Tempted By The Mafia Boss

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

Mimi

I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel right now.

Sadness …

Grief…

Pain…

I feel all of it, all of it has seeped into my soul.

All of it.

They have me tied up on a boat. I’m sitting on the wooden floor with my hands and feet bound and I’m gagged.

In my mind I keep seeing the image of Gabe lying there on the stone cold floor, in blood. I’m trying to remember where the blood came from. I don’t remember if the blood was on his stomach or his chest or if it was coming from his back. I can’t remember.

I just remember seeing red and him so lifeless and still.

I see him and I see Dad.

Dad…

I try not to think of Dad because my mind refuses to accept what happened. Not what he did. It’s what happened to him.

Marc Fontaine put a bullet in his head. Marc killed him. I know that’s true.

I’ve been on the floor with images of Dad and Gabe pushing through my mind, competing for my grief.

Gabe was by my door.

At my door, so…

He must have come for me. Saw the men and came for me.

The tears have stopped flowing from my eyes.

I’m pretty certain that I’m all cried out. There’s no more. Nothing left inside me and nothing left of me.

A cynical voice inside my head tells me I should have seen darkness coming. It always comes when I’m happy. It comes and takes away the happiness.

It’s happened to me so often now that I shouldn’t be surprised by this.

This time however just feels like the time it counts and matters. It’s the time that’s caused the biggest punch. Like a sucker punch in the back of my head.

I should have seen it coming but I looked away for one minute thinking that maybe my happiness was up to me. Then truth came to get me good.

Fucking hell and fuck it all.

I don’t care anymore. I can’t even think of Salvatore because I know these men are going to kill me and I’ll never see him again.

No matter what arrangements they make to get the files I feel I won’t see Salvatore again.

I never told him I loved him one last time.

That last time.

Early this morning.

The door creaks open and bright lights fill the room.

Marc walks in with another man that looks like him. I’m guessing that’s either Lawrence or Sergio Fontaine.

They’re all as guilty as each other to me.

Marc pulls up the little metal chair across from me and sits down with a smirk on his face.

Looking at him reminds me of Dad’s involvement with them.

I can’t imagine how Dad got himself mixed up with these people.

“My dear you look so much like your meddlesome mother,” Marc states. “Doesn’t she Lawrence?”

“Spitting image,” Lawrence replies.Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

“Women out of business, and don’t ask too many questions. Those are the first two things women know when they get involved with the mob. Those two things are like life lessons you stick by,” Marc continues. I can tell straight away he’s one of those people who loves the sound of their own voice. “Your father’s first mistake was marrying outside of our world. Being with a woman who not only was associated with the states attorney but one who couldn’t do what she was told. One who was ready to go after the big guys for the greater good. Crusader. Those kinds of women end up dead. They die fast just like you will.”

Lawrence pulls the gag from my mouth and I wince, gasping for air.

“Threaten me all you want!” I cry out. “I no longer care. I don’t. Salvatore will never give you what you want. The evidence against you is too strong. They’ll destroy you with it, every last one of you.”

He laughs. “We’ll see about that, Maria Cipriani. I think you underestimate your boy. He values his babygirl. He’ll come for you. I know he will and we’ll kill him, kill him dead and resume our killing spree of the whole Giordano family. We’ll take every fucking one of them out. From the youngest one to the oldest.”

“Bastard. You fucking bastard,” I cry.

“I think I’m a little more than a bastard. Your father… now he was a bastard. Didn’t think before he got in so deep with us. Greed got him where he is today. Greedy bastard your father was, couldn’t say no to money. That’s how it started.” He laughs. “We needed someone close to the Giordanos who did business with them. He was useful alright. Definitely useful, much more than we originally anticipated. Throw him all the money beyond his wildest imagination and that man would do anything. Never thought his family would be at risk until the day it happened.”

All that money Dad had. It came from them.

I’m so stupid. So very stupid.

Dad had millions. Millions he used to throw around. I thought it came from business deals with the Giordanos and his other acquisitions. I never imagined it was all dirty money he’d gotten from playing sides.

Everything fits now, the picture is complete and the puzzle solved. I see it all now before me like an actual picture I can touch.

“Such a fool,” Lawrence adds. “But one we used to do our bidding.”

“How can you be so evil?” I don’t know why I bother to ask such a thing. It’s such a foolish question to ask men like them.

“We just are. You see we can’t allow carelessness to threaten our empire. That is what those files are. A careless mistake we never saw coming. Not seventeen years ago and not now. This fucking time mattered the most because I had the Giordanos right where I wanted them. It was perfect getting Stephanou and his tribe of psychos to do what we couldn’t do.”

I shake my head. “Why couldn’t you do it? Not enough man power? I doubt that, it’s because you wouldn’t stand a chance if it came to it. so you cut off the head of the most powerful members of the family first. Weaken them.” It’s the rage inside me that’s making me talk so ballsy. I’m right though. I’m absolutely right.

Yes, I may not be a full blood Italian and know the ways of la cosa nostra but I know enough. The crime families around don’t trust them and the worst ones have enough power to keep themselves to themselves.

They got Stephanou by chance, but I’m sure that not even he would have helped if he didn’t have the vendetta against the Giordanos.

“Probably had to keep your noses clean to keep rubbing shoulders with Congressman Patterson,” I add and his eyes darken.

He doesn’t like that comment. It’s clear he doesn’t.

“My girl I give you credit. You seem to be smarter than you look.” Marc nods. “Your words don’t count for shit though. We do what we have to, to keep what we have and increase that wealth. Your family could never imagine wealth like that. Not yours and not those vermin Giordanos.”

“Why do you hate them so much?” It’s interest that makes me ask. I’m pretty certain the Fontaines hate everybody.

“They have something we want. Control over the seas. You see it’s one thing to own Chicago but when you have control over what goes and comes to any part of the world, you have the world at your fingertips.” He sneers and balls his fist. “That’s what they have. We know not to bite the hands that feed us. Congressman Patterson has been the man who made our wealth possible and enabled our success. He’s opened doors and covered our backs. But at the end of the day, we’re mobsters and nobody wants to lie down like a bitch and do as they’re told. The shipping company is for us. We get that and we don’t need him. Eliminate the Giordanos and we get control of a jewel.”

Christ… I just stare at him.

“You asshole…” I mutter.”

“My offer to your beloved was this – the files and the shipping company in exchange for you. I plan though to give them pieces of you, boom.” He laughs and I start to shake. “They can have your dead body. Fuckers, I’ll hand them your dead, lifeless body.”

“I hope they kill you!” I snap and he answers with the back of his hand. The impact makes me fall over and I smack my head against the hard floor.

I scream when he gets on top of me and lands a fist in my face.

Stars speckle my vision.

“That’s the other thing about a woman. She’s supposed to know when the fuck to shut up, but just like your mother, you don’t.”

Another punch and I completely blackout.