* * *
Nico pointed his gun at his father and stopped him in his tracks, “Stay still or I’ll shoot.”
* * *
Edoardo flicked the lights in the bedroom on. Giuseppe had been asleep on a recliner with a small television playing Two And A Half Men reruns in front of him. Giuseppe sat still, as Nico had instructed. His grubby, fat hands gripped the sides of the recliner he’d been lounging in.
* * *
“Do not shoot me son,” He begged.
* * *
“Keep your hands right where I can see them,” Nico replied coldly.
* * *
This wasn’t the time for his father to try to invoke his parental connection. That connection had been severed a long time ago, long before this moment. Nico had no intention of shooting Giuseppe unless he did anything out of line anyways.
* * *
“Where’s Luca?” Edoardo asked.
* * *
He had his gun raised too. Eve stood behind the two half-brothers with her gun lowered. She was keeping a close eye on things. While Nico appeared calm enough to handle the situation, she detected rage bubbling up from Edoardo. Giuseppe was the man who had directly caused the death of Edoardo’s mother. He was the one who his mother had never been able to love. He was the one who had taken her as a young bride and prevented her from having a relationship with her son.
Nico had years of bitterness from his father’s treatment but what was seething beneath the surface for Edoardo was something far deeper than rage. Fury churned volcanic within him. Eve worried that he was holding a weapon, pointed directly for Giuseppe’s chest.
* * *
Giuseppe spat, “I don’t have to answer you.”
* * *
Nico walked closer to his father and held his gun inches away from him.
* * *
Giuseppe couldn’t feign omnipotence any longer.
* * *
“Your bastard brother set me up. Isn’t it clear?”
* * *
“What do you mean?”
* * *
“You don’t see him, do you?”
* * *
Nico growled, “This isn’t the time for games Giuseppe.”
* * *
“I’m your father boy… don’t forget that.”
* * *
“Answer the damned question,” Nico growled again.
* * *
He kept his finger hovering over the trigger, tempted to pull it, tempted to get retribution for how his father had hurt his mother, tempted to get retribution for his childhood and the way his father had raised Luca to be a shadow of a man — a ghoul, not a man at all.
* * *
“Luca is gone. He told me he was going to be back about an hour ago. He set me up. He wanted you to come here, probably to buy time.”
* * *
“You made a mistake trusting him,” Nico spat.
* * *
“And now I’ll pay the ultimate price.”
* * *
“I’m not going to kill you,” Nico assured him.
* * *
“But I will,” Edoardo said.
* * *
He cocked his gun and pulled the trigger. The screeching sound of the bullet caused Eve to scream. Nico flinched, but he didn’t scream. He felt like he was experiencing this in slow motion. In an instant, Giuseppe was gone. Edoardo had shot him right through the heart. Death had been quick. Blood started to ooze from the wound. Eve crumpled to the ground.
* * *
Nico felt his heart racing, but he felt no sadness, no kind of grief. His father had never been a father to him. His father had ruined his life, destroyed his old family and tried at every turn to kill him. Nico knew he’d never have been able to pull the trigger. But the faint ghosts of sentimentality didn’t exist for Edoardo.
* * *
Edoardo lowered the gun. He was shaking. He’d never done this before. Or he wasn’t used to it. His face was a reddish brown color and tears started to flow from his eyes.
* * *
“I’m sorry…” He muttered, “I’m sorry but… My mother… I promised to avenge my mother…”
* * *
He started crying; it was the first time Eve had heard Edoardo emote like this. She was still on the ground, shaking from the sound of the bullets. She heard Nico walk over to Edoardo and when she looked up (trying to avoid looking at the dead body oozing onto the recliner), she saw Nico had wrapped his arms around his brother.
* * *
“It’s alright,” He whispered, “Brother, it’s alright.”
Eve overrode her shaky legs and got to her feet. She pressed her hand against the wall until she felt herself getting steady. Nico let go of Edoardo and rushed to her.
* * *
“Are you alright.”
* * *
Eve nodded. Her lips quivered.
* * *
Nico approached his father’s body. The impact hadn’t hit him yet. Giuseppe was really dead. He inspected his father’s body with detachment.
* * *
“We need to get his body out of here,” Nico muttered.
* * *
Edoardo nodded. He was still shaken. Oddly, Nico was the most calm of the bunch.
* * *
“Wh-wh-what are we going to do with him?” Eve asked.
* * *
Her palms were sweating. She wiped them off on her pants.
* * *
“We need to carry him outside and start digging.”
* * *
“Shit…” Edoardo said.
* * *
“None of us want to do this,” Nico started. He pushed some of his hair out of his face and took a long pause.
* * *
“But we have to.”
* * *
“He’s right,” Edoardo said.
* * *
Eve could see his hand clasping the box of cigarettes in his pocket desperate for a smoke. But he never pulled one out.
* * *
“Let’s get moving then,” Nico said — again, detached.
* * *
Eve didn’t want to question the way her husband processed this. She hardly expected grief over the “loss” of the father he’d never had. But Nico was cold in a way Eve hadn’t expected. They got to work on the gory task of moving Nico’s enormous father.
* * *
It was a task that took all three of them working very hard. It was hours before they got him downstairs and then another hour before they wrapped him in a sheet and carried his body outside. Eve had expected the task to feel more gory than it was. She was too exhausted and stunned by what had happened to process this as traumatic.
* * *
Giuseppe is a criminal. He would have done the same and worse to us if he’d been given the chance. She tried to reassure herself and assuage the mild guilt that was creeping up into her mind.
* * *
Nico and Edoardo insisted that Eve sat aside while they dug the hole.
* * *
“I am not letting you guys do this alone,” Eve said.
* * *
Edoardo tried to guide her away, “Some work is not suitable for women.”
* * *
Eve folded her arms and prepared to put her foot down. Her hubby knew that look in her eye and backed down.
* * *
“Listen Edoardo, I know you mean well, but I am not going to be thrust to the side here. It will go much faster if I help. This is hardly a time for chivalry.”
Edoardo raised his hands in defeat and handed Eve the third shovel they’d found in the gardener’s shed. They dug for hours until their hands were blistered and they were covered in dirt.
* * *
“I suppose Luca did set him up,” Edoardo muttered.
* * *
“He would have been back by now.”
* * *
“Let’s lower him in,” Nico added.
* * *
* * *
“Only a few hours until sunrise,” Eve mentioned.
* * *
“Then let’s hurry up and cover him up.”
* * *
The three of them began to pile dirt in the hole. The fastest part of burying Giuseppe was finished. Nico stood near his father’s grave and tried to force himself to feel something. His father had done everything wrong: he’d abused his mother, turned his sons into murderers, encouraged crime and destroyed love. He had been everything a father shouldn’t have been.
* * *
“I’m sorry,” Edoardo muttered to the grave, to Nico or to no one in particular.
* * *
Nico looked him in the eye, “Do not apologize brother. My father was not a good man. He was a killer… a wife beater… and he’d done far worse than any of that. I’m not happy he’s gone… But I’m at peace.”
* * *
“Let’s get out of here then,” Edoardo said.
* * *
“We have a lot of work to do.”
* * *
“And what about the police?” Eve added frantically.
* * *
Edoardo grinned, “If they find the body of Giuseppe Riccardi six feet under, they’ll dance around his grave. He’s a wanted man in Italy — and he’s wanted dead or alive.”
* * *
“That doesn’t make me feel better,” Eve muttered.
* * *
Edoardo shrugged, “I’ll keep tabs on my man at the force. But nothing will come back to haunt any of you. I promise.”
* * *
Eve trusted Edoardo’s promise. They tossed their shovels back in the house and sped away in the car they’d soon have to ditch, towards a small motel where no one would ask any questions as long as their rooms for the night were paid for. Edoardo threw in a few extra euros just to make sure no one asked any questions.
* * *
After long hot showers, the trio fell asleep in their respective rooms. Eve nuzzled close to Nico, listening to his heart beat as she managed to fall asleep for a short period of time. Nico stroked his wife’s hair and reflected on his father’s life. Giuseppe is dead. He’s dead and he will never be able to hurt me again. I’m safe.
* * *
The thought would have been more comforting if Nico’s more unhinged twin brother wasn’t on the loose, scouring Italy for his chance to attack them and exact his twisted revenge.
* * *
It was mid afternoon before any of them got out of bed again. Eve was awakened by Nico and Edoardo’s hushed whispers in the corner of her bedroom.
* * *
“Hmm,” She mumbled as she woke up.
* * *
“Darling,” Nico called to her.
* * *
Eve sat up and wiped her eyes.
* * *
“Time?”
* * *
“Late afternoon, nearly dinner.”
* * *
“Oh.”
* * *
Nico continued, “We have news. And we’re going to leave Italy tonight.”
* * *
“Didn’t we already pay for the room? Why are we leaving Italy?”
* * *
Edoardo chimed in, “We finally tracked Luca.”
* * *
“Where is he?”
* * *
“Back in London,” Edoardo said, “That’s why he set Giuseppe up.”
* * *
“He’d do that to his own father,” Eve said, shuddering.
* * *
“He’d fire at strangers. There’s not a thing my brother won’t do.”
* * *
“So what does that mean?”
* * *
“It means that we’re going to London,” Edoardo said.
* * *
“Shit.”
* * *
“We don’t have long here,” Nico added, “Only a few hours.”
* * *
“Maybe after London this will finally all be over.”
* * *
“Let’s hope so,” Edoardo added.
* * *
“We’ll do more than just hope.”
* * *
Their flight to London landed late that night. The London apartment that Eve had stayed in before was compromised, so Edoardo had found them another three bedroom closer to the heart of Central London. It felt good to be in London again.
* * *
After two days at the apartment, and no drama, Eve was starting to feel at home. She was still speaking to Matteo on the phone every day and Martina assured her that Matteo was doing alright without them.
* * *
Soon, they’d all be together. Edoardo and Nico were working on keeping track of Luca’s location, but he seemed to be moving constantly. This time, he was hunting. He likely thought they were all still on his trail in Italy. Just as they’d underestimated Luca countless times, this time, he was the one who’d underestimated them.
* * *
Nico didn’t like the idea of Eve leaving the apartment on her own, but after a couple days, he seemed to warm up to the idea. Eve was desperate to see Daniella. She hadn’t yet told Daniella or Domenico that she was back in London. Nico had stressed that they tell no one about their return and Eve had obliged.
* * *
On the fifth day they’d been in London, Eve woke up one morning with a fog hanging over her head. She missed her son, she wanted this to be over already, and Nico and Edoardo had started to exclude her from their planning again. She worried that they were thinking of something dangerous — something like blowing up a building just to get rid of Luca.
* * *
Eve couldn't handle their whispering and she couldn’t handle the thought that they might take things too far. Nico had lost his reluctance to work above the law. But now, Eve remembered just how terrifying her husband could get when he was determined to make something happen.
* * *
Eve put on a pair of running shoes and decided to go out for a run. She was sure that she was out of shape. She hadn’t had a nice jog in a long time. But heading out was the only thing that would keep her sane. Eve knew the endorphins would help her escape the fog she was trapped beneath.
* * *
Nico and Edoardo barely flinched when Eve said she was headed out for a run, so she started down the streets. It was just after everyone had rushed to work, so the streets were as uncrowded as you could find in central London. Eve started jogging slowly and she pounded the pavement for a relaxed mile until she came to the tube line.
* * *
Eve stopped dead in her tracks, scared to make a move. Luca. He was headed down into the underground. He scanned around like he was watching his back but didn’t notice her. Out of context, Eve had become just another anonymous urban face. Eve knew she didn’t have time to call Nico. She’d lose track of Luca and who knew when they'd get a chance to see him again.
* * *
Eve felt for her Oyster card in her pocket and followed him at a safe distance down into the tube. She pulled her hoodie up over her head and avoided eye contact. She hopped onto the same car that Luca did, sitting far across from him. Eve got off at the stop that Luca did and continued to follow him.
* * *
This station seemed more familiar, but the truth was Eve had no idea where she really was. Her heart was racing. She was only a few feet from a man who wanted her dead and she was following him. Eve knew this might make her a complete fool, but she couldn’t stop. She couldn’t let Luca out of her sight for even an instant.
Out of Bondage Page 15
