by Wayne Block
“I had two low lifes from town hired for the boat,” Pablo answered. “They can do your grunt work and will not be missed.”
“Excellent choice for tomorrow’s flotsam. Now I will see what Steven Capresi is truly made of.”
“How do I know you won’t add me to the debris, intentionally or by accident?”
Pablo’s goblet suddenly exploded an inch from his right hand. “My dear Pablo. If I wanted you dead, your blood would be where the wine has just now spilled.”
Pablo viewed the water and marveled at a shot that could only have originated from a boat hidden in the darkness, on the choppy waves.
“I see that you are still the master,” Pablo said.
“Not quite,” the Scorpion laughed. “I was aiming for the goblet’s stem.” He abruptly hung up.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
At thirty thousand feet, Nick was feeling guilty about leaving Giovanna, but it wasn’t a battle worth waging against his uncle. The plane had been delayed at the gate for a few hours after boarding, and Nick had fallen into a deep sleep. He was awoken by Pete, who was lightly shaking him. “What the hell?” Nick muttered.
Pete whispered in his ear. “Boss, we got a situation. You’re going to want to see this.”
Nick looked puzzled. “This better be good.”
Pete jerked his head toward the back of the plane. “Oh, it’s good! Trust me.”
Nick followed Pete, who stopped abruptly as he reached the middle of the cabin and pointed toward the center seat. Eddie was standing at the end of the row. Nick froze the second he saw her. Giovanna was sitting right next to Braulio. She looked at him with a guilty expression and shrugged her shoulders. Pete grinned as Nick slid in beside her. He motioned for Braulio and Eddie to return to their seats.
Nick sat next to her and gently took her hands in his. She looked into his eyes, which showed no trace of anger.
He smiled. “Let me guess. You took down the flight information while you were giving me a massage.”
Giovanna nodded.
Nick kissed her delicately on her cheek. “Alberto is going to be pissed. But you’re here now and there’s nothing we can do about it. We may as well enjoy.”
Nick stood up and gathered a few pillows and blankets. He made a makeshift bed for her. Giovanna stretched out and fell asleep within minutes.
“I’ll keep an eye on her, boss,” Pete said as he sat on the aisle seat next to Giovanna.
Nick nodded. “I’m going to walk around. I need time to think.”
Nick walked upstairs and ordered a Bloody Mary. He sat down at a satellite telephone station and swiped his credit card through the phone. The phone rang twice.
“Hello,” a voice answered.
“It’s Nick,” he said softly.
“Where are you?”
“Flying to Rio.”
“Are you out of your fucking mind?”
“Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to Georgio, you punk!” Nick screamed.
There was an awkward silence at the other end. “I’m sorry. I’ve been under a lot of pressure.”
“Your personal problems don’t concern me! Capiche?”
“Capito. But why are you coming to Rio?”
“The Brazilians tried to kill me last night.”
“That’s impossible!” Giorgio protested. “They would never order a hit on anyone in your organization!”
“Listen, you fuck, they killed one of my best men! It was in retaliation for Jackie Cairo.”
“Why would anyone care about that piece of shit?”
“I don’t know and it doesn’t matter.”
“What do you need me to do?”
Nick glanced around the lounge to ensure he was still alone. “I need to distance myself from this mess. My uncle is getting suspicious, and I need time to sort things out. I want to know exactly who knows about JTS’s connection with Gia’s Imports.”
“That’s easy. Joey, Sal, Tony, and Jackie Cairo are dead, which leaves you, me, and the Brazilians.”
“Anyone else?” Nick asked.
“Just the maritime guys who pack the containers and do the shipping, and of course the local officials whose palms we greased.”
“I’m not worried about them. As far as they’re concerned, it’s business as usual. I want you to get our Brazilians together at a discrete location, so that we can wipe them out.”
There was no response from Giorgio.
“Don’t worry, Giorgio, you’ll be paid handsomely. In fact, after getting rid of these guys, you’ll get half the profits as my partner.”
“I’m not sure I want to double-cross them. Besides, what about the Columbians?”
“The Columbians have already agreed. We can find other Brazilian punks to replace these guys in a heartbeat.”
“I’m not comfortable,” Giorgio said.
“We kill them together or I kill you and then get rid of them. You choose!”
“I don’t understand what you’re doing Nick. Why would you want to kill them?”
“Are you fucking stupid? They tried to kill me! Me! You asshole!” Nick shouted. Giorgio didn’t need to know that there would be no future Brazilian middlemen. Once they were eliminated, their positions would be filled by Nick’s soldiers. Nick changed his tone. “One last thing. You never told me you had a cousin named Giovanna.”
“Giovanna? What are you talking about?”
“She’s been in New York searching for the people who killed her family. I’m sure you didn’t see that one coming, did you?” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Giovanna is in New York? With you?”
“She had a brother named Roberto Milani, but you already know that.” Nick could feel Giorgio starting to sweat.
“Honest Nick, I had no idea. I never gave her the name of anyone in New York. She must have spoken with our uncles.”
“Are you telling me you had absolutely no idea she was coming to New York?”
“Nick, I swear!”
Nick wanted to torture Giorgio just a little bit more. “So this means that Roberto was actually your cousin.”
Giorgio’s hands were sweating. “Yes.”
“That’s very interesting. It’s not going to make Giovanna happy to discover you killed her family.”
“I didn’t kill anyone! I had no idea that her parents were going to be killed.”
Nick laughed. “But you sure knew her brother was getting whacked.”
“I didn’t have a choice. The Brazilians would have killed me if I didn’t play along. They gave me an ultimatum. You know that!”
“I know and I understand. But I don’t think Giovanna will be as understanding. Giovanna was with me at the restaurant when these animals opened fire. They were trying to kill her too. That’s what Jackie Cairo told us.”
Giorgio was shaking. He hadn’t thought of Giovanna and the mere mention of her name caused his heart to quicken. “Is she okay?” he asked apprehensively.
“She’s with me on the plane. I’m going to protect her. I want to help her avenge the murders.”
Giorgio exploded. “Avenge their murders? You signed their death warrants!”
“Screw you, Giorgio! I didn’t kill anyone. Don’t forget, you’re in this as deep as I am. You were his family!”
“I didn’t kill them!” Giorgio barked. “I just provided information!”
“Sure you did,” Nick sneered. “And I’m a saint!”
“Giovanna can never see us together,” Giorgio said. “But why are you doing this for her? Is there something in it for you, or are you going to tell me you care for her?” he asked, hoping Nick was doing it for money.
“Not that it’s any of your business Giorgio, but yes, I do care for her,” Nick admitted, having no idea that Giorgio loved her. “I want to marry her and live in San Remo. You can be my best man! By that time we’ll have buried the past and we can all be the best of friends.”
Giorgio felt nauseated. He tighten
ed his grip on a pillow on his couch as his mental image of Manzione’s hands on Giovanna replaced itself with a visual of Manzione’s neck in his hands. He curbed his revulsion so his voice did not betray his thoughts. “So this will put a neat ribbon around everything. You are the hero who walks into the sunset with the girl. You’ll even give your bride-to-be the perfect engagement gift–her family’s killers delivered in coffins instead of a gift box!”
Nick laughed. “You should write movie scripts!”
“Let me get things in place here. When are you arriving?”
Nick looked at his watch. “In a few hours.”
“We’ll have to set the meeting for tomorrow.”
“Do whatever you need to do. I’ll call you later.”
Nick finished his drink and sat back. Perhaps things may work out after all, he thought. He imagined himself strolling along the beach in San Remo with Giovanna. With renewed confidence, he reinserted his credit card to make his dreaded next call. A man answered.
“Jimmy, it’s Nick. Is Alberto there?”
There was a long pause on the other end. Nick felt like a schoolboy waiting to be chastised by the principal. He knew Alberto would be angry.
Alberto answered the telephone. “Nick, tell me she’s with you!”
“Yes, Uncle.”
Alberto breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank God. I was afraid something happened to her.”
“She was standing behind me while I was booking the tickets.”
“And you knew nothing about it?” Alberto asked, sensing Nick’s trepidation.
“No, Uncle.”
Alberto chuckled. “Nick, you are going to have your hands full with her. She’s not only beautiful; she’s also shrewd and manipulative. She’s your responsibility now, but be on your guard. Don’t get confused about your feelings for her. She’s got an ulterior motive in finding her family’s killers, and she may be using you. If she orchestrated this plan against our wishes, she will stop at nothing to find these people, regardless of your best interest. Take care. I love you.”
“I love you, too.” Nick sighed with relief. He hadn’t expected Alberto to be so impressed with Giovanna’s resourcefulness. This was indeed shaping up to be a great day.
Giorgio was trembling and felt violently ill. Nick wanted him to betray his Brazilian associates so Nick could kill them, steal the business, marry his woman, and live happily ever after! The Brazilians were contacts that he met when he had left San Remo after Gia had scorned him. Over his dead body! What if Giovanna discovered that he had known about the decision to kill her brother and he had done nothing to stop it? He never imagined that these people would kill her parents. With Roberto, the Brazilians had given Giorgio an ultimatum; gold or cement shoes! Unbeknownst to Roberto, the Brazilians had been paying Giorgio. He could never have predicted that he would become Judas. He agonized over the decision, but in the end opted to save himself. It was easy to rationalize that Roberto’s plight was his own fault. If Roberto hadn’t interfered, Giovanna would have been his wife. Since it was during his self-imposed exile that he met the Brazilians and became involved with JTS, all of these problems originated when Roberto forced Giovanna to leave him.
Giorgio thought about Giovanna in Nick’s arms. Even worse, he thought about them in bed together. No. He would not allow that to happen! If Nick was dead, Giovanna would never know about his involvement. He also knew the Brazilians would richly reward him for his loyalty. He would tell them Nick’s plan. He dialed a number.
“Yeah,” a gruff voice answered.
“Renaldo, it’s Giorgio.”
“Whaddaya want?”
Giorgio bristled. Renaldo was a psychopath, made more rabid by his drug addiction.
“I just heard from Nick Manzione.”
“So!” Renaldo barked.
“He’ll be in Rio in a few hours to kill you!” Giorgio hoped the gravity of his words would sink in despite Renaldo’s apparent stupor. “He thinks you ordered a hit on him last night.”
“What? Is he stupid?” Renaldo shouted. “He’s my goddamn partner! Why the hell would I want to kill him! What the fuck is he up to?”
“Maybe he thinks you were getting him back for Jackie Cairo,” Giorgio said.
“Jackie Cairo?” Renaldo barked. “Why would I give a shit about somebody killing that worthless scum? I was going to kill him myself when I had the chance. Nick saved me the trouble and I wanted to thank him! You think I’d go to war over that sack of shit?” Renaldo coughed wretchedly into the phone. “That stupid dago!”
“He wants me to set you guys up,” Giorgio added.
“And did you?” Renaldo asked.
“Of course not! That’s why I’m calling you.”
“Giorgio, if I thought you were double-crossing me, I would slowly cut your body up, piece by piece, in front of a large mirror so that you could watch yourself disappear!”
Giorgio swallowed hard as he listened to Renaldo laughing hysterically, amused by his own sadistic fantasy. “Let’s welcome Nick and his boys. We’ll have a ‘Carnival for them.”
“Renaldo. He’s with a girl named Giovanna. I don’t want her harmed. She’s mine, okay?”
Renaldo abruptly stopped laughing. “You don’t make demands, Giorgio!” Then he paused and considered Giorgio’s request. “But if you like this girl, I’ll leave her for you.”
Renaldo hung up, leaving Giorgio to second-guess whether he had made the right decision.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
The ‘Dolphin Princess’ was a fully restored, forty-foot dive boat painted white with different hues of greens and blues. The rear half was open and outfitted exclusively for diving. The front was covered by a second-floor deck and a “tuna-tower,” where the captain could climb a staircase and have an elevated view of the water. The Dolphin Princess slowed as it neared the dive site. Miguel and Rafael helped the captain tie off to a giant buoy, securely connected to a massive underwater rope fastened to the ocean floor. Two other men stood on the tower with rifles.
Pablo pointed to the two men on the upper deck. “Those two will not be diving with us. They’re here for protection.”
Steven looked up at the men. “Protection from what?” Steven asked.
“Renegade waitresses serving really bad piña coladas,” Pablo joked.
Captain Mike hopped down to the deck. He was an ex-pat from Tampa with sandy blond hair and a neatly trimmed beard. The captain was lean and muscular, with well-tanned skin. “Get that wet suit on, Steven,” Mike ordered.
After a few minutes, Steven managed to pull and prod the wetsuit up to his waist. He looked at Pablo with a pained expression. “This is killing me. I think my balls are going to explode!”
Pablo and his bodyguards were amused. “Then it’s a perfect fit,” Pablo exclaimed.
“Gentlemen, it’s time to review the dive plan,” Mike said.
Pablo pointed at Steven. “Listen carefully my friend.”
Captain Mike addressed only Steven. “We are now above a 220 foot freighter at a depth of one hundred feet. We’re going to jump off the stern, wait for each other, and then submerge as a group. Miguel and Rafael will go first. Pablo will be your dive buddy, and I’ll bring up the rear as we follow the buoy rope down to the ocean floor.”
Steven nodded as butterflies swirled in the pit of his stomach.
“It’s a simple dive. We’ll spend ten minutes acclimating at one hundred feet and then we’ll begin our ascent. When we reach thirty feet, we’ll swim for a while before surfacing. We must remove excess nitrogen in the bloodstream to prevent the bends.”
“Mike, this is too much information to absorb,” Steven said.
Mike smiled. “Don’t worry; just follow our lead and do as we do. You’re diving with four master divers with dive computers. You’re perfectly safe.”
“Okay,” Steven said, feigning a smile. Why the hell were they making him dive? He didn’t know anything about these people. They could easily drown hi
m and leave him tied underneath the tanker.
Pablo sensed Steven’s trepidation. “If you’re thinking this would be a wonderful place to commit the perfect crime, don’t worry. If we wanted to kill you, there are much easier ways of doing so. Besides, why contaminate this pristine reef with the decaying corpse of a white-assed gringo?”
Captain Mike and the husky brothers practically fell down laughing.
Steven was embarrassed. “Thank you Pablo, that’s quite comforting.”
Pablo helped Steven pull his wetsuit over his arms and chest, and then zipped it up from the back.
“How does that feel?”
“Like a straightjacket,” Steven protested. Steven watched intently as Pablo’s bodyguards took a huge stride off the dive platform into the water. After going under, they resurfaced immediately and floated effortlessly.
Steven watched Captain Mike carry two loaded spear guns to the diving platform and carefully hand them to Rafael. Then he walked to the front of the boat and returned with two more.
Steven looked questioningly at Pablo. “Are these also for the waitresses?”
Pablo smiled. “One can never be too careful. It’s not only the waitresses that worry me.”
Steven’s heart beat faster as he looked up to see Pablo’s guards loading ammunition into their high-powered rifles.
Pablo put a hand on Steven’s shoulder. “It’s just a precaution.”
“Lemme check that BC,” Captain Mike said as he secured the buoyancy compensator vest on Steven’s body, showing Steven how to inflate and deflate the vest as needed to help maintain his buoyancy underwater. He checked Steven’s weights and strapped Steven’s mask around his head as Pablo strapped a sheathed knife around Steven’s ankle.
“What’s the knife for?” Steven asked.
“I always take a sharp knife in case I get tangled and have to cut something fast. Follow me and do exactly what I do. Take a giant stride with your right foot and kick off the dive platform with your left.”
Steven waddled to the platform and watched Pablo leap into the water. Steven then tiptoed to the edge, placed the regulator in his mouth, and took a few breaths. He felt the tightness of his inflated BC against his body and the mask against his face. His left foot unwittingly followed his right foot off the platform and he hit the water doing a full split. The cold water filled his wetsuit, sending a shiver down his spine. He took his first breath, making sure to keep the regulator in his mouth. A little too eager, he bit down hard on the mouthpiece and his jaw muscles cramped. Steven surfaced in time to see Mike jump into the water.