CHAPTER THREE

Vittoria's POV

The man who I had spent the last six months planning to destroy.

He was standing right in front of me and I couldn't even move.

I tried to keep my expression neutral as hands gripped my bag strap.

He moved his gaze from me to the man on the floor and I subconsciously moved out of the way for him to pass.

“So…what has he said?” He asked, walking towards the couch Mr Palazzo was sitting on.

He sat down beside him and Mr Palazzo leaned forward and explained whatever it was that they discovered.

“Hmmm,” he murmured, leaning back into the couch. “Interesting.”

Suddenly he sat up again, his eyes flashing. “Aguero” He said gently and the bruised man struggled to turn towards him.

“Si” he managed to answer.

“Six years,” he started, leaning forward. “We have worked together for six years Aguero and you betrayed me, for what? I don't believe what you told them so I'm going to give you one last chance.”

“Don, what I said was true, I swe….,” one of the enforcers kicked him before he could finish.

“Well I don't believe you,” Ricardo said, gesturing to one of the enforcers who brought him a pair of gloves.

“Ahhh, please, please,” Aguero screamed, moving away as Ricardo stood up.

“I have to Aguero,” Ricardo replied, putting on the gloves. “You don't want to tell the truth.”

I closed my eyes as he moved towards Aguero, at first there was silence, followed by the sound of Aguero screaming.

“Per favore,” Aguero begged but he didn't stop.

Aguero screamed continuously for what felt like an hour before he stopped.

I opened my eyes to see that he wasn't conscious. My eyes widened in shock, Is he dead? I thought to myself.

Ricardo took off the gloves and dropped it in a bucket. “Clean this up,” he commanded, his voice weirdly calm.

The men jumped into action immediately, carrying the unconscious man away.

I looked up at Mr Palazzo in shock, “he's not dead,” he mouthed to me and chuckled.

Ricardo glanced at me, his expression unreadable “You must be the new assistant,” He said gently.

I stared at him for a while in confusion. How could he speak so calmly in a situation like this? He almost killed that man for God's sake.

“Yes..yes I am,” I finally answered.

“You know Valerio, I would have preferred a male assistant for you,” he said, turning to Mr Palazzo. “Most women find it hard to cope in this business.”

Mr Palazzo chuckled, “I know, but I like this one. She looked me in the eye during the interview.”

“Hmm,” Ricardo replied, turning to me “Interesting.”

“I…I didn't realize,” I stuttered in confusion. I didn't know we couldn't look him in the eye.

Ricardo raised his hand to stop me and I shut my mouth.

“Is he now conscious?” He asked, still not raising his voice.

One of the men called out from another room, “Yes Don, we're bringing him now.”

My mouth opened in shock, I couldn't believe it, they took him away to wake him up so he could continue the torture.

At that moment, I would have given anything to be allowed to leave the room. Anything.

“You can sit down,” Ricardo offered but I shook my head vigorously, “I'm okay, thank you.”

He shrugged, standing up again as the men brought Aguero back. He was so weak that as Ricardo moved towards him he didn't even have the strength to move away.

“I will tell you the truth,” he said, stopping Ricardo in his tracks.

“Then talk,” Mr Palazzo snapped, “stop wasting our time.”

“I…I,” He started and Ricardo crossed his arms, listening intently.

“I was approached by the Gambino family to leak the location of your house.”

“When?” Ricardo asked.

“Umm…about..”

“When??” One of the men shouted.

“Three months ago,”

“So you've been conniving with the Gambino's for three months?” Ricardo asked.

“No, Don, I didn't agree at first but they made an offer.”

“What kind of offer?”

“They offered…..they offered me a penthouse in Manhattan.”

“Aguero!!” Mr Palazzo exclaimed. “You betrayed your Don for a penthouse. Someone who has been taking care of you and your family?”

“I'm sorry, Don, please forgive me.”

Ricardo rested his back on the wall, not saying a word. He clenched his fingers together and watched Aguero in silence.

“Thank you for telling me the truth, Aguero,” he said calmly, nodding to one of the men.

“No…no please Don, no..” Aguero pleaded as Ricardo walked out.

Mr Palazzo stood up as well and grabbed my hand, pulling me away from the room.

The sound of two gunshots rang out as we walked out.

I covered my ears in shock, they killed him.

“Why?” I asked loudly. “Why did you have to kill him, he told you the truth.”

Ricardo stopped in his tracks and turned towards me. “What did you say?”

I opened my mouth to speak but the words wouldn't come out.

“Ricardo, she's just shocked,” Mr Palazzo said in defence.

Ricardo stepped closer, his eyes locked on mine as he towered over me.

“Why do you think they wanted the location of my house?”

“I…Because they wanted to…”

“To what?”

“They were going to kill you.”

“Exactly, so that means he's also complicit in trying to kill me, yes?”

I looked down at my feet, avoiding his eyes.

“Look at me,” he said gently and I raised my head instinctively, my eyes locking on his.

“Answer the question.”

Annoyance was evident on his face but he still spoke gently.

“Yes, he is also complicit.”

“Good.” He replied and walked away.

I and Mr Palazzo watched him go and Mr Palazzo turned to me. “You shouldn't have said that, I know you didn't know but he treated Aguero like a brother and he tried to have him killed. No one would let that go, especially not a Don.”

I nodded slowly, “I'm sorry.”

“I know, I know, it's not your fault and I'm sure he understands.”

I didn't think he did but I nodded in agreement.

“Let's go,” he said and I followed him out of the restaurant. He told the driver to take me home and hailed a taxi for himself.

The ride home was a blur. I sat stiffly throughout, my hands trembling the entire time as the sound of gunshots replayed in my head continuously.

I could still see Aguero’s bloodied face, the desperation in his voice.

I was so angry, how could someone so ruthless speak so gently? When he thanked Aguero for telling the truth I thought it meant they were going to release him.

Despite the fact that his reason made sense, was it right to kill someone for planning to kill you? That wasn't the law of America.

But the Mafia didn't care about Laws, they operated with their own code which for some reason involved killing people for everything.

I closed my eyes as I thought about my Father. There were no gunshot wounds on his body, but there were strangle marks on his neck.

He was strangled to death.

The moment I walked into the house, I threw my bag on the floor and lay on the couch staring at the ceiling.

“Welcome vittoria, how was work?” my mother asked me, walking into the living room.

“It was horrible Mammà, I saw them kill a man today,”

“Ahhh, on your first day? Cara mia, I think it's better you quit this job immediately!” she said, placing her hand on her chest.

“No mà, I can't quit, I have to do what I came for.”

“But you're putting yourself in so much danger,” she insisted.

I sighed, for a moment I also thought the same thing, when I was standing in that place, watching them torture Aguero, all I could think about was leaving. Quitting the job.

But someone had to do it, someone had to bring them down.

“To be honest mà,” I started. “I knew I was going to have to see this kind of thing on the job, they are known for killing people, I just didn't think it would happen this early.”

My mother sighed deeply and sat down, “you're in the lion's den now. If you want to take him down, you have to be smart. No emotions, no slip ups, do you understand?”

“Yes, mamma,” I answered firmly.

I had to.

For my father. Myself and everyone who had suffered in the hands of the Lombardi’s.

“I'll bring them down,” I said, firmly. “No matter what it takes.”

A few days later

“The Don wants to see you,” Mr Palazzo announced as he entered the office.

I froze, my fingers tightened on the papers in my hand,“what..what did I do?” I asked,

“I don't know,” he replied, shrugging his shoulders. “You'll find out.”

I stood up slowly and walked to his office, my heart pounding against my chest. We hadn't crossed paths since the other day at the Restaurant.

I stood in front of his office for sometime, my hands raised to knock but I hesitated.

“Come in,” I heard him say from inside. He knew I was standing at the door? How?

When I stepped inside, he was sitting behind his desk flipping through a file.

He looked up at me as I entered, his piercing eyes pinning me to the spot.

“Miss Balotelli,” he said smoothly, gesturing for me to sit.

I approached carefully and sat opposite him, “you asked to see me, Don?”

“Yes,” he said leaning back, his gaze accessing me as he rubbed his hands on his stubble. “I have a meeting to attend, and Valerio is occupied so you'll be accompanying me.”

“Okay sir,” I said, nodding slowly.

“Good,” he said, standing up. “We're leaving now.”

We arrived at a grand estate, it was so heavily guarded I wondered who it was they were protecting until I saw him.

Lorenzo Gambino.

He was the Don of the Gambino Mafia, one of the five families in New York. He was also a ruthless monster.

I wondered why we were in his house when a few days ago we found out he was trying to kill Ricardo.

Or was this some kind of confrontation?

Lorenzo stood at the door watching us as we entered. The moment we reached the door he smiled widely and extended his hand.

“Ricardo.”

“Lorenzo,” Ricardo replied, shaking his hand.

We were led into a large room where other Gambino's greeted us.

We sat down and they began to discuss. I sat awkwardly beside Ricardo, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible.

I watched them discuss, they were so polite you would think they were friends but I knew how much they hated each other.

It was so messed up.

Behind me, there was an exchange between one of Ricardo’s cousins and Lorenzo's men. One of Ricardo’s men made a remark and before I knew it chaos had erupted.

An arm grabbed me from behind, pulling me to my feet, a cold barrel pressed against my temple pushing my head to the side.

Everyone had jumped to their feet, guns out and pointed in different directions.

The blood in my veins turned to ice.

“Let her go, Benito,” Ricardo said, pointing his gun at us.

My breath hitched as the cold metal of the gun dug into my skin, “He slept with Elena!!”

“Benito drop the damn gun!!” Lorenzo shouted.

“No!!”

“Benito….” One of Lorenzo’s men started, moving closer to us.

“Back off or….” Benito started.

He didn't finish his sentence.

Bang

The sound of a gunshot rang out, loud and deafening as the man holding me fell to the ground.