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When I was a child, I couldn’t understand why she didn’t leave or put him in his place. I never gave her a pass for not standing up to Alfonso DeLuca. All she had to do was put her foot down one time. She would have had the backing of the DeLucas, who knew how he operated, and her family, the Costa’s, a crime family that wasn't as brutal as the DeLuca’s, but they weren’t pushovers either.
As a man in my thirties, I understood her better. She probably felt stuck since the man she chose to give her heart to was nothing more than a worthless human being, surviving on his namesake alone.
Regardless of the indifference I received from my mother and neglect from my father, I grew up feeling loved. What my grandfather, Don Ermano DeLuca, taught me as a young boy was instilled deep in my psyche. DeLuca men were never alone. We were all over the world, yet we were together as one.
Watching Alfonso’s sheisty dealings made me lose love, honor and respect for him. His best friends and associates trusted him to be fair, but I learned early on that Alfonso always took something off the top without sharing that information with his team.
Alfonso scoffed at Don Ermano DeLuca’s ideals and went in his own direction. He couldn’t control his own ball sacs, much less the DeLuca throne, but he somehow thought he knew better than the Don. He proved himself wrong time and time again but never learned his lesson. Thankfully, he would never be able to take over with the Don at the helm. He would never choose Alfonso as a successor.
A few decades ago, Alfonso DeLuca uprooted his small family—my mother and me—and moved to the states to have control of his own territory. He chose the least likely place to run a criminal organization and set up shop in Columbus, Georgia, a southern part of the United States. He believed the ground was fertile and that he could easily plant his seeds and quickly take over. He was right about both things.
After some of the stories I heard and the things I’d witnessed men in my family do, I understood the men in Georgia were nothing more than pretend mobsters, acting out parts seen in the movies. It was like taking candy from a baby when Alfonso and his closest associates descended upon the emerging city of Columbus and took over. If only he was as loyal to his men as they were to him, he would have still been in business.
Growing from a boy to a man, I accepted the role of a DeLuca soldier, doing errands and handling petty deals for my father and his associates. Fast forward through the years, Alfonso eventually crossed one too many of his own men. An uprising happened in his crew, causing him to retreat to the veil of Pietro DeLuca’s protection in Viareggio, Italy.
When he left, I stayed in the states and ran the streets of Georgia by a code of honor. By the time I was eighteen, I was my own man with the mafia code of silence and honor embedded in me.
I squashed the long-standing beef between the DeLucas and the Gomez’s, and we became allies with them and the Carzonis. Our business dealings were lucrative for everyone involved. Things went well until I found out there was a hit out on me. I eliminated the source of that failed hit, but to this day, there was one loose end. Tae.
Tae got locked up before I could give him the same treatment as the mid-level thug who pumped him up to think he could bribe me. To get leniency on his cases, he sang like a canary, telling the police about my locations, which got me jammed up with the law. I could have had him touched in prison for all of his transgressions, but after the talk with the Don about going legit, I shifted gears and spared his life.
Ishmael got out of jail five years ago needing a fresh start, so we devised a plan to go one hundred percent legit. I finally heeded my grandfather’s words, vacated my position as capo, and started Ishmael-Vito Construction Company. The company took off fast. We developed communities in Georgia and eventually opened IVCC branches in the Carolinas, Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York.
“Veet,” Ishmael walked back into the conference room wearing the largest smile. “Just came to let you know I’m going home for the day.”
“You and Miracle have plans?”
“I always have plans for her,” he smiled widely. “Yeah, so let me hurry up and get home. We’re going to another cabin tonight.”
“I assume you’re not coming into the office tomorrow.”
He shook his head. “Most definitely not. Miracle is off this week, so I’m taking off the rest of the week.”
“Okay, you’re your own boss, so you can leave on a Tuesday before noon if you want to.”
“We’re both bosses,” he corrected.
I waved him off. “Go and enjoy yourself. The only detail left is the plumbing contractor, and we can deal with that next week.”
Ishmael walked over and dapped me up. “Bet. We can get that handled Monday, for sure.” He took a few steps toward the door and then turned back to me. “What are you going to do today?”
“I’m going to do a little grocery shopping around lunchtime. After that, who knows?”
“Grocery shopping? Don’t you have a maid and a chef? Why have you been at the grocery store so much lately? It was a shocker when you bought party supplies for the office, but now you keep finding reasons to go back to the store every week.”
“Just go ahead and go to your cabin for the weekend, and let me handle my grocery list.” I waved him off.
“Oh, it’s like that? You must have gotten a sweet tooth for someone at the store.”
“I’m just trying to find my Miracle.”
“Fine. I’ll help you by bringing our grocery list on Monday since you’re turning into a master grocery shopper. Will that help you out?”
“Fuck you.”
Ishmael laughed heartily as he walked out of the room. He was right about something being up with my frequent grocery store trips. I had it all—money, power and respect. Having a good relationship with my parents would be good to add to my checklist, but since that would probably never happen, I would settle for having my person. My woman, my someone to love, was missing from my life.
The beauty who recently caught my attention on a trip to the store to pick up some party items to surprise the office workers was the one. Though she was tied down to a weakling, the thrill of the hunt returned. I wanted her that bad.
I watched my father mentally abuse my mother for years. He tore her down bit by bit, and I could do nothing about it. I could do something for Nicole by making her mine and treating her how she deserved to be treated.
I reached into my bottom drawer and pulled out Desi Jakes’ file. It hadn't been long since I put my crew on Desi to find out as much as we could about him. Prosper had given me the intel on the boy holding down a spot that belonged to me. I refused to call him a man.
He held down a nine to five and sold a few stolen goods here and there. Nothing major. Surprisingly, his file didn’t include any domestic violence charges.
If my suspicion was right, the woman who made my heart skip a beat every week at the grocery store was being abused. I didn’t know for sure because of her makeup and long sleeve shirts, but I had reason to believe it was physical. Whether physical, mental, or emotional, the low-level thug was not treating her how she deserved to be treated. I knew that much just from talking to her.
I couldn’t save my mother from the mental abuse she endured, but I wasn’t going to let the woman I had claimed the first time I saw her continue to be hurt.
