by Anna Widzisz
“I love this sibling relationship. As if I was looking at my sons.” Isabelle's office was entered by none other than Marco Falcone. A longtime associate of Severo Selvaggio and, as Jason had learned recently, an equally longtime lover of their mother.
“Stop talking nonsense, Falcone. The fact that you are willing to help us doesn’t change the fact that we don’t like you,” the blonde snarled, throwing an envelope filled with documents on the end of the table. It was an immunity deal for the man in exchange for helping catch Severo. As an FBI agent, only she could provide it, and she didn’t even try to delude herself that Marco was only doing this because of love for their mother. No matter what he said.
“You know very well that I want to avenge the death of your mother, Gloria. But also my daughter Sienna.”
Isabelle hadn’t been expecting this, let alone Luca.
“What does your daughter’s death have to do with any of this?” she asked.
Before Marco could answer, Isabelle began to put all the facts herself. Five years ago, two of his youngest children had been kidnapped. The kidnappers demanded a very large ransom. Severo had supposedly helped the man, but Sienna had been killed anyway.
“Selvaggio wasn’t the person who helped you when they took your children,” she said, matter-of-factly, getting a nod from the man
“He took them himself because I had taken over his cartels in Sicily. Although they were on the verge of collapse, he didn’t like the fact that I was able to make something out of them. I told him too late of my plans, which made Severo lose it. He didn’t give me the ransom money because he never demanded it. For him, the matter was simple - I give him the cartels, he gives me children.”
“But Sienna died anyway. Why?”
“Because I was only able to give him half the cartels. The rest were intercepted by the local police and I barely managed to clear all the connections I had with those places. I came to him, to the warehouse, to tell him. Before my eyes, he killed my daughter and said that if I want to ensure Flavio’s safety, I will work off everything that I’d taken from him.”
Seattle, Washington 2014
It was the twenty-fifth anniversary of Sofia and Severo’s marriage. As they did each year, the couple celebrated at their favorite restaurant, which belonged to the Famiglia. Because of this, they had the place all for themselves for the evening. Not counting a few security guards guarding the entrance. It was a few days before Christmas, so the snow falling outside enhanced the romantic atmosphere. It was as white as on the day of their wedding.
However, this year they weren’t given the opportunity to spend this important day alone. Jason came to their table, interrupting the conversation. He looked like he’d seen a ghost. For this reason, Severo didn’t send him away immediately, leaving whatever issue had presented to be dealt with tomorrow. The man stood up, apologizing to his wife for a moment. He expected the worst.
“The FBI has raided our two casinos. Fortunately, Badea was able to find out about it early enough to close the underground, but apparently, Mario delayed everything as if he knew about it in advance. In addition, I ordered Diego to trace his bank account statements and discovered large deposits, so he didn't need all he asked of you to build the hotel.”
“Tell Diego to keep checking him and make arrangements to meet him tomorrow. We'll give him the money anyway. We'll see what he does with it. Tell Ricci to take Sofia home. I will go to one of the casinos. I’ll see what went down. When you’re done with everything, come to Illusion. We have something else to take care of,” the man ordered.
He returned to his wife, leaned over her and kissed her affectionately on the temple.
“Don’t be mad, but I have to take care of this. I promise I'll make it up to you. Ricci will take you back.”
“Do what you have to do. I'll wait for you. I love you,” she said, squeezing her husband's hand. She laid a gentle kiss on his cheek and then moved toward the exit, where the two guards stood. Jason spent a moment discussing with Ricci, then got into his car, making sure that Sofia would leave for the house, and he would move in the opposite direction.
It was one in the morning. Severo still hadn’t made it back home. The FBI raid occupied more of his time than he’d anticipated. He was sitting with Jason, Emilio and Franco Badea in the club’s VIP room, discussing the strategy. They expected that they wouldn’t be able to afford to open the underground casinos in the near future because the agents would be looking for those businesses carefully for some time.
“You had a good idea to create a casino inside the casino, Severo,” Franco said, impressed by the skillful thinking of his boss.
While one of the casinos was working legally, no one even thought that there could be another in the basement, which didn't have much in common with the law. If anything at all. Only the most important persons were invited to this secret one - senators, judges, businessmen and the richest people who would have much to lose if their particular tastes were revealed. And it wasn’t only connected with gambling, but also with the brothel, which was one of the functions of this casino. In Seattle there were two of those, belonging to Selvaggio, and conducted in cooperation with his captains.
Emilio's phone rang. The man walked away from his companions to pick up. The conversation wasn’t long or pleasant for that matter. He quickly returned to the other three with a mysterious and guarded expression.
“Severo, Rosalia called. It's Sofia.”
He didn't have to say anything more. Selvaggio jumped to his feet, leaving the room. He wanted to be at home as quickly as possible, hoping that it wasn't as bad as Emilio had made it seem with his behavior.
Jason also left immediately behind his boss, although he was well aware of what had happened to Sofia. In the end, it had been his idea and to a greater extent, even the deed had been done by him. Sofia Selvaggio died that night, supposedly committing suicide. But only supposedly.
Lakewood, Washington, 2015
The door to the warehouse was opened with a quick movement. Inside, there were three of them waiting for Jason: Martha, Marco and Ricci, talking about something. When they saw the twenty-three-year-old, they ended the conversation, looking expectantly at the man. It didn’t take much to see that he was angry. He had a good reason for his anger, too - his partners had stopped playing by the rules. They’d deviated from his plan, which he didn’t like one bit.
“What the fuck was that? I told you that you should only scare her!” he growled at Ricci and his sister. “Abduction and cuts were not in the fucking plan!”
The blonde rolled her eyes, not caring particularly much about the fact that she had just been insulted by her own younger brother. Wasn’t the first time and it wouldn’t be the last one. The same had happened when she’d killed the housemaid with a shotgun and not as it should have happened, that is, poisoning and cardiac arrest.
“Give it a rest, Luca,” Marco said. “In the end, something more had to happen than just sending her those fucking messages and showing up wearing a mask. Severo was supposed to find out and he did. Otherwise, the chit would continue to hide everything and this would drag on forever.”
“The only thing you managed to do was put even more protection around her. I am not able to bribe everyone as I did with Ricci, who by the way was supposed to plant the evidence of Lynette’s guilt in the death of this David kid.”
“I would have done it if it wasn’t for the fact that Martha wouldn’t have been able to arrange a search warrant anyway.”
“There is no way the judge would agree without some concrete evidence and we won’t find that because Ryder does everything to keep her away from becoming a suspect. I want to pin everything on Severo, but we have no way of separating him and the chit and make sure it's her stuff. Ryder still thinks that his son Drew will be able to reach her enough that she will come to him and testify against her father.”
“That cannot be allowed,” Ricci announced. “Severo would go to jail, and she woul
d be placed under witness protection and that's as far as our plan will go.”
“That's one thing, but don’t be under the illusion that Lynette will start singing on her father. She won’t do it by any means, so we have nothing to worry about. But if you disregard my orders, I promise you will regret it. You disobeyed me once before when I wanted to take care of the housemaid the same way I took care of Sofia. You had to go back to the damn house and shoot her,” he said looking straight at his sister. “I told you that I would take care of the girl myself. You were supposed to focus on helping me and slowly taking down Selvaggio’s businesses, along with his other family members. But for some unknown reason, Emilio continues to breathe and is having the time of his life. He's on my back all the fucking time. You were supposed to eliminate him long ago.”
“Leave me alone with my brother. Return to Seattle,” Martha ordered, not taking her eyes off Jason.
The men left the warehouse as if on cue, not wanting to interfere in the family quarrel. It was not the first and certainly not the last one. As siblings usually did, they disagreed on many issues.
“You are not able to distance yourself, my dear brother,” she began, crossing her arms on her chest.
“Distance from what?”
“From this damned girl!” she shouted. She'd been watching too long as her brother was holding back all plans about Lynette. “She caught your eye so much that you apparently want to protect her and don’t tell me that I’m imagining it. You were to get close enough to her so that she would not question your commands. And that happened a long time ago. You could have left it to Ricci to drive her around and we would have her by now. Yet you interfered, God forbid something happened to your most precious friend.”
“Come on,” he laughed bitterly, although there really was a lot of truth in what the girl was saying.
“You don’t have to admit it. You are not a good enough actor to keep pretending. I even suspect why you do it. You see yourself in this chit. So vulnerable and oblivious. Because you didn’t know that Mailo traded and smuggled girls and children across national borders or that your beloved mother had an affair with one of our father's co-workers. And Lynette just doesn't know that her beloved daddy shot a 10-year-old girl unscrupulously, eliminated not one, but two presidential candidates for money and sold his daughter to whoever would bring him more advantages through marriage. You see her as an innocent victim in all this.”
Jason was silent. It was unfortunate, but he did.
“Wake up. You’re the one who put this plan together, so stick to it and stop feeling guilty about this chit. Even if she doesn’t know anything, she is why Selvaggio still has someone to suffer for before we end his life, once he’s lost everything and everyone. I can’t believe I am saying this, but take a page out of Marco’s book. He’s literally working against his son who would do everything to help this girl. If he can ignore that they are against each other, then you can let go of Lynette.”
The brutal truth hit him straight in the heart. His plan would not be fully implemented until Severo lost the most important person in the world for him - Lynette Selvaggio.
CHAPTER 34
Lynette
People did bad things in order to survive. That is common knowledge.
The mafia worked differently. Made Men did things, simply, because they were bad men. They didn’t care. Money, power, honor. Those were what really counted. For some of them, there was also family. And if you lost it, you got revenge.
People do bad things in order to survive.
But they also do bad things in order to get some kind of peace. And even if Jason had reached that point, Lynette wanted to open her eyes and learn that it had all simply been the most vivid dream of her life. Like she still had a best friend. The only man in this cursed, Godforsaken mafia world that she was close to. The one she truly trusted with her life. Who had never judged her.
She needed someone to tell her right then, that her life hadn’t been a big lie. And that she had not just given her soul to the devil, thinking that he was an angel.
But it wasn’t a dream. This wasn’t caused by indulging in too much sugar before going to bed. It was really happening. Her father was even worse than Lynette suspected. Jason had never been more than a mere liar and a crook, who’d designed his life to exact revenge and to bring justice for his family. And she was surrounded by all those people that she’d thought she knew, this time seeing completely different faces than before. She couldn’t recognize them anymore.
She looked at Luca, sorrow and tears in her eyes, wrestling with what she was supposed to say now. If anything. Her hands were shaking uncontrollably, her mind replaying each moment she’d spent in his company.
“Mi sono fidato di te. I trusted you and this is what I got?” she sobbed, feeling like she was losing all her strength.
She thought she was done crying over her life. Lynette wanted to be strong but no one seemed to care. They threw things at her one by one, thinking it was alright to bring her closer to the ground each step of the way.
Luca got up and approached her. He crouched in front of the girl, putting his hands on her legs, but she knocked them down quickly. She wasn’t scared of him. Even though, she probably should be. Judging by what she already knew. It was what common sense was for. But she seemed to have lost it, without any visible way of regaining it. Lynette was disgusted and angry. But not scared.
He sighed. Something sparked in his eyes, and for a second Lynette was certain that she saw regret. But he’d gone so far that it was not possible for him to feel remorse. There had been plenty of chances to stop it all if it had bothered him. But here they were. The truth was out in the open, bound to end it all once and for all. One way or another.
Luca didn’t say anything.
“The worst part is that you’ve betrayed the people who gave you a home, for nothing. Destroyed everyone, yourself too in order to avenge the poor excuse of your parents for nothing. Without any good reason, whatsoever,” she spat out. “It’s true, my father deserves to burn in hell for everything he’s done, but your father’s place is right by his side. He was trafficking children, selling women into slavery. Your mother had been cheating on him for God knows how long. So tell me who do you want to avenge? Because from my perspective you were better off without them. Rosalia cared about you as if you were her son. Even my father treated you better than he did me most of the time. To me, you were the most important person in the world. But you didn’t care. You don’t fucking care.”
Annoyed noises came out of Isabelle’s mouth. “Really, don’t mind us. It’s not like we don’t care about your precious feelings.” The woman snarled, walking up closer to the girl. She put on a malicious smile. “What a pity that you’ve decided to come here to die. Out of all the decisions you could have made.” She held up the gun and aimed it at Lynette.
Right on cue Drew and Severo started struggling against their ropes, to somehow help Lynette, but it was a lost cause as the ties were too tight to allow them to move even an inch. They both looked terrified, seeing as the girl was to die right in front of them and they were powerless to stop it.
A shot was fired and Lynette closed her eyes, waiting for the end. But it didn’t come. Instead, she heard a cacophony of male voices shouting orders and threats. The girl turned her head towards the entrance and saw Noah with two guns in his hands, his soldiers spreading out through the shed. Isabelle’s gun dropped down under the pressure of the bullet that Falcone had fired in order to save Lynette’s life.
A few seconds later, Emilio and several other soldiers appeared behind him. However, before they were given the possibility to shoot, they were attacked by Ricci, Marco, and his Made Men. Noah managed to move up to Isabelle, knocking her off her feet, but as he swung the woman blocked his movement. She ducked, turned away from him and struck him with an elbow in the back. This move was too familiar not to compare it to the one Luca taught Selvaggio. Falcone took a couple of steps back
, trying to regain his balance under the impact of the agent’s actions. One gun fell and the woman was able to wrestle the other one out of his hand. She rushed at him, fists out, visibly angry, which worked in Noah’s favor. Emotions evidently overpowered her skills and she started making mistakes. Each of her blows was either badly aimed or predictable. The man blocked her every time until finally, he knocked her out with a strong hit to the back of the head. She lost consciousness and her body collapsed to the floor.
Noah used this moment, drawing out a knife and cut Lynette’s ropes. Then, he left it in her hands so that she could do the same for Drew and her father.
Emilio was fighting Luca barehanded, as the underboss’s weapon had been kicked into the air by Ricci as soon as they’d entered the shed. However, he was losing, as Venas was much more skilled, regardless of the chosen fighting method. Noah went to help him, after having ensured that his own soldiers were able to deal with Marco and his men. He moved up to Luca from behind and kicked under his legs, making him fall to his knees. Taking out another one of his knives, he pressed it against the man’s throat while Emilio managed to hold him still.
“No!” Lynette shouted, attracting Noah’s attention before he could make a slash. She was holding Isabelle’s gun, pointing it at Venas. Falcone retreated, seeing as this was her kill, not his. Her uncle did the same a second later.
Her eyes held so much rage that it was a matter of moments before she would pull the trigger. She watched Luca with determination, regarding each small movement he made. He didn’t even make an effort to stand up. It looked like he’d given up on fighting. Waiting for the girl to carry out the threat that was clear in her eyes.