by Rye Hart
A disgusting, gut-wrenching laughter in the midst of the darkest place I’d ever been.
“I’ll do it,” I said. “I’ll give you everything if you give me my family.”
“I also want one last thing,” Stefano said.
“Name it.”
“I want you to show up and shake my hand on it. So I can put a bullet in your head.”
“No! Romeo, don’t do it!” Julia yelled.
“Silence!” Stefano roared.
“Help us,” Matteo said.
My son. His sweet little voice. Begging me to do something. A stranger to him, and he was begging. But I wasn’t a stranger. I was his father. And if dying ensured my son and the woman I loved would live, then I would gladly do it.
“Fine Stefano. I will come to wherever you are and give you whatever you want. You can kill me if you want, but you have to promise me that Julia and Matteo will be let go unharmed to live their lives in peace and safety. I want you to swear on your family name that you won’t hurt them.”
“Not on my brother’s name?” he asked.
“You killed your brother in cold blood for stepping out of line. You never gave a shit about him.”
“I loved my brother!” Stefano exclaimed. “He was everything to me!”
“You don’t kill someone who’s everything to you,” I said. “So I want you to swear on your mother. Swear to me you will spare my family because of my death and the giving of my family’s business over to you.”
I closed my eyes and swallowed thickly. I knew at any second this could go sideways. That Stefano could rain down bullets and massacre my family within a split second. But I hoped the dangling of my family business was enough to keep his actions from exploding. To keep his anger from sliding to the tips of his fingers. I closed my eyes and held my breath as Julia and Matteo’s sobs filled my ears.
I hope you both know how much I love you.
“I swear on my mother’s life,” Stefano said. “But you better come.”
“I will. I’ll be there.”
“I’ll text you with a time and place. You’ve got ten hours to get everything in order. And you come alone. Because if you don’t, you and your new cop buddies will be fishing bits and pieces of Julia and this little boy out of the river for months.”
My fist gripped at my side as my eyes darted around. My mind was swirling. I had no idea how I was going to get out of this intact. I looked back at the abandoned car and my heart stopped in my chest. Someone had to be here. Someone drove that car out to the docks.
Fuck. I couldn't think straight any longer.
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll come alone.”
“Good boy. Wait for my text. And you better hurry. It’ll come quicker than you think.”
CHAPTER 32
JULIA
I looked over at my son and saw him shivering in his chair. My poor baby was cold. Petrified. And I couldn't reach out to him. Stefano had us tied up. Strapped to uncomfortable metal seats in some office of an abandoned, dilapidated old warehouse. They had cornered us as I had careened down an alleyway. They blocked us in and two men had cut off our seat belts and tossed us into the back. I held Matteo, his sobs rattling his whole little body as we rolled around in the back. I tried to keep him from getting hurt. I tried to tell him that things were going to be okay.
But I didn’t know if they were going to be okay.
Romeo had been right about everything. My uncle had killed my father and pinned it on the Martine family. Silent tears fell from my eyes as my mind stood at a standstill. My poor father. Holy hell, I’d let that disgusting man around my son. I’d let him babysit. Talk with Matteo. Fix him food and tuck him in at night.
“Perfect. That’s good. I’m sending the text in two hours. Be ready,” Stefano said.
I watched as he walked back into the room and sat in a chair in the corner.
“I’m so disappointed in you, Julia.”
“Shove it,” I said.
“All you had to do was what I’d asked of you. All you needed to do was get close to Romeo. Close enough so I could’ve put a bullet in those Martine boys’ heads without all of this extra heartache.”
“Go fuck yourself.”
“Does Matteo know?”
My eyes whipped over to my son as he stared at his uncle. A man he’d trusted. A man who now petrified him.
“Don’t,” I said.
“Oh. He doesn’t know,” Stefano said. “Then this first part will be fun.”
“Know what?” Matteo asked with a sniffle.
“You know Romeo? Mommy’s friend?”
“Stefano. Stop it,” I said.
“The one who got hurt that you two went to go see?” he asked.
“Stefano! Cut it out!” I exclaimed.
Matteo nodded his head as his eyes grew wide.
“He’s your father, Matteo. A disgusting Martine. Do you know what that makes you?” Stefano asked.
“Wh-wh—what?” Matteo asked.
“Garbage.”
“I’m going to rip your throat out,” I said.
“Mommy?” my son asked.
“It’s okay, sweetheart. Everything’s okay.”
“Is it true?”
I panned my gaze over to my son as Stefano laughed in the corner.
“You’ll never get away with this, you piece of shit,” I said as I turned my gaze back to my uncle.
“I admire your spirit,” he said with a chuckle. “Too bad it’s come too little too late.”
Then he was out of his chair and across the room in a flash.
His hand cracked against my cheek, tossing my head off to the side. I heard my son yelling. Screaming. Shrieking for Stefano to stop. He slapped me again, whipping my head in the opposite direction as blood trickled from my mouth. He came down onto me again, my head bouncing back and forth.
“You stupid little bitch. All you had to do was listen. And now, you’ll suffer the same fucking fate he did!”
“Stop it! Uncle!”
Matteo’s voice stopped my uncle in his tracks as my head pounded and screamed out in pain.
“Stop hitting Mommy!”
“You really shouldn’t use such vulgarity in front of your son like that,” Stefano said. “The things children pick up on from their parents is astounding.”
“You don’t give a damn about my son,” I said. “You never have.”
I watched Stefano raise his hand up to smack me again before my son’s voice pierced the air.
“Please, Uncle Stefano. Don’t hit her.”
My eyes widened as Stefano’s face panned over my son.
“Don’t you touch my son. Don’t you do it. Uncle. Uncle! Stop!”
I watched the man slowly walk over to my son. Hovering over him as he trembled in his seat. Matteo crouched away from him, bracing for an impact that would send me into a killing frenzy if he laid a fucking hand on my little boy.
“I’ll kill you,” I said with a growl. “I’ll slaughter you if you touch him.”
Then Stefano’s eyes panned back to mine as a smile crossed his lips.
“I guess we aren’t so different after all,” he said. “But don’t worry. I enjoy kids. I wouldn't have hurt my nephew.”
“No. You just killed his grandfather,” I said.
“Your father and I had a plan, and he veered off course. It’s not my fault he broke a promise. The head of the household isn’t exempt from the punishments of the family.”
“You killed your own brother. Your own flesh and blood,” I said breathlessly.
“I did,” Stefano said. “And I would do it again if it got me what I wanted.”
Tears fell down my cheeks as he backed away from my son. My heart shattered and fell to the floor. My father. My daddy. The first true love of my life. Slaughtered at the hands of his psychopathic brother. Romeo was right about everything, and I hadn’t listened. Matteo and I were in trouble because I refused to listen to the one man I knew I could trust through all of this.
<
br /> If we made it out alive, I vowed to do better by my son. To do better by Romeo. To fix this family and make sure everyone was taken care of and safe.
“How can you sleep at night?” I asked. “How can you close your eyes soundly knowing all the people you’ve betrayed and killed? How can you possibly do it? How can you frame Romeo like you’re doing?”
I lifted my head to look at my uncle and saw him grinning at me.
“With the fan on and the lights out,” he said.
I felt his hand grip my hair and Matteo began to scream. My uncle held my head back, my neck straining, forcing me to look into his eyes that were staring directly into mine. Wide. Wild. Filled with anger as his teeth bared to me. I could feel strands of hair being ripped from my skull as he tipped my chair back, teetering my body on two rickety metal legs as my son cried out in the background.
“We both know Romeo killed those men on the docks. I’m not framing him for anything, merely exposing the murderous man he is. He talks about being better than us and wanting to clean up the family’s act, but he’s a killer. Just like his father. Just like yours. Just like me. I’ve been looking for an opportunity for almost a decade to take out those boys. Not because I hate him, no. His tactics are one to be envied at times. That diplomatic stance and that trusting stare. But his multi-million-dollar business empire calls to me. He doesn’t run it the way it should be run. I can do that. Bring this city back to the glamor it once held. You gave me the perfect chance the moment I snatched you from that car of yours. And I’ll be looking forward to killing him in front of you and his son.”
Then he released my hair and set the chair back down.
My head fell forward, and I began to cry along with my son. Stefano’s footfalls faded away, and he slammed a door as he left us alone in the office. Tears streamed down my face and fell into my lap. I had no one and nothing to rely on. I didn’t have my phone. I didn’t have my car. I didn’t have my things. I didn’t even have the use of my hands. All I could do was sit there and pray to a god I wasn’t sure existed that my son and I would make it out of this alive. That Romeo would make it out of this alive.
And if I had to bargain—if I had to go—then I prayed my son would be spared.
Spared the brutal ending I had a feeling was coming my way.
CHAPTER 33
ROMEO
I rolled my car into the abandoned warehouse district on the other end of the city. Plans were in place, and all I had to do was play my part. The headlights of my car landed on Julia and Matteo, shivering in the cold as night blanketed the whole of the city. The door to an abandoned warehouse was wide open. I could see straight into the darkened room. Julia’s face was swollen and bruised. I could see the pain in her eyes as her body twitched with a need for pain relief. For help from a doctor. I felt anger permeate my lungs and spread through my veins. I felt it ignite my gut with a burning rage to claw Stefano’s eyes out. I stepped out of the car with my hands in the air as my eyes scanned Matteo’s body. His eyes were bloodshot, and his face was puffy from crying, but he didn’t look hurt.
Uncomfortable and scared, but not hurt.
I walked slowly toward the entrance of the abandoned warehouse and stepped through the threshold. Even though the lights of my car penetrated the darkness, it was no match for the thickness of the night. All I could see was what my car illuminated, which left way too much in darkness. I couldn't see anything around their bodies, and it made me nervous.
Because all I could hear was the helpless cries of my family.
“Run, Romeo,” Julia said, pleading. “Get out. Protect yourself, please. He won’t hurt Matteo.”
But Stefano materialized out of the darkness beside Matteo with a gun in his hand..
I took a step forward and heard Stefano cock his gun. My son started crying. Julia was tugging at her restraints. She was tired. Cold. Covered in sweat and dust and tears. She tried to slide her chair over to Matteo before falling over to her side, her shoulder slamming into the concrete floor. I could see the pain rushing along her features, contorting as the crack of her shoulder echoed off the corners of the office space. Stefano chuckled as I stood there, my eyes locked onto her.
She cried out in pain, and my heart sank to my knees.
“Such an embarrassment to the family,” he said. “Really, she shouldn’t have reproduced.”
A white-hot bolt of fear shot through me as Stefano lifted his gun and aimed it at Julia. The look of sheer panic on my son’s his face made me sick. My son. My heir. My flesh and blood. Strapped to a dank metal chair and shivering for his life. His lip quivered, and his chest heaved. He was trying so hard to silence his tears. Trying so hard to be strong. But a six-year-old didn’t need to be strong. He needed the comfort of his mother. Of his father. He should’ve been running in the backyard catching fireflies and begging for one more story at bedtime.
That was the life Matteo deserved.
I held my hands further into the air, locking my eyes onto the disgusting man I hoped would drop dead after I was done with him. I knew Stefano would kill them at a moment’s notice. The man didn’t care. He didn’t have the capacity to care. He was a straight-up madman who rewrote the book on how to not play by the rules. I prayed my plan would work. I prayed that I hadn’t wasted my time coordinating with the police. I prayed they were silent in their efforts and light with their footfalls because I came unarmed.
I had no way to defend myself or my family if they fucked it up.
“Please, stop pointing the gun at Julia,” I said. “You’re scaring Matteo. He’s just a boy.”
“You mean your son?” Stefano asked.
My eyes dropped to him as his eyes widened and our eyes locked.
“Yes,” I said. “My son. Point the gun at me. I’m the one you’re angry with. He’s only six. I know you don’t want to hurt him or your niece.”
“You don’t get to dictate what I do and do not want,” he said.
“Either way, I know you respond to reason. And the gun should be on me. I’m the one you’re out to kill. Not her.”
Julia groaned on the ground, her shoulder clearly dislocated. Matteo whimpered and sniffled, trying to be the bravest boy he could be. I wanted to wrap him in my arms. I wanted to kiss his face. I wanted to wipe his tears and wash his hair and tell him everything was okay. That his father was here to take care of everything he could ever need and keep him safe from anyone who wanted to do him harm.
Relief rushed through my veins as Stefano dropped the gun from the Julia’s body.
He let out a chuckle as I slowly slipped my hands to my sides. I kept them in his vision, but I wanted them to rest. They would need the rest with the war that was coming in my wake. My eyes locked with the madman. He stepped away from my son, positioning himself between my family and me.
That wasn’t a good place for anyone to stand.
“Why are you doing all this?” I asked.
His gun raised to my forehead, and Julia cried out.
“Run Romeo! Please!”
Stefano fired a gunshot into the air, and Matteo shrieked.
“Stop it, please. You’re scaring my boy,” I said.
“Why am I doing this?” he asked.
“Yes. Why are you doing this? Why are you planting evidence against me? Why are you looking for reasons to kill me? What the hell is any of this for? If you wanted my business, there are other ways to get it. Other ways to circumvent the rules of engagement to get what you want. Why kill? And pillage? And go to all this trouble. Waste all this energy?”
“Simple,” he said. “I hate the Martine family.”
“That doesn’t make anything simple,” I said. “That doesn’t explain why you have so many intricate plans in play here.”
“The Martine family is smart but idiotic in their plans. When Giuliano and your father started meeting to talk about peace, they broke the one rule both of our families have abided by for years.”
“Which is?”
/> “Loyalty. I was loyal to my brother. Until he went behind my back and started meeting with that no-good, disgusting man you called ‘father,’ Romeo. Peace between the families? What complete and utter shit!”
He cocked his gun and held it to my face as Julia screamed out again.
“Shut up!” Stefano roared.
He popped off another gunshot in the air. I fisted my hands at my side.
“Your father turned my brother against this family. Made him into a weak little princess. Convinced him that living in some cohabitation with the enemy was a good thing. I know your father was planning on taking us out!”
“No, he wasn’t,” I said. “My father wanted peace because of that little boy behind you. The one who’s frightened and innocent. Nothing changes the heart of a lion like a cub, Stefano. My father? Your brother? They were lions. Seduced by the innocence of a small cub when Julia gave birth six years ago. All they wanted was a peaceful coexistence so Matteo would be safe. So any coming children of either family would be free from the bloodied streets of this town. The blood that was on their hands. They didn’t want peace because they were weak, Stefano. They wanted peace because they were good. Good men. Men you slaughtered, didn’t you?”
Stefano’s nostrils flared, and I took a step forward.
“We know you killed Julia’s father, but you killed mine as well, didn’t you?” I asked.
A smile crept across his cheeks. I wanted to strangle him until his eyes popped out.
“They both deserved it for being pussies. I had to end their disgusting softness. Stop them from disgracing the reputation of our families.”
“Your goal was always to take out the Martine boys. My father, me, and Antony. But when Julia gave birth, you had a fourth person to take out. A fourth heir to the throne you had to get out of your way before you could take over both businesses and merge them.”
Stefano licked his lips, and my stomach rolled with disgust.
“The police have Johnson. He’s already flipped on you,” I said.
“I’m already working to silence that greasy wheel. In a little while, the cops won’t have a damn thing on me. I’ll be free to run this city. I’ve got more people on my payroll than you can imagine. The world won’t miss one dirty cop.”
