“Why are you being like this?” he asks; now he’s the one sounding at a loss. “I was stupid; I always am when it comes to you. I do the wrong things and say the wrong thing. I am the fuck up here. I lose sight of what’s right and I just end up like this. You know that, so why are you just giving up now?”
“I’m not giving up, not really. This is me protecting myself,” I say pushing him away from me, so I can stand up. “Now stay out of my way. You’re just another minion to my father.”
If I’m protecting myself, why does it hurt so much?
***
“Dinner will be delayed,” my father states later that evening. “We have other matters to deal with first.”
I should be disappointed, but today has left me with a minimal appetite and a feeling to just crawl between my sheets and forget about what transcended only a few hours before. I have to sit with Zane nearby, and it’s not easy at all to cope with. I know love isn’t an easy game to dabble in, but it shouldn’t be able to make so many millions of pieces in my heart – each one as fragile as the next.
“Any particular reason?” I ask as I stand up, throwing my napkin back onto the tabletop and begin to follow.
“I found one of our own stealing from the business,” my father states and begins to leave the dining room to head toward the grand room. “And he’s been threatening my prize jewel.”
I walk in to find Tony Costello on his knees, flanked by Giovanni as he guards him. I still a little before I continue forward. Tony is one of the men my father has up front to sort the packaging and correct distribution of drugs. He’s worked with the likes of my father, Big Al, and Carmello all in equal measures; it’s how my father grew a rapport. He made his men expendable with the faith that their main loyalty would remain with him, but in recent years, more seem to crave the greedy promises the others make. The ones my father, in turn, will destroy by taking their lives.
This is Zane’s first slaughter like this and I wonder how he’ll take it. I steal a look and can see he’s unable to quite work out what’s going on until Carlo whispers something and there’s a brief spark of terror before Zane covers it up. I continue to take a space beside Enzo and watch as to what Tony has done to ruin his space in our family.
“Tony here decided to go against the Dio Lavoro,” my father begins to say, taking up the space before Tony.
“Carmello put me up to it,” he states, his voice traveling with such confidence that he might earn some bargain if he’s completely upfront. “After what your new recruit did to his face, he wanted some of your best cocaine handed over so he could break it down and find out your secret.” Tony is becoming frantic, divulging all he had been promised, but he should know that Carmello’s promises mean nothing when you’re in the house of Abbiati and knelt before the Salvatore Abbiati. “I told him he was stupid, but after Carmello threatened my family if I didn’t, I couldn’t say no. I wanted to protect my family.”
“You do realize that he might have threatened your family, but I will threaten so much more than that,” my father comments dryly, starting a short pace before the doomed man. “You have betrayed me by forming an alliance against me. You have implicated the life I have supported you with and now I can’t let it continue.”
With a click of his fingers, Giovanni presents my father with his trusted switchblade, clicking the button to allow the knife’s blade to glide out. He holds onto the steel slither and places the handle into my father’s hands, and I prepare myself for the attack that is about to come.
“I’ll do anything,” Tony begins to beg, watching the passing of the weapon.
“But that’s not all you’ve done,” my father argues back, keeping himself as calm as he can enable. “You also promised to remain loyal to Carmello until he got Amelia. You offered to help him get his hands on my daughter.”
“He threatened my wife and kids!” Tony argues back, desperation hanging onto every word of his. “I had to stop him!”
“I don’t care!” My father’s words are a sonic boom compared to Tony’s sniveling pleas. “How dare you think you can steal from me and not be repaid for me. Many men before you have fallen for the bargains and all have ended up dead. To add insult, you promise him what is mine. You promised him that you would lure my daughter and kidnap her. You set up a malicious subterfuge in which my daughter would be drugged and taken and all because a man like Carmello promised you riches! Had you come to me first, I would have made sure Carmello would never have had an opportunity to touch you or your family. I’m a man of my word and had you told me his plan, I would have given you more than this.” My father stops before Tony, leaning in closely. “But unlike you, I do have faithful men who do as they’re told and get repaid kindly. Now you’re about to lose it all and so is your family.”
“No, I’m sorry. Please, no,” Tony begins his pleading again.