by Gabby Grace
“How will I know it’s the signal?”
My face lights up with a telling grin. “You’ll know.”
53
Vito
Bella’s screams have me straining like a raging bull against my restraints, but it’s no use. A fist meets the back of my head and sends me flying to the ground. Fuckers.
It’s tough to gain my feet with my hands bound, so I roll to my side, sight Bella, and she screams back at me through the clear glass. She’s upside down, and pounding at it with her fists. She must think we’re both absolutely fucked right now. What she doesn’t know is I brought friends, and they’ll be joining the party any minute.
They won’t drop her. They’ll need her for leverage to get information out of me. I still feel bad for her. That’s some pretty fucked-up shit. I have no choices right now. I’ll play their game until they think I’m about to give them what they want, before Frankie and Valentino bust in here like a fucking tornado, killing bad guys, and they cut me loose so I can kill some fuckers myself.
The rage is flowing from somewhere deep within the depths of me, from an unseen place where fury and passion are born. I need to unleash it. The fury. I imagine a dozen different ways I can kill. I’ll find the zone and end these fuckers for what they’re doing to Bella. Men will die tonight.
“Ahh… Vito Cirincione. The man who has been a thorn in my side for the last few weeks.”
Don Sirico. He looks over his shoulder at the burly guy holding Bella by the ankles. “Pull her up. We have a guest.”
His dark eyes go back to me. This is the man who employed Nero Petrone, unleashing him on unsuspecting victims. The man who is building a heroin operation that will ruin our neighborhoods and taint our youth. The man who Joey Gentile ordered me to stop at all costs. The man who is ordering the abuse of Bella. The man who will fucking die before another sun rises.
“Get him up.”
Abruptly, I’m brought to my feet, my head pounding from the punch to the back of the head I just took. If these fuckers only knew the carnage I was about to unleash, they’d think twice about what they’re doing right now and also how they’re doing it.
Bella is back up over the rail now, her arms across her chest, almost hugging herself, soft sobs fighting their way through her pursed lips. I see fear in her eyes, mixed with relief at seeing me. But there’s something else that rises up inside her like nothing else, and like nothing I’ve seen so strong in her before. Defiance.
Besides a quick glance, I give her nothing. Although they obviously know we’re together, there will be no embraces, soft words, or sweet nothings here. The darkness is rising within me, enveloping my every muscle, bone, and cell of my body, and when it’s unleashed, nothing will stop it but the silence of dead bodies and the warmth of their blood on my face and hands.
“What? No hugs? No kisses? I’m disappointed.”
I change the subject from Bella and bring all the attention to me. “Sorry about Nero Petrone. His putrid garlic breath was upsetting some people around me so I needed to take out the trash.”
“Nero was becoming a problem with his – how should I say it – hobbies outside of his work. He was bad for business, and you actually did me a favor.”
What the fuck? I’m trying to get the guy angry, so that he focuses on me, and here he is congratulating me instead for killing his right-hand person?
“I could use a guy like you, Vito. Determined, strong… a guy who gets things done.”
I just stare back at him, not believing that he could mean what he’s saying.
He moves toward me, closing the gap quickly for an older man, his cheesy mustache and the rest of his face now inches from mine. He presses his cold hand to my throat, squeezing, and shutting off my breath.
“There is one problem, Vito. I could never trust you, so I’ll just have to kill you.”
Fighting for breath now, but keeping my eyes squarely zeroed in on his, I’m close to passing out, but not wanting to break my death stare, I fight to maintain my consciousness.
He suddenly releases my throat, tossing me backwards with incredible strength for his age and size. The two guards keep me standing up by my arms, bringing me right back up to meet Sirico’s wicked grin.
“This won’t be quick, though. Oh no, Vito. This will be slow, so that I can enjoy and savor every minute, every second, and every one of your screams. Before I’m done, you’ll tell me all you know. I’m particularly interested in learning all about Don Antolini.”
Bellas eyes are still resting squarely on me, refusing to look away. I glimpse great strength inside her that she probably never knew she had. How could she? I’ve faced death before, so I know that strength can come when all the cards are down, when everything looks bleak and hopeless. The place and time when a person has no business even trying to be strong against impossible odds. Like right now.
Yet, there it is. It’s more than strength, though. It’s trust. Trust that everything will work out because it has to. A refusal to give in, to give up, or to succumb. Draw from me, Bella. Look into my eyes and pull from my strength. We can be strong together.
Our eyes meet, and I know she feels my strength. I can definitely feel hers. There are no words, only thoughts exchanged between two people who are connected in their souls. And fuck if I’ll let anything bad happen to her. I’ll die first.
“So what are you waiting for? I’m ready for anything you can dish out.” The attention needs to be off Bella and squarely on me.
Sirico motions to the two guards to take me over to the side. They walk me over and I don’t resist. I’m moved past Bella and she can only watch as I’m led to the rail.
The two guards each kneel down to take one of my legs, and when they have me by the ankles, they slide me forward over the side of the railing. What I can see by the moonlight is the jagged rocks a hundred feet below, waves crashing up on them in a frothy fury.
I don’t make a sound, try to struggle, or in any way give them the satisfaction of knowing that I’m scared, even though I could shit a brick out right now. If I thought that plank twenty-five feet off the ground was bad, this is much worse. They can’t read my mind, though. They can only see what I give them.
“No… stop!” It’s Bella’s voice.
Keep it together, Bella. She can see my face through the glass, and I can see the panic overtaking her. I smile at her. See my strength, Bella. Feel it. This seems to stop her calling out for me, at least for now.
When I look down again, I have to blink to make sure I’m not hallucinating. What I see, but what no one else can right now, is the most beautiful sight – other than Bella’s fully naked body ready to fuck me – that I have seen in a long time.
Maybe fifteen feet below me and off to my right is Frankie. He’s dangling off the edge of the cliff, tied off around his waist with a rope to something out of my view, and securing what looks like the highly-explosive C-4 to one of the two pillars holding up the overhang of the house onto the cliff itself.
This fucking guy, scared of heights and dangling over a 100-foot cliff to save my ass, is nothing short of amazing. What Frankie does next makes me want to burst out laughing despite my predicament. He points to me and mouths the word, “pussy.”
54
Bella
He is my strength. I can see it in his eyes. This unbelievable stoicism that is rubbing off on me and making me dig my heels in, catches me by surprise.
Being hung over the edge of the railing, and in the same position I was screaming my head off in just ten minutes ago, he smiled at me. Yes, smiled.
I have never felt closer to Vito than I do right now. Not through sex, not through meeting my family, and not through the beautiful experiences after. Right now, we are connected and the mistake they’re making is keeping us together.
Together we are strong and can take on anything. Nothing – nothing – is worse than facing death, and here we are. Taking it on together.
He�
��s the reason I’m in this mess. I can’t deny that. That makes me furious. Then I remember my experiences of the past. I remember my mother’s advice. Stand by your man. Give him a chance to prove to you that he’s good. Give him a chance to make up for past mistakes.
Vito didn’t choose this life. Well, he did, but he was eighteen and shunned by his family. He made a mistake. We all make mistakes. He did what he felt he had to do to make his way in this world. It’s an impressionable time in a person’s life. I don’t know what I would have done without my family’s support at that time.
I will stand by him now. If this life keeps up, then I’ll make a decision, but right now, I stand by him.
He stands for good in all of this. He’s the knight on a white horse. It all gets a little muddy when people are dying, but he’s fighting to keep drugs off the streets. Nero Petrone was a bad man, and the world is better off without him. Basilio Sirico is no better, and if given more time, with his power, he may prove worse.
I grew up in a crime-ridden area on the tough streets of Medellin. People were dying all around me every day of my childhood. I lost friends, family, and acquaintances. They took my cousin’s life in the most senseless way. And then there are those whose lives are ruined by these drugs that can sap a person’s soul. They are mere shadows of their former selves, ripping families apart, stealing from them, and refusing to let love be the light that guides their way.
I choose love. I love this man. I love him for how he makes me feel about myself. I love him for taking the time to meet my family when it made him uncomfortable. I love him for taking me places sexually, and spiritually, and God, so many ways I never imagined I could go. I love his strength. I love how he’s protecting me right now by keeping all the attention on him.
I know it now. I love him. Love is the light that will lead us out of the darkness.
55
Frankie
I was just getting into position to set the first C-4 charge when I saw them pulling Bella up over the rail. It was awful to hear her screams and not be able to do anything about it.
A few times I considered pulling my 9-mil and taking some guys out, but they would have dropped her over the side. This has to be done right.
Then seeing Vito go over the edge was surreal. I can’t describe what that feels like to see your best friend dangling over the edge of a cliff, a hand release away from hurtling to his death right before your eyes.
When he finally spotted me, I could see his face light up, if only a little. Then when I called him a pussy, he fucking smiled. Fucking Vito.
I’m not an explosive expert by any means, and I don’t know about loads, or taking out support beams, or any of that shit. I’m going on intuition and trust. Trust in myself to make good decisions and trust in a higher power to know that these fucks deserve to die more than we do right now. We’re not good guys, not by any stretch of the imagination, but the fucks that occupy this house are certainly bad guys – the worst of the worst – and they need to fucking go. Out of this world and to a place where they can no longer terrorize humanity.
Just about all set here. Just need to sink this last wire in and attach it to the detonator.
Vito’s a smart guy, but I need to give him a sign to get away from the edge. I can’t blow this thing while he’s dangling over the side like that, and I put enough C-4 on there to do some damage. The question is, how much damage?
I wave him back as if he has a choice right now, but he’ll think of something. I know he saw me.
Vito says this loud enough so that anybody around him could hear. “Okay, let me back up. I’m ready to talk.”
56
Vito
Frankie needs us out of this area. The explosion could be too powerful for anyone to survive on this edge of the property.
Except these guys aren’t lifting me back up yet.
Fuck me, now what?
I yell, “It’s now or never. If you don’t pull me up now, I’ll never fucking talk to you.”
I can see through the glass that Sirico is weighing his decision. His hand, palm up now, raises with his voice. “Get him up.”
I’m on my feet again, the blood rushing from my head back to the rest of me makes me dizzy for a quick second, but then I recover.
“Why the change of heart, Vito?” His words are measured, and I can tell he’s confused by what I said. He knew he hadn’t broken me yet.
Whatever you say next better be good, Vito.
“You could hang me over a cliff all day and I wouldn’t say a fucking thing. But then I thought about Bella. She doesn’t need to be a part of this. You release her, then I’ll talk.”
He laughs, like a cackling crow. “You know I can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“She knows too much.”
Fuck. Think, Vito. “At least take her inside and get her some food and water. You’re human enough for that, aren’t you?”
“That’s dangerous, Vito. I’d watch your mouth.”
“She has nothing to do with this. It’s me you want. You have me now. She just got stuck in the middle.”
He nods to one of his men. “Take her inside. Get her some food.” Then he turns to me. “But first, you have to give me something, Vito.”
“What do you mean?”
“Information. What do you know about my operations?”
Frankie will be blowing this place sky high any fucking minute, and if giving something up gets Bella out of harm’s way, I’ll throw him a bone.
“Your new warehouse. 348 Wharf Way. I’ve been there, and your security sucks.”
“Tommy told me. Give me something I don’t know already.”
“You’re shipping to Las Vegas, too. Half goes there, the other half to New York.”
“I have interests all over, Vito. You don’t think I just shit in one pot, do you?”
“These are people’s lives. You’re fucking ruining them. Does that matter to you?” A quick flash back in my memory brings up an image of Carlo just before he died.
I can feel the rage rising within me, surging, and getting ready to burst when Frankie gives me a chance.
Steady Vito.
“What do you think, Vito?”
I think you’re a fucking sick man. He might kill me for saying that so I say nothing.
“Money is power, and power is everything, Vito. You may think you know about the world, but I’m going to control the world you know.”
He looks at me, then back at Bella. “Take her away.” The two men whisk her inside, and once she’s inside the glass doors, I breathe a quick sigh of relief. She’s not out of danger, but it’s better than being out here when that explosion goes off.
“I’m done playing games with you, Vito, and since I don’t want your blood all over my nice carpeting, we’ll continue our conversation out here.”
With that, the guards cut the tape off my hands and force me down into a chair. Two guys hold me down while the other tapes each of my legs to the chair, the duct tape making that thick telltale sound as the tape rips off the roll. Gotta’ love duct tape: 1,001 uses.
Before securing my last hand, the guy taping me, just for shits and giggles, throws a couple of straight rights into my chin, the blood from the impact filling my mouth from a deep gash inside. I spit the blood on his suit jacket and bore a hole through his head with my eyes. I’ll kill you for that, mother fucker.
His arm coils back for another shot… Booooooooom!
57
Bella
One of the guards had just poured me a glass of water, and as I was taking a sip, I heard the loudest sound. Kabooooom! The floor beneath me shook angrily as the house strained with loud creaks, coupled with the earsplitting sound of large pieces of wood snapping in half, windows shattering, and glass blowing out and shattering in every direction.
I tried diving to the floor, but was actually half-thrown down as the floor shifted below me, crea
king and shifting at a pretty sharp angle. The men around me were thrown about, and I could see the legs of one of them now, as he was trying desperately to get back to his feet.
Then the shots came, the unmistakable sound now burned into memory after that day at Fave. Bad guys were scrambling into the house through the front door mostly, and two went down within five seconds of each other, preceded by the sharp crack of a gun.
I didn’t know what to do, so I urgently crawled toward a low cabinet, the door wide open and the pots and pans strewn about the floor. I used one hand to hold onto the edge of the door opening, and the other to swipe the remaining stuff out, it hitting the angle and sliding down the floor of the kitchen, which was now sloping noticeably toward the back deck.
I crawl inside and shut the door. The sounds of gunshots surrounding me, I cover my ears, trying to shut out the bitter carnage happening around me in every corner of this awful place.
Huddled up in fetal position, I withdraw into myself and the far corner of the cabinet, desperately trying to calm myself through the heaving sobs, and harsh screams that can only be coming from me.
58
Valentino
I can fully see the support of the house come completely off its concrete mooring in the hillside, after the unbelievably powerful explosion just a minute ago. From that point on, I can’t reload fast enough to maintain the slaughter of my enemies below me, in and about the house, confused and scattered, now realizing full well they’re being assaulted by a one-man wrecking crew from the hillside above them.
At the time of the explosion, I had my scope trained on the medium-built wiry guy who was throwing rights into Vito’s jaw. He simply disappeared from view, just as a large section of the metal and glass rails surrounding the veranda on three sides fell away, buckled and contorted. The wiry guy returns into view as he plummets over the edge, the floor falling out below him, his arms flying frantically in a swimming motion all the way down to the jagged rocks below.
