by Alexa Land
“Thank you, ma’am.” Andreo looked at the floor.
“Now look. You and your brother and my boys, you need to sit your asses down and figure out how to solve this situation with Jerry. If his mother was still alive, she’d put him over her knee for what he’s doing! But his father wants no part of this situation.” She clicked her tongue and rolled her eyes. “I tried to raise good boys, I really did. Maybe they had too much of my rotten ex-husband’s influence, I don’t know. But at least I got a do-over with my grandsons. I think I did alright by them.”
“Yes ma’am.”
Nana said, “I’ll leave you to it. My friends and me will be downstairs, I’m going to show them how to make this drink I invented called the Flaming Titanic. Make sure all of you join us when you finish here.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said again. He seemed relieved when Nana and her entourage left the room. I loved the fact that the alt rockers, made up bodyguards, little old ladies, Jessie, Ollie, and the two middle-aged gay men were all chatting and laughing like they were all one big tribe.
Dante, Vincent, Andreo and I pulled chairs over to where Luca was still tucked in on the couch. The long flight to San Francisco seemed to have taken its toll on him. I handed him a bottle of water, and he sipped it slowly. Meanwhile, Andreo put a briefcase on his knees and said, “I may have come up with a solution to the Jerry problem. I already set some wheels in motion, so I hope you’re all okay with it.”
He opened the briefcase and pulled out a thick file. “The Natori family has an extensive network. There are people we’ve been working with for generations, your family used to be among them. I know you’ve mostly gone legit, but my family hasn’t. I’m not all that involved in the illegal end of things, but I know plenty of people who are, in all kinds of capacities. Over these last few days, I went to some of them and started to build a story. I have friends who excel at photo manipulation, and I had them doctor up a few images for me.” Andreo took out a stack of very authentic-looking black and white images that could have been surveillance photos and passed them around. Jerry was the subject of each of the pictures.
“I have another contact at one of the major airlines,” he said. “It was easy enough to call in a favor and forge travel documents and airline tickets showing your cousin in the vicinity of a couple very high-profile crimes. Those photos pin him to the exact locations. I was able to hack the calendar on Jerry’s phone and chose events that coincided with holes in his schedule, so he’s less likely to have an alibi.”
“Well, damn,” Luca murmured.
Andreo continued, “Since the Natoris were actually responsible for those crimes, I was able to get my hands on some of the stolen contraband. A couple colleagues are planting it in Jerry’s office as we speak, while he’s at some gala fundraiser. I even paid off a dozen witnesses who’ll swear he was at the scene of these crimes.”
His brother raised an eyebrow at him. “And you run an antique export business.”
Andreo shrugged. “Among other things.” He turned to Dante and said, “The goal here is to get Jerry out of the picture and you back in control of your family. Now, the way I see it, there are three ways we can go about that. One, we turn him over to the police and let him cool his jets for ten-to-fifteen. Two, we turn him over to a notorious third party who the Natoris just might have ripped off, and make them think he’s guilty. That’s more of a, shall we say, permanent solution, but one where none of us actually have to get our hands dirty. Three, we present him with all the information I just told you about and let him decide between choice one, choice two, or stepping down quietly and calling off the hit against my brother and me.”
“I can’t imagine him stepping down quietly,” Dante said.
“But it does beat the alternatives,” Vincent chimed in.
Dante thought about it for a moment, then leaned forward in his chair and told Andreo, “Show me everything. I need to know Jerry can’t slip this noose. The evidence you’ve constructed needs to be bulletproof if we expect to blackmail him.”
Andreo handed him the file and said, “There’s one more thing. Your cousin has a lot of resources at his disposal. I know a guy who’s awfully good at moving money around, and Jerry won’t even have enough for a cup of coffee when this guy finishes the job tonight. Your family fortune is more problematic. You have it stashed in offshore accounts, stuff my people can’t possibly hack into. To cut Jerry down at the knees, we need to deny him access to that money. Please tell me you didn’t relinquish all control of those funds when you retired, Dante.”
“No, I kept control of the accounts and just added him as a secondary so I could keep an eye on how he was investing our money. I’m going to remove him from the family accounts right now. He’ll go straight for that money when he realizes his is gone.” Dante found a number in his phone, then got up and paced near the windows as he made a call.
While he did that, I moved over and sat beside Luca on the couch, and he put his head on my chest. “How are you holding up?” I asked him.
“I’m alright. I just need this to be over and done with, and I wish I’d done something to solve it. Instead, my big brother took care of everything like I’m a kid with a playground bully.” The corner of Luca’s lips turned up in a half-smile and he said, “Andreo actually did that for me once, when I was going to boarding school in England and he came for a visit. I was a scrawny kid, a late bloomer. Well, you know that, Nicky, you remember. Andreo came to my school and put the fear of God into a couple huge kids who’d been tormenting the hell out of me for the better part of a year. Did I ever thank you for that, Andreo?”
His brother said, “No, but I didn’t do it for the thanks. And what do you mean, Nico would remember you as a kid?”
“We met in Viladembursa when I was sixteen and he was fourteen. He was my first kiss,” Luca told him.
“You’re shitting me. Nicolo Dombruso was your boy by the fountain?” Andreo looked stunned.
“He was.”
“That’s incredible,” Vincent said. “We heard about this boy for years from Nico. And now you’re telling me you actually found each other again? How?”
“Luck, or the universe, or fate put us in the same place at the same time, and we were drawn right back together.” I kissed Luca gently.
“You don’t actually believe in any of that,” Dante said. He’d just ended his call and was standing beside the couch.
“When Luca returned to my life, the boy I’d thought about for years, the one person I could never forget, I tried at first to write it off as a wild coincidence, but I just couldn’t,” I said. I brushed his hair from his eyes as I held my boyfriend’s gaze and told him, “You took all I believe and turned it on end when you came back into my life. You made me believe in magic. You also made me open myself up to love again. That right there is an absolute miracle! I’d built such thick walls around myself. All I could think about was the need to protect myself from any more hurt. But you knocked down my defenses like a sandcastle, and made me glad to be rid of them, Luca.”
“God I love you,” he said softly.
“I love you, too. More than anything.”
I’d completely forgotten we had an audience, until Dante said, “Who are you, and what have you done with my quiet, reserved, totally unsentimental cousin?”
I asked, “Was I unsentimental?”
“Pretty much.”
“Well, that’s no way to be. It’s a damn good thing mio miracolo reappeared when he did and saved me from that.”
“Oh man, and you’re sappy now, too,” Dante said.
I raised an eyebrow at him. “Have you seen yourself around your husband Charlie? Don’t act like you’re above being a great, big sentimental fool for the man you love.”
“But I don’t call him gushy Italian pet names,” he countered.
“You call him Angel. Like that’s not completely sappy.”
“Let’s just agree that you’re all a big pack of lovesick sap
s and get back to the subject at hand,” Andreo said, looking uncomfortable.
“That from the man who kissed my hitman brother into submission,” I told him. “When do we get to hear your and Connie’s story? I bet it’s epic.”
“Never.”
“Wait,” Vincent said. “He did what?”
I told them about the kiss and that Andreo was the reason my brother hadn’t carried out the hit, and Luca said, “You never even told me you were gay, Dreo. Come to think of it, I don’t remember you ever dating anyone, male or female.”
Dante saved Andreo from further embarrassment by pulling out his phone again and saying, “I just thought of something. Jerry has a couple safes, one at home, one in his office. I’ll bet he keeps cash in there. I’m going to text his sister Carla, I think she knows the combination and can empty them for us.”
He fired off a message while Luca told his brother, “I know you did all the work to set this up, but I need to be the one to confront Jerry. I can’t let you fight all of this battle for me, Andreo. I get that it affects all of us, but this all started when I fell in love with Nicky. I’m the cause.”
“Actually, I assumed Dante would be the one to confront his cousin, since he’s taking back control of the family,” Andreo said.
Dante chimed in, “I have no problem with you taking the lead tonight Luca, but we’re going to be right there with you, backing you up, because that’s what families do.”
Luca said, “I’m not actually family.”
“Sure you are. That happened as soon as you and Nico became a couple. By extension, Andreo is, too,” Dante told him. “Tonight you’re both going to learn what it really means to be a Dombruso. Jerry and his actions are an anomaly. Normally, we have each other’s back, no matter what.”
“I never would have predicted that Luca and I would end up here,” Andreo murmured.
“It’s all coming full circle,” I said. “Our families were the best of friends once. It’s taken a long time, but we found our way back together.”
“Just like you and your boy by the fountain,” Vincent said with a grin.
Andreo got up and said with a smirk, “Okay, I sense a group hug coming on, and that shit can’t happen. I’m going to go downstairs and learn what the hell a Flaming Titanic is. Jerry will probably be home from his gala in about two hours, give or take. That’s when we all pay him a visit, apparently with joined hands while singing Kumbaya.”
As he headed for the door, Luca said, “You can pretend you’re a cynic, but I know different. I saw that kiss, Andreo. There’s one particular Dombruso who got under your skin a long time ago. It’s pointless to deny it.”
“Not discussing this!” Andreo yelled as he walked a little faster.
Downstairs, a party was going on. Nana had filled her giant, crystal punchbowl with all kinds of liquor. Apparently it included Curacao, since the whole thing was vividly blue. A plastic cruise ship floated in the center of the punchbowl, amid pineapple rings that reminded me of life preservers. The boat was populated with a couple dozen tiny male action figures. I had to wonder where Nana got them, since they were naked and anatomically correct.
To add to the party atmosphere, music was blaring, and little old ladies with martini glasses were twerking all over four big members of the security team, who stood at attention like the guards at Buckingham Palace. Jessie grinned and waved at me when we came in. He was sitting cross-legged on the counter, out of reach of the amorous dog, who sat on the floor whining for him.
“Oh, there you boys are,” Nana exclaimed. “We were waiting for you before we sparked this bad boy up!”
Ollie handed her a butane lighter, and my grandmother flicked the switch and held it over the punchbowl. A fireball roared toward the ceiling, twice as big as the one she’d mustered back in Italy. The difference was, Nana’s house, unlike my cousin Fiona’s, was wired with a sprinkler system. Immediately a siren started to blare, and little sprinkler heads popped out of the kitchen ceiling and began hosing all of us down.
Somehow, Nana and her friends just took that as a bonus, and sent up a cheer before they went back to dancing in the rain. The little plastic ship had warped from the flames, which still burned on the alcohol’s surface despite the sprinklers, and listed in a half-circle before sinking bow-first into the punchbowl.
“Yup. That’s a Flaming Titanic,” my boyfriend said.
“Welcome to the family, Luca.”
He kissed my forehead and pulled me close. “Thanks. I’m damn glad to be here.”
Chapter Seventeen
Two hours later, we were dried off and dressed, well, like members of the mafia. Somehow, that was just what you did when you set out to intimidate someone. I’d put on my best dark suit, and Luca did, too. His brother had gone by his apartment in Rome and packed a bag for him, so he looked like his old self again. Andreo, Vincent, and Dante were always in dark, expensive suits, so they were good to go.
We ended up parking around the corner from Jerry’s house, so we wouldn’t tip him off to our arrival, and as the five of us walked down the sidewalk, Vincent muttered, “I feel like I’m in Reservoir Dogs.”
“Oh my God, such a good movie,” Andreo exclaimed.
“The best,” Vincent said. “Tarantino at his finest.”
“You wanna pipe down, Siskel and Ebert?” Dante grumbled. “We need to get our game faces on.”
Vincent’s phone beeped, and his brother sighed. “What?” Vincent said as he pulled it out of his jacket pocket and looked at the screen. “My son sent me a funny cat video. He loves these things.” He hit play and began to chuckle.
“That’s it,” Dante said. “You can’t be my second in command when we take the family back. You’ve completely gone soft.”
“Bite me, Dante,” Vincent said, then hit play on the video again and chuckled just as much as the first time.
When we rounded the corner onto Jerry’s street, I mumbled, “Oh shit.” People were coming from every direction and congregating in front of my cousin’s house. I was related to all of them. “Jerry must have known we were coming. He mobilized the family.”
“Actually,” Dante said, “I think they’re here because I told our cousin Carla to put out feelers and see who’s still on our side.”
A long, white stretch limo pulled up just as we reached the front of the house, painted with a rainbow and what, I’m sorry, just had to be a giant dong on the side. “Oh hell,” Dante muttered as Nana and everyone from her impromptu party started pouring out of the back of the limo, including the big security guards who were supposed to be keeping her at home. “What happened to not letting her leave?” Dante asked one of them, who still sported a face full of makeup.
“It’s not right to keep your grandmother locked up,” the man told him. “She got us to see the error of our ways, and then hired us to back you up when you go take down the dirty, rotten, back-stabbing fucker who’s trying to ruin your family. Her words, not mine.” The security guard colored a bit under his rouge.
Dante sighed and said, “Fine,” then went to work trying to keep Nana from charging Jerry’s house.
While that was happening, I took a deep breath, then stepped forward to address the crowd. I said somewhat loudly, “Thanks for coming. I’m sure you’ve all been hearing plenty about what’s been going on in the family lately, some of it truth, some of it rumor. Here are the facts: I fell in love with one of Sal Natori’s sons. That’s it. Two people found love, and for that, Jerry thinks we should pay. He took a hit out on my boyfriend and his brother, whose only crime was being born into a family we erroneously considered our enemy.”
A murmur went through the crowd and I tried to gauge their reaction. Dante stepped forward and put his hand on my shoulder, then said, “Sal Natori paid with his life for what he did to my parents and sister. That should have been the end of it. Luca and Andreo had nothing to do with their father’s actions. They were kids when Sal Natori crossed that line, just like I was.�
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The crowd started talking, but fell silent when Dante said loudly, “I’m here for two reasons: to stand with Nico and Luca, and to come out of retirement and take back control of this family. Jerry has shown me he’s not the right man to lead us. How is going after Sal Natori’s sons any different than Sal coming after my sister and brothers and me that night two decades ago?”
From somewhere in the crowd, my cousin Carla said, “Damn, he’s right.” There was a murmur of agreement.
“We’re going in there to get Jerry’s resignation, and to get him to call off that hit,” Dante said, gesturing at the house. “When this is all said and done, I won’t hold a grudge against him, and I hope none of you do, either. He was trying to protect our family. He just went about it in the wrong way. I don’t want to see the family splintered because of this, so we all need to find a way to move past it.”
“Good speech,” Nana yelled. “Now get in there and kick his ass if he won’t listen to reason!”
Andreo handed his brother the briefcase and said, “Go get him.”
Luca took a deep breath and nodded, then started to stride toward the house with all of us right behind him. But a moment later, the crowd parted and Jerry walked toward us, dressed in a tuxedo and an elegant wool overcoat. He looked troubled as he said, “I didn’t even think about it. I didn’t think about the fact that going after his sons was just like Sal Natori going after my uncle Paulie’s kids, but it is, isn’t it? I crossed the same line. It makes no difference that they’re grown men and not children. I wanted to make them pay for the crimes of their father.” Jerry ran a hand over his face and said, “Shit. I totally fucked up.”
“Damn right you did!” Nana yelled.
“So, all of a sudden you’re willing to listen to reason?” Dante said.
Jerry turned to him and said, “I was so pissed off at you for disrespecting me. Frankly I’m still pissed that you lied about who these two were at first. But Jesus, when I heard you say that about going after Sal’s kids, I felt like a fuckin’ monster. How could I not have seen that?”