by S. W. Frank
****
The headlights shut-off and the vehicles went off road. A short distance from the remote estate the men filed out with high powered weapons. They were running, spreading out as they made their way to the gate. The alarms were down and so was the massive metal security gate. Inside the property were bodies spread about the grass and four cars sitting on the lawn. Alfonzo spotted the look-out first and in stealth mode snuck up behind him and cut him from ear to ear then let him drop to the paved walkway with indifference.
Nico went along the northwest section with three and Alfonzo went northeast to the patio. He saw the reinforced bolts yanked from their hinges and the patio door intact lying on the deck. He heard machine gunfire and hastened his pace until he reached the edge of the broken door. Five men were hanging back from the staircase brandishing weapons. One man he recognized and he became Alfonzo’s first target. He fired with the Uzi before stepping through the door. There was a momentary exchange of fire then the men were laid down. He walked to the man he recognized and took out his knife and plunged it in his heart. Tony Giannakos. This was Roberto Benaducci’s cousin and a piece of gutter trash who once requested territory on the eastern shore for a prostitution ring. He looked around, kicking bodies then heard gunshots from outside and became alert.
Alfonzo heard a shriek from above and with lightning speed made it up the stairs, past more bodies and saw Benny. Tony’s brother with a knife to Selange’s throat.
“Look who decides to come home. The big shot. How you doing Alfonzo?”
Alfonzo didn’t answer. He was focused on what part of the body to take down first. Benny was dragging Selange further down the hall, aware of the Uzi Alfonzo carried. “Drop it!” He ordered.
Alfonzo did, walking forward as he did so.
“Okay stop right there.”
Alfonzo stopped. His eyes were on Selange. His eyes bore into hers. They were telling her to trust him and not to move.
“Now let me see your hands!”
Alfonzo snatched the pistol concealed at the base of his spine. His shot landed accurately above Selange’s head. It struck the man in the temple and the blade dropped from his hand. Alfonzo marched forward took hold of Selange then stood over Benny and blasted the rest of his face off and spat. “Cabrón!”
He felt Selange’s arms around his waist and her head on his back and his muscles relaxed. He made it….just in time. Thank goodness she didn’t flinch!
****
Ariana gripped at Nico’s arms and placed her head on his chest. “My God. I can’t do this Nico. I don’t know how any woman can. I love you but I can’t live like this. I don’t have it in me to do this shit.”
Nico held her, and then rubbed her hair. “I love you Ari. I love my boys and I want to be there for you like a real husband, I really do.”
She was crying. They were in the departure terminal saying good-bye. She was going home to a life without violence. She saw the toll it took on people and she just didn’t have a Selange spirit. Sure, she could fire a gun and defend herself. Goddamn, an enforcer’s woman better know how to do that, but it took a whole lot of courage to wake up every day and look over your shoulder and worry about your children. She never thought she’d feel in awe of another woman, but Selange, well, props to her because she just couldn’t do it. She loved Nico but when it came down to it, she didn’t love him enough to die for him. See, that’s what it comes down to. Selange loved Alfonzo that much. It wasn’t a pretense or a condition. She wanted to be anywhere he was and Ari couldn’t honestly say the same about Nico. If he went for weeks or days at a time, sure she missed him but she was okay without him. Besides, Nico could never settle down. Who did he think he was fooling? The minute he was summoned, he’d pack and leave. He didn’t have a choice. His mafia family needed the best. Oh, yes and he was the crème-de-crème. Only Nico could have saved a kidnapped kid, made it back and saved his ex-wife from a band of killers.
She sighed, “Sweetheart I know you love me, but it can’t work. I believe you know it, too. The affair was a sign. It was you breaking the ties for good. Somewhere deep down you know the boys and I are safer without you. They have a shot at a normal life with me. It’s time to face the truth, it takes more than love to survive in your world Nico and one day you’re going to find the woman who can deal with all of that because she loves you enough to try. It’s not me sweetheart, I wanted it to be, but it’s not.”
He kissed her hair as she cried and he just held her. Fight Selange had said and he tried, yet he couldn’t fight the truth. Ariana was right. He loved her enough to let her go. The boys were almost men and after everything that happened, he didn’t want them to turn out like their dad.
He closed his eyes and was in London at the tea shop where he first laid eyes on the beautiful woman with the killer walk. She was strutting in with her Harrods bag. The most intriguing woman he’d seen in his life. Yes, she was his future moglie. He was right, she was and he had her for many years and they made two great sons. The tear he never cried since he was a boy dripped from his eyes, then flowed like rain.
“Men don’t cry!” The Butcher said, “Kill them boy. They are signs of a weakness and killers cannot be weak!”
Today, he was weak. Today he wasn’t a killer but a weak man who could not have the one thing he wanted. He didn’t want to be a killer; there were moments of heaven he craved. Twice he had them. With Ariana it was the longest, most complete heaven he let slip away. He let fantasy shift the reality. Now he had nothing but regret.
She stroked his face and kissed his cheek and when he let her go, he did it because he loved her and the boys too much to keep them.
CHAPTER THIRTY
“Troy, you earned twenty million. Drop off the boys and put them in a cab and bring back my sixty mill, I’m not dead yet.”
The pilot laughed, “I didn’t think you were.”
Alfonzo listened to the rumblings of the dump trucks rolling out the property. This was a massive clean-up operation. Selange and the family were safely at his secondary residence, hopefully sleeping. He had their on-call physician meet her there and when he called to say the bullet went straight through the arm and he took care of it, Alfonzo breathed a sigh of relief.
Goddamn, what she and Ariana managed to do was right out of an action flick. Who would’ve thunk the women could’ve done as much damage as the men and still remain standing? But they had and Alfonzo was relieved. The bodies were tossed into the large trucks and hauled away like trash to be ground down like compost and used for landfill. He didn’t do the same with Crazy Nicky and his guys. Only one of the twenty survived. He was giving them burials, the whole enchilada, and sending the rest of the sixty million to their families.
Alfonzo scoffed. Everything came down to money. He paid the funeral director, the cemetery and the cops on patrol. He paid generously for silence and bought himself a few more months of freedom to keep his family whole. Anybody caught wind of this, he’d answer to weapons possession, murder and a slew of charges to keep him imprisoned until his bones were old. The cost of being a Mafia Don cost more than money, it cost a man a chunk of his soul. He wanted to get to his woman. The soul he borrowed to keep him from turning into a completely brutal man. He didn’t want any other woman, nor did he give a shit about life unless she was in it. How in the hell can he replace a woman like that? Selange balanced out the crazy and kept him sane. She brought peace to a man; because she didn’t wage war. He needed soft in his life because he was hard to the core. Rough required tender to smooth the jagged edges and she did that. Selange complimented and completed his troublesome life and when this shit’s over he thought, I’m making that woman my wife, again!
She stumbled and he almost let her fall, but dammit sometimes in love you have to pick your other half up. What’s the point of loving someone if you can’t fight through storms? You fight if it’s real love. That’s what his woman did. She fought like hell in the wee hours of the morning and didn’t give
up. She had faith in him and knew he’d come. When a woman has a faith that strong in a man; dammit she’s the one.
What about her outfit? Come on, she looked hot in those tight jeans and T-shirt. Any woman who could look that damn sexy in a gun fight while bleeding all over the place was the shit and unh-unh–nah he wasn’t giving her ass up to nobody. He was fighting for his woman, because geez, she was more than enough and to hell with anybody who thought him crazy for loving her so much!
Alfonzo hurried to the car where Lou patiently waited. The last of the trucks rumbled from the estate grounds and it was time to go home. He climbed in the passenger seat and dropped beside Lou and put his head back. Fuck a seatbelt, he was too tired and after tonight…oh hold on he thought…better not take any chances…with his luck anything could happen. He put the seatbelt on. He couldn’t take a risk like that. He wanted to make it home in one piece to see his woman, his kids and go to bed a lucky man.
“One hell of a night, huh kid?” Lou commented.
“Yeah, a very long one down the highway to hell.” He smirked and with an angel riding shotgun, it’s certain to be one helluva trip!
****
Fedrik smiled when he got the call. Giuseppe’s plane landed and he was heading their way. Fedrik surmised Giuseppe would go to visit his mother when he returned and he was right. The man loved his precious family, yet was cold against others. Fedrik despised the cruel prick. In Russia they had a name for a cocky bastard like him, мудак!
Yes, Giuseppe Dichenzo was an asshole!
What businessman would not want money in their pocket? Did it matter the prostitutes were slightly underage? Giuseppe had such high moral standards for someone who runs illegal businesses and kills on a whim. Killing his partner in Calabria cost him money and Fedrik planned to show the curd what happens when money is removed from his pockets and is not returned. He did not care about Giuseppe’s influence. It was the principle of the matter. An eye for an eye, so to speak. He invited the prick to his Russia, showed him the sights, gave him a beautiful woman for the night, all to do business and what did the asshole do once he left St. Petersburg? Decide he would not do business because he abhorred the Russian Vodka. He said it was designed to corrode a man’s insides and steal his sanity.
Arrogant man!
Fedrik waited for the second call. Giuseppe was in the backseat of the Mercedes and it was a minute away. He sat forward and watched the rearview mirror. He could see the shiny black car racing down the narrow street. In a short moment the car passed and up ahead like clockwork a vehicle pulled out of a parking spot and slowed the cars progression. The backdoor of the car opened and men emerged spraying the shiny Mercedes with bullets.
Fedrik spoke rapidly in a sharp dialect and the man in the backseat exited the car with the bazooka. He knelt on alongside the door, took aim, hit a switch and a loud whooshing noise followed. The cloud of smoke speeding toward the Mercedes was led by a large projectile. On impact, it lifted the Mercedes into the air, flipped it over then the car landed on its side against a parked vehicle before crashing down on its hood in the middle of the street.
A cloud of smoke and liquid poured from the mangled metal and Fedrik nodded. “The asshole should have agreed to do business and this would not be his fate. Anyway, who but an arrogant Italian would not like Russian Vodka?”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Alfonzo showered and climbed in bed beside his wife. They had to sleep in the guest room because that damn Giuseppe broke his bed. How in the hell did he and Shanda manage that? He’d shaken his head when he saw it, laughed then closed the door. It was morning and his body was exhausted from the hours spent hunting. The house was quiet and the children were sleeping peacefully. He drew Selange in his arms, very carefully and she nuzzled her head to his neck, “Hmmm.”
“You okay?”
“Much better.”
“Does the arm hurt a lot?”
“Not really. I took a painkiller.”
“Okay go back to sleep.” He said then gave her a quick kiss on the forehead, reclined his head and immediately conked out. He began dreaming, but it wasn’t the dark dreams anymore. No, this was a pleasurable light-hearted slumber filled with nonsensical things that you don’t recall in the morning. He was smiling at something silly, feeling happy when buzzing noises cut through the sleep. The smile faded as he came awake again and saw the device flashing near his head. He reached to it.
Nico!
He answered, “What’s happened?”
“Sorry to wake you but there’s an emergency back home.”
Alfonzo slid up in bed then asked, “Talk to me.”
“It’s Geo.”
Alfonzo glanced over at Selange sleeping like an angel. He closed his eyes. Nico had not said the words. He was reluctant to risk the feds overhearing on those Stingrays. Alfonzo took a deep breath, the thought of leaving heavy on his chest, yet for Geo, he had to go. “I’m leaving.”
“Think you can give a cousin a ride?”
“Sure. Where the hell are you anyway?”
“Downstairs on your couch.”
Alfonzo hung up. What the heck was he calling for then? He slid out of bed and strolled downstairs where, sure enough there was Nico sprawled on the sofa. Alfonzo pushed Nico’s feet to the floor and flopped on the cushion. He was exhausted. “Thought you were long gone with Ariana.”
Nico’s dark eyes hid the pain of losing Ari, “Everything doesn’t have a fairytale ending. Don’t sweat it. I know what I’m about.”
“So, what’s happened with Geo?” Alfonzo asked changing the topic. If Nico’s relationship collapsed and couldn’t be repaired, well that’s a sign it wasn’t solid to begin with. Why the fuck should he care?
“Somebody tried to take him out a little while ago. He thinks it’s Fedrik’s men. They were speaking Russian.”
“Is he okay?”
“He’s nursing his wounds at a safe house…” Nico scrolled through his cell to read another text message alert, this one came from an unexpected man who always utilized subversive means of contact. To receive a text wasn’t his modus operandi and told Nico to expect the worse. He read the cryptic note from his biological father and deciphered it immediately. He turned to his tired cousin and raked him over with the eyes of a burdened man. “How soon can you get us in the air Alfonzo?”
Alfonzo noticed the change in the man; a sadness so deep it touched Alfonzo’s often impenetrable heart. This wasn’t good. His gut began screaming. When he thought it was over, it wasn’t. He wondered when he’d ever catch a break. “What’s going on Nico, what did you just read?”
Nico wanted to tell the man the entire message but he couldn’t. He was sworn to secrecy. He took an oath that could never be broken again. The entire Giacanti clan was fighting a battle. They were on opposite sides of the sea, yet the forces which had moved against them had launched a three prong attack. They struck Giuseppe’s allies then Alfonzo. They separated and distracted the men when it was one thing they were after, Alberti.
Alfonzo’s fire was snuffed out, temporarily and the one in Italy re-ignited. Nico’s path was shifting again, taking another turn in the fork of the road called fate. Ariana was right to leave because from here on the road became more treacherous and he could make no mistakes. He had to accept things as they were. He was an enforcer, the son of a powerful man and the oath taken during the Circle of Protectors could never be broken again. His step-father prepared him for this brutal life and he had forgotten the teachings at the kisses of women that made him soft. He would kill the softness, lock away the loving heart. It was the only way to stay alert when all others were sleeping. He missed Vincent. He’d become distracted with a foolish fantasy and inadvertently cut off his right hand. His brother would have been here beside Alfonzo and Nico in Italy seated with his old man. Instead, he let go of duty and look how fast things had fallen.
The dreamer of a boy had no place inside a slaughtering man. Vincent was so damn right
about everything. His brother was the better of the two as Alfonzo said. Nico would accept his responsibility and die honorably protecting his family. He lost a brother and found wisdom. In these trials he acquired two brothers in Alfonzo and Giuseppe and grew back his hand. He was ready.
There wasn’t much time to get to his father, maybe, it was already too late. He’d try, even if he had to swim the ocean. If he couldn’t get there, at least he could save Geo and set shit straight. The fact Alberti carried this weight for so long was testimony of the old man’s strength. He made peace with the past and joined his lot. An enforcer of the Giacanti’s is the most ruthless kind. Nico frowned then sat forward with a sneer, “Death to the enemies of our family. It is from Alberti.” Nico did not relay the other part, ‘Ti amo mio figlio. Proteggere, Semira,’ it was a private message meant only for his son.
‘I love you my son. Protect, Semira,’ is also what Alberti’s text said.
“Get ready. I’ll call the pilot and we go!”
****
“Where are you going, honey?”
Alfonzo awakened Selange once he arranged a flight crew, packed a few things then went to kiss his children and mother. He wanted to tell Selange last because he had to prepare her for the worse. There was a chance he might never come home. Maybe, it was written on his face, he wasn’t sure but she was almost in tears before he answered, “Babe, something’s happened to Geo. I have to do this.”
The mention of Giuseppe silenced her. How she wished she could tell him. Oh, these stupid oaths. Giuseppe was his brother and dammit, he had a right to know!
She kept her word to Sophie and did not breathe a word about it. She leaned into his chest and sighed. So, much carnage occurred in one day. Nicky was gone. Gosh, she’d come to love that man. The lessons he taught her came in handy last night. Nicky is responsible for helping to save her family’s life. She listened to Alfonzo’s heart and let the silence calm her mind. She could not keep him here, nor did she want to. The guilt if he stayed would become a thorn in his side and drive a wedge between them. He did not know Giuseppe was his older brother, yet he was going to his side as a brother would. She smiled weakly, thinking of the annoying man. When she thought long about it, these two hit it off from the moment they met. They behaved like brothers, except Alfonzo was more mature. Why is it like that with siblings; the youngest acts the oldest and vice versa, huh?