3. Cielo

The Charity event soon ended and the crime families soon returned to their base. There was only one thing on their agenda. Find Mr. Anonymous!

The Charity event had realized up to twenty million dollars that were to be used to carry out projects in the city.

“What the fuck was that?” Alessio screamed at his underboss as soon as they stepped into the foyer of the house. “Who is the anonymous person?” he questioned, walking to the bar and taking out a bottle of whiskey. He turned a quantity into a glass, drinking from it before turning back to face him.

He had donated the least amount of money. The Verrilli family wasn't even financially buoyant to make such donations, but it was mandatory for all the crime families to donate. The Verrilli family had lost a whole lot of money in the past two years. After a drug deal with the Venice mafia had failed to pull through and their parcel was intercepted by the federal cops, they had hit the rocks of financial crisis. Alessio was prone to making bad decisions and was unable to stir the family away from trouble. So far, they had unsettled debts with the Italian godfather.

“I suggest we try to find whoever this anonymous person is.” His underboss suggested. He had been loyal to him since he became the head of the family sixteen years ago.

“How do we go about that? I'm sure the other families are also going to be looking out for him too,” he responded.

“We need an alliance then.”

Giovanni walked into his brother's room to meet him working hard on his personal computer. He was dressed in shorts, bare chested and a face cap turned backward. A bottle of expensive whiskey and a pack of cigarettes lay on the table as he typed vigorously on the laptop.

“What have you been able to find?” Giovanni asked, leaning by the door frame. His brother turned, taking in his expression. He looked like he was ready to pounce on him if he had bad news.

“Nothing,” he stated, turning back to the computer.

“You've been sitting on the system for over two hours, don't tell me nothing.” He yelled, moving closer to his brother. He stood behind his brother, looking at what he was working on.

“How do you expect me to find the information, huh?” he questioned, his voice raising in anger at his brother. “I'm not a hacker. I'm good with guns, and knives,” he added more calmly.

Giovanni took the bottle of whiskey from the table and drank directly from it. Angelo followed his swift movement with his eyes before picking up the pack of cigarettes. “Give me a name. Just one name and I promise you I'll fetch him out,” he stated.

“Do you know what this means?” Giovanni questioned, more calmly after he had dropped the bottle on the table.

“It means someone is questioning your authority. It means a faceless figure is rising against you.” Angelo answered and anger flashed through his eyes.

“I don't want that to happen and you have to do something about that.” He stated, patting his brother on the back before rising and walking out of the room.

He walked out of the office to the drink bar in the house. He sat on the stool by the bar and took out a bottle of expensive whiskey, his favorite brand. He turned it into a glass and drank from it, his mind racing wildly. He had been in a meeting with the head of the Venice mafia some days ago and while the man had refused to give out a lot of information, he knew something was wrong somewhere. Now, he couldn't help but think if the anonymous man was part of the grand scheme. He swirled the glass of whiskey in his hand as he thought back to the activities that had happened in the past few weeks before the present day. Nothing unusual had happened, or none that he knew of. They had cleared the drug shipment that came into the city and all the families had taken their cut though the Rossi family had complained about theirs, but it was resolved.

His mind wandered to the Verrilli family. They were the largest crime family in the city and so far in the past few years, they had been going through a minor crisis. He didn't interfere with their affairs, because every family was capable of holding their own, but as the mafia don of the city, he had information about every other family. He knew about the broken deals the Verrilli family had with other organizations, he knew about the debt with the godfather. Fuck! He also knew about the number of toes they had stepped on due to the bad leadership of the family.

The family was headed by fifty seven year old Alessio, more of a reckless spender than a decision-maker. He had made many bad decisions that pushed their family to the rocks. He remembered when he was growing up, the Verrilli family was headed by Mateo until his assassination. After his assassination, Alessio had taken over. When he grew up old enough to understand the workings of the different crime families, he realized that the death of Mateo was rather too strange. The Verrillis didn't even try to revenge their own. It wasn't his issue to deal with though.

Cielo stormed inside his room and locked the door before going to sit on the bed. She took time to remove every gadget she had worn, from the microphone, the earpiece, and the micro camera. Placing all of them on the table, she loosened her hair from the bun, making it fall before slipping out from her long gown. She was now dressed in biker shorts and a black singlet. She quickly picked out a big t-shirt from her wardrobe of clothes, putting it on before moving over to her laptop that was closed on the table. She opened it and typed on it. The question of the anonymous person kept ringing in her mind.

“Who was this anonymous person?” she had asked herself multiple times without finding an answer. She had information about most of the rich and influential people in the city, but she had nothing on him. Didn't even know he existed up till today.

A soft knock sounded on the door before it was pushed open, the intruder, not waiting for a response. He walked into the room with a glass of expensive wine in his hand. He was an old man, who looked to be in his sixties. He still had that young look on his face. He held a little smile on his face as he walked up to the table she sat.

“How did today go?” he questioned, leaning on the table.

“It was okay,” she responded simply. He waited for her to continue and when she didn't, he pushed forward with the questions.

“What did you get on Cherisi?” he asked and she turned to face him fully.

“I got nothing from Giovanni. He seems cool.” She replied and he huffed.

“And the anonymous man causing panic?”

“Well, an anonymous man made a donation of one point five million dollars. Nothing much.” She responded, shrugging her shoulders.

“Any hint of who he is?” he questioned, desperation visible in his tone.

“No” was her simple reply.

“Find something on him, and find it quickly,” he stated. He walked to the door and taking one last swipe of the entire room, he walked out, leaving her to breathe a sigh of relief. He was her boss, more than a boss, according to him, he owns her now. He had picked her from the street after she was kicked out by her foster parents. She was barely fifteen then. He had taken her in, fed her, and sent her to school. When she clocked seventeen, he withdrew her and sent her on a training course. He operated one of the biggest crime syndicates and she now worked for him. She didn't realize this until when she got back from her training. He was training her so that she could be part of his army, his personal soldier.

She knew nothing about his family, she had never seen him with one, so she assumed he either didn't have a family or they were in another country. He didn't look Italian too and she knew better than to ask questions. One time when she was sixteen, she had gotten really curious about personal information about him and when she confronted him, he flared up and locked her in for two days without food. That left a mark to tell her to always avoid asking questions. She was only to look and be told, and not ask questions.

She had been a loyal soldier for him, gone on very tough cases, risked her life on numerous instances, and had almost got killed twice, but her loyalty was unwavering. Sometimes, she doubted his intentions, but she never questioned them.

Of course, she never told him every single detail about herself or who she truly was, but judging from the level of information the man had in his possession, he doubted he didn't already know. He had asked her about herself when he picked her up and she had told him a lie and he never asked again. She never knew if he believed her or already had the information.

“I need you to keep an eye on her and her activities.” he gave the order to one of his men as soon as he walked out of her room. He was beginning to grow doubts about the information she relayed to him, and he needed to find out the truth for himself and keep her from finding out anything he didn't want her to know.

He knew a lot. Information, to him, was more powerful than weapons, so he gathered it eagerly.

He needed to know who the anonymous man was. He couldn't let anybody taint his perfectly laid out plan.