Chapter 5

To be honest, as I woke up the next morning and met up with Mario at the coffee café, I wasn't feeling too great about who I was. Mario provided enough comfort to tell me he felt the same.

We both felt in somewhat a bit of discomfort, knowing that in only a few days, Andrea Tanelli would have a bullet placed into her head all because of us. "You don't have to do it, you know." Mario added to me that morning. "We could just forego the whole ordeal."

"You don't understand," I told him. "That Giovanni Diaz ordered this to us. He ordered that this Tanelli kid be put to death for booking Enrico in the first place. It's incredible she managed to track him down a year or two after our bank robbery. We should also be considered lucky she didn't book us as well."

Mario could only nod in agreement. "That's true." He said, taking a sip of his mocha. There was a few clouds in the sky that day, but nonetheless, the Vice always provided with hot, summery weather. "You have to also get to the point that we're being forced to do this."

"I know."

We hadn't decided what we could possibly do. As the next few days ticked by, the mob began to grow more restless, waiting for my orders. Even Diaz was onto me that I didn't want to do this. He had asked me why I had been holding back and why I wasn't giving the green light.

Diaz had set up a meeting with us tonight in the King's Club. Mario and I had bounced all around the Vice, taking in a bit of the sights and getting some new clothes. I had picked up a few more of those Hawaiian shirts I liked, while Mario himself picked up a few shades.

"You know, you really get carried away with those some times." I said to him, watching the cashier pile about eight new pairs of five hundred dollar sunglasses into a plastic bag. "You're just lucky we make as much as we do."

Mario smirked, taking the bag away, the two of us exiting the mall. "You're not so good yourself with those Hawaiian shirts you call nice." He shot back, laughing as we got into his car. Yes, his car. I let Mario drive his new Ferrari around today. He had purchased it only yesterday.

The two of us also went down to the harbour this morning to buy a speedboat that we had talked about earlier. It was a 350-horsepower boat and drove really well in the cool, blue waters of the Atlantic.

Now, the two of us were driving around in the Ferrari, watching the sun fall from the heavens. To be honest, there seemed to be a rising sense of tension between the two of us. The night was drawing closer, as was the meeting with Diaz.

"What do you think Diaz is going to do to us?" Mario quirked, cutting off a man on the bridge.

I shrugged my shoulders casually. "You know Giovanni Diaz as well as I do, Mario. He's not going to be happy." I said, that sense of nervousness hinted in my words. "I think he's going to cut a few bucks off our pay check."

We both laughed out loud, trying to break the ice and rest each others' nerves. However, inside of me, I knew Diaz wanted to do something that would convince us we needed to take care of this Andrea girl quickly. And when Diaz wanted something done quickly, he meant in a window of 24 hours or less.

*

Later on, Mario and I stopped off at his apartment to gather a few things of his. He passed by his desk lamp and gathered a roll of money he kept just underneath the drawer, and a small handgun as well.

I wasn't prepared to do anything important today, and I was referring to doing in Andrea Tanelli. There was still that lingering part of me that absolutely refused to kill her, and it really troubled me to think about it as much as I did.

Watching Mario looking a tad frantic, he seemed as if he was packing things quickly into a small duffel bag with the Italian flag on it. I looked at him with worry, thinking that perhaps I brought him all into this game of mobsters in the first place. He was the one person I could go to when I had problems.

"What?" Mario glared back at me, still tossing a few shirts in his bag. "Just in case worse comes to worse." He added to me. "There's always that chance things could go really wrong, Josh."

I nodded in agreement. The truth was, I wasn't all too worried. A part of me felt I could solve this situation on my own, without things turning bloody. There were no packed bags in the trunk of my car, nor was there any cause for me to do it at the moment.

"Alright, I think we're done here. Do you need anything?" Mario asked, zipping up the bag. "Clothes, money, weapons?" I shook my head. "Alright, well if you need anything. . ."

The two of us closed the door on Mario's apartment, and we left it just as the sun was beginning to set in Miami Vice downtown. We hopped back into my car and began heading for the King's Club again.

Thinking as we passed the old familiar bridge again, I thought about this mysterious girl by the name of Andrea Tanelli and her involvement in the Enrico ordeal. She was just doing her job, right? Can't take much blame upon a woman doing that. It was in my best interest that Mario and I look out for this girl.

We stopped abruptly at the King's Club in the underground parking lot, taking up one of the reserved spots. Since Diaz owned the place, anyone in league with him was also given a reserved spot. A small bonus, but a bonus nonetheless. I had a feeling that those bonuses were going to come to an end soon.

"Let's just go into the club, put all our thoughts aside and just party for awhile, alright?" I told Mario quickly as we entered the elevator. He nodded in return, pressing for the lobby floor. "Diaz would suspect something if we constantly brought it up."

Mario suddenly was in deep thought. "What if worse actually did come to worse, Josh?" He asked quickly. "Like, what if Andrea was spotted around and Diaz wanted us to go after her tonight? What would we do?"

The elevator halted on the lobby and the doors opened. There, standing in front of us was Diaz himself, smoking a cigar and with two big bodyguards at his side. "Hello, boys." He said in a gruff voice, stepping inside.

He pressed the floor for the lobby, while we were headed for the second floor. Mario glanced at me occasionally, none of us uttering a word to Diaz. He stood there, puffing his cigar with small smoke rings emitting to the top of the elevator.

"So how are you gentlemen today, hmm?" He asked. "Anything I can get you boys? Drinks, women, cigar?"

I shook my head vigorously. "I'm alright, Giovanni." I told him quietly. Diaz offered Mario a cigar, and Mario took one, placing it in his pocket. "So how are you, Diaz? Any new jobs for Mario and I?"

Diaz thought about it but shook his head. Usually, Diaz always had something up his sleeve for us to do. "No, but I expect you two are ready to take down that bitch who brought in Enrico? Always best to be prepared." The elevator stopped abruptly on the lobby. "Be ready to take her out in a matter of a day at most."

"We will be." Mario replied, watching Diaz get out. The both of us waved to Diaz, a half-hearted wave. I held up a middle finger to him after he was out of sight and the elevator door was closed.

"So?" I asked Mario. "I think you were asking me a question."

Mario nodded. "What the hell are we going to do? Andrea Tanelli is out there, unsuspecting that there is a large number of people wanting her dead for the fact she did her job. How are we going to take care of this?"

I didn't know. . . What could I do? How in the world would I be able to save this girl I didn't even know without my own ass getting hauled in? I knew clearly what my role was in this mob, and it was to follow out my orders. Ever since I was made a member of the mob, I had been following Diaz's orders without question. A fine little pawn in his play. . .

"Josh?"

. . .There was one thing that bothered me. Diaz truly was a ruthless, unstoppable kingpin with friends in many places all over the state of Florida. Disobeying Diaz could mean my own head, along with Mario's and Andrea's. The real question was, 'Was I willing enough to sacrifice all the good times I've had in the mob for this one girl?'

"Josh!"

"Huh?" I asked him, as the elevator door opened to the second floor. "Oh. . .I don't know, Mario. Give me some time to think."

Mario scoffed. "We don't have time anymore, Josh. We're running low. Diaz's long arm is hunting down Andrea as we speak, and you want time? We've used up all the time we can ever afford, and you and I both know that if we're going to save this girl, this could be our last night in the King's Club for awhile."

Taking a seat in one of the leather chairs, I put my head down, closed my eyes and thought of what I was actually doing. My world as I knew it could collapse and I could even die tonight. Why was I so frightened of something like this when I was able to rob banks, deal drugs and kill men when all this was in fact about a girl I didn't know?

A martini was placed at my table. Mario took a seat beside me, and the illuminating lights down below where the club was beamed in my eyes. The loud rock music playing also stopped me from thinking straight and this long conference room was my only escape from Diaz.

"You alright, Josh?" Mario asked, placing his sunglasses on the table. "You haven't looked too well lately."

I sat upright and threw my martini at the wall, the glass shattering all over the floor. "Of course I don't look alright, damn it! We're about to go kill an innocent young girl who hasn't done a damned thing wrong! Don't you fucking get it, Mario?! This is wrong! Even the morals of you should understand that!"

"Hey, I get what you mean," Mario began. "But what can we do? Sometimes you've just got to do things for yourself, even if that means doing the wrong thing."

Shaking my head, I took a seat beside him again. "No." I replied shortly. "No, I'm not going to let this happen. The only wrong thing we did was get involved in this business in the first place."

"But we have everything we have here, Josh. . ." Mario sputtered. "Money, girls, the cars. . .What more could you ask for? This is what every guy in the world could ever ask for!"

"That's the thing." I told him. "This IS what every guy in the world could ever ask for. Our lives aren't supposed to be perfect; they never are. The thing is, I don't want a perfect life anymore. I want a normal life, where I can remember who my family and real friends are and not have to kill for what I want. It's just not who I am. I'm looking to find who I really am, and this just isn't it, Mario."

"Well, will we ever find out who we are?" He asked me sternly. "Will there ever be an answer to who we are, or what our true identity is?"

Getting up from my chair and heading towards the door, I looked back to him. "I guess we'll have to find that out ourselves."

*

We made our own way down to the club, where we found Ken and Enrico sitting at a small table with a few girls at their side.

"Where have you two been lately?" Enrico asked, a girl wrapping her arms around him. "We haven't seen you guys for quite awhile."

Mario and I were sitting down beside them, watching everyone laugh and dance on the floor to rock music. "We've just been upstairs having a few drinks." I told him quietly. "You guys been here all day?"

Ken nodded. "I hope you two are sober enough to go out tonight. Enrico told me that Jeff spotted the Andrea Tanelli girl down at the beach. She was patrolling the area by foot, checking for anyone around the area. We've got just under an hour to get her. Enrico, Diaz, Jeff and I are going to be going with you guys to gun her down."

Looking seriously at Mario for a split second, I realized we didn't have any more time. I had to do what I had to do for me, not for Mario, not for the life I was living. . .I had to do everything for who I was, or was trying to find.