Tempted By The Mafia Boss

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Salvatore

Make love…

I keep that in my heart.

I keep this morning with Mimi inside my heart to give me strength.

The good thing about being the friends we were for so many years is that she knows without me saying when things are happening.

I don’t have to say shit. She knows like she can read my damn mind.

So she knew without me saying that it was time to leave and get back to my parents’ house.

She knew that we were basically being summoned to the safe zone.

What she doesn’t know and this is the part where I draw the line, is the fine print.

She won’t know that call was from Vincent and he was telling me our hacker found Stephanou’s hideout underground, and she won’t know we found three guys who were working for the Fontaines at her place last night.

Our guys on the street found them waiting for her to come home and eliminated them.

That’s what the orders are now.

It’s kill on sight because we know they can only be there for one thing.

To kill.

Fuck… I can’t believe the situation.

It’s going down today though. Like fuck am I going to live through another day of this shit where I’m on edge and in the dark.

We just got back to the house and I took Mimi to the guest room she stayed in that first night she was here. It’s the closest to the safe passage we have built into the house.

My parents’ house is beautiful and looks similar to a castle but there’s more than meets the eye. Each room has a secret door that leads down to the basement which is practically a shelter from everything.

It’s similar to the room Vincent has at his house but this is on another level. It’s practically a bomb shelter built into the basement. It’s designed to fit thirty people and has everything you need if you needed to hide out for a good three months.

More than anything, no one can get in. There’s no entrance that’s visible to the naked eye and the only people who know about it are us.

Us, our wives and the people closest to us that have worked in the house. The place is top secret.Property © of NôvelDrama.Org.

I take my girl’s hands and hold them, what she said to me this morning stuck.

It will stay with me too just like the magical experience of making love to her.

We stare at each other for a few seconds and she tightens her grip on my hands.

I want to tell her that we’ll just slip back into those people we used to be weeks ago. I want to tell her she’s my forever, I want to tell her all that I should but I know the risks.

She does too and one of us has to be bigger than the love between us that wants us to be together.

It has to be me, but like fuck am I going into what could be my death and break her heart and mine too.

So fuck life and risks. She’s here and she’s safe. If only for today.

I can think about right and wrong and risks and choice tomorrow.

If I live to see it I’ll do it then.

“You stay here Mimi,” I say firmly, showing how serious I am. My voice comes out in a rasp because I haven’t spoken in hours.

“You guys found them didn’t you?” she asks.

It’s one question too much.

“That door.” I point to the polished wooden door near the window, ignoring the question. It looks like a closet. “You hear anything unusual you just go through it and work your way down. Don’t look back, don’t do anything. You just go and when you get to the end you’ll be safe. No one can follow you once you close this door.”

She bites the inside of her lip.

“Salvatore, will you be okay?”

“Don’t worry about me. Just please promise me that you’ll do as I ask. Gabe is staying here with my mother. The two of them will take charge. Everyone else is going out on the street.” Even Pa. He’s not the type to send his men out and sit behind a desk fucking around. When shit’s going down he’ll be right there side by side.

She stares at me and nods. “Okay…”

“No one is coming here today. That includes your father. We’ve contacted him to let him know you’re safe but he doesn’t know you’re here. Speak to him tomorrow about your mother.” That was the last part of my instructions. She nods, agreeing.

It’s time to go. I’ve already taken too much time.

I bend down and kiss her. It’s a quick kiss and I won’t tell her I love her because it will sound like goodbye.

I walk out leaving her, willing myself to stay focused and not allow the worry I saw on my doll’s face to get to me.

I’m a capo now. I have to know when to be ruthless and heartless. There is no in between. It’s a choice of state of mind that keeps people alive.

Compassion is a weakness.

It makes you slip up and get blindsided. Enemies are there to destroy. They wait for the second you allow emotion to rule you and that’s when they get you.

That’s why they look for your weaknesses.

I head straight to Vincent’s room and find him inside holding Timothy.

He’s standing by the little cot swaying side to side.

Although I love seeing my brother with his child the picture looks incomplete.

I keep expecting to see Sorcha come up to them and tell Vincent off for holding the baby wrong, or singing the song wrong. But she will never be able to do that again.

Vincent turns when he sees me and Timothy slowly opens his eyes.

It’s funny today he looks like her. I didn’t know that could happen but I guess he’s growing into who he’s supposed to be.

“Hey, is he okay?” I ask. It’s stupid as fuck to ask Vincent if he himself is okay because I know he’s just managing.

“I think um… he has colic or maybe he’s teething. I don’t know. This is soothing him. We’ve been like it for hours,” Vincent explains and he gives me a small smile. “Look baby, it’s your uncle. My kid brother.”

I walk up to them. “Can I hold him?” I ask.

I haven’t held him much but it feels like I should change that up.

“Of course…” Vincent hands me Timothy and despite the swirl of anxiety and everything that’s going on inside me I can’t help but soften when Timothy offers me a big smile. It’s so big and his toothless mouth makes him look cuter. He starts giggling even though I haven’t done anything.

“Jesus, maybe I should have called you.” Vincent smiles. “What the hell did you do to make him laugh like that?”

“I don’t know, maybe he thinks I have a funny face. I’ve been told that.”

“Tyke,” Vincent scuffs at me.

I rest Timothy against my shoulder and he grabs on to my jacket, rests his head down and closes his eyes.

“Looks like you’re a natural,” Vincent states.

“Thank you.” He looks like hell and I know that means he’s probably been up all night with the baby. I’m not sure he should be going anywhere. I’ve avoided asking him how he’s feeling but I think I should ask today. “How are you managing, Vincent?”

He shakes his head. “I’m not. I’m just going on autopilot. I’m functional for him and for you all. Ma said I needed to get as many of Sorcha’s things as I could so he can have the smell of her to comfort him. I feel like a prick because I take comfort in her scent too, it should belong to him.”

“Don’t feel guilty about that Vincent. You can’t.”

“I don’t know what I’m going to do Salvatore. I don’t know how I’m supposed to raise him in this fucked up world of ours, and fuck, that’s actually wishful thinking because I don’t know what’s going to happen today. Nick’s rallying with Claudius. We’re going in strong but there’s no guarantee. Never is.”

I sigh. “We just have to hope.”

He nods. “Yeah. The hacker was able to track them with a phone number from the guys we took down last night. He used the phone to look for the listing of the places the phone had been used. That’s how we found the facility. It’s not even on the city underground map. On there the area looks like part of the lake. We wouldn’t have been able to find it at all off our own backs.”

It’s all so clever and we have one hell of a hacker. Those kinds of people always help push the limits and get shit done. You’re fucked if you don’t know a good one.

“We get them today,” I vow. “Every last one of them. Every fucker dead.”

“I want to kill Stephano, Salvatore,” Vincent says. His eyes cling to mine. “The last bullet in his head is mine. I kill him in whatever way I need to. I need to do it though. For my girl and for Frankie. You hear me?”

“I hear you, brother.” I also understand.

He nods then grips my arm. “Capo,” he pauses and I tense. “If I go down you take Nick and get the fuck out. Grab him kicking and screaming if you have to. The two of you get the hell away and fall back.”

I nod agreement but I hope it won’t come to that.

I look to Timothy and pray it doesn’t come to that.

The underground facility has been identified as being two miles away from the docks.

There are several entry points all leading in through the sewage system.

The plan was clever. We’re all splitting up to get inside so that we don’t alert too much attention.

We have thirty of us going in and guys on the outside.

All the strongest men from our alliances are here. That ranges across four families.

Me, Pa, Vincent, and Nick enter from the tunnels a mile out from the shipping company. We slip down there stealthily and walk, following Pa as he takes the lead, gun in hand. We have eyes watching for danger. A whole set up with a team who can see ahead of us.

We’re carrying communicators equipped to push through the signal limitation a person would normally experience underground. We learned well from previous encounters to go in prepped.

“I don’t like this,” Pa says under his breath.

“What Pa?” Nick askes.

“The feeling. It’s too easy. I won’t just assume they don’t know we’re coming. Those fuckers have been watching us. I won’t make the mistake of thinking they don’t know what we’re up to.” He keeps his voice low.

We’ve been walking for close to a mile now and it’s been smooth with no encounters so I won’t disagree with him.

“They know we’re coming and they want us here,” Vincent chimes in. “That’s what it is. They want us down here. We just have to be ready when bullets fly.” He looks to me and I nod.

I nod and I just keep going.

We continue on in silence. In the darkness of silence. The only light ahead of us is our flashlights.

What I think of is Mimi.

I hope she’ll be safe.

I hope she’ll do what I asked her to do and be safe.

Right now I don’t feel like I have tomorrow.

I feel like I’m walking to my death.

I get confirmation of the feeling when we enter a factory style warehouse twenty minutes later and bright lights switch on before us.

All our men enter at the same time.

On the platform on the upper level ahead of us is Diego Portaleu with over a hundred men.

Guns pointed at us.