It was like a game of hide and seek. But looking back I could recognize the finality in her eyes. She knew what was coming and her only concern was saving me.
‘It’ll be okay Gio. Be a good boy and don’t make a sound, no matter what you hear.’
That was the last thing she said to me. Her murder was credited to the Bratva. That’s why my dad hated them so much. I tried to tell him that none of them were Russian, but he didn’t listen. He never listened. He said I was a child and children missed things.
I may not have seen what happened to her, but I heard everything. Every scream and taunting phrase said that night were burned into my brain like a scar that wouldn’t fade. There was only one accent I heard, and it was Cajun.
Swallowing down another mouthful of eggs, I pushed the memories out of my mind and concentrated on my normal Saturday morning routine of flipping through the newspaper. After this I’d go and workout for an hour or two before Darry, Atlee and I paid a visit to Simon.
His payment was late yet again, and I was feeling slightly murderous after my encounter with Nova yesterday. Simon could stem that tidal wave of rage until the football team’s bonfire tonight. Typically I didn’t go to those things but Nova was going to be there and I owed her a little pay back.
“Gio.” I turned towards the person calling my name and saw Saul waltzing in the kitchen.
Saul wasn’t much older than Atlas, but he carried himself like he’d been walking the earth for a thousand years. His face was always straight and shoulders rolled back as if he was expecting someone to jump out and attack. I tried talking to him oncewhen I was a kid, he told me to piss off. Needless to say, we didn’t have a friendly relationship.
“What the fuck do you want.”
“The boss wants to see you,” he answered.
My father was never Mr. Mancini or Cesare, he was always the boss.
“I hate to inform you of this Saul, butmy father,” I flipped a page of my paper, “isn’t home.”
“He is now.”
I arched my brow, although I should’ve known that the second I saw Saul. My dad never went anywhere without his right hand man. Saul was the only person he trusted to protect him. Can’t say I blamed him, Saul was paranoid as fuck.
Sighing out, “Fine,” I pushed my chair back and got up to head up the stairs. Saul stepped in front of me before I could leave the room.
“You know the drill.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
If his lack of expression wasn’t enough to answer that question then the little finger twirl he gave me was. That was his way of saying assume the position.
What was I going to do? Kill my dad with coffee breath?
Grumbling under my breath, I held my arms out so Saul could pat me down.
Considering all I had on was a pair of sweats, I don’t know what he thought he would find. Once Saul was sure I didn’t have a weapon concealed, he waved me on.
I shot him a dirty look and walked away.
I assumed my father was in his office–he practically lived there. Just like I assumed this was about the job I’d been given. He probably wanted to know if I had any information yet, and I did. Veda Ford gave me that when she came to pick up her sister yesterday.
Fear was something I’d seen a lot in my life. My father intimidated a lot of people. But terror was different. People got this desperate look in their eyes. It was the same thing one would see in a doe before it bolted away.
Veda Ford got that same glint when she looked at Antonio Fiore. She definitely saw something. I don’t know what, but it was enough to make all the color drain from her face.
I headed up the stairs and rounded the corner for the last door on the right side of the hall. The double doors at the end were my father’s bedroom. Those were always closed. My father hadn’t been in that room for years. He slept in one down the hall and left his sealed up like some kind of monument.
I wasn’t complaining. One look at those golden door handles and all I could see was the blood staining the floor on the other side. Sometimes I swore I could hear my mother screaming inside there.
Why my father kept his office in the room next to it, I never understood.
I did everything I could to ignore the echoed memories crawling through the back of my mind and quickly stepped into my father’s office.
What I expected to get was some kind of ‘what did you find out’ question.
