AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She has to earn her place among us if she wants me to protect her. Wants my family to choose her. Even still, that doesn’t mean I can love her.
After this experience, it’s clearer than ever. I cannot fall in love with them. I’d never survive losing one of them, let alone both.
Pulling away from Ciera, forcing her wrapped hands to slide off my jacket-covered forearm, I step to the edge of the six-foot hole that now holds what remains of my father in all his lifeless form. Looking down, I toss the long stem red rose to the top of the casket.
I wish I knew what you were thinking when you decided to take a bullet for someone you barely knew. I wish you could explain that to me, Dad, because I’ve racked my fucking brain and I still don’t get it.
You’re gone, and I’m left to do what exactly?
Take charge?
I don’t want this. I wasn’t ready. I’m not even half the man you were. We were great with you as the head of our family. All I’m going to do is fuck it to hell and back, Dad. I’m not the boss you were. You were good and everything right.
I’m fucked in the head and like to kill people. You looked for the good, the redeemable qualities. I don’t. Nor will I.
Lorenzo would have been a far better pick to lead us than me. No, scratch that. Sienna would have been the best choice. She’s stronger mentally than Ren and me combined.
You had no fucking right to leave us the way you did. And I’m furious with you.
But I’d also be lying if I said I was willing to trade Ciera for your life, and that makes me hate myself a little more than I already did.
If I’d pulled the trigger sooner, I could have prevented you from dying that night. She wouldn’t have gotten hurt, either. You gave your life for her because I failed you as a son. Hell, I failed her as a husband before I even tried.
I’m sorry, Dad.
Knowing I won’t be able to control the tear that drops from my right eyelid, I turn and start my trek to the gate that leads out of the cemetery.
Ren and Sienna will say their goodbyes before the rest in attendance. That’ll give me enough reprieve to get my shit together before I meet with my capos.
I instructed Ren to escort them across the street and into the sanctuary. Father Ricci agreed to allow me the use of the cathedral. I thought meeting in a church might prevent bloodshed should any of them give me a reason to get trigger-happy.
In the end, it probably won’t, but it was a nice thought at the time. However, the way I’m feeling now, there is nothing more I want than for one of them to step out of line and for me to show them what I’ll do should they even consider going against me.
* * *
“Gentlemen,”I greet them all as Leo and Carmine take the seats directly across from where I’m seated behind the priest’s desk. I had Giovanni do a sweep of the closed-off quarters before the funeral began, knowing I’d be using it to meet with the captains from Boston, Philadelphia, Newark, Chicago, Detroit, and New Orleans. My captain from Ontario is missing, but I’ll deal with him later.
Sienna sits on the edge of the desk to my right and closer to Leo, while Rocco and Thomas, my Philly and New Jersey captains stand against the wall to Leo’s left.
Aldo and Andrea are brothers that govern the Midwest. They took up residence on the old, worn-out loveseat to the left against the wall. They’re close in age to Thomas and Leo while Rocco was born the same year Ren and Si were. Rocco is best friends with Thomas’s son, Bennett, having grown up in New York and attending the same school my sister and Matteo went to, a fact I’m not sure my sister is privy to.
Carmine is the oldest of all the capos, presiding over Boston and its surrounding areas for more than forty years. He’s the only remaining capo that once worked under my grandfather.
“It’s unfortunate that we meet under this circumstance, but it’s even more unfortunate when I learn that all of the captains met in secret behind my back,” I say to them even though it’s Carmine my eyes are trained on.
He’s either stupid or too far removed from our life that he didn’t know the shit hole that is Raymond’s dive bar was the first legitimate business Thomas purchased twenty years ago. So when Thomas suggested they meet there after Carmine requested an off-the-books meet-up, their conversation was recorded and sent to me just after midnight this morning.
I knew before walking in here which of them are with us and which are against us. Si and Ren heard the recording as did Giovanni a few hours ago.
My soon-to-be-former consigliere and I may have a tiff between us as far as Ciera is concerned, but the fact still remains, Tony Caputo trusted him. My father wanted him to be a part of this family, so I’ll put my trust in him too. I haven’t formally announced Sienna is taking his place in the family, but it’s coming, and he knows it.
“Nothing was said behind anyone’s back that would not be said to your face, Domenico,” Carmine assures me, but there is tension in the wrinkles that line his gray eyes. “A boss was killed and nothing has been done to rid our world of the Irish scum responsible.”
The top of his lip curls as his stare does not waver from the stern look I’m giving him in return. If this is his attempt at asserting dominance, age, experience, or whatever, he’s doing a piss-poor job. It makes me question just how well he maintains authority in Boston, or lack thereof is more likely.
“Their days are numbered. I will see to it personally that every last one of them is executed.”
“Yet, you allow Fitzgerald’s wretched seed to stand among those of us mourning the former head of this family, your father. She isn’t fit to hang on a boss’s arm, much less be in the same room as the rest of us.” He sits forward in his chair, his face hardening as his index finger comes down on the desk in front of me. “I demand her head for the death of Antonio. If you don’t have the stomach to do it, son, say the word, and I’ll kill her for you.”
