by J. S. Cooper
“I can’t lie. Yeah, I am. I love her and I want to be with her and that’s just not possible. I’ve endangered her life. I’ve endangered her friends’ lives. I can’t be that person in her life anymore. She needs someone normal. She needs someone not in this world.”
“You don’t have to be in this world anymore, Luca. You can leave. I did.”
“The capo just doesn’t quit, Matteo. You know that.”
“Things can happen, Luca. You can leave if you want to leave for her.”
“This is not a conversation we should be having right now, Matteo. Right now we should be figuring out what we can do to stop Enzo.”
“You need to tell me what Enzo wanted. I need to know everything, Luca. You need to tell me everything.”
“He wanted to know where Fabiano’s body was buried.”
“Fabiano. The guy that worked for him that died years ago?”
“Yeah.”
“How would you know? Oh fuck it, Luca. No.” His face changed as it all clicked together.
“I was the one that killed him, yeah.”
“You were the one that killed him? How did I not know this?”
“There were only three people that knew: me, Anabel and Giorgio. And it looks like Giorgio went and told Enzo after all these years just because he was jealous that I wanted Anabel back in my life. He could have gone to Enzo any time. He could have gone to collect that reward years ago and he didn’t. So I know it wasn’t about the money. I know it wasn’t about the reward. I know it was because he was so pissed that Anabel was coming back into my life.”
“Why was he so pissed, Luca?”
“I don’t know. He told me he didn’t want to kidnap her. He told me it was a bad idea for the family. I told him to keep his pudgy mouth shut. I told him I was the boss. I gave the orders. He did what I told him to. Obviously, he didn’t like it.”
“Okay, so let me get this straight. Enzo wants to know where Fabiano’s body was buried. I heard that. I knew he was looking because his daughter stopped talking to him, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, so why didn’t you tell him? All this could have been taken care of very, very quickly.”
“I couldn’t tell him, Matteo.”
“Why couldn’t you tell him?”
“There are reasons why I do not want Fabiano’s body to be found.”
“Luca, I’m your cousin. I know we don’t really get on. I know you hate me and I hate you and this situation sucks, but you have to trust me now. I am the only person you can trust. And whether or not you want to trust me, know that I’m not doing this for you. I’m doing this for Anabel. I’m doing this because Anabel is one of Emily’s best friends. And Emily is the best thing that has ever happened to me. And I will never not do what she wants me to. You hear? When you love someone, you do something that is the best for them and the best for their friends and the best for their family, no matter how much it costs you. So that’s what I’m here to do. I’m going to help you and I’m going to help Anabel. You need to tell me why you do not want Fabiano’s body to be found.”
“If I tell you, Matteo, it has to stay between us. No one else can ever know.”
“What the fuck is it, Luca? You’re acting like a bloody drama queen. What is it?”
“So Fabiano, he was one of Enzo’s guys, right?”
“Uh huh.”
“And he grew up in Brooklyn.”
“Uh huh.”
“His mom never had a real relationship with his dad. He never knew who his dad was. Well, until later.”
“What are you saying? Are you saying that he’s related to you or something, Luca?”
“No, he wasn’t related to me, Matteo.”
“So who the fuck is he related to then? Tell me.”
“He’s related to Anabel, Matteo. Fabiano was Anabel’s brother.”
Chapter 22
Anabel
Emily and Charlotte were just looking at me. Their eyes were filled with concern, fear, and worry, and I knew they wanted to know what was going on, what was happening. I didn’t know what to tell them. I didn’t know how to express the gamut of emotions that were running through me. I was so happy to see them, so happy that they were safe, so happy we were here together, and yet my heart was nervous and full of worry. I was scared and it wasn’t me that I was scared for. I was scared for Luca. What would happen to him? If Enzo caught him, I knew Enzo would kill him. I didn’t even think Enzo cared that much about me. I was a no one, a nobody. I was just a means to an end. I was a way for Enzo to get to Luca.
“Hey, Anabel, do you want to talk about it?” Emily asked softly.
I looked up at her and shook my head slightly, tears were welling in my eyes and I felt like I was about to break down.
“Come, let’s go and sit down on that couch over there,” Charlotte said and led me over to the side of the room.
We all sat down, and I looked down at my lap. I was embarrassed that I had feelings for Luca again, and I was ashamed that my friends were now dragged into this, and I didn’t think they would understand that I loved him still. I was still processing it myself. I didn’t know if it was the fact that we’d had sex. They say that postcoital bliss makes your brain do weird and funny things. Maybe it’s the endorphins that are released during sex that had me feeling this way. Maybe I would get over it. But I had a feeling it was about more than the sex. I knew that my heart had always belonged to Luca, and it still did.
“Hey, Anabel, I don’t want to make you talk if you’re not ready, but I think we need to know what’s going on,” Charlotte said softly. “We can’t stay here for very long. You know that Max is going to call me and once he doesn’t get a hold of me, he’s going to get worried and he’s going to fly back to the States. And when he flies back to the States and he realizes I haven’t been at home and my phone is off, he’s going to get worried and he will contact the police, and he will do anything and everything that he can to find me.” She was talking quickly, but I understood what she was saying.
“I know.” I looked at her. “As he should. He loves you.”
“Yeah, he loves me and I love him.”
“What’s going on, Anabel?” Emily said more insistently now. “We are best friends. We have been your best friends since college and we’ve been patient. We’ve been really, really patient with you. And I understand what it’s like to be in love with someone that’s not a mainstream sort of guy. I understand what that’s like. And I know Luca...” She paused, obviously trying to find the right words to not offend me, “... is a different sort of guy,” she said finally. “I know he’s in the mafia and we all know what mafia men are like. And I know you have feelings for him, but you need to tell us everything.”
I looked at her and then I looked at Charlotte, who was nodding, and I took a deep breath.
“I know. I’ve been really unfair to you guys. You know, when I was at that house with Enzo—”
“Who’s Enzo?” Charlotte asked, confused.
“Enzo’s the guy that took me. Enzo is the one that is after us now.”
“Oh yeah, yeah, okay. Matteo did say something about another guy.”
“I realized that you girls are my best friends and I could have told you everything, and I trust you more than anything in the world. And I’m sorry. I need to tell you what happened. I’m going to be quick, but later I can explain more, in more detail.”
“Just tell us what you feel like you can,” Emily said, rubbing my back. “We’ll always be here for the whole story.”
“Well, you know, years and years ago, I dated Luca. We met when I was seventeen. We had a whirlwind romance. I had my birthday. We made love for the first time on my birthday. I lost my virginity to him. It was magical. He was the perfect man, or so I thought. He had a little bit of a temper problem, slight jealousy issues, but then I did as well. It wasn’t anything I thought that was too big. I thought it would be fine. And then I started playing games, you know?
”
“What games?” Emily looked confused. “Monopoly?”
“No, I mean relationship games. I wanted to make him jealous. I flirted with guys, to see if he would react, you know?”
“We’ve all done that.” Charlotte laughed. “That’s part of dating a guy and making them want you.”
“I know,” I sighed. “But I shouldn’t have done it. Not with Luca. I just shouldn’t have done it.”
“What happened, Anabel?” Emily looked concerned. “Did Luca do something to you? Do I have to go into that room right now and stab him myself? Because if he hurt you, if he hit you, if he touched you, I will—”
“No! It’s okay. He didn’t do anything like that.” I took a deep breath. “There was this guy, his name was Fabiano. He started hanging around with Luca and his guys. I didn’t know who he was. Luca didn’t really seem to trust him, but he didn’t make him go away, you know?”
They both nodded to show they were following my story.
“He was really cute. He paid an interest in me, like an unhealthy interest in me. He wanted to know all about me. He wanted to know my friends. He wanted to know my parents. He wanted to know where I grew up. He wanted to know the life I’d had. He was really into me.”
“Okay. And were you into him?”
“I wasn’t into him like that. I thought he seemed a little sleazy, but he was a good-looking guy. He was nice. I thought he was harmless. I really thought he was harmless. I didn’t know all the bad things about him. I really didn’t. Oh, what did I do? What did I do?”
“Anabel, what’s wrong? What happened?” Charlotte’s voice was getting loud. “You can tell us, please.”
“So one night we were at the club and Fabiano was there, and I was kind of upset. I got drunk, and I was flirting with him, and he was trying to touch me, but I didn’t want that so I pushed him away and I said no. Next thing I know, him and Luca were in the streets and they were fighting. And I don’t really know what happened, but there was blood and there was shouting, and I was packed into a car and we all went back to Luca’s house, and Luca put me in the bedroom. And I fell asleep crying, but then I woke up and I couldn’t find him. So I walked down to the basement and he was there. He was there with Fabiano and Giorgio was there as well.”
“Who’s Giorgio?”
“Giorgio is his... I don’t know, I think he’s his cousin or his childhood friend. He works for Luca, but he ended up being a rat.”
“Calm down. Slow down, Anabel, please,” Emily said. “You’re getting me confused. I don’t know who all these people are. So Giorgio is a rat and he was there?”
“Yeah, but we didn’t know he was a rat until recently.” I knew I was mumbling my words and confusing them, but I just couldn’t stop. “Luca was there and he was beating Fabiano who was tied to a chair. I could see blood all over the floor. I stood in the corner. They didn’t know I was there.”
“And then what happened?” Charlotte asked softly.
“Luca shot him. He shot him dead. Not one time, not two times, but five times. He shot him dead. The bullets went flying through the air five times and then his body slumped forward and I could see all the life was gone from him. He was dead and it was because of me.”
“Oh, Anabel, I’m so sorry.” Emily held me tight. “You shouldn’t have had to carry this around. How could Luca do that?”
“But it gets worse.” I sobbed. “Because I was wrong. He didn’t kill Fabiano because Fabiano had flirted with me. That’s what I thought all these years. He killed Fabiano because he was a rapist, and he’d gone and he’d done something really horrible to my parents.”
“Oh my god, what did he do?”
“Do you remember the time I told you that my mom got robbed when she was at home, and the man hit her over the head and sliced her face, and that’s why she has the scar on her cheek?”
“Yeah.”
“That was Fabiano, and he had plans to go back to my parents’ house and he wanted to kill them. He wanted to rape my mom, and Luca knew. He found out. And that’s why he killed him. He killed him because he was trying to protect me and my family and I turned on him.”
“What do you mean you turned on him?” Charlotte looked confused and frowned. “How?”
“I left him.”
“I understand why you left him,” Emily said. “Anyone would leave a man like that.”
“It’s not just that I left him, I also went to the feds. I went to the police and they got me in contact with the feds. And I spoke to people from the DEA. I spoke to people from the CIA, spoke to people from the FBI and I was trying to take the blame myself. I didn’t go there wanting to tell them about Luca. I’d gone there wanting to tell them that it was me because I thought that I should pay for the fact that an innocent man had died.”
“But you didn’t kill him,” Emily almost shouted. “Why would you do that? Why would you try to take the blame?”
“I felt like I murdered him. I was delirious. They quickly realized that I didn’t kill him, and they kept me awake for over twenty-four hours. They wouldn’t let me sleep. I was delirious and they kept talking, and then they brought up Luca’s name and it all came out, what I’d seen, and they were going to arrest Luca. They were going to take him in. They were going to lock him up for life.”
“But what happened?” Charlotte looked confused. “He’s not in jail and as far as I know, he’s never been to jail, right?”
“I don’t know how he got out,” I said, as I shook my head, wiping the tears from my eyes. “I honestly don’t know what happened. I haven’t spoken to him about it yet.”
Emily looked like she was thinking hard.
“You know, a lot of these mafia bosses have got friends in high places. I wouldn’t be surprised if he just paid off the right guy and they let him loose. Or maybe he turned in someone even bigger than him.”
“Perhaps,” I said. “But you see, that’s why he hated me and that’s why I hated him. I hated him because I thought he was just a crazy person that would kill because he was jealous and he hated me because he thought I never loved him in the first place. He thought I went and I turned him into the feds without even knowing who he really was. He thought I didn’t see his heart. He thought—” My words broke off. “But yeah, Enzo took me because he wanted to find out where Fabiano’s body was buried.”
“What do you mean where his body was buried?”
“I don’t know. I guess Luca buried him somewhere and no one knows where it is. And Enzo’s been looking for the body for a really long time because Fabiano used to date his daughter and I guess they were really in love. And the daughter thought that her dad, Enzo, killed Fabiano and so she stopped speaking to him, and that’s broken Enzo’s heart because even though he’s a cold bastard, I guess he loves his daughter. And the one thing he wants is to fix his relationship with her. I guess he can’t do that until he has Fabiano’s body and he can have a proper burial for him.”
“So why doesn’t Luca just fucking tell him where the body is? Why won’t he just tell him?” Emily stood up. “This is fucking ridiculous. What is Luca doing?”
“I don’t know why he doesn’t want to say where Fabiano’s body is. He just keeps saying that it’s too big, like something will come out that will be even worse. And I just don’t know what it is. What could possibly come out that could be even worse?”
Suddenly the door opened, and Luca and Matteo walked out. They headed over to us. Luca surveyed my face. He was grimacing.
“Are you okay, Anabel?”
“I’m not okay,” I started to scream at him. All my pent-up emotions were coming out. “Why won’t you just tell Enzo where Fabiano’s body is and this can all be ended? We wouldn’t all have to be here hiding out. I don’t even know if we’re going to live or die. Why won’t you just tell him?”
“I didn’t want to tell him because I was protecting you.”
“Me?” I stared at him in shock. “How are you protecting me? Wha
t do I have to do with this?” I jumped up and I ran over to him, pummeling my fists into his chest. “You know, I love you, Luca. I love you and I trust you, but I don’t want to be here in this situation anymore. I don’t want my friends to have to worry. I don’t want to fear for their lives. I just don’t want this to happen. Why won’t you tell him? Please, just tell me.”
“Okay. I’ve been trying to hide this from you.” His face looked bleak and grim. “But I realize now, I can’t protect you any longer. It has to come out. If we’re all going to get out of this alive, it has to come out.” He looked over at Matteo, who was nodding.
“Please just tell me, Luca, please.”
“I think you’re going to want to sit down for this Anabel.”
“Why?”
“Please?” He led me back to the couch and I sat down on it. He looked over at Emily and Charlotte who were glaring at him and he just shook his head. “So Fabiano, he’s more than just a guy in the mafia, Anabel.”
“What do you mean?”
“Fabiano was your brother, Anabel.”
“What are you talking about?”
He took a deep breath. “Your dad had an affair with Fabiano’s mom. Fabiano’s mom used to be his secretary, but I don’t suppose you knew that. Why would you know that? She got pregnant and she had Fabiano. Your dad paid her fifty grand to leave and never say anything about it again. I guess he didn’t want to ruin his relationship with your mom. I don’t know,” he shrugged. “So anyway, Fabiano grew up knowing that his dad didn’t love him.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Anabel, Fabiano’s mom was very bitter toward your dad. Very, very bitter. And every day she poured that poison into Fabiano’s head.”
“How would you know this?”
“Because it’s on Fabiano’s body.”
“What are you talking about? What’s on his body?”
“If you’d seen him naked, Anabel, if you’d seen his bare chest, he had three tattoos. He had one of his father, your dad, one of his father’s wife, your mom, and one of his father’s daughter, you. And underneath each tattoo was a name. Your name was under the one of his sister.”