* * *
Trust. Trust meant they would do anything for him and he wouldn’t have to micro-manage their every move.
* * *
But the boy…
* * *
That was the final piece of the puzzle that Nico would need to ensure his plan successful. Just when he was about to send Tommy on a manhunt, the boy walked through the door. He dropped his backpack on the ground when he saw his cousin. Nico stood up and wrapped the boy in his arms.
* * *
“Buona sera cugino,” Nico whispered.
* * *
His cousin kissed his cheek and then pulled away, replying with a strong, “Buona sera.”
* * *
Nico eyed the boy up and down. The boy reminded him of himself at that age. He was skinny as a rail. And even if it was clear he was trying to hide it, Nico could smell the faintest whiff of tobacco on the boy’s clothing. Now that was more like Luca than Nico. The boy had blue eyes that possessed less intensity than Nico’s, but were a bright blue all the same. Instead of black, his hair was a dark brown color and cropped right above his shoulders.
* * *
Nico would have switched to Italian if he knew that not all the men in the room spoke it very well.
* * *
“How is my father, Domenico?”
* * *
Domenico paused, trying to find the necessary words in English to answer his cousin.
* * *
“Eh… He is… very… troubled.”
* * *
Nico smiled. That was the type of news he wanted to hear about his father, Giuseppe Riccardi. Giuseppe deserved all the trouble in the world and Nico was hell bent on bringing it to his doorstep.
* * *
“Does he know I’m back?”
* * *
Domenico shook his head, his long eyelashes fluttered as he spoke, “He suspects. But he does not know.”
* * *
Nico figured the boy’s English would get better with more time in school. He still stumbled over his words and marked himself as decidedly foreign. Nico remembered how lonely of an experience that had been. It had helped get the attention of girls in high school, but besides their fleeting interest, high school had been a lonely place. No child deserved to be bounced around like that. Childhood was supposed to be about stability.
* * *
Nico had known for a long time that bringing a child into the world would be foolish. Especially a child who was brought up in a life like this. There would be no hope of happiness. Nico could never be a father. But now, he had a chance to be a father figure to his significantly younger cousin.
* * *
“I don’t want to put you in danger Domenico.”
* * *
Nico reached into his pocket and he pulled out a gold watch. He wore its twin watch on his own wrist. Domenico stretched out his palm and Nico dropped the watch down. Domenico’s eyes roved over the watch and eventually he found the inscription and whispered it out loud.
* * *
“Yes,” Nico said, “Keep this safe. You might need this at some point.”
* * *
Domenico nodded.
* * *
“My father is a dangerous man Domenico, as you already know.”
* * *
Domenico nodded again.
* * *
Of course he knew. Domenico’s real mother had died in childbirth. One of Nico’s other aunts had adopted him as her son. That was the only mother Domenico had ever known.
* * *
So Domenico hadn’t the faintest choice about the life he’d been born into. His father had been one of Giuseppe’s accountants. After refusing to commit an egregious crime, he’d been murdered. All of this had happened while the boy was young. Giuseppe figured Domenico was too young to understand what had happened.
* * *
With Domenico’s father out of the picture, and Domenico’s (adopted) mother too terrified to react, Giuseppe could do anything he wanted. He plucked the boy from his mother’s grasp, only allowing her to see the child when it suited him. Giuseppe had taken Domenico in, thinking that the boy would simply adjust to life without his father. Giuseppe had planted the seeds of betrayal in nearly every person he surrounded himself with. Nico planned to take advantage of that.
* * *
“Be careful.”
* * *
Nico pulled out a handgun from his back pocket.
* * *
“You know how to use this?”
* * *
Domenico nodded.
* * *
“Now. I can’t give a child my gun Domenico. But if you can find one… Take it. You might need it.”
* * *
Domenico nodded again. Nico could feel the boy’s fear. He was too young to be involved in this — far too young. And he seemed like a good kid too. Nico hadn’t been so good when he was his age. He’d been a rebel. He’d fought anyone who’d crossed him and he caused trouble in school with his twin brother, Luca. Nico had done it to act out, as a cry for help. Luca had done it for the pleasure. Twins, but as different as night and day.
* * *
“Let’s review. In English. What is it I need from you?”
* * *
Domenico took his time, but this time, his English was more confident. He’d need the practice. Nico knew how hard it was to fit in with the students at school when you were so different.
* * *
“Listen to Giuseppe. Report to you. Stay out of trouble. Figure out his movements.”
* * *
“That’s right. Now I’ll need you to go home now so he doesn’t suspect anything.”
* * *
“Yes, cugino.”
* * *
Nico kissed the boy on the cheek and wrapped him in a tight hug afterwards.
* * *
“I know you want a better life Domenico.”
* * *
“Yes.”
* * *
“I want us both to live in a city where we are not afraid. Capisce?”
* * *
Domenico nodded, his mop of brown hair briefly falling into his eyes. Of course he understood. He was more scared than anyone in this room had ever been. And Tommy had a few toes cut off by Giuseppe’s men at one point. But Domenico was just a boy and he deserved to be kept safe.
* * *
The boy picked up his backpack and left the room. The men kept talking until Nico hushed them. He dismissed them for the day and then waited another thirty minutes for every single one of them to leave before he himself walked home. Trust was a tricky thing. And even if Nico trusted each one of the men in that room, he still needed his anonymity. Torture could make even the most loyal man turn into a squealing pig. Nico had seen that with his own two eyes.
* * *
He began to make his way home. As he walked home, Nico observed the students. He observed their mannerisms — all the things he would have to adopt so he wouldn’t stand out. Once he arrived home he locked his doors and alarmed his house. It was quiet here. And lonely. Nico thought about the woman that Giuseppe had separated him from. And how her laugh would have filled the house. How she would have played Mozart on the piano and sang old Italian hymns.
* * *
Nico bent his head as he sat in his lonely quiet living room. His fingers rubbed the contours of the golden crucifix that hung around his neck, and he prayed.
1
Tall, Dark, Handsome
2
Boss
Eve woke up the next morning and she could have sworn that her world was untainted by what had happened the night before. There was nothing wrong with her morning. And it mirrored her other mundane mornings perfectly. Eve got up early, went for a quick jog, and then went to work.
* * *
It was quiet. Just as eerily quiet as all the other mornings since the increase in crime had taken over the neighborhood. Eve knew that she should have been afraid, but
the morning was just too normal for her to walk around the neighborhood watching her back.
* * *
She would have thought she made it all up if it weren’t for the gold watch that sat on the dresser in her bedroom. That gold watch grounded Eve to reality. For a night, her shop hadn’t been her safe space and she’d possibly opened herself up to even more problems.
* * *
There were a few customers around lunch, mostly students and the elderly. After lunch, Daniella messaged to say that she wouldn’t be able to come around in the afternoon. Eve was fine with that. She hadn’t told Daniella about what had happened the night before but she wasn’t eager to have the girl around and put her in danger.
* * *
As Eve swept up her shop and worked on keeping it clean after the lunch rush, her mind wandered to the beautiful but terrifying man who had entered her store the night before. She couldn’t keep the details of his face in her mind. But she remembered his icy blue eyes that had the depth and strength of glaciers. Eve recalled his scent and then his gold crucifix that dangled around his scarred neck.
* * *
Eve couldn’t imagine why she was thinking of him like this — like someone who had walked out of a romantic fantasy — instead of thinking of him as a threat. She had no clue if he would come back. She had no clue if she’d get to see him again or if she’d even want to. The magnetism that pulsated in her chest terrified her. Her skin responded to the thought of him and to the brief fantasy of what it would have been like to touch him. It made no sense to feel drawn to a stranger the way she felt drawn to him.
* * *
Eve wondered if her loneliness was getting to her; she wondered if her loneliness was making her sick and foolish.
* * *
The boy. The gold watch. The man. The gold crucifix. The car that had been watching.
* * *
All these things set in motion a whirlwind of ruminations. Eve didn’t notice the same car from the night before had circled her block three times that day on three separate occasions.
* * *
The afternoon plodded along slowly until the after-school rush. Today, the boys filed into her shop neatly. The girls giggled and filled up bags of candy. Eve noticed that the children were reasonably hushed. It was as if something had happened on the outside world that had imbued them with “good behavior”.
* * *
Fear. Eve knew that parents must have been getting more fearful. She hadn’t turned on her television or listened to the radio, so she had no idea if there had been another shooting, another fire or some other disaster that had infected the behavior of both the adults and children of the neighborhood.
* * *
Today, there were no attempted thefts. Nobody gave Miss Morgan the chance to call their school and report their unruly behavior. Eve missed the frantic enjoyment the young children had once derived from life. She knew that something had changed, even if she didn’t know what. She wondered if it had to do with the boy who had run into her shop. She’d have to wait until her day off to catch up on all the news or she’d have to ask Daniella.
* * *
After the rush, Eve had a relatively busy evening. The teenagers and the young adults were self-soothing. Their meek half-smiles indicated they were trying to share some rare happiness with Eve. Some solidarity. Some pretense that their city would be alright.
* * *
In the late evening, a woman walked into the shop whom Eve recognized as Daniella’s mother.
* * *
“Good evening Eve,” She said.
* * *
“Good evening! Anything I can help you with today?”
* * *
“I’ll take three squares of that caramel fudge you’ve got there.”
* * *
Eve put on her plastic gloves and used the shiny metal spatula to scoop the fudge into the small candy box.
* * *
“How’s Daniella doing?” She asked, as she wrapped each square in wax paper and sealed it with her golden seal.
* * *
“Not too good. I assume you heard about what happened last night?”
* * *
Eve felt a lump in her throat.
* * *
“No… I worked late and I haven’t had a chance to turn listen to my TV or the radio.”
* * *
“Two boys from the high school were murdered and another one was missing.”
* * *
“Really?”
* * *
Eve nodded.
* * *
“The missing one was an Italian exchange student.”
* * *
Eve thought about the name “Luca” she’d seen inscribed on the gold watch. She wanted to ask Daniella’s mother the boy’s name but she also had no desire to reveal what was possibly her connection to the crime.
* * *
Daniella’s mother continued unprompted, “Two of his friends were killed — the missing one’s friends. They were local. Italian families of course, but Americans just like you and me. Gutted. Left for dead in the park.”
* * *
“Jesus Christ.”
* * *
“Indeed. This whole damn city needs Jesus.”
* * *
“And Daniella’s alright?”
* * *
“She’d torn up poor thing.”
* * *
“She didn’t tell me.”
* * *
“I know,” Daniella’s mother sighed, “One of the boys was in her math class.”
* * *
“Tell her I’m sorry.”
* * *
Eve scooped two extra squares of fudge into the box.
* * *
“Thanks dear,” Daniella’s mother took the box from Eve and paid in cash.
* * *
“Stay safe out there,” Eve called.
* * *
“You too dear,” Daniella’s mother replied before walking out the door.
* * *
Eve felt fear again. Real fear. Fear like she’d felt the night before. She thought about the gold watch on her dresser. That watch belonged to the missing boy, she knew it. But she had no idea what on earth to do with that information.
* * *
Sunset came and after sunset, there were no more customers. Eve still couldn’t stop thinking about the man who had entered her store the night before. She couldn’t stop wondering about the gold watch. Or the boy.
* * *
Eve decided to close up shop early. No one else was coming, she could sense it. And even if they were, she wasn’t too keen on walking home so late at night again. It was better to just play it safe and head home early. Eve finished her accounting, cleaned the store and then locked up. When she walked outside, she was so lost in thought that she didn’t notice the black SUV trailing her at a snail’s pace.
* * *
Eve didn’t get very far before she felt like she was being stalked. Like prey.
* * *
She turned around, but it was too late. Two men grabbed onto Eve’s arms on either side. Before she could scream a large hand clamped down over her mouth. She struggled. Her feet came off the ground. Eve convulsed like a rabbit in a trap. They brought her to the big black SUV and shoved her inside. The door locked as soon as it closed.
* * *
The two men got into the front seats and Eve was left in the backseat with a terrifying man with icy blue eyes. But he wasn’t a thing like the man she’d met in her store.
* * *
He stuck out his grubby hand. Each fat finger wore a thick gold ring.
Mad Mafia Love Page 3