by Jonas Saul
A grunt told him he hit his mark. The thump of dead weight confirmed it.
He thrust himself forward with his feet, sliding along the hangar floor on his back, trying to get some room between him and the four chairs that circled the coffee table.
After another bout of heavy machine-gun fire from outside, Vincenzo made it to the outer wall, unscathed.
“You in there,” someone shouted on a bullhorn. “We have the hangar surrounded. Come out or we’ll storm the building. I repeat, you are surrounded. You have one minute to come out.”
Shit, shit, shit.
Someone grabbed him from behind. He couldn’t help himself as he shouted out.
“Shhh. Take this.”
A cold metal object landed in his palm.
“Put them on. You’ll see better.”
Vincenzo felt around the surface of the object in his hands and found the cloth backing strip. Goggles of some kind. He pulled the elastic-like cloth out and placed it on his head, the goggles over his eyes. Instantly, the blackened hangar came to light in a green haze.
“There’s a lot of men out there and we need everyone here to do their part,” the guard said.
“Their part?”
The guard with the M16 looked down at him. “Our orders were, if the meeting is interrupted for any reason, all enemies die. That includes the Gambino Family members who are out there right now. The police had guaranteed we wouldn’t be interrupted.”
Gambino Family?
“Why is the Gambino Family attacking us? On second thought, why weren’t they invited?”
“Those are questions I can’t answer. I have no idea.”
Through the green lens, Vincenzo watched as the guard stood, aimed through a small hole in the corrugated metal wall and carefully aimed his weapon. Vincenzo searched the wall and found a similar hole. He stared out at the men lined up in pairs behind the cars and vans.
The guard beside him began firing. Boom, boom, boom. Just like that, men dropped one by one. A few lucky assholes ducked in time, but then the guard switched guns. Vincenzo saw that it was another elephant gun. As the guard fired, each round was like a cannon, and the vehicles were taking most of the hits.
A van exploded.
Vincenzo, blinded by the fireball, dropped to the floor and ripped off his goggles. After his eyes cleared, he placed the goggles back on and surveyed the hangar. Two other guards pumped bullet after bullet out of their respective holes in the walls. Three bodies were sprawled out on the floor by the coffee table.
The bosses of the other families are all dead. Holy shit!
The Fuccini Family was the only surviving member of the peace accord, with the Gambino Family making a major power play outside.
What the hell had happened? How did it get so bad, so fast? Now the four top crime families would be at war after all, and it was the Gambino’s who had started it.
He stopped the pity party, turned around and began firing his gun out through the hole in the wall. What a waste of bullets. He hit nothing and saw no one outside anymore.
He pulled his weapon back in. The guard three feet to his left was reloading.
Vincenzo aimed his weapon at the open area on the guard’s neck. He closed his eyes to avoid the blinding flash as he pulled the trigger. He opened his eyes again as the guard fell to his knees and then the ground, dark liquid shooting from his neck.
Vincenzo looked back at the two remaining guards. They still stared through their holes.
Good, fuck ’em.
He crawled over and unstrapped the hand cannon from the fallen guard and then chambered a round. With the resolve of a Fuccini Family man, he stood, wiped the sweat off his forehead and aimed at the guard on his right, at least twenty feet away.
Vincenzo fired and then fired again, the recoil knocking him back a step each time.
The second shot wasn’t necessary. The first knocked into the man high in the chest area, throwing him at least five feet in the air before he fell, a clump of human waste.
Damn that recoil. Didn’t expect that.
He turned to the other guard who watched him now, his weapon leveled at Vincenzo.
“Don’t make me fire, Vinny,” the guard pleaded. “I have orders to keep you four safe. You are not the enemy. They are.” He pointed to the outside wall. “I will fire to save my life, but I don’t want to. Let’s walk out of here together.”
He needed to wipe sweat from his forehead again, but resisted, letting it slide down, tickling him as it went.
“Okay, you’re right. Let’s leave. Can you drive?” Vincenzo dropped his aim.
The guard lowered his weapon. “Yeah. I’ll drive.”
In that second, Vincenzo lifted his gun back in place and fired round after round into the guard. The man had no chance.
Alone inside the hangar, Vincenzo walked over to the guard and looked down at him as he gasped for breath. Blood pooled around the man’s mouth.
“Next time, don’t call me Vinny.”
He chambered a round, aimed at the guard’s face, and fired from one foot away. The man’s head exploded and disappeared in a wet mush of human skin and bone. Vincenzo looked back down at the body and the dent in the hangar floor where the head had been.
A shame. A fucking shame.
He headed for the only open door in the hangar. No one remained alive in the building and it didn’t sound like anyone was alive outside either. Not a single bullet had been fired outside or inside since he’d killed the guard who had given him the goggles. Nothing else came from the bullhorn. Only the crackling fire from the fully engulfed van.
As he neared the door, he removed the goggles and stepped up to the edge of the door frame. He dropped the guard’s gun. In all his thirty-eight years, he had never seen this many dead men. A major battle had taken place and he was the only man left standing. His father would be so proud. Not a scratch on him. That was what family bosses were made of.
The peace accord had been handed to him on a platter, he realized. Now, with all three crime bosses dead, and many Gambino Family member’s bodies strewn about, their seconds would be named. Vincenzo’s father, and by extension, himself, would garner the respect due to an original family. The fact that Vincenzo would walk away from this carnage was enough to make him a hero. His name would go down in the mafia history books for years come.
Yeah, as long as there’s no asshole only half-dead, a gun in his hand, waiting for me to walk by.
He looked out and scanned the territory surrounding the hangar. Nothing moved.
“Okay, I surrender,” he shouted, in case anyone was alive to hear him. “I’m coming out.”
Vincenzo stepped into the open, his hands raised.
Two feet from the door and no one had taken a shot at him. No one popped a head up or said anything. He took a few more steps. Still nothing.
His stomach couldn’t handle the tension. At any moment, he was convinced that someone was going to sit up, like a fucking Jack-in-the-box, and fire a round into his eye.
But no one did.
The moon sat high, the fire crackled to his left, the insects of the night remained quiet, and no one shot at him.
Amazing. Fucking amazing.
He walked farther, feeling more secure. His Cadillac was shot up pretty bad. It was also boxed in by two of Gambino’s vehicles, one of which was the van on fire.
A police siren wailed in the distance.
Gotta get the fuck out.
Not a single vehicle was available to use. They were either on fire or shot to shit. He knew he had to hustle. In minutes, the area would be littered with cops, and dogs would search every square inch. At least a ten-mile radius would be shut down.
He looked up at the sound of a car approaching. Not a cop car. No flashing lights. He walked up to the shoulder of the road. The car was coming fast, but slowed as it approached the flames. A Ford Mustang with the interior light on.
That’s weird. Why’s the interior light on?
>
When the Mustang was fifty paces out, Vincenzo stepped from hiding and, with his legs spread, aimed the gun two-handed at the driver of the vehicle.
It didn’t slow. In fact, in the last few seconds before the vehicle was upon Vincenzo, it sped up.
Vincenzo fired a bullet into the windshield as a warning.
“Pull over,” he shouted. “I need your car.”
Vincenzo didn’t have time to jump. He’d waited too long. He’d just walked out of a hangar full of dead men, surrounded by dead men, the only survivor. Surely a car would stop for him, or at least veer away from an invincible mafia leader. When he shot a warning at the vehicle, he thought for sure the driver would lose control. All it caused the driver to do was hit the gas pedal.
The Mustang hit Vincenzo at the knees, knocking him onto the hood of the car at forty-five miles per hour. Vincenzo rolled up and smashed into the windshield, and then tumbled over the car, clearing the trunk on his way to the ground.
The driver slammed on his brakes and pulled to a stop on the side of the road.
The pain was intense and all-encompassing. He lay at an odd angle. His hips weren’t meant to twist that way. Only his right eye still worked. In his peripheral vision, the back of his left foot rested near his shoulder.
He couldn’t move. He couldn’t speak. He lay there, breathing slower and slower.
A young man ran up and stood over him.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I didn’t see you. I was watching the fire over there. Then something hit my windshield. I panicked and then you jumped in front of my … Oh, man, I’m in so much trouble. I’m sorry, mister. I’ll call an ambulance.”
The young man moved away from Vincenzo’s vision, crying, whispering crazy things. Then he was talking on his phone to someone.
“Rosina, it’s Darwin. I’m sorry. I couldn’t see him in the dark, honey” he paused, then, “I don’t have to call the cops … I see a ton of them coming now. I’m sorry, Rosina. I’ll call you when this is over.”
The man didn’t hang up. He sounded angry and distraught. The guy asked whoever he was talking to how things could get messed up so bad, and what would her parents think of him since they’re engaged.
Hey kid, I’m dying here. Can you worry about your fiancée and her parents later? Call a fucking ambulance.
Vincenzo closed his one good eye. He was tired. Breathing became a serious chore. He fell asleep. The blood oozing out of all his open wounds stopped flowing.
His heart had stopped.
Chapter 1
Darwin handed the key to the man at the desk. He took a good look around the room for anyone watching them in any way beyond normal suspicion, but the small lobby was deserted. It was only his new wife, Rosina, himself, and the clerk, who didn’t look suspect.
“How was your stay?” the clerk asked in his accented English.
“Great,” Rosina answered him. “We had a fabulous time in Rome. Loved the Coliseum. Thanks.”
Darwin grabbed his backpack, slipped both arms through the straps, and grabbed their one suitcase.
“Let’s go, hun. We don’t want to miss the bus to the airport.”
She shot him a glance that said don’t rush me. He raised his eyebrows and smiled.
No problem, I won’t rush you, just hurry up.
They said goodbye and promised to return, then made their way down the stairs and out of Hotel Luigi. It was a block to where the bus was to take them to Fiumicino Airport where they were flying to Athens, Greece, to continue their honeymoon.
Darwin surveyed the area, scanning the faces of everyone who was too close for comfort. They were too exposed. Darwin hated having his wife this exposed. He watched his back, paid attention to the street ahead and waited for the sky to fall. At any moment they could be attacked.
He knew it. His wife didn’t.
He thought about telling her, but hadn’t been able to bring himself to quite yet. It was their honeymoon after all. He didn’t want to ruin it for her. He would come clean on the plane ride back to Toronto. That would give him a chance to give her all the details about the death threats, the two attempts on his life, and the new way they were going to have to live. She wouldn’t be able to run away from him when he explained everything, as they’d be stuck on a plane together. She wouldn’t be able to yell at him or hit him on a plane either. He’d remind her about air rage laws.
It wasn’t really his fault, though. Fate did this. But now he had to live with it. Or die for it.
They made it to the bus stop unscathed. The bus pulled up moments later. Darwin placed their luggage piece in the compartment under the bus and handed their tickets to the driver. Other people were dumping their luggage in too and scampering onto the bus. After a long line, Rosina walked on.
Darwin waited until it looked like no one else was coming, then took one more look around. As he started to step on, something stopped him. Two well-dressed men had just exited Rome’s Termini train station. Both of them talked on cell phones. One pointed at Darwin.
Darwin leapt up the bus stairs. The driver shut the door behind him.
“How long before we go?” Darwin asked.
“Right now,” the driver answered. “You were the last passenger.”
He turned and started down the aisle, looking for Rosina. He saw her halfway down, near the middle exit door. The bus pulled away from the curb. Just as he went to sit down, one of the two men had made it to the side of the bus.
The man jumped up and banged on the window beside Rosina, who leaned away from the glass.
“Wow, crazy people. They really should try to get here on time.”
“Yeah,” Darwin agreed. “Insane.”
His stomach clenched. That was too close. One minute either way, and they would’ve been kidnapped or dead. He had to do something more proactive. He had to fix the situation.
That’s what going to the airport is. I’m being proactive. I’m taking my wife on another plane ride so it’ll take them that much longer to find us again.
He slowly shook his head. They’d never go away. That was just it. This kind of men was too powerful. When they put you in their sights, there really was no negotiating with them. It was over and there was nothing anyone could do about it.
“You okay?” Rosina asked. “You look white.”
“Yeah, I’m okay,” he said. “Continental breakfast didn’t really sit well with me.”
“I’m feeling fine, so I doubt it was the food. Could it be your fear of flying?”
Darwin looked at her, his head still bowed. “No. Really, I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.”
She leaned closer and snuck an arm inside his. “But you’re my husband now and I love you. Tell me what’s bothering you so I can take it all away.”
I wish it were that simple.
“It’s nothing, really. I’ll be fine once we’re on that plane to Athens. This is going to be awesome. I cannot wait to see the Acropolis.”
“Me, too,” Rosina said as she looked out the window and took in Rome’s downtown.
On a couple of wide turns, Darwin looked over his shoulder to see if he could spot anyone following them. As far as he could tell, no two cars behind the bus stayed there too long.
Within twenty minutes, the bus went up a ramp and merged onto a highway. They said the ride from Termini Station was an hour to Fiumicino airport. Darwin settled back, closed his eyes and prayed. All they had to do was get to the airport, check in and get past security. Once that was accomplished, they would be in the clear. The men hunting him wouldn’t get through security with a gun. They’d also have to buy airline tickets and try to get through security in time to find them before they boarded their flight. Tall order, even for those assholes.
Bumps in the highway woke him. He’d almost fallen asleep, the stress of the last few days piling up.
That was why he chose Hotel Luigi. They accepted cash. Sure the hotel staff took their passports and wrote informat
ion down, but that information wasn’t readily handed in to the Italian officials in a timely fashion. That meant Darwin and his wife would have a few days in Rome before they were detected.
The same for Athens. He had a nice hotel picked out that offered the same kind of anonymity.
As long as they were still alive to board the plane.
