“You know.”
“I’ve always known. Now here we are.”
“Draco, I didn’t….”
“You didn’t what? You didn’t mean for him to go after that fuck? You knew exactly what would happen when you told him about this. You wanted him to want revenge to seek justice for you. I can understand that it’s in our blood, but I’m telling you now if anything happens to Gabe, I won’t ever forgive you.”
She dropped to her knees as if the life had been drained out of her and scared the crap out of me. That quick, my anger deflated, and I rushed to her side. Not only because of the broken look she gave me, but because I’ve always understood why she did what she did. It’s just that now, faced with the reality of my son being halfway around the world where I can’t get to him, is making me so angry I can’t see straight.
“Why did you never say anything?”
“Because you should’ve told me yourself. You didn’t trust me to take care of it, and now our son might be in danger.”
“But I thought he’d forgotten all about it, that his only interest was in finding Papa.”
“Whatever made you believe that?”
“Oh no, we have to get him back here.”
For some reason, the look of fear on her face and the panic in her voice seemed disproportionate to the conversation. “What is it?” She looked scared, like really afraid, and then she broke down and told me the truth about what really happened the night she was attacked. I listened in horror as my blood ran cold. If I thought that Gabe would kill this guy before, now I know that the story he’d told me on the phone earlier was bullshit. He’s going to do so much worse.
“That’s why you were so distressed when he mentioned the nun. You think she told him the truth.” She only nodded her head, looking like the lost young girl I’d first met all those years ago. I wanted to shake her, but why? She’s still the victim here, no matter how many mistakes she’d made with our son.
“We have to go get him. You don’t know the Riccis. Alonzo will hurt him if he shows up there and brings this up. His father would not be happy if he learned about this, and there’s nothing Alonzo hates more than disappointing his father. Even though I was never close to them, everyone in the village knew. That’s why he and his friends would threaten the whole village into keeping their actions hidden.”
“He’s a hard man from what I know, Mr. Ricci, a man of honor.”
“So why did you tell Gabe about that night if you were afraid of this?”
“I don’t know. I was angry still; in our culture, as you well know, the son protects his mother. It’s his duty. I wanted him to know what had been done to me. I wanted him to kill Alonzo. I wanted revenge. But the Gabe today is not the same little boy I told my story to.”
Yeah, because you turned him into a machine whose only focus for the past six years has been revenge. I wanted to say this to her, but she was already so fragile. “We failed him; we failed that poor boy.” Everything made sense now. I’d been trying for months to figure out what happened with Gia, why she just up and left all of a sudden when things were finally going well for her.
I think Gabe sent her away because he knew what he was planning, which could only mean that he was getting her out of the way of danger. But just what exactly is he planning to do? If his intent was to off Ricci, I have no doubt he could pull it off without getting caught, which could only mean that he was planning something much more horrible than I’d imagined. “I’ve gotta make a call.”
GABRIEL
Salvatore was too easy, but I half expected it. In fact, it was my one hope in coming here now. I’ve been steadily screwing with Alonzo’s business ventures and gearing up to expose him during his run for office. The only reason I haven’t pulled the plug yet is because of the trafficking situation and the fact that Memnon had asked for more time.
Since Ricci was no longer my only target, I’m playing the long game. It’s going to take years, though the end result will still be the same. My intent is to make him suffer in the worse ways possible before ending his pathetic life. He took everything from my mother. Now he and the ones who helped him will feel the brunt of my years of planning.
In the meantime, there was nothing stopping me from carrying out the rest of my plans while I was here. After I let the old man ‘talk’ me into getting a DNA test the next day, I went back to the hotel where the others were waiting. They acted like I’d been gone for days instead of a few hours and started giving me shit. I shut them down by asking which one of them had called Pop.
“Did you eat?” They were sulking and knowing them they hadn’t, so I called downstairs for room service. “Stay outta my way.” I grabbed my bags and headed into the master suite of the penthouse. I’d rented the whole floor because if I’d tried to get this bunch their own rooms, they’d probably have slept outside the door to my room. Draco has them well trained.
Now, the reason why I didn’t give Salvatore my name is simple, I don’t want anything leading back to my family, especially Ma, not yet anyway. I know if Ricci is dumb enough to go after her, Pop would divide his body between all fifty states, so I’m not worried about that. I’m more worried about the cops and feds who have their eyes on Pop right now.
The only thing I hadn’t planned on here was my reaction to the DNA test. That came to me as I was sitting down with Salvatore, just one more way to gain his trust. After all, if I was after something, wouldn’t I want that? To prove that I wasn’t after anything. The fact that I do have his face is uncanny as hell. I look even more like him than I do his son, down to the damn shade of my eyes.
I can almost feel bad for him, for what I plan to do to his family and his life, but I won’t. Now all that’s left is to not show my hand too soon. I didn’t let on in any way that I was here for revenge. For all he knows, according to what I told him, his son and my mother were the only ones who knew what happened that night. I just told him the story Ma had told me and Pop, which was enough to disgust him.
Now, when I go after the others that were involved, he will be none the wiser. They, too, will be left to wonder how much I know, and I’m sure my presence will send shock waves through their little clique. I already have my introduction planned out, and the DNA test will just be the icing on the cake to get Salvatore completely on my side.
I’m not going in blind, so that will be my advantage, whereas they have no idea that I’m coming. The last thing I said to Salvatore before we parted is that I didn’t want his son to know that I’m here, not yet. I gave him the impression that I needed time to process, that I hadn’t expected to meet anyone from the Ricci family, and my only interest was in the Antonelli family.
He bought it, of course, why wouldn’t he? I used his education against him. I knew that someone like him, someone who straddles both worlds, that of the elite and the dark underbelly of crime, would appreciate someone as refined and educated as me. I plan to work on that some more once we meet again tomorrow.
When he compares me to his rotted seed, there will be no comparison. I also know that there are things he wants to achieve that his son can’t. My nana will be of great help there. Though she hasn’t been back to the old country in a while, her family still holds a lot of clout here, and I’ve met my cousins and great uncles over the years when they came to the states to visit. I’m holding them in reserve for just the right time.