by AA Lee
“Do you have what I asked for?” Angelo asked and held out his hand.
“Yes.” Rafa pulled a small black box from his coat and handed it to him.
Angelo nodded, taking a deep breath while he carefully opened the box and examined the stunning diamond ring he had purchased the other day. “I need you to call Harrison. Have everything we discussed the other day ready by seven. We’ll start making plans to take the Gregorio ranks after Ella and I am married.”
Angelo saw how Ella’s eyes widened with the reflection of the ring as he turned it in the light. Rafa remained silent for a few seconds, processing the added marriage to the plans. “You know that gives you twenty minutes.”
“It has to happen now.” Angelo replaced the ring in the box and handed it back to Rafa.
“Okay, if that’s what you want. It’s done.”
As soon as Rafa left, Ella held out her hand in question while Angelo walked to her, dropping the contract on the table as he approached. He stood in front of her and took both of her hands in his, thinking about how the death of Gregorio put her at more risk from before. Gregorio’s ranks would have no leader and Ella would have no group protection until they wed.
“Ella.” He paused, deciding against telling her about the death of her father, at least who they all thought was her father. He was still processing the information himself. “I signed your father’s contract,” he told her instead. “And there is no one leading his ranks right now. Who knows how many of them are working for Bonadio, so I need to put you under my group’s protection now. I can’t do that until we’re married, and I also can’t lead his ranks. It’s complicated and a dangerous situation for you, me, and everyone involved.”
“Just like that,” she mumbled. “Because of my father, we get no wedding either.”
Angelo gently grabbed her waist, making her look at him with her teary blue eyes. “Listen, I can’t help that you were born a boss’s daughter. I would have given you more time, but there is no time. If I don’t marry you tonight and I’m called out to handle shit, you will be by yourself. I promise that Bonadio will come for you while I’m away, and you need my group’s protection if I’m gone. This is about as serious as it gets.”
“I want to marry you,” she said, glancing sideways in agitated thought. “It’s not that at all.”
Angelo knew her mood had to do more with Gregorio than anything else. He had controlled every aspect of her life without telling her why, and given the reason her mother had died made her resentment that much worse.
“You know what, Ella?” His hand slid around her cheek in an affectionate gesture to sway her mind from her thoughts. “Do you know why I introduced you to my father when we went on that tour back on Key Biscayne?”
“No,” she mumbled, her cheek leaned instinctively to his hand.
“Because I would be thirty in another year, and I wanted you when I first saw you sitting with Lila. I wanted to marry you. I wanted you in my life and I wanted you to become the mother of my children. I fell in love with you the second I met you.”
To this, she looked up at him, taken by surprise with his confession. “Why me?”
Angelo almost smiled, shaking his head when he continued. “You were sweet. It bothered me that my father didn’t approve of me marrying you, but it didn’t change what I wanted.”
“You have as many rules to follow as I do,” she said, but Angelo did not like the uncertainty in her voice. She was breaking down.
“Ella, I can give you a nice home. I can give you a family. I can protect you.” He paused. “It could be a lot worse.”
The two stared at each other in silent thought when a loud knock came at the door and Rafa walked inside. He briefly looked at them both before crossing his arms, irritated with the tardiness. “You said seven, and I arranged everything like you said. Why aren’t you downstairs yet?”
With a shake of his head, Angelo pointed at him. “You didn’t have to come get me. It’s not like you couldn’t figure out I needed time. Give Harrison more money, and don’t let him leave.”
Angelo was growing more frustrated with the matter, becoming short-tempered with every minute that passed. He looked at Ella, who shivered as Rafa shut the door. If she would quit thinking and quietly go along with whatever he said, he would make up for the hurt she had been caused later.
“Ella, after we talk to Harrison, I will bring you home and we can sort everything out. Right now, we have to get married. We don’t have a choice on the matter.”
Angelo wrapped his hands around her cheeks. He looked at her beautiful blue eyes and pouty lips that he adored. “I love you. Please do this for me and don’t cause me grief. It’s been a long couple of days for me, too. It has not been easy for me either, I promise.” He walked to the closet and grabbed a clean suit. “I will be out in just a couple of minutes. If you want to wear that, it’s fine with me. You don’t have to change.”
Five minutes later, Angelo stepped out of the shower and wrapped the towel around his waist. He could barely stand to look at himself in the mirror, a sick feeling creeping in his stomach. He wanted to marry her so that was not the source of his nausea. It was seeing Gregorio’s body lying on the sofa and trying to create an illusion of happiness for his vows when he could not stand his own reflection. It was not always easy being him.
He closed his eyes and sighed before walking from the restroom to put on his suit. When he stepped through the doorway, Angelo noticed that Ella was not there. There was only a small dip on the bed where she sat. She must have been on the balcony again.
Not seeing her right away, Angelo moved closer to the balcony to make sure he did not miss her standing to the side. He moved the curtains out of the way and stared at the latch at the top, completely undisturbed. His breathing deepened as he gazed around the room with disbelief. He felt that anxious feeling in his chest as if something bad was about to happen. Not knowing where she went was worse than having a loaded pistol pointed at his head. The unknown was unbearable.
“Fuck!” he yelled. Rage and panic soared throughout his body as he snarled, launching everything off the bedside table and shattering the lamp against the floor. “Son of a bitch!” He jerked out his phone and pressed a button. He had to find out where she was. “Where are you?” His voice was low and animalistic as he spoke to the other end of the line. He hoped by some chance that Ella was with Rafa, but he also knew there was no way that Ella would go to him.
“What do you mean? I’m here with Harrison, where you should be right now. It’s already half past seven.”
“To hell with Harrison! She’s gone. Ella’s gone, and I need to find her now. Gather everyone you can to help. I will take care of this little matter myself once we get her back.”
Angelo hung up and started to pitch his phone at the wall when he thought better. Then he glared at the empty room and dialed a number on his phone that he had never called before…Sullivan’s.
CHAPTER 44
Ella marched out of the elevator before the doors fully opened, a sheet of paper tightly crunched in her hand. As soon as she saw the words, her anger at her father escalated with every recollection on her life she made. But now he went too far. He expected Angelo to clear his name of murder in the next thirty days. If Angelo did not succeed, Ella would be handed to Bonadio and the ranks stripped from Angelo’s lead. Ella would have never let Angelo agree to such nonsense if she had known it included more than her father’s ranks and her hand in marriage. Why did Angelo consider something that would be nearly impossible to achieve?
Repeating what she would say to her father, Ella passed the shops and approached the corner as she had two days earlier. He was going to hear what she had to say. She would not let this slide. Keeping her in the dark her entire life was hard enough. Hearing the news of her mother nearly broke her, but threatening her and Angelo was the last straw.
Ella’s steps quickened, her anger coming to a head. She did not think anymore. Thinking woul
d take away her nerve, and this time, she needed to be bold to confront her father. Mere feet distanced her from her father’s door when she abruptly stopped, a man covered from head to toe in black standing in her way.
His blue eyes stared at her, matching her surprise at seeing him. A few doors ahead, she saw two other men covered in black, one backing a large cart with what looked like a body bag on top. Ella felt it in her gut, instantly knowing her father was in the bag. Her hands covered her mouth as chills stood on her skin, fear of the situation struck her chest. She panicked and started to run.
“Hey!” the man yelled out and began chasing her back down the hallway. She did not wait or turn around, coming back to the elevators where she started. The light on the top showed the elevator was nowhere near the floor she was on, leaving her to rush to the stairs.
Ella flung open the door, skipping steps to get to the lobby floor that was one floor up. With another panicked breath, she exited into the room full of people, the people having no idea what lurked underneath them. Ella could barely catch her breath as a few hotel guests gave her aggravated glares when she cut in front of them at the counter.
“I need to use your phone,” she gasped. Ella quickly dialed when a man immediately answered on the other end.
“Yes?” he spoke cautiously and waited for her to speak.
“Mr. Sullivan,” Ella replied.
“Ella?”
“I need you to come get me in front of the hotel right now! How soon can you get here?”
“Two minutes tops.”
Ella handed the phone back to the attendant and walked brusquely out of the lobby to the front stairs. Sullivan was true to his word and pulled up with a screech, opening the door for her and then peeling away. Sullivan picked her up in two minutes flat just as he said and glanced at Ella in the back seat. She knew he was not going far without answers. He did not want anyone lecturing him for taking her somewhere and stopped in a parking lot several blocks away.
“What’s going on, Ella? Where’s Tomassi?” he asked.
“I went to talk to my father and they chased me. They killed him!” she exclaimed. “My father is dead.” Her voice quivered as she turned to the window, closing her eyes to rid the memory of the cart.
“Ella,” Sullivan started. “You shouldn’t have tried to go talk to your father.”
“But I saw the contract. I saw what he wanted Angelo to sign.”
Sullivan shook his head back and forth, letting out a breath through his teeth. “That’s right. And there was a reason it wasn’t signed. Did you think about that?”
Ella inhaled and thought about the single sheet with only her father’s name scribbled at the bottom. Angelo had not signed it yet but what did that mean? “I don’t understand,” she said, her eyes narrowing at the seat in front of her as she waited for his reply.
“Tomassi refused to sign it and your father ordered me to kill him. The rest you can figure out.”
Ella covered her face at the thought of losing Angelo, at the thought of how her father would have taken him away from her too. “Why?” she muttered. “Just why?”
As Sullivan started to reach his hand back to her, his phone rang from the passenger’s seat. He looked at the phone and then at Ella through the rearview mirror. “Yes?” he answered. All she could hear was Angelo’s irate voice, the callousness of his tone intensifying her anxiety of what she had seen. “I’m in the parking lot off the corner of Sixth and Main. Yes, I understand.”
He hung up the phone, shifting from neutral to first gear. “Tomassi’s waiting for us at the hotel’s entrance,” he said and turned around to look at her, wiping the tear that slipped down her cheek. “It will get better, but you are going to have to—” he started to assure when a gun tapped on his window, taking his attention from her and immediately to the front.
She looked up at the same time that Sullivan did, seeing a man point a gun straight at him. Then tires screeched to the passenger side of the car and stopped, blocking Sullivan and Ella’s escape from the other side.
“Ella,” said Sullivan. “When I say go, jump out. Got it?”
She did not respond but understood what he said. His mock drills became a sudden reality as he grabbed the handle of his door, ramming it into the man on the outside without notice. At once, both he and Ella jumped out, Sullivan retrieving his gun and shooting the man in an instant. He grabbed her hand, running to an alley off the street as three men dressed in black jumped out of the silver Porsche that parked beside Sullivan’s car.
Ella watched them come closer. Two of them pointed guns at Sullivan; another pointed one at her. Her body involuntarily stiffened. She felt the full force of the danger that Angelo had warned her about. It happened so fast. She did not have the strength in her to face it, yet there was no choice. They were under attack.
“Stay down, Ella,” Sullivan told her. Ella slouched at his feet as he stood and pulled out another gun. He pointed them both. She knew that he used both hands interchangeably. Sullivan would not miss. “You have no idea who you’re dealing with,” he said. “This will be your only chance to leave with your lives. Heed the warning.”
“We don’t want anything to do with you. Just give her to us, and we will leave you alone.”
One of the men shot at Sullivan, but he was not quick enough to avoid the shots that Sullivan fired back. Two men fell and then the third. Sullivan was a master with a gun.
Another shot fired. Ella did not know from which way it came, but it did not come from the car. Sullivan immediately fell over her body to keep her from harm as the bullet missed his head and lodged in his shoulder. Blood started to ooze through the fabric of his coat. His shoulder jerked with the pain, but he ignored the injury and fired again. A man from the opposite end of the alley fell to the ground. His agonizing moan lasted for a moment and then everything went silent again.
“You know you’re going to die,” came an unfamiliar, chilling voice of a man.
Out of nowhere, two more men appeared on the sidewalk. How many people were going to attack them tonight? She did not have time to register everything before hearing a slight thud. She looked up at Sullivan as his gun crashed to the ground. There was a slit on his sleeve where blood started to drip.
“Leave him alone!” Ella shouted and picked up the gun that he had dropped. They were going to kill him. She could not let that happen. He would not have been here tonight if it had not been for her.
“I will never let her go,” Sullivan said and stood up in front of her, blocking her with his chest.
What was he doing? No, he could not do that. She was not letting him die for her.
She fired the gun herself. One man collapsed to the ground and then the other. Ella never missed a shot. Sullivan taught her everything he knew. She exhaled. She thought there were no more men to attack when she heard the cracking of boots against the ground. This time, she and Sullivan were outnumbered. There were too many to shoot with the bullets left in their guns. Sullivan had no choice but to give her up.
Then more vehicles halted to a stop—two black Escalades and a Mercedes. Ella thought it was over for them both. Every word that Angelo had spoken to her an hour earlier came back to haunt her. If she thought her life was doomed before, now she knew what doom actually was.
Her eyes closed and then opened again to face her fate head-on. She could not believe it, though. Angelo, Rafa, Brett, and other members jumped out of the vehicles. Bullets flew through the air. The men started to fall one after the other in a terrifying scene she had never expected to see. The death of so many stunned her eyes until she could no longer comprehend what she saw.
Angelo’s narrowed eyes would have frightened the toughest man. She had never seen him look so full of rage. He was too calm and composed—alarming. His mere presence made the last man standing to hesitate for a moment. His gun wavered; his expression reflected fear. However, that did not stop him. He stepped closer and pointed his gun at Ella instead.
/> “Get away from her,” Angelo said and raised his gun again. The adrenaline flowing through his veins made him a menacing nightmare to deal with. That was what she thought. He looked in no mood to deal with Bonadio pawns. He fired. All she saw was the reflection of a gun from the side of the alleyway when he shot. The reflection disappeared with the thud to the ground but one man still held a gun to her head. Sullivan blocked her behind him the best that he could, but the man still had a clear shot.
“I wouldn’t if you value your life,” Angelo said and crossed his arms with his pistol still in one hand. She knew he would fire at the man as soon as he gained the man’s attention from her. The man was going to die and wish that Angelo never came.
“You should have never pointed that gun at her head. I will break every one of your bones. And when I’m done, I will break your neck.”
Angelo’s words infused dread in her. Surely, it did to the man. He flinched. In a desperate attempt for his life, he lunged at her. She felt his constricting arm around her neck as he jabbed the muzzle of the gun to her throat. “Drop your guns or I will shoot her. I don’t care how important she is. She will die if you don’t drop your guns.”
Angelo’s teeth clenched as he glanced at Rafa, nodding at him. His members lowered their guns to the ground too. After they did, the man slowly stepped back with Ella still in his grasp. She could see the running vehicle that he hoped to reach.
Two steps were all the man took. As soon as he eased his gun away from her throat, Sullivan knocked him with the butt of his. The man stumbled. He raised his gun again but aimed in no particular direction. Blood trickled from his forehead. Sullivan must have impaired his vision.
Then Ella felt her body fly to the opposite direction. She could not believe the strength in Sullivan’s arm despite his other being shot twice. She thought she would hit the rocky ground underneath, but Angelo caught her by the waist before she hit. He shoved her to Rafa, who dragged her to the Escalade. She felt like a ragdoll that had just changed children’s hands. In a split second’s time, he opened the door and pushed her in. She could still hear their muffled voices on the outside.