Chapter 4

Two years, and now six months after the infamous incident where Enrico and his thugs had killed that cop in our bank heist, we now were truly on the brink of being caught after this turn of events.

The day after the three of us had escaped from the Miami Vice Police Department alive and unscathed, there was a field day for the press in newspapers, televisions and radio stations. There was buzzing talk of an underground mob in the Vice, and the cops hadn't been doing their job properly.

One of the main questions that had been asked to the chief of police was 'How was it possible two men leaked into the building and pulled a prisoner loose under your nose?'. The question made the chief stutter and unable to answer the question, leaving the people and inhabitants of Miami Vice feeling uneasy and unprepared for what had been hitting him as of late.

We the mob ourselves were rather pleased with this turn of events, when in fact we should've been afraid. Although Diaz and the boys knew the cops were after us, there was no way in hell that these cops could catch us.

Mario and I were now in the King's Club, in the back with the rest of the gang. There was each and every one of us, standing behind one another. We were in the conference hall, where we all usually met up to discuss something important. Mario, Enrico, Ken and I were among the important figureheads sitting down at the long table alongside Giovanni Diaz.

"I've brought each and every one of you here to discuss some important matters." Diaz said, making sure everyone was quiet.

Now, in meetings like these, you are supposed to shut up. I'm serious, if you make so much as a peep and interrupt Giovanni Diaz, he'll shoot you on the spot. However, I, Mario and a few select others were the only ones he wouldn't kill. The ones at the table were the only ones he permitted to talk.

"We all know that Enrico here was caught by the cops in Little Haiti a few days ago. And, thanks to Josh and Mario, we've got him back." Diaz remarked. "You should all consider yourselves lucky to have Josh and Mario around. Not one of you would've dared enough to take that assignment. No, not even you, Tony."

He looked on to Tony DiFraz, a junior in the mobster business. He looked nervously around the hall at the dozens and dozens of eyes looking back at him. "You know how we don't like it when rookies like yourself back out." Diaz began, putting his right hand behind his back.

Tony looked in terror as a swarm of Diaz's bodyguards began cornering the rookie. They pulled out brass knuckles and one of the guards slammed Tony in the chops, throwing him up in the air and hard down to the ground, knocking him out instantly.

"Pathetic." Diaz said. "Dump him back behind the alley."

The three men lifted him out of the room quickly. "Let that be a warning to any of you who refuse to listen to I, Giovanni Diaz!" He bellowed angrily. "I do not take kindly to anyone who disobeys my orders! Do not forget whom you work for!"

Some of the insignificant men started backing away against the wall, terrified of Giovanni Diaz. Mario and I continued to look down at our martinis, not shocked or terrified for we were used to this treatment.

"Anyway." Diaz began again, in a calmer voice. "You all are not only here for this reason. I believe Josh and Mario have some news for us on the officer who busted dear old Enrico in the first place, am I right?"

I got up from my chair and prodded Mario to get up too. He was slurping on his martini and he nearly choked on his olive as I pulled him up. "Alright, listen up." I said, placing my two hands on the glass table and bending over it, looking over at the rest of the gang members.

"The name's Andrea Tanelli." I said quietly. A reminiscent moment of when we had met earlier a few days ago came back to me. I couldn't remember where I had seen her, or where the last name Tanelli came from. I had remembered seeing the name on TV somewhere. . .

Mario cleared his throat. "You all will figure out who she is. She's the only female cop in the department, but she keeps most of her work in the station. How we're going to get to her is beyond me."

The mob began to converse with each other, discussing on their plans of how to take care of this Tanelli kid. "Shut up!" Diaz yelled at the rest of them. Instantly, every single person shut their trap and listened in to what he had to say. "Josh and Mario aren't finished yet!"

I looked to Diaz, his balding head shining in the light. He had hair off to the sides and a goatee as well. He was around forty-five now, and all I knew about his past was that he earned the spot of top boss from his father before him. The rumour was he had started when he was only eighteen, which made him so great today.

"She'll be expecting something in the coming days, she's going to be more cautious." I warned slowly. "It's best we wait a few days before getting her."

They all nodded in unison, understanding what I had ordered. "Now, when we kidnap her and question her. . ." Mario began.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait!" Diaz interrupted, waving his hands in the air. Mario immediately shut his trap and looked to him. "Who said anything about kidnapping her?"

I raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, Diaz?"

Giovanni Diaz unleashed a smirk that I knew all too well from him. "You know what I mean, Josh." He said slowly. "We're not going to kidnap this girl and ask her questions. We're going to kill her on the spot, because she deserves it for what she did to Enrico and the rest of us."

"You're not serious, are you?" Mario raised an eyebrow as well. "You actually mean to kill this girl?"

Diaz nodded, as did the rest of the mob. They all seemed intent that this surely was not a joke. The thought of this Andrea girl being killed, for some reason, terribly troubled me and just didn't seem right.

I didn't know what to say, really. "Oh. . ." I began slowly. "Alright then, it all sounds good to us then. However," I added. "We don't move until I give you all the que to do so. This is Mario's and my problem, and we want to be there to take care of her."

The meeting then concluded, with Mario and I feeling somewhat odd. I hated this feeling, really. It was something I hadn't felt before, and it make me feel uneasy. The fact that everyone was out to kill her was what worried me.

The two of us went back to my car. "Want to go to the penthouse for a beer?" I asked Mario quietly. He nodded in acceptance, feeling that maybe the two of us needed to have a best friend to best friend talk again.

We were both silent in the car as we sped off in the dark night. The sounds of women laughing and cars speeding away had faded, as did the sunlight, replaced by the pale moon looming over us.

Approaching the bridge where I always drove, we could see the moon bouncing light off the ocean. I had to admit, this night made me really think of what I had been doing lately. Performing all these assignments for Diaz, starting up this whole killing a woman incident, it all made me feel, for once, horrified at who I was.

Putting the screech on the tires as I sped into my parking spot, Mario and I got out of the car reluctantly after all that tension inside. None of us had spoken to each other since we left the King's Club and the meeting.

Once we got into the apartment, I got into the fridge and pulled out a beer for Mario. I led him outside onto the veranda where we sat on our two chairs together every night to joke and talk about how great our lives were.

"Hey. . ." Mario began. "About what happened at King's."

I already knew this was coming; it was so like Mario to be bringing it up out of the blue when we just sat there, doing nothing. "Yeah, what about it?"

There was a pause for a moment before he answered. I looked at him, watching him concentrating on what his answer was. "Do you think. . .We made the right decision? You know, when we were eighteen. To get into this business of mobs?"

"What kind of question is that?" I said bitterly, taking a swig of my drink. There was a few stars coming from behind the moving clouds in front of us.

"You know what I mean." Mario replied. "I mean, I knew what we were getting into when we got in. I figured we were here for the babes, and the money, and the fun. But this? Come on, Josh!" He nearly screamed. "We're living in a goddamn lie, and you know it!"

I didn't react immediately to Mario's sudden outburst. "Sometimes I think about it." I admitted to him, finally. For some reason, I was being calm and civil with Mario, and that wasn't a common occurrence. "I think about it a lot, I'm afraid. I knew what we were getting into too, and I'll admit what I was looking for was the same thing as you."

Mario nodded. "But we ended up not finding what we were looking for, huh?" He said, putting his sunglasses in his front pocket. "Josh, the Vice is a great place to grow up. I'll tell you that." He said, drinking a bit more. "But you know, getting into this mob business has made us very rich, and a large part of me doesn't want this success to ever leave."

"I agree." I told him. "There's always that lingering inside me, but everyday now, it seems that I regret pulling jobs for Diaz all the time. The guy is taking it too far sometimes. . .You saw what he did today."

"Yeah," Mario agreed. "Tony didn't see that coming."

Turning awkwardly toward him, I rolled my eyes. "I was talking about Andrea Tanelli, you moron."

"Oh!" Mario said matter-of-factly. "Yeah, that was pretty bad too. But still, the fact Diaz would do that to a twenty-year old. . .It's almost sickening if you think about it."

Thinking long and hard about what I really was doing, I turned back to him. "And the fact that Diaz is so low he'd try and kill an innocent woman who was just trying to do her job. . ." I drifted on, looking out. "Somewhere out there, this girl is enjoying the last few nights of her life. To make matters worse, we were the ones who did this, Mario. We gave him the name, he gave us new orders."

The two of us didn't know what to say. Our boss, he was sadistic and evil. I didn't like to think myself that way, especially killing women. . .Part of me hated doing things like that, and my plan was to hold it all off as long as possible.

"Anyway." Mario interrupted, finishing his beer and putting it on the veranda. "Thanks for the beer, but I'd better get going."

Still sitting in my chair, not looking at Mario get off his chair, instead looking out into the night sky. "Josh?" Mario questioned. I remained unmoving, thinking hard about who I was, or what I was doing here. Was it really worth killing an innocent girl?

"Josh!" Mario called out. I turned around suddenly and saw Mario lingering by my doorway. "I'm taking off, man!"

I nodded. "Alright Mario." I said silently. "Another thing before you go, though."

"Yeah?"

I walked up to him slowly, clutching the beer in my hands. It had only been half-drunk, which was unlike me. "Let's hold off this whole murdering business as long as we can. I want to sort out my own priorities before we actually do this job for Diaz."

"I understand, Josh." He shook my hand. "I actually was going to ask the same thing to you too."

I embraced him slightly as he made his way out of the door. "Goodnight." Mario uttered, before placing his sunglasses back on and heading downstairs. I shut the door tightly behind me and got into the shower quickly.

Looking at my bare chest in the mirror, I could see the familiar scars on me. Just at the top left of my chest was a tattoo of a smoking gun, and some scars I had received in my early years of mobbing.

'Who am I?' I thought to myself. 'What have I become?'

These words lingered inside my mind for the rest of the night. Getting sleep was difficult, and all I found was myself thinking about a girl who I didn't even truly know, but was concerned about for my life.

'Where are you, Andrea Tanelli?'