criminal might be more appropriate.”

  “Well, excuse me for mixing the words gangster and Mafia. Where I come from they are one and the fucking same,” I shouted, startling him.

  “Everything I know about you is a lie,” I said. Fresh tears had started to fall.

  He stood and pulled me up by my arms, he marched me to the window. I struggled to release myself but with him standing behind me, holding my arms tight to my side, I had nowhere to go. I could see a pulse beating frantically in his neck and his face was full of pain and anger.

  “Look at me, Brooke. Look in that window and fucking look at me. You know me, you know who I am now, who I have been since I was twenty-five years old. I’m proud of what I did, I had to survive; I had to make sure Travis survived. And that man gave me the opportunity to do that, but that was in the past.”

  “Your past has come back to haunt you, hasn’t it? The photos, tonight and I’m caught in the middle of it, Robert. I had a quiet little suburban life back home and now I am in the middle of a fucking nightmare.”

  “Brooke, you have to forgive me my past,” he whispered.

  We fell silent standing at that window. He held me so tight I couldn’t move. I was glad in one way, because, had he released his grip I think I would have run.

  I loved that man so desperately, but I was in way over my head. I remembered those fucking words “can you forgive him anything?” and right then, I just didn’t know.

  I started to cry at the injustice of it all. For the first time in my short life I was so scared, so torn, so in love and so confused. That man standing looking at me with fear of my reaction on his face, was my soulmate. The person I felt long before I saw, the person who made me feel real, and special, and loved, and wanted, and he turned out to have been a gangster slash Mafia, whatever words he wanted to use.

  I felt my body sag, the fight left me, and he relaxed his grip. He turned me to face him and he held me to his chest. I listened to his heart race; that had not been easy, telling me. I doubted it would have been something I would’ve learned for a long time and I had to ask myself, can I forgive someone their past?

  We stood for ages, I had no idea of the time, but I felt utter exhaustion.

  “I need to sleep,” I said and he led me downstairs.

  I stripped off my torn dress, kicked off my ruined shoes, and headed for the shower. He followed me but I held my hand up. I needed to be alone.

  At least let me shower alone, I thought.

  Standing under that water, with warm rivers running down my face and my eyes closed, I had to think, really think. There was no way I could process all that had happened, what he’d said, and I felt so desperately tired. I was beyond crying and now felt hollow.

  I was caught in the middle of something that should just belong a movie and I laughed at the irony that I’d wanted him to watch the Godfather; he was the fucking Godfather!

  Whatever words he chose to use, he’d worked for crooks. He’d lived a life of crime for a long time, something that was so alien to me. How did I know that still wasn’t the case?

  Little things started to come to mind; certain looks people gave each other after I’d said things. The women at the club that day, the not stand by the windows, the having to have a driver. Those were serious people who had all done bad things, and Robert was the one at the head. I knew he had, sort of, told me already, but I hadn’t taken it seriously. There were lev
els of bad things and that was about at the top of the scale as one could get.

  I wrapped myself in a towel and headed back into the bedroom. He was sitting on the edge of the bed with his head in his hands. I climbed onto the bed and sat, facing his back.

  “I want to know who these people are, Robert, the people that work for you,” I said.

  Without turning he answered.

  “Mack is head of security. That might include organising drivers, people like Mark, to making sure our construction sites don’t get vandalised. Jonathan deals with all the admin and marketing, he makes sure all the paperwork is right, everything is above board and legit. Paul runs our construction sites, and Richard our properties. What you know about them is true, Brooke. You’ve met them, we’re not bad people; we just got to where we are in a different way than most.”

  “I would agree with that,” I replied, sarcastically. “What about Travis, where does he fit in?”

  “Travis works alongside Mack. I gave him the opportunity to own part of the business but he doesn’t want it. He likes what he does, and he and I know that Mack is the man to lead.”

  “Robert, I’m so tired, I need to sleep but this isn’t finished. I still have questions, and after tonight, you owe me answers,” I said as I climbed into bed, every bone in my body ached and my hands stung.

  “Do you want me to leave you alone?” he asked, his voice was quiet.

  Did I? Did I want him to leave me alone?

  “No, I want you to hold me, I’m scared,” I said, my voice caught in my throat.

  Still dressed, he climbed on top of the bedcovers while I snuggled underneath. He wrapped his arms around me, and with my head on his chest I fell, almost immediately, asleep.

  Not before I thought I heard him whisper, “I love you, Brooke. Don’t leave me.”